Hebrews 7: Jesus, a Better Savior Than You Think

Introduction

Liberti Church Gold Coast has just spent two months in the Psalms and is about to begin a seven-week series on revival. Right between the two, Adam Ramsey opens Hebrews 7 with a simple question: what is Jesus doing right now, not as King, but as Savior?

The preacher puts the question another way, more directly. You know Jesus loves you. But does he like you? When you picture him, is there a smile on his face as he looks at your life? If you build your identity on your circumstances, you may doubt it. Yet the way you understand God's attitude toward you in Christ shapes how you approach him, or whether you do, throughout your whole life.

His text is short: "Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25). His conviction is just as short: Jesus is a better Savior than you think.

Message Outline

1. The Attitude of the Speaker Changes the Meaning of His Words

Take the phrase "Come here." Said by someone with a hard face and a harsh voice, it can announce violence. Said by a husband to his wife, or by a father who wants to give his child a gift, it becomes a loving invitation.
Australians know the phenomenon well with "Oi" or "mate": the same sound can mean "Hey, good to see you," or "Why did you do that?" or turn into a threat.
How you hear someone's words depends on how you perceive their attitude. In the same way, how you picture God when he speaks to you through Scripture and in Christ is crucial.
That is the question of the message: what kind of Savior is Jesus, and what is his attitude today toward his people?

2. A World That Passes Away, a Savior Who Remains

Verse 23 states the obvious: all people die. There were many high priests in the Old Testament, and death ended their service.
Everything created will eventually let you down. We live in a world of goodbyes, where one day we will have to say farewell to every person we know. The writer Anne Lamott puts it this way: "In a hundred years, there will only be new people."
Wood rots, metal rusts, our bodies betray us. Even your best friend will not always be there when you need them. Slogans, life hacks and personal mottos do not hold up against life's big questions.
Verse 24 brings the contrast: because Jesus remains forever, he holds his priesthood permanently. He died, he rose, he is alive forever. This is the heart of the letter to the Hebrews: Jesus is the better high priest, the sacrifice offered once for all, the only mediator between God and humanity.
The high priest represented the people before God, offered sacrifices for their sins and interceded, that is, stood in the gap for others.

3. You Are Worse Than You Think, and He Saves Completely

"Underline it in your Bible, write it down somewhere, get it tattooed if you want": he saves completely. What kind of Savior is Jesus? "A professional."
This news is better than you think, because you are worse than you think. You can always compare yourself sideways to someone worse than you. "It is like a hobbit saying: I am the tallest hobbit here. You are still small, my brother."
Measured against Jesus and the law he fulfilled, we have all fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We commit sins big and small, sins of action and sins of omission, visible or hidden. We can even do beautiful things with motives centered on our own glory.
Adam Ramsey quotes a Puritan prayer from the collection The Valley of Vision: my best prayers are stained with sin, my tears of repentance need to be washed, I need to repent of my repentance.
"We sinned all the way, and we need a Savior who saves all the way." He does not save a little, or reasonably: he finishes what he starts. He is the author and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:2), and he who began a good work in us will complete it (Philippians 1:6).
No sin, past, present or future, escapes the work of the cross if you are in Jesus Christ. And if you hear that and think "great, let's do whatever we want," you do not know Jesus. To know him is to hate your sin even if you still sin, and to come back to him every time you fall, not to become a Christian again, but because that is what Christians do.

4. Where You Feel Defeated, He Loves You Most Deeply

Jesus has no illusions about you. When he went up on the cross in your place, he knew exactly who he was dying for. He knows your past, your present and your future.
We all have a little corner where we feel the most defeated and ashamed, a pile of regrets we cannot erase. "The place where you feel defeated is the place where Jesus loves you most deeply."
The preacher strongly recommends Dane Ortlund's book Gentle and Lowly, about the heart of Christ toward sinners and sufferers. Ortlund writes there that the "completely" of Hebrews 7:25 means that God's touch, which forgives and restores, reaches the darkest corners of our soul, and that this is where Christ loves us most.
The life of Jesus shows it: a friend of sinners, he did not run from lepers, he touched them and healed them. He went up to Zacchaeus, the hated swindler of Jericho, ate with him, and his mercy transformed him (Luke 19:1-10).
What qualifies you to come near to Jesus is not the quality of your week, your moral performance or your theological skill. It is your acknowledged need of a Savior. "Christianity is not for people who are good at being Christians."
You learn to pray: "Lord, I am a mess, but I am your mess." "This week is heavy, help me see you in it." "Sometimes I feel alone, but thank you, you promised never to leave me or forsake me."
In The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning writes that God loves you as you are, not as you should be, because no one is yet what they should be. The more you believe that, the more you gradually become, by the power of the Holy Spirit, what you are meant to be. He receives all the glory, you receive all the joy.

5. The Story of a "Wretch" Who Was Saved

Adam Ramsey tells the story of a boy raised in a Christian home, orphaned at six, mistreated by relatives, who ran away, joined the navy, deserted and ended up on a slave ship where he sank deeper into evil.
One day, drunk, he fell into the sea. He owed his life to a sailor who harpooned him by the leg to pull him back on board. Soon after, a violent storm brought him face to face with death. He remembered the verses his parents used to read to him, and his heart awoke to Christ.
The change was not instant: there was a clean break, then slow and complicated growth in grace. At the end of his life, he wrote the hymn everyone knows: Amazing Grace, "amazing grace, that saved a wretch like me." That man was John Newton.
The preacher testifies that grace was already helping him improve his spiritual life. But in his late teens he understood that God was far greater than he had imagined, and that he himself was far more sinful and self-righteous than he had thought. The gap widened, and grace became amazing.
"If you see Jesus' saving work as a nice addition to your life, you have not grasped it yet."

6. He Always Lives to Intercede for You

"He lives forever to make intercession": Jesus does not do this out of duty, like an employee clocking in from 9 to 5. He lives for this. He does not put up with you while waiting for you to get yourself together enough to do without him.
This promise is for those who draw near to God through him, those who have put their trust in him. For them he stands in the gap, without interruption, day after day.
Between his ascension and his return, Jesus keeps his promise to be with us always (Matthew 28:20) in two ways: through the Holy Spirit who lives in every believer, and through his constant intercession at the right hand of the Father.
What was Jesus doing this morning while you wondered whether you would go to church? He was interceding for you. The Holy One, who knows everything about you, who lived the obedience you could not live and bore the condemnation you deserved, is in glory with your name on his lips.
The nineteenth-century Scottish preacher Robert Murray M'Cheyne said: "If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference: he is praying for me."
Romans 8:33-34, the preacher's favorite chapter: "Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."

7. When the Accuser Shows Your File, Show Christ's

The name Satan means "accuser." He is the accuser of the brothers, the father of lies. Until the cross, he had a legal basis for accusing God's people, as we see in the book of Job. Since then he has been thrown out (John 12:31; Revelation 12). The blood of Jesus silences him in the courtroom of heaven, but he keeps accusing on earth and in our hearts.
His voices are familiar: "You sinned again. Pathetic. You call yourself a Christian? You should give up. You think God hears you? He has other things to do. After all these years, this sin again? You are a fraud, and God is sick of you." Few things paralyze like these, especially when the accusations are true.
But the blood of Jesus silences every accusation: "These are mine. Their sin is real, but my grace goes far deeper."
The answer is not to downplay your sin ("I am not that bad"). "Yes, you are. And his mercy goes far deeper." Say instead: "Christ is better than what I deserve." Revelation 12:10-11 confirms it: the brothers overcame the accuser by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
And what if you blew it after coming to Christ? In our worst moments after grace, his intercession does not shrink: it intensifies into a defense. "If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous" (1 John 2:1).
A good lawyer tries to prove your innocence. Jesus does not plead your innocence: he pleads his own righteousness. "Yes, this sin is real, but so is my sacrifice for it. This person belongs to me." It is the righteousness given to us that makes grace amazing, as the hymn sings: before the throne of God above, we have a great high priest, always living, who intercedes for me.

Key Takeaways

Everything created passes away and eventually disappoints. Jesus, however, remains forever and holds a permanent priesthood.
You are more sinful than you think, and Jesus saves completely: he finishes what he starts.
What qualifies you to come to Jesus is not your performance, but your acknowledged need of a Savior.
Jesus always lives to intercede for those who draw near to God through him. When you fall, he becomes your advocate and pleads his own righteousness.
Facing the accuser, do not downplay your sin: show Christ's file.

Personal Application

When you picture Jesus looking at you, what face do you give him: a closed face or a face that delights in you?
What is that little corner of your life where you struggle to believe that God's forgiveness can reach you?
Do you ever compare yourself with others to reassure yourself, instead of measuring yourself against Christ and receiving his grace?
Which accusation comes back most often in your heart, and how can you answer it by pointing to the work of Christ?
How would your Monday change if you got up knowing that Jesus is interceding for you at this very moment?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "save completely" mean in Hebrews 7:25?

For Adam Ramsey, Jesus does not save a little, or reasonably: he saves all the way. He finishes what he starts. No sin, past, present or future, is out of reach of his work on the cross for the person who is in Christ.

What is the difference between Jesus' intercession and his advocacy?

Intercession is what Jesus does constantly, at every moment, for his people: he stands in the gap. Advocacy, according to 1 John 2:1, is what he does when we sin seriously: he becomes our advocate with the Father. He does not plead our innocence, he pleads his own righteousness.

How should you answer the enemy's accusations according to this message?

When the accuser shows your file, show Christ's file. It is not about downplaying your sin by saying you are not that bad, but about saying: Christ is better than what I deserve. Revelation 12:10-11 reminds us that the brothers overcame the accuser by the blood of the Lamb.