For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

–John 3.34-36

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

–Hebrews 4.13-16 (NIV)

This week we have been looking at some hard truths about the human condition and the devastating and deadly consequences it has on our relationship with God. We have seen that a healthy understanding of the human condition is necessary for anyone who wants to be reconciled to God because it opens us up to the possibility of God’s grace. This reality is affirmed by both John and the writer of Hebrews in today’s passages, quite explicitly in John’s Gospel and more implicitly in Hebrews. But both passages don’t stop at the hopelessness of the human condition. Both announce the wondrous Good News of God’s offer of reconciliation through Jesus.

We have also seen that engaging in the necessary Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, Scripture reading, self-denial, and confession/repentance is hard work. Any way you cut it, the season of Lent is not particularly a fun time nor is the work pretty. Nevertheless, our Lenten journey is essential if we ever hope to deny ourselves, take up our cross each day, and follow Jesus.

But as today’s passages also remind us, we do not have to try to engage in the Lenten disciplines on our own. We have help from multiple fronts. We have help from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and with help like that, we need not fear failing in our efforts at putting to death the selfish and rebellious parts of ourselves that keep us hostile to and alienated from God.

We have help from God the Father who desires that all humans be saved and who condescended to become human in the man, Jesus, to atone (make amends) for our sins by dying for us on the cross so that we would not have to bear the awful consequences of God’s holy wrath on us. As John reminds us today, without Jesus’ atoning death on the cross, we humans are without hope because each one of us is a hopelessly fallen person. But it is to God’s glory that we also have a loving God who knows our predicament and who has acted decisively on our behalf to bring about our healing and restoration through Christ. If we take this truth seriously, it will inevitably help us deny ourselves because we are honest with ourselves about our inability to fix ourselves.

As the writer of Hebrews reminds us today, in addition to God the Son’s atoning sacrifice on the cross, we also have Jesus’ help as our great High Priest. As our High Priest, we have confidence that the risen Christ has ascended into God’s direct Presence and is interceding for us in our weaknesses. He is able to do so because God became human and experienced the human condition to the fullest, with the critical exception that he did not sin. This should be tremendously comforting to anyone who takes his or her relationship with God seriously and who has suffered setbacks and reversals in his or her faith journey. Why? Because if God did not love us and seek to have our relationship with him restored, he would not have acted decisively on our behalf nor would the Son be praying for us right now to the Father. By praying for us, Jesus is practicing what he preached about love, forgiveness, and mercy, and his prayers on our behalf are not ineffectual. What a wondrous gift it is for God the Son to be praying on our behalf constantly! As you pursue your Lenten disciplines, take heart, comfort, and hope that you have God the Son, our great High Priest, praying for you, interceding on your behalf so that you can do your part in restoring your relationship with God.

Last, we have the help of God the Holy Spirit, whom God sends to live in us to heal us and transform us into the beings God created us to be. The Spirit helps us in our weakness and his living Presence in us gives us the tremendous privilege of embodying Jesus so that we can take his healing love and redemption to others in the context of our daily lives. As the NT writers make clear, we are thoroughly infected with sin and getting rid of it can only be accomplished by God himself. This won’t happen overnight nor will it be complete in our mortal lives, but this doesn’t change the fact that God the Holy Spirit is living in us, strengthening us in our human weakness, and transforming us to become truly human. As you struggle with your Lenten disciplines, don’t forget that you have the very Presence of God the Holy Spirit in you to help you overcome your brokenness and weaknesses.

All this reminds us in very powerful ways that we have a God who is passionately in love with us and who wants us to love and enjoy him forever. As we have said here before, the Christian faith is not about self-help. It is about God’s help because it is about God’s Holy justice and love for us, and if this does not excite the desire in you to respond to God’s gracious love for you, I don’t know if anything ever can. With God’s help for and Presence in us, no wonder “don’t be afraid” is the most common exhortation in the Bible!

This Lenten season as you struggle with denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Jesus, take heart and hope. Lent is a difficult season but we are not asked to engage in it alone. We have the very Power and Presence of God himself: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What a wondrous and gracious gift! Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. To him be honor and power and glory forever!