02.046. Who Intercedes? - 3
Who Intercedes? (Part 3) Sometime Minister of Whitebbey Presbyterian Church, N. Ireland William Rogers M.A., L.L.D.
PART THREE
‘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.’ The Grounds of Christ’s Intercession. The Ground on which Christ asks (or intercedes) for blessings for us. The high priest made it very plain on what ground He asked pardon and blessings for the people. Into the Holiest of all went the high priest, not without blood. He could not have gone without the blood. He could have asked nothing except on the ground of the shed blood. Let us see from two passages the ground of Christ’s intercession.
1. 1 John 2:1-2 : ‘If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.’ His advocacy is based on His propitiation: that is, Christ died for our sins, paid our debt; and now He goes into the presence of God. He points to the full atonement, the perfect satisfaction which He rendered to God’s law, and on that ground He asks for us full pardon, our complete salvation. Are our sins never so many; never so weighty. Christ casts into the opposite scale of the balance, His sin-bearing, His atonement, His righteousness, and secures for ever our acquittal, our salvation. The Lord Jesus is not asking anything for us that He does not furnish good grounds for our getting. No, He points to His obedience, suffering and death and He asks for us that we get the full value of His finished work.
2. Hebrews 12:24 : ‘And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.’
All these words treat of Christ’s intercession. In the ear of the Lord of Hosts, there is nothing that seems to utter so loud a cry as blood. Oh, how the blood, the blood stained knife, the blood stained garments appeal to Heaven against the murderer! As God said to Cain, ‘The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground.’ The blood of Abel cried to God, cried for vengeance upon the head of Cain. But we need ‘the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.’ Here again is blood that cries to God - what blood? The blood of Jesus Christ, Himself, the Great High Priest took into the very presence of God and sprinkled within Heaven itself on the Mercy-seat. There it lies, the blood of sprinkling. The voice of that blood cries to God; but it does not cry like the blood of Abel for vengeance. But the blood calls for the pardon, the eternal life of all for whom it was shed. ‘The blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.’ How effectual must the cry of this blood be when it is not the blood of an ordinary saint like Abel, but the blood of the King of saints - the Lord of glory; when it cries, not like Abel’s blood, from the ground, but from Heaven, where it lies, sprinkled on the very mercy-seat; and above all, when He that was dead is alive again, and lives for evermore to plead that the cry of His blood may be heard, and the greatest sinner who comes to Him may have a full and free and present salvation!
Fellow believer, ere we pass from this point, let me say this; the Lord hath done great things for us. He has bestowed on us great gifts - but sure I am of this - what we have received has come far short of the value of the blood of Christ. Now be encouraged by this thought - the Lord Jesus, by His intercession will put you and me into full possession of all the rich blessings His blood was able to purchase. Open thy mouth wide! Expect great blessings, far beyond anything you have ever got or thought of! For God’s gifts to thee shall be measured according to the value of the precious blood, and the very last farthing the blood of Christ could purchase for thee, shall be paid thee!