Christ Our Intercessor

~ How Greatly Privileged We Are! ~

Introduction  ~  Have you ever had the sheer joy of knowing that other Christians were earnestly praying for you during a time of your distress?  If so, contemplate in your mind a clear and vivid picture of Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior praying for you as you are passing through troublesome waters.  This is a correct picture of Jesus Christ’s current ministry on your behalf.  What a privilege is ours! 

An Important Historical Account ~  Just before our Savior’s betrayal and arrest we find Him in sacred communion with God, His Father:  “I pray for them [Christians].  I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.  And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.  Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You.  Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.  While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name.  Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.  But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.  I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them by Your truth.  Your word is truth.  As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.  And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth” (John 17:9-19). 

Another Important Passage  ~  Some Christians live their lives in uncertainty, wondering when they will do something which will so displease their Savior that His love for them will be diminished—or His prayers on their behalf will be less fervent.  All we have to do is look at the example of Peter who denied our Lord thee specific times even after a direct warning from his Savior.  But what was our Lord’s response?  “The Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon!  Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren’” (Luke 22:31-32). 

Applications  ~  (1) What an indescribable privilege you have if you are a Christian.  You have the Creator of this universe specifically praying for you!  (2) When the Son returned to the Father’s side He never lost interest in what is happening on earth, or what is happening in your life.  (3) Jesus Christ’s love for you is unfailing regardless of your obedience or failings.  (4) If you are His child the Son of God is even now interceding on your behalf.  (5) What we go through in our lives enables us (and gives us a responsibility) to minister to others. 

Summary Passage  ~  “What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?  It is God who justifies.  Who is he who condemns?  It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’  Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-39). 

the key question: “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). This is the most important question you will ever answer. If you do not answer it, or answer it incorrectly, you have made the biggest mistake anyone can make!

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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