The Intercession of Christ.
“He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”—Hebrews 8:25.
Christ had completed His work on the earth. He had kept the faith, fulfilled the law, and suffered its penalty in His death. His work, therefore, so far as the earthly conditions and needs were concerned, was completed. He did this work, it must be remembered, not on his own account or for himself, but on your account and for you. He was acting in the capacity of a representative while on the earth, so that when his life in the flesh had been finished, it might become your life and my life, through faith. We are told by the apostle that after this, i. e., “He had finished His work here, He was believed on in the world, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, received into glory where He ever liveth to make intercession for us.” We notice that this passage teaches us, that
I. Christ was absolutely free from selfishness.
“Greater love hath no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends.” Yes, there is a greater love, for Christ laid down his life for His enemies. Study the life of Christ as He lived here below, see how free He was from the selfish taint of sin which lurks in our natures, and alas, too frequently is the ruling passions of our lives. With Christ, others were first in consideration and in service; but with us, we are the first to be considered and served and others must wait; then if there is opportunity or time they will be considered and served. Christ opened the gate of righteousness and the way that leads to life. This cost Him his own life, the price of it was not only the suffering and labors of life, but the pangs of the physical, and the eternal pains of the spiritual, death; for you must know that Christ tasted the death for every man. We can have no conception of what death meant to Him and yet He went down to death willingly for you and for me. What are we doing that we may become human saviours of men, that we too may suffer and labor for others, that we may die that through our death others may live? These are vital questions if you and I are to be known as His humble followers; if you and I are to share His glory with Him, we must also be with Him in His sufferings and death. “Enter in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to death, but strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life; many there be that go in at the former gate of death, but few find the strait gate of life.”
II. The purpose of Christ’s life and death, was that He might be able to give life unto others. “Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” John 18:1, 2.
We read that “To as many as received him, to them gave He power to become the sons or the children of God.” It is interesting to notice that the word translated “power” here, means a great deal more than power or authority. It has a germinal meaning and has reference to life. The idea is that Christ plants in us the seed of eternal life and it grows and takes root in the heart and life of every believer and they thereby become the children of God. There is therefore the germ of eternal life just as there is the germ of physical or mortal life. The only purpose which Christ had in coming into human flesh was that He might be able thereby to plant in human nature the seed of everlasting life, which sin had prevented from bearing fruit. So He became one of us, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, our very brother. The very life which He lived in the flesh is the pattern for our lives. He is our example in thought, word, and action. We are to live His life by letting Christ live in us. As Paul said regarding sin, “It is not I but sin that dwelleth in me,” so he also said that Christ dwelt in him and we know that Christ dwelleth in us and that through Him we can do all things.
We are very prone to think always of Christ’s Divinity and to seek to explain His life on this basis, this is a great mistake. We are to look on Christ as also human, a real man: His trials and temptations real; His limitations as a man, real; His knowledge and experience as a man, real. Such reflections as these bring Him very near to us and become a great inspiration to us in that they make His ideal life, a real life; hence His ideal human life becomes to us a real human life. “He came that we might have life and that we might have it more abundant.” Our life, that is our Christ-life, may become abundant in its power, in its light, in its fruits, if we will walk and talk with Jesus daily. He is the vine and we are the branches. But in order that the branches may live and bear fruit, they must abide in the vine. Jesus taught us that if we obeyed Him, we were abiding in Him. Obedience therefore is the vital union between us and Christ, the Vine. Disobedience is the cutting of the branch off from the vine and the branch dies.
This leads us to another great fact in the text, namely that
III. Christ is now engaged in making intercession for us at God’s throne.
His work on earth is finished, but in Heaven, He is still engaged in our behalf. The priest of the Mosaic Dispensation, made intercession for the people. He offered sacrifice for them and then he entered into the temple, the Holy of Holies, once a year, in the person of the High Priest and prayed for the people. But this priest was a sinner like the people. He had to first offer sacrifice for himself then for the people. He has passed away. The earthly priesthood, in the Mosaic sense, is no more. This priest was but a type of Christ. Christ is the great anti-type. Christ offered His sacrifice also, which was His own life. He made no sacrifice for himself, for He was without sin, but He made sacrifice for the people. Now He has entered into the temple on High, into the Holy of Holies, where He stands to plead for you and for me. Intercession here, means that Christ is our Advocate at the throne of God. He is our lawyer in the supreme court of God. He represents us. He pleads our case, He defends our cause. There is nothing that takes place in our lives that He does not take note of, there is no sin that passes without His taking account of it, there is no thought, or word, or deed, that is not entered in the book of His Remembrance. He must keep an accurate account of our lives, for He represents us at the Great White Throne. How wonderful is this thought and how inspiring! Let us therefore make our intercessions to Him that He may take up our prayers and in His own Heavenly language, present them to our Heavenly Father.