JESUS
CHRIST-INTERCESSION
If I could
hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million
enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.
Robert Murray M’Cheyne
Christ has
entered alone into the holy place, having Himself obtained eternal redemption
for us. The solitary Surety on earth, He is the solitary Intercessor above. No
other voice pleads with the Father; no other priest or minister, saint or
angel, can be of any avail in coming between the sinner and God.
John
MacDuff
Clefts on the Rock – The Believer’s Ground of Confidence
in Christ, 1874.
We dare not,
indeed, presume to speculate or dogmatize on the manner of this intercession.
It is a silent inarticulate speech and pleading. The voice of Abel’s blood is
represented, by a bold figure, as crying from the ground. That blood, it need
not be remarked, was in reality mute. So doubtless is it with our Divine
Intercessor. There may be no articulate accents, no audible utterances. He
sprinkles no material blood. But this we know, that He has carried with Him to
His intercessory throne a glorified body, still bearing the visible marks of
earthly humiliation and suffering – the perpetual memorials of His atoning
sacrifice – so that that blood may still be said to have a voice before the
throne – “The blood of sprinkling which speaks better things than that of
Abel.”
John
MacDuff
Clefts on the Rock – The Believer’s Ground of Confidence
in Christ, 1874.
Some
theological writers have ingeniously drawn an analogy between creation and
providence, atonement and intercession; that just as Providence is the sustaining
of the creative work – so that if Christ’s continual upholding arm were
withdrawn, the outer material world would soon lapse into disorganization – so,
the intercession of Jesus is the carrying out, and carrying on, of His propitiatory
and mediatorial work – the complement of the great
salvation consummated on Calvary.
John
MacDuff
Clefts on the Rock – The Believer’s Ground of Confidence
in Christ, 1874.
Many a good
and righteous cause on earth has been lost by the death of its advocate. But
our Advocate, as He is without beginning of days, is without end of years. As
the tinkling bells of the High Priest’s vestments were heard by the crowd in
the outer court, while he himself was ministering within the veil – the sound
conveying to them the assurance that he was still engaged in the solemn act of
intercession – so the ear of faith can still catch up the music of these sacred
chimes – these silver bells in heaven – “Blessed are the people who know the
joyful sound!”
John
MacDuff
Clefts on the Rock – The Believer’s Ground of Confidence
in Christ, 1874.