Does Jesus pray for us?

From whichever way we view the ways and counsels of God, whether for His own glory, the blessing of men, or the overthrow of all evil, we see that the exaltation of Christ is a necessity. Take these ways of God on their most simple and elementary ground; that of our blessing. The answer to the challenge, "Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" is "It is God that justifies." But everything that He does must be according to eternal justice, and how can He justify the ungodly? The answer is "It is Christ that died"; by His death a full expiation was made for all our offences. But how do we know that? "Yea, rather, that is risen again." His resurrection is God's seal upon the value of His death; the proof that the price paid in it was sufficient. Had it not been, death would have held Him as its prey for ever and even the power of God could not have raised Him. But there is more than resurrection. "Who is even at the right hand of God." His exaltation is the declaration of God's entire satisfaction and delight in His work which He accomplished for us. The believer's Substitute and Representative is at the right hand of God. Could He have been there if one sin had remained on Him? Impossible! Yet on the cross He was delivered for our offences; there He was made sin for us; there the Lord laid upon Him the iniquities of us all. Nothing else like His exaltation to the Father's right hand could prove how completely He has borne away "sin's heavy load" for us. The devil himself could not prevent that exaltation and can say nothing against it, and consequently he cannot bring any charge against us for whom Christ suffered and died. But further, "Who also makes intercession for us." If He died and rose again for our justification, He lives and intercedes for us that we might live as justified people.

Converts. — He prayed, not just that apostolic labour might be successful. There was no doubt about that. He prayed for those, who should believe on Him through their word. So now each truly converted soul can say, "He prayed for me." All such were included in His prayer that night. Who can reckon up the numbers which have been saved? Who can say how many more will be brought to swell the dimensions of the one flock, ere Christian testimony shall have attained its predestined consummation? Till then the full tale of those for whom the Lord prayed will not be disclosed.

Nor is He inactive there, for we are still on the way, and love engages Him in His intransmissible priesthood to be ever occupied with us, "able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." (Heb. 7:25) It is thus the dependent life of Christ in us is sustained by the resources of grace and strength that are ministered to us by His priestly intercession and service. Were that exercise of priesthood to cease for a moment we should soon find out where we were, and how dependent we are upon it. But it is not possible: it says, "He ever liveth to make intercession" for us, as if He had nothing else to do but to think of and care for us. All our resources thus being derived moment by moment from what Christ is, "made higher than the heavens" (Heb. 7:26), we are prepared for what I may speak of as the full positive side of Priesthood, which we hear from Hebrews 8 - 10, and which carries us in heart and spirit into the heavenly scenes themselves. For as the epistle says (Heb. 8:1), "Of the things which we have spoken this is the sum" (or summing up): "we have such an high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man," of which the tabernacle in this world was but the type and shadow. (Ver. 5) But if the perfect heavenly sanctuary of God's presence is what is in question now, there is a perfect sacrifice that answers to it (Heb. 9:11-14), and that introduces us there as perfected worshippers, having no more conscience of sins. (Heb. 10:1) It is the witness of the Holy Ghost to the work of the Son of God to make good the counsels of the divine will that gives us this perfect conscience, our sins and iniquities remembered no more.

Our Lord in the glory as our great High Priest is deeply concerned about our need. He is constantly saving us from the ten thousand difficulties and perplexities which cross our path. In this way He saves us to the uttermost, or right on to the end. Having saved our souls, saved us from the wrath to come, He saves us day by day from the things of men, and Satan, and the world, which sometimes threaten to swallow us up. For this, too, He is ever living to intercede for us. His intercession then as our High Priest is not about our sins, but about our need. We are therefore enjoined to "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb. 4:16.)

In Gethsemane, observe, that the Lord says, Watch and pray lest ye enter, not into sin, but, into temptation. Christ was perfect through all, but Peter fell to cursing and swearing, and denied his Lord. If faith is tested by the way, we find also in the path that, "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." It was not a question of Peter's integrity, for he loved the Lord, but he did not know himself, and he had to be put through this process; yet before ever he had failed, Christ had prayed for him. And we know, beloved friends, that He ever liveth to make intercession for us.

It is sometimes said, this means His appearing for us on the question of sin. It is nothing of the kind. Intercession is going and addressing yourself to a person, on behalf of another, to get anything you want for that one. It is the same word in Romans 8:26 and 34; the Spirit works in our hearts, but He does not appear anywhere for us. But Christ is standing in the presence of God, and He is the One who is actively engaged in obtaining for us all that we need. It is not that we go to Him, but that He goes to God for us. He is our righteousness there, He has made propitiation, and therefore He can use the grace that is in God, according to His knowledge of all that is in God, and of our weakness too, to bring down to us complete and needed grace. That is the place He is in, and He ever liveth to carry on this constant service on our behalf. He is our servant in that way.

The intercession of Christ is founded on redemption. By the work of Christ I have a place in the Holiest; and how can I reconcile that with me, poor failing creature down here. There the Intercessor comes in. Christ is always there as a propitiation. He is there, and He is our righteousness. Repentance is the effect of His advocacy. He says to Simon, "Satan hath desired to have thee, &c., but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." He prayed for him before the sin was committed. Then He looked on Peter at the right moment, and Peter repented, and went out and wept bitterly; but He had prayed for him before he repented. Intercession is founded on the double truth that He is my righteousness, and that He is ever there as my propitiation for every sin I could commit. I hate myself doubly for the sin, because I have sinned against grace as well as holiness. Peter wept bitterly, but our faith is not to fail. Christ did not pray Peter might not be sifted, but that his faith might not fail. He needed the sifting, and it was good for him, but how it proves the value of the intercession.

Before entering further on the contemplation of this blessed Person and His precious ministry, there are some erroneous thoughts current among Christians which call for a few remarks. The common idea that Christ is now interceding in heaven for everybody, is entirely without Scripture authority. No doubt He is the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; but mediation or standing between God and men for a time to avert the blow of divine vengeance, is very different from the activity of a heart going out in deepest interest toward God for blessing on the objects of His love, who have been reconciled to Him by the death of His Son. Was Aaron a high priest for any but those who were standing in relationship with God, a people who had been delivered from judgment by the blood of the lamb? Again, did not our Lord say, "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine?" (John 17.) On this point Heb. 7:25 is also very clear, for it plainly states for whom Jesus is now interceding. We are told it is "for them that come unto God by Him," which certainly includes all believers on Him, and excludes all others. It is really unaccountable how Christian people have picked up the idea, that Christ is a High Priest and Intercessor for all men. But how precious is the fact that Christ sends the gospel to every creature, and that His heart in heaven is ever going forth in living ministry on the behalf of those who believe; and about this there can be no doubt, because such "come unto God by Him." Oh the unutterable preciousness of this truth! An honoured servant of the Lord once said, "If I heard Christ interceding for me in the next room, how happy it would make me! But distance makes no difference." Let us, then, dear Christian reader, lift up our hearts with joy and thanksgiving for the precious fact, that the heart of Christ on high, who ever liveth, is ever active in loving ministry on our behalf.

Thus it is not as sinners that Christ as High Priest intercedes for us with God, but as the many sons whom He is bringing to glory: the High Priest is for infirmity, not sin; but "if any one sin, we have an Advocate with the Father" (1 John 2:1). Christ is both Priest and Advocate: but the question of sin is settled for us as toward God; while between the child and the Father it may need frequent settlement.

Before speaking of the present service of the Lord as our "Great High Priest," let us see from the word of God for whom the priesthood and intercession of Christ is. Many think that Christ is interceding before God for the unconverted, for sinners, and therefore He will forgive their sins and save their souls. This thought is quite contrary to Scripture, and gives a wrong thought of God Himself and His blessed gospel, and thus the peace of many of His saints is damaged. It is as though God was against the sinner, instead of for him, and that it required a great deal of persuasion and entreaty to induce Him to save a soul, but that at last, through the intercession of Christ, He would consent to do it. If we turn to the Scripture in John 3:16, we read, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." It was God who first thought of the sinner, and so loved as to give His Son to die on the cross; thus proving that God is not against, but for the sinner, and needs no one to move His heart towards him. We also read, in that beautiful passage in 2 Cor. 5:20, "As though God did beseech by us." God Himself condescends to beseech sinners to be reconciled to Him; thus it needs no one to intercede for them.

Let us look at Heb. 7:24-25, and there we shall see for whom the priesthood is. "But this man, because He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." Who does He make intercession for? Not for the unconverted, but for those who "come unto God by Him." And who are they? Saints of God, perfected for ever by the "one offering." The expression, "come unto God," has given many the idea that it means a sinner coming to God for salvation; but that is not the thought in this passage. The word "come" is the same as "draw near" in Heb. 10:22, which speaks of saved ones; for a sinner could not "draw near" in his sins to a Holy God. Before we go further, let us see from the Scripture the ground upon which we can draw near to God, as many of the Lord's people never grow in the knowledge of the things of God, because they have never got the question of their sins settled, and do not know what it is to be in His holy presence in perfect peace.

Verse 20 is really the beginning of a new paragraph and the Lord Jesus explicitly extends His request from the eleven men who are before Him to all those down the ages who should believe on Him. What a mercy of God that these words occur in this prayer. We are unquestionably amongst those who afterwards have believed on Him through the words of these disciples and therefore, wonder of wonders, you and I explicitly find a place in these communications from the Son to the Father.