Our Ever-Living Intercessor
By Charles H. Spurgeon
“Wherefore He is also able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).
It is said, “He ever lives to make intercession for us.” The whole life of Christ throughout eternity – His boundless, endless, glorified existence – is still for His people. “He loved me, and gave Himself for me” is true, but we may read it in the present tense if we like, and it is still true; “He loves me, and He gives Himself for me.” Christ loved His church, and gave Himself for it, and now He loves His church and gives Himself to it. What inspiration lies in the endless life of Christ for us! Let our lives be lived wholly for Him since He lives wholly for us.
This truth of the living Christ should be remembered in our greatest need. Dear friends, there is an almighty and divine One in heaven who always lives for our highest benefit. Let us adore Him most lovingly. This should show us how great our need is, that we always need a living Savior to interpose for us. A dying Savior was not enough; we still require every moment of our lives a living Savior engrossed with the care of our spirits, interposing on our behalf in all manner of ways, and delivering us from all evil. Our hour of necessity is ever present, for Jesus is always guarding us, and His work is never a superfluity. Herein should lie our great comfort; we should fall back upon this truth whenever our burden presses too sorely upon our shoulders. Jesus lives; my great Redeemer lives for me, lives in all fullness of power and glory, and devotes that life, with all that pertains to it, to the preservation of my soul from every ill. Can I not rest in this? With such a Keeper why should I be afraid? Must I not be safe when One so vigilant and vigorous devotes His life to my protection? What innumerable blessings must come to those for whom Jesus spends the strength of His endless life!
Beloved, here is our comfort; we have only one Priest, and He ever lives. He had no predecessor and He will have no successor, because He ever lives personally to exercise the office of High Priest on our behalf. My soul reposes in the faith of His one sacrifice, offered once and no more. There is but one Presenter of that one sacrifice, and never can there be another, since the One is all-sufficient, and He never dies. Jesus reads my heart, and has always read it since it began to beat; He knows my griefs and has carried my sorrows from of old, and He will bear both them and me when old age shall shrivel up my strength. When I shall fall asleep in death He will not die, but will be ready to receive me into His own undying blessedness. Do we not rejoice in the unbroken continuity and everlasting perpetuity of the priesthood of Christ?
The Need for Constant Intercession
Where would our hope be of continual preservation from the weaknesses and sins of our nature did not Jesus constantly plead for us? The way is rough, the world is sinful, our wanderings are many, our wants are incessant, and therefore we need the eternal intercession. We are never out of danger, and therefore always need the guardian prayer; we are never above weakness and folly, and therefore require the perpetual patronage of our Protector. What man is there among you that is not full of wants? What woman is there among you that does not need to come to the mercy seat many times a day? Jesus is always there, waiting to present our petitions, ever making our persons, our petitions, and our praise acceptable with God. Brethren, we are daily pressed, either with conflict with inbred sin or suffering in the body, with service of our Lord or sympathy for our brethren, and for all these we need help from the holy place, help which can only come by way of the throne of the heavenly grace. We need an interposer, at whose feet we may lay down our burdens, into whose ears we may tell our sorrows; therefore, Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us.
Innumerable Blessings
Our great Intercessor also obtains for us those precious gifts and graces which are needful for our growth and usefulness. His is the hand which leads us onward to those attainments of the spiritual life which are needful for our serviceableness in this world, and for our fitness for the life to come. The higher virtues would be beyond our reach if His prayers did not bring us more and more of the Spirit of God to make us perfect in every good work to do His will.
Have you forgotten also that there is an enemy who is always alive and always full of malice? He acts as the accuser of the brethren, who accuses them day and night before God, and was it not for our glorious Advocate, who for Zion’s sake does never hold His peace, what would become of us? This accuser is also a tempter, who subtly contrives plots for our overthrow. It is at times true of us as it was of Peter – “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee…” (Luke 22:31-32). How often are we hidden from evil by the prayers of Jesus! We do not know, my brethren, how many poisoned arrows are caught upon the shield of our Lord’s intercession. The intercession of Christ as with ten thousand hands is always scattering benedictions.
The Lord asks, “Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?” (Job 38:16). Surely our Lord’s intercession is the source of an ocean of blessedness. If we but had eyes enlightened of the Holy Spirit we should see the mountain full of horses of fire, and chariots of fire round about the people of God. Who guides those horses? Who directs those chariots? Who is the Captain of the hosts of spirits that encompass the camp of God? Who, but the Prince Immanuel, who by His all-powerful intercession, rules all things for us.
The Lord Jesus by His unceasing pleas keeps all the powers of darkness in check, and moves all the powers of light for our rescue. His prayers form an atmosphere of blessing in which we live and move. We do not know, we cannot begin to calculate, the depths of our obligation to the ceaseless care of our unwearied Intercessor. Even when time shall be no more, and all the saints shall be saved, their continuance in bliss will be due to His endless intercession.
– Adapted.