Christ’s Intercession

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

If you’re at all like me, there are days when you wonder if God really loves you—is really willing to keep putting up with you—given how “prone to wander” you are. And yet here in Hebrews 7:25 we have this precious promise: Jesus is able to save us completely. There is no crevice of our sinful hearts he will not invade with his grace, and no doubt that he will finish the good work he began in us. We cannot out-sin his grace.

But how can we have this confidence? The text tells us: because Christ “always lives to intercede” for his people. Don’t miss how wonderful that word “always” is. The Son of God never stops praying for us, reminding the Father of his life, death, and resurrection, his finished work in our behalf. As Calvin says, Jesus “turns the Father’s eyes to his own righteousness to avert his gaze from our sins. He so reconciles the Father’s heart to us that by his intercession he prepares a way and access for us to the Father’s throne.”

I love the gritty realism of this passage: it acknowledges what we all know to be true, that we will continue to flail and fail here on earth, and thus will need his continual intercession—and then promises that intercession. Dane Ortlund comments in Gentle and Lowly: “He does not forgive us through his work on the cross and then hope we make it the rest of the way. Picture a glider, pulled up into the sky by an airplane, soon to be released to float down to earth. We are that glider; Christ is the plane. But he never disengages. He never lets go, wishing us well, hoping we can glide the rest of the way into heaven. He carries us all the way.”

Take this reminder with you today. Right now, at this very moment, Christ is praying for you. You may be facing something—whether trial or temptation or discouragement or weariness—that makes you think you aren’t going to make it. But how different would your outlook be if you heard Christ praying for you in the next room? Well, you may not be able to hear him audibly, but that doesn’t make the wondrous thought any less true!