Hebrews 4: 13 says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him whom we must give accounts.”
Today, I was listening to a podcast by one of my favorite speakers, Matt Chandler. Matt Chandler is the lead pastor at The Village Church in Dallas. He does a great job walking through Scripture slowly and with great detail and on February 26, 2006, he spoke to his congregation about this verse proclaiming the omniscience of God.
He first starts talking about the fear of being exposed that lies within humanity—especially those in the church. Multiple times Chandler says, “secrets don’t exist”. Despite our attempts to mask our secrets, mask who we really are and the sin we struggle with, God knows. Nothing is hidden from His sight. In Psalm 139: 7-10 David talks about God’s presence being inescapable. We may not always recognize or respect God’s presence in our lives, our hearts, or our minds, but nevertheless, He is here. What an incredible aspect of His character! And convicting…there is absolutely nothing I can think, say, or do that He is not aware of. No motivation, no hope, no success and no failure that He is not aware of. We serve a God that is omniscient AND omnipresent! Verse 14 says that “we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.” Chandler emphasized the word through. Jesus, the Son of God, is outside of time and space: He has gone through the heavens so that He is not limited. He is everywhere.
The last few verses of chapter 4 are key to understanding the life and purpose of Jesus, the heart of the Father, and our personal salvation. “let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (4:14-16).
Because we are fallible, we cannot fix ourselves…we are in desperate need of a Savior, someone to come who can be a mediator between God and man, someone to defend humanity to God and someone who can make a sacrifice for our sins. This is the description of a high priest. This is (partly) a description of Jesus. The idea that this high priest must be able to sympathize with our weaknesses is huge. This high priest—Jesus—must be able to fully understand our weakness and our sins so that we can approach God. This is an incredible picture of the heart of God. God wants to relate to humanity once again. He sees the need to send His Son (Himself in human form) so that humanity can once again enter into His presence and approach the “throne of grace”. Chandler comments here what a great oxymoron the “throne of grace” really is. Throne gives the idea of power, rule, authority and justice, where grace is the idea of mercy. Justice and Mercy are 2 incredible and distinct characteristics of God and beautiful when meshed together as one. Because God knows what it is like to feel burdened by temptation, to the feel the weight of sin (while not actually having sinned), He is able to offer Mercy. Because God knows our personal burdens of temptation and sin, He is able to offer strength and grace so that we can overcome. How powerful and mysterious it is to recognize God’s love and mercy extended to us because of, and through, Jesus Christ. How powerful and mysterious it is to recognize God’s authority and presence everywhere. How powerful and mysterious it is to recognize how deeply God knows us and is able to sympathize with us.
Below is a link to read the entire sermon written and delivered by Matt Chandler "He Knows" sermon
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Good characteristic to focus on, omniscience. It think the focus is right--God knows us intimately (which is terrifying and comforting based on which throne you come to). I, however, do not think that Jesus going through the heavens is a reference to ominpresence as it is a declaration of his exaltation and enthronement at God's right hand.
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