In him [Christ Jesus our Lord] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
Ephesians 3:12, NIV*

I can’t wrap my mind around how God can dwell in each of His followers, while sustaining the universe, while seated on the Throne in heaven. It’s all part of His infinitude, and I suppose if we could reduce Him to what we could fully describe and figure out, He wouldn’t be much of a God. He’d be on our level.

Somehow, He’s one God but three Persons, and He’s everywhere. And I worship Him because of who He is and how He loves us.

God on His Throne is a frequent image in the Bible, and that’s what I think of in this passage from Ephesians. It reminds me of the story of Esther and King Xerxes, where to approach the king in his throne room was to risk death – if your uninvited presence didn’t please him, if he didn’t hold out his sceptre in welcome, that was your fate by law. (Esther 4:11)

I picture myself – any of us – without Jesus, standing in the doorway to the Father’s throne room: filthy and matted with sin and failure, broken and bruised by self and by others… not an attractive sight for a God who is perfectly holy and is offended by the mess that clings to me. Would He hold out a welcoming sceptre? Because of His holy and just nature, He couldn’t.

But I come to Him in faith, because Jesus made a way. Jesus washed and healed me, and put clean clothes on me. When I stand in the throne room doorway, God the Father sees me in His Son, and He welcomes me with delight.

Holy, majestic and righteous God, there aren’t words to thank You for Your grace and mercy given through Your Son Jesus Christ. Please fill our spirits with awe and wonder, and help us to love and worship You. Help us to radiate the joy of Your presence.

Let the words of “God With Us” from MercyMe be our prayer:

*New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.