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Heb_4:16. Encouragement, derived from the character of the High Priest of the New Testament, as brought into relief, Heb_4:15.
προσέρχεσθαι ] approach, draw near, in order to have community with something. Comp. Heb_7:25, Heb_10:1; Heb_10:22, Heb_11:6, Heb_12:18; Heb_12:22. Too specially Delitzsch, Kurtz, and Ewald, who explain: drawing near in prayer for aid or succour.
μετὰ παῤῥησίας ] with confidence, (Heb_3:6), inasmuch as we possess, in the very office of intercessor, a High Priest who is not only exalted, but also full of sympathy, who thus has not only the power, but also the will to help.
θρόνος τῆς χάριτος ] not: Christ Himself (Gerhard, S. Schmidt, Carpzov, Ernesti, al.), not: the throne of Christ (Primasius [also Tena, arguing from the Vulgate of Heb_2:9], Schlichting, Limborch, Chr. Fr. Schmid, al.), but the throne of God, at whose right hand Christ is seated. Comp. Heb_8:1, Heb_12:2 [Eph_2:18]. It is called, however, the throne of grace, because the nature of the New Covenant has, as its presupposition, not strictly judicial retribution, according to the works of men, but compassion and grace on the part of God; the believer feels himself united to God as a loving Father, who has remitted to him the guilt and punishment of sin. A reference for the rest to the cover of the ark of the covenant, regarded as the seat of the Godhead in the sanctuary (the ëÌÇôÌÉøÆú or ἱλαστήριον of the Old Covenant), assumed by Piscator, Schöttgen, Wolf, Carpzov, Cramer, Abresch, Kuinoel, Paulus, al., and still in recent times by Bloomfield and Bisping (comp. also Kurtz ad loc.), in connection with the expression: ὁ θρόνος τῆς χάριτος , is not indicated by anything in the text.
To obtain mercy and find grace (Luk_1:30; Act_7:46; comp. îÈöÈà çÅï , Gen_6:8; Gen_18:3, and frequently) are synonymous terms. All distinctions, as that of Böhme: ἔλεος magis id appellat, quo indigebant calamitatibus oppressi lectores, χάρις , quo peccatis non carentes; of Stein, that ἔλεος relates to compassion towards the sinner, χάρις to every manifestation of grace; of Bisping, that ἔλεος refers more to the forgiveness of sins and deliverance from sufferings, while χάρις refers to the communication of higher gifts of grace; of Hofmann, that χάριν εὑρίσκειν means “to be brought into a state of favour with any one, to become an object of his good-will;” λαμβάνειν ἔλεος , on the other hand, is “a receiving of that which the kind and gracious One accords to those in need of His kindness, just on account of their need,” and many others, are untenable.
εἰς εὔκαιρον βοήθειαν ] for timely help, i.e. in order that we may in this manner attain to a help which appears on the scene, while it is still the right time, before it is yet too late (Heb_3:13). Wrongly Tholuck, Delitzsch, Moll, Kurtz, and Hofmann: “before the one in conflict with the temptations succumbs;” and others (also Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 740): “as often as we stand in need of the βοήθεια .”