Before The Throne Of God Above
Written by Vikki Cook & Charitie Lees Bancroft
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea,
A great high Priest whose Name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart,
No tongue can bid me thence depart.
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free,
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me,
To look on Him and pardon me.
Behold Him there, the risen Lamb,
My perfect, spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace.
One with Himself, I cannot die,
My soul is purchased by His blood.
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ, my Savior and my God!
With Christ, my Savior and my God!
How can a man ever stand before the throne of God? When we appear before the throne of earthly kings, we will tremble with fear and awe. How much more if we stand before the king of the heaven and the earth? How can a wretched and depraved sinner ever stand before the throne of the awesome, holy and majestic God? The thought that someday, I shall stand before the Living God often disturbs me deeply.
But Oh! How comforting then are the truths that are so beautifully and richly expressed in this song! Before the throne of God I am not alone but I have a great high priest who pleads for a sinner like me. Who is this great high priest? Who else can this be beside my dearest Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:11)? For there is only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5).
Dear friends, we can never stand before God by our own righteousness. For our righteousness are like filthy rags before Him (Isaiah 64:6). Clothe yourselves through faith with the righteousness of Christ! He is our perfect and spotless righteousness! With His righteousness, we can enter boldly into His throne! Satan can no longer accuse us and put guilt into our hearts for Christ has satisfied the justice of God by shedding His blood. Ah! When we are tempted to despair, we shall cling to that cross and plead the blood of the lamb! Oh! How joyful we ought to be, to know that we have been purchased and redeemed by His blood. Oh! How can we sing this song without tears of joy? Let us therefore sing and glorify Christ, the redeemer of God’s elect!
~Wieky
Bill Dotson said,
February 28, 2010 at 3:32 pm
I came upon your post from a Google Alert I set up on the phrase “plead the blood”. I do this every day for my family and believe God showed me something about this which I wrote about in my blog in 2006. You might be interested in reading it at: http://roadrevelations.org/?p=50. Be blessed!
Bill
wieky said,
March 1, 2010 at 4:05 am
Dear Brother/Uncle,
Thanks for visiting my site! I visited your site too and I am encouraged by your posts, especially how you seek to bring in biblical perspectives to your everyday lives.
However, regarding the phrase ‘plead the blood’, I didn’t really have the same idea as your post in that to ‘plead the blood’ means to ask for daily protection / covering etc.. Though, we certainly ought to ask for daily protection.
What I had in mind was Revelations 12:10-11 which says:
‘… the accuser (Satan) of our brothers have been thrown down, who accuses them (believers) day and night before our God. And they have conquered him (Satan) by the blood of the lamb…’
As the context of Rev 12 suggest, this is a vision of the devil accusing believers before God. He accused them of sin and guilt etc.. But the believers overcame the devil by ‘pleading the blood of the lamb’. They fix their eyes of faith on Christ who purchased their salvation and clothe them in His righteousness, therefore the devil cannot accuse them of their sin or guilt before God for they have been made righteous in God’s eyes. Christ is our protector against the accuser