DAY 8: Christ, The Ultimate Intercessor

Pray without ceasing

Jesus came and drew us a picture of God! Now we know what He looks like.

But that's not the only direction of His interceding. Great irony exists in the fact that Man who was meant to be God's intercessor, mediator or representative on earth now needed someone to mediate for him. He who was made to represent God on the earth now needed someone to represent him to God.

Christ, of course, became that representative, intercessor or mediator. Not only did He represent God to man, but He also represented man to God. This God-man was the attorney for both sides!

He is the ultimate, final and only go-between. He is "the Apostle [God to the human race] and High Priest [the human race to God] of our confession" (Hebrews 3:1). He is Job's great go-between, hanging between heaven and earth placing one hand on God and the other on humans (see Job 9:32, 33).


Christ's intercession was work of mediation He did. (see 1 Tim. 2:5) He is our Advocate with the Father (see 1 John 2:1). He is now functioning as our representative, guaranteeing our access to the Father and to our benefits of redemption.

In fact, He tells us in John 16:26 "In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request the Father on your behalf." So what is He doing as He makes intercession for us? He is mediating or going between, not to clear us of charges against us as He did to redeem us from sin, but to present each of us to the Father as righteous and one of His own.

He is interceding for us so we can pray. This is what is meant by asking "in His name."

Let's look at one more aspect of Christ's intercession in the context of the Fall. Basically, humanity needed two things after the Fall. They needed someone to "go between" themselves and God to reconcile themselves to God; they also needed someone to "go between" themselves and Satan to separate themselves from him. One was a uniting, the other a disuniting. One reestablished headship, the other broke headship. It was a two-fold work of intercession.

We needed both. Jesus did both. As the intercessor-mediator, He went between God and humanity, reconciling us to the Father; and between Satan and humanity, breaking Satan's hold. This was the redemptive work of intercession and it is complete. Therefore, in the legal sense of humanity's redemption, Christ is the one and only intercessor. This is why the Scriptures say, "For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5). The verse could just as easily read, "one intercessor."

This revelation is critical. It means our prayers of intercession are always and only an extension of His work of intercession.

Why is this so important? Because God won't honor any intercession except Christ's, and also because this understanding will make our prayers of intercession infinitely more powerful.

When we ask the Father to extend mercy and bring salvation to the people of Northern Virginia, we do it because Jesus interceded or mediated for them. We ask for laborers to be sent for Christ and through Christ entirely on the redemptive work He has already done."

Shalom,

Rev. Obadiah Swen

Pastor, Bethel World Outreach Church - Virginia