36b. The Sacerdotal Office.
QUEN. (III, 264): “Of this priestly act in the type, we may read in Lev 16:17-18; Exo 28:29, Exo 28:35. Christ, the God-man, is 367our only intercessor, 1Ti 2:5.” (257): “The ground of this intercession is the satisfaction and universal merit of the interceder Himself; for by and through His bloody satisfaction, or, by the virtue of His merit, Christ, as a priest, intercedes for us with God the Father.” A more specific explanation of intercession is given in the following (ib.): “By the virtue of His merit, Christ truly and formally intercedes for all men, not indeed by acquiring anew for them grace and divine favor, but only according to the mode of His present state, which is that of exaltation, by seeking that the acquired blessing may be applied to them for righteousness and salvation.” GRH.: “Intercession is nothing else than the application and continual force, as it were, of redemption, perpetually winning favor with God.”
[21] QUEN. (III, 256): “He does not indeed intercede for those who, having died in impenitence, are in hell, suffering eternal punishments (for He is not their intercessor, but the judge condemning and punishing them), but in general for all those who still live in the world, and still have the gate of divine grace standing open before them, whether they be elect or reprobate. For He interceded for the transgressors, or His crucifiers, Isa 53:12; Luk 23:34.” HOLL. (750): “How He prays for the elect, we read, John 17:11. From which is inferred that Christ intercedes for the regenerate and elect, that they may be preserved from evil, be kept in the unity of faith, and be sanctified more and more by the Word of truth.” QUEN. (III, 257): “It is evident that Christ justly does not ask the peculiar blessings that have been recounted, the actual, saving enjoyment of which belongs to the faithful and godly alone, for the ungrateful, wicked and refractory world, in so far as it is and remains such, since it is incapable of these. These special blessings, Christ has not sought for such a world, by no means out of any absolute hatred against it, . . . but because of its wickedness, ingratitude, and contumacy . . . . The Saviour, therefore, in His prayers, does not commend to the Father the inflexible despisers and violent persecutors of the Gospel, but His own beloved disciples who received His Word; yet that this does not absolutely exclude the world either from His satisfaction or from His intercession, is evident from John 17:21.”
[22] HOLL. (749): “The intercession of Christ is not merely interpretative through the exhibition of His merits” (“as though Christ interceded for us not by prayers, but by His merit alone, and its eternal efficacy” (QUEN. III, 257)); “for the word, εντυγχανειν, Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25, employed concerning the intercession of Christ, means more than the real yet silent presentation of merits. 368. . . Therefore, the intercession of Christ is not only real, but also, vocal and oral; not abject by submission” (“as though Christ, as a suppliant, with bent knees and outstretched hands, and a vocal lamentation, should entreat the Father as in the days of His flesh, for such an entreaty conflicts with Christ’s glorious state; therefore we must regard it in a manner becoming God (John 17:24), and not after the manner of the flesh or of a servant” (QUEN. III, 257), “but is expiatory and effectual for obtaining saving blessings for men (because whatever He asks of His Father is pleasing and agreeable to the Father, John 11:22). The intercession of Christ is effectual to obtain for us salvation, although those who do not believe in Christ do not enjoy the effect. Hence, it is said to be effectual, by reason of the saving intention of Christ, and not by reason of the result in the unbelieving and wicked.” But BR. observes, in regard to the verbal intercession (498): “Whether this intercession be verbal, consisting in words and prayers presented either mentally or vocally, or whether it be only real, consisting in this, that, by the virtue of His merit and satisfaction formerly rendered, and of His prayers formerly made, Christ moves God to remit our sins, it is not necessary to determine.” [QUEN. (III, 271): “Elegantly has St. Augustine, on Psa 85:1-13, said: ‘He prays for us, as our Priest; He prays in us, as our Head; He is prayed to by us, as our God.’ Let us, then, recognize our voices in Him and His voices in us.”]
[23] QUEN. (III, 258): “This intercession will not be terminated by the end of the world, but will continue to all eternity, Heb 7:25; Psa 110:4; Heb 5:6; Heb 7:17. For it must not be thought that after the end of the world, when the elect have passed into life eternal, intercession is superfluous; for He prays and intercedes, not that they may not by sin fall from eternal salvation, but that they may be kept in glory, which, as it must be regarded as having been received for merit, must also be regarded as having been received for Christ’s meritorious intercession.”
As, in Rom 8:26, mention is made of an intercession by the Holy Spirit also, some of the Dogmaticians inquire what is to be understood by this, and how it differs from the intercession that is offered by Christ. QUEN. (III, 259): “Some receive υπερεντυγχανειν by metalepsis and with respect to the result, so that He is said to pray and groan, because He causes us to pray and groan, shows and teaches us for what to pray and how to pray aright, and forms our prayers within us. But others also understand it literally as referring to the very person of the Holy Ghost, viz., that the Holy Ghost Himself, in His own person, prays and intercedes for us.” QUEN. decides for the former interpretation. And he thus states 369the difference between the two kinds of intercession: “The one intercession (that of Christ) is θεανθρωπικη [that of the God-man]; the other is purely θεικη [divine]. The one is mediatorial; the other is not. The intercession of Christ is founded upon His suffering and death, which cannot be said of the intercession of the Holy Ghost.” (Ib. 260).
[24] HOLL. (751): “Redemption is not simple, absolute, and metaphorical, but precious, satisfactory, and literal, 1Co 6:19-20; 1Pe 1:18; Mat 20:28; 1Ti 2:6.” Id. (752): “The former is liberation without any intervening price from a penalty that has been decided; the latter is that by which a guilty person is redeemed from his crime and the punishment, by the payment of a price . . . . For, properly speaking, to redeem signifies to buy again, just as the Greek words λυτρουν, αγοραζειν, εξαγοραζειν, and the Hebrew words, βΘΰΗμ τΜΘψΘδ, denote purchase or repurchase, which occurs through an intervening price. Therefore, when, in the present argument, where we treat of the redemption of the fallen human race accomplished by Christ, these Hebrew and Greek words from the holy volume are employed, we receive them in a literal sense, because no necessity appears to be imposed upon us of departing from the literal sense.” The expressions used in Holy Scripture to denote redemption are (a) in the Old Testament âÌÀàËìÈä. Lev 25:24, Lev 25:26, Lev 25:29, Lev 25:31-32, Lev 25:48, Lev 25:51-52; ôÌÄãÀéåÉï, Exo 21:30; Psa 49:8; (b) in the New Testament, ëõôñùóéò, Luk 1:68; Luk 2:38; Heb 9:12; áðïëõôñùóéò, Luk 21:28; Rom 3:24; Rom 8:23; 1Co 1:30; Eph 1:7, Eph 1:14; Eph 4:30; Col 1:14; Heb 9:15; Heb 11:35; áãïñáóéò, 22Pe 2:1; Rev 5:9; Rev 14:3; åîáãïñáóéò, Gal 3:13; Gal 4:5.
[25] The Dogmaticians KG., QUEN., and HOLL., treat still more fully of redemption, distinguishing (1) the captive (the whole human race). (2) The one holding the captive (God, Rom 11:32; Gal 3:22, to whom the ransom must be paid; and the devil who holds the wicked in the snares of sins, 2Ti 2:26, to whom not a price, but punishment is due). (3) The one redeeming the captive (Christ, the only and the universal Redeemer of the whole human race, availing by the right, strength, and will to redeem, Rom 3:24). (4) The chains from which Christ redeemed the human race (sins, offences against God, and temporal and eternal punishments). (5) The means of redemption. (6) The end of redemption (the final end, the glory of God; the intermediate, freedom from the guilt and dominion of sin). As, however, all the matters discussed under these heads have been included in the previous discussion their further citations could be dispensed 370with, and their presentation by the Dogmaticians above named is to be regarded as a mere recapitulation of what had been given before.