This article is an edited extract from Symington’s The Atonement and Intercession of Jesus Christ and follows on from last month’s extract.
The Love of God
The intercession of Christ is a bright display of the love of God. In appointing for men an advocate at all, and especially such an advocate, this feature of God’s character, so conspicuous in every other part of redemption, is strikingly developed. Without this appointment, the purchased salvation could never have been enjoyed; man could never have successfully pleaded his own cause; and the evils to which he is constantly exposed must inevitably have wrought his ruin. His service could never have been accepted; temptations must have placed him in daily jeopardy; and his sins should have brought him, without fail, under condemnation. Without it, even the people of God could never reach final salvation; not a prayer which they might offer could be heard; not a service they might perform could be accepted; not an assault of Satan could they repel; and the very first sin that they should commit, however small, would sink them to perdition.
How then is the love of God displayed in providing for men an advocate to plead their cause, and to secure them against such fateful consequences? And such an advocate, not a man like ourselves, not an angel of light, not a seraph of glory, but His Son, His own Son, His only-begotten, well-beloved Son, equal to Himself in every divine perfection. Herein is love! Let us contemplate it with grateful adoration, and dwell upon the delightful theme till our enraptured hearts reciprocate the emotion, till we can say, “We love Him because He first loved us”.
The Love of the Son
How this subject illustrates also the love of the Son! This is equally apparent, in His being pleased, by becoming their advocate, to identify Himself with guilty, polluted, rebellious, worthless, wretched creatures of our fallen race. This He was under no obligation to do; it was His own spontaneous act, flowing from the good pleasure of His will. And, when His personal dignity is considered, His love is enhanced by the condescension supposed, for, although exalted far above all principalities and powers and having a name above every name, although having all things under His feet, receiving the homage of angels and regulating the affairs of the universe, He does not disdain to espouse the cause of mortal worms like us and become their suppliant with the Father. As love induced Him to undertake the work, so is it shown in the promptitude, earnestness, diligence, zeal and ceaseless constancy with which it is prosecuted, laying us under obligations to regard with admiration, and to acknowledge with gratitude, such disinterested affection.
The Divinity of Christ
The intercession supplies an argument of great force for the divinity of Christ. Indeed this doctrine runs like a golden thread through the whole system of man’s salvation, connecting itself with every part, and giving strength and consistency to the whole. It is no less necessary to the efficacy of His intercession than to the worth of His sacrifice. To know minutely all the cases of so many millions of people; to listen to, and understand, such a multitude of simultaneous applications; to represent them all with perfect skill and in due order; to give effect to all the pleas demanded by their endless variety, must require qualifications nothing short of divine. No finite being could ever be fit for such an undertaking. What finite mind could understand the matter? What finite power could sustain the load?
What finite worth could secure success? This was an undertaking sufficient to confound and crush to the dust the mightiest of creatures, indeed all created beings combined. None but a divine person is qualified to be the intercessor for elect sinners. Such is Christ, the Advocate with the Father. “This is the true God, and eternal life.”
The Effectiveness of His Death
The intercession of Christ confirms the effectiveness of His death. It all proceeds on the ground of His atonement. Apart from this, not a single petition could have been presented on our behalf. The high priest could only enter into the sanctuary with the censer of incense, because the expiatory sacrifice had previously been offered, for he had to carry its blood with him. Likewise the Lord’s intercession supposes His sacrifice had previously been offered and accepted. And every act of intercessory interposition establishes the effectiveness of His meritorious death. If at any time our faith in the latter truth is staggered, if we want confirmation of this fundamental verity, we have only to look on high and contemplate the Angel standing at the altar, having a golden censer with much incense, and to behold the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascending up before God out of the Angel’s hand.
Perfect Security
It gives perfect security to the people of God. Their present state is imperfect. The matter of Christ’s intercession supposes this; there would be no need for Him to pray for pardon if there was no guilt, and no need for satisfaction if there was no corruption; so the sinless perfection to which some presumptuously lay claim is not more at variance with Christianity than with the work in which the Saviour is engaged. But against the despondency to which their present imperfection might give rise, the people of God have the security of final perfection, arising from the work of intercession. Their security springs not from anything naturally indestructible in the principle of the new life which they possess, nor from any absence of criminality in the sins they commit, nor from any lack of danger in the circumstances in which they are placed; but wholly from the intercession of Christ.
The principle of the new life may, in itself, be liable to decay, but Christ by His intercession will uphold it. Their sins may deserve condemnation, but He intercedes for pardon. They may be exposed to danger, but His intercession interposes a shield of infallible protection. Not a sin can they commit but His merits can secure forgiveness for it. Not an accusation can be made upon them but He has the skill to answer it. Not a temptation can assail them but He has the power to repel it. Not a service can they perform, however imperfect, but He can make it acceptable in the sight of God.
Their final salvation is thus rendered absolutely secure, and in a spirit, not of haughty self-confidence, but of humble dependence on the Advocate with the Father, they may defy all opposition, and calmly trust that the gates of hell shall not prevail against them. The Church is thus surrounded as with a wall of adamant, which no enemy can either penetrate or overthrow. Unbelief may open its mouth wide; heresy may pour forth its polluted streams; persecution may light its fires; immorality may spread its thousands of snares, war and famine; and pestilence may spread devastation all around, but not one, nor all of these together, can prove a match for that Angel-intercessor who cries with a loud voice, “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads”.