JESUS
CHRIST, HIGH PRIEST,
INTERCESSOR!
By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.
“Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, Who
is EVEN at the Right Hand of God, Who also makes INTERCESSION for us… Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors, through Him that loved us.” (Rom.8: 34, 37)
The STUDY of
God's Word is the most life fulfilling and life changing enterprise. Nothing
can compare with the PEACE that God's Word brings to the human heart and the
HEALING that the Living Christ brings to our innermost being through the Person
of the Holy Spirit.
There is no word
to describe the cleansing and purging of our conscience through faith in the
shed BLOOD of Jesus Christ our Lord: The
Bible says: “How much more shall the blood of Christ Who through the Eternal
Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,
PURGE your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God.” (Heb. 9: 14)
The JOY that
our Lord brings into our lives is beyond comprehension. Jesus stated: “These things have I spoken
unto you, that My joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full.” (John
15: 11). Just before the Cross, Jesus reassured His disciples: “And ye now therefore have sorrow, but I
will see you again and your heart
shall rejoice, and your JOY no man taketh from you.” (John 16: 22). “Peace
I leave with you, My PEACE I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I
unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:
27).
St. Paul wrote;
“REJOICE in the Lord always; and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation be
known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the PEACE
that passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus
Christ.” (Phil. 4: 4-7)
A study of the
Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is so astounding that one wonders
how there could be anything MORE to praise God for. St. Paul, however, takes us
deeper and lifts us higher with these truths about Jesus Christ: “Who is
even at the Right hand of God, Who also makes intercession for us.” (Rom.8: 34)
THERE IS EVEN MORE!
Our hearts are
already full with the amazing things our Lord has done for us. Then, we realize that there is much more! Jesus
is at this moment PRAYING for us
all, interceding before the throne of God for our needs. The Bible
states that Jesus is our Advocate with the Father and also our Heavenly High
Priest. (1 John 2: 1,2)
In the Book of Hebrews we get a glimpse of
the INTERCESSION of Christ our High Priest before God the Father for us all! “Where
would anyone of us be if Christ were not interceding for us? St. Paul
makes the case that Jesus is that High Priest that the prophet declared is
greater than Aaron, and after the order of Melchisedek:
“Who is made, not after the law of a
carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he
testifies, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek... By so
much was JESUS made a surety of a better testament, and they truly were many
priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
“But This Man, because He continues ever, hath
an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost
that come unto God by Him, seeing He EVER
LIVETH to make intercession
for them. For such an high priest became us, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.
“Who needs not daily, as those high priests, to offer up
sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the peoples; for this He
did once, when He offered up Himself for the law makes
men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of an oath, which was since
the law, makes the SON, who is CONSECRATED for
evermore.” (Heb. 7: 16, 17, 22-28)
HE EVER LIVES TO
INTERCEDE!
The work of
Redemption did not end with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It continues
through the constant intercession
of our Lord and Saviour, as our Heavenly High Priest! He lives to intercede!
Were our sins
NOT washed away by His substitutionary death for us on the cross? And were we not justified by His resurrection
from the dead? YES, of course we were!
With the flesh,
the world and the devil arrayed against us, we would not, however, be able to
continue in a sanctified state without Christ’s intercession for us, and the
Holy Spirit within us! Jesus Christ’s intercession for the apostle Peter,
brought him back to Faith after he cursed, sworn and vehemently denied knowing
Jesus.
“And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, “Satan
hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have PRAYED for thee, that thy faith fail not: and
when thou art converted, strengthen your brethren.” (Luke 22: 31,32)
The Bible declares:
“God… hath in these last days spoken unto us by His SON, Whom He hath
appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the worlds; Who being the
brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person, and UPHOLDING
all things by the Word of His Power,
when he had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on High.” (Heb.1: 1-3)
WHY SATAN HATES JESUS CHRIST!
The
Bible reports Christ’s victory over the Evil One during His 40 day fast and
Wilderness Temptation. Repeatedly, the Devil sought to have Jesus destroyed. I
never quite understood the enormity of Christ’s Victory over Satan on the cross
and His Resurrection from the dead, until I began to study His work of
INTERCESSION as our Heavenly High Priest.
It
is no wonder the Evil, Wicked, Sinister, lying Devil hates Jesus Christ so
deeply, when he KNOWS that he is lost, doomed and damned FOREVER, and Jesus our
High Priest is FOREVER interceding for us. And that is why he hates all God’s
children who trust in the shed blood of God’s paschal LAMB!
The truth is driven home more powerfully
when you realize that Christ will always be our Security, constantly looking
after us as the ages roll. We will always be His Bride, His Body and sons of
God without sin, fear, struggles, sickness, disease or death!
In the same way that Jesus Christ is keeping the universe
running smoothly, His intercession to the Father on our behalf secures our
salvation, because He is Eternal, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent together
with the Father and the Holy Spirit! World
without end!
CHRIST THE INTERCESSOR!
Johann Tobias Beck, professor of Theology in Tubingen, Germany
(1843) stated, “See the difference
between having Christ as Advocate or Intercessor Who stands outside of us and
having Him within us – our abiding in Him and He in us through the Holy Spirit
– perfecting our union with Him so that we can go directly to the Father in His
name.”
In his splendid book, Teach Me to Pray, Dr. Andrew Murray
writes: “The whole of salvation is Christ Himself. He lives in us. Because He prays, we also pray. Just as the
disciples, when they saw Jesus pray, asked Him to make them partakers of what
He knew of prayer, so we, seeing Him as intercessor on the Throne, know that He
makes us participate with Him in the life of Prayer.
“To understand this, think first of His
intercession. He ever lives to make intercession for us. The work of Christ in
earth as Priest was but a beginning. It was as Aaron He SHED
HIS BLOOD. It is as Melchizedek that He Now lives within the VEIL to
continue His work after the power of Eternal Life. As Melchizedek He is more
glorious than Aaron, so it is in the work of intercession that the ATONEMENT
has its true power and glory. “Christ Jesus Who died – more than that, Who… is at the Right hand of
God, and is also interceding for us.” (Rom.8: 34)
“That intercession is an intense reality,
a work that is absolutely necessary and without which the continued application
of REDEMPTION cannot take place. In the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus,
the wonderful reconciliation took place by which man became partaker of the
Divine Life and blessedness. But the real personal appropriation of
this RECONCILIATION in each of His members here below cannot take place without
the unceasing exercise of His Divine Power by the HEAD in Heaven.
“In all conversion and sanctification, in
every victory over Sin and the World, there is a flowing forth of the POWER of
Him Who is Mighty to SAVE. This exercise of His power only takes place through
His prayer. He asks of the Father and receives from the Father. “He is ABLE
to save completely, because He lives to intercede.” (Heb. 7: 25)
PARTAKERS OF HIS
LIFE!
“There is never a need of His people
without His receiving in intercession what the Godhead has to give. His mediation on the Throne is as real and
indispensable as on the cross. Nothing
takes place without His intercession! It engages all His time and power. It is
His unceasing occupation at the Right hand of His Father.
“We participate not only in benefits of
His work, but also in the work itself, because we are His Body…We share with Jesus in all He is and has.
(John 17:22). We are partakers of His
life, His righteousness, His works; we share with Him in His intercession too;
it is not a work He does without us. We do this because we are partakers of His
life. Christ is our life; “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
(Gal. 2:20).
O’ how great and glorious is this amazing
Gospel of Jesus Christ! To Him be honour and glory and praise forever and ever.
Amen. 