Five More Applications of Christ's Intercession

In this post, I pick up where we left off last week, three applications of Christ’s intercession. Here are five more.

Application 4: Christ’s intercession protects and watches over us.

      We never need to concern ourselves that God is not for us nor with us. His exalted status in heaven is to our great benefit. No matter what we face in this world, God is there above it all. As we wake in the morning, our Kingly High Priest is upon his throne just as the dew is upon the grass. Just as the sun shines forth its rays to warm the air, so our Savior warms our hearts with his gospel. There is never a second in which he is not upholding the world by the word of his power (Heb 1.3). Whatever our days hold, we can be sure that Jesus is in them and over them, interceding on our behalf during them. He knows what’s really going on, and he’s interceding on our behalf even when we aren’t mindful of him. Even when we forget to factor Jesus into our lives, he never forgets to mention us in his prayers. His high and holy status only gives him all the more power to care for little me and you. As Ray Ortlund said, “God is not too great to notice you; God is too great to overlook you.”[1]

Application 5: Christ’s intercession affirms that nothing can ultimately keep us from God.

      We may think our sins will eventually become too much, but there is no end to his saving grace. He saves not in part but in whole. His blood is effective for the worst of sins, the greatest number of sins, the most egregious of sins, the most abhorrent of sins, the most preposterous of sins, the most condemnable of sins. Whatever your sins are, fear not. You can draw near to God through Christ’s intercessory work to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16). Nothing can undo that open invitation because the blood of Christ purchased it, and the same Christ who died for you lives for you now.

      With our intercessor in heaven, nothing in this world can keep us from God. He overcomes every enemy. He forgives every sin. He constantly renews our faith. He will bring us all the way home.

Application 6: Christ’s intercession comforts us that we are not left to ourselves.

      Though we are fully justified by faith in Christ’s atoning work on the cross, we still struggle with ongoing sin. We will until we are with the Lord in glory in the next life. God’s plan to help us is Christ’s intercession. Jesus is looking out for us. He is praying for us. He is sending help from his throne of grace to us in our times of need. We are not left to figure out the Christian life on our own. We are helped by the interceding Christ moment by moment.

      If one Christian intercedes for another, that is a good and right thing. We should pray for one another in the name of Jesus for all his efficacious power. But there is a difference between our prayers and his. His intercession is even more profound. Williams Symington says, “We can never be said to plead with all our heart; he never pleads in any other way.”[2] Puritan John Flavel puts it this way. Jesus’s intercession “is an intercession with God for us, in his own name, and upon the account of his own proper merit; the one is a private act of charity, the other a public act of office.”[3] We have God himself interceding on our behalf. (Heb. 9:28). We are not left to ourselves, and we are not left in another’s hands equal in status to ourselves. We are in the hands of God almighty, and if God himself asks, how can he say no? God cannot deny himself (2 Tim. 2:13).

      We also find the Holy Spirit prays on our behalf. Part of his intercessory work is sending of his Spirit to help us (John 15:26-27). The Puritan Thomas Goodwin said, “The Spirit prays in you, because Christ prays for you.”[4] We are then doubly secured by prayer through both the Spirit and the Son, all part of the gracious gifts of the Father.

Application 7: Christ’s intercession frees our conscience.

      Hebrews 9:13-14 says, “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

      We can work out of our salvation instead of for our salvation. We can experience the joy of serving God in a way we never could apart from Christ’s intercessory work. We can go forth, doing our best, looking to him by faith, trusting that when we fail, he will uphold. When we sin, he will forgive us. When we don’t know what we need, he will intercede.

Application 8: Christ’s intercession preaches the gospel to us.

      We are deeply held in Christ’s mighty arms. His intercession proclaims his gospel—that his life, death, and resurrection are sufficient to save us. As Gavin Ortlund put it, “The infinitely sweet benefits of Jesus’ atoning work on the cross can be freshly communicated to us at every instant of our lives. The intercession of Christ provides a mediating link from the accomplishment of Christ in his Friday afternoon agony to any other point in history where it is received by faith. As often as we draw near to God, he washes and cleanses us afresh (Hebrews 10:22). The grace of God is not a flash flood after which we have to try to retain the water that is left over. It's a continuous waterfall, flowing unto eternity.”[5]

      Our lives are a series of struggles to find peace and acceptance. The intercession of Christ assures we have it today, tomorrow, and on into eternity. The blood of Christ was effective to forgive sins past, present, and future. We do not need to justify ourselves. We have all the justification we will ever need in Christ. God will not demand that we pay for sins he already paid for. If we are in Christ, we are completely, unchangeably, unendingly safe and secure, and if we ever doubt that fact, all we must do is look at this doctrine to see how profoundly God is for us. Jesus lives for this (Heb. 7:25).

[1] Though this is written in his commentary on Isaiah, I prefer to hear it from him on the Immanuel Church Worship album Volume One: The Love of Christ, track 4.

[2] William Symington, The Atonement & Intercession of Jesus Christ, page 290.

[3] John Flavel, The Fountain of Life.

[4] Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ, page 37.

[5] Gavin Ortlund, https://gavinortlund.com/2010/04/29/christs-intercession-application/