Our Intercessor
‘It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” — Rom. Vill.
ee are four wonderful steps, rising
one above another. As we stand on each one we see more and more reason for happy confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ.
The first is that He died for us. But if He
had remained in the grave we could never
“have known that God had accepted His great atonement for us. So the next step of confidence is that He is risen again, so that
He is our living Saviour who says, “‘ Because
I live, ye shall live also” (John xiv. )s
The next is that He is even at the right
hand of God, in all His power and glory,
preparing a place for us, and by His Spirit preparing us for it.
Jesus dying, risen, and gone up to heaven, all for us!) What couid we think of more? Yet His wonderful love goes farther still, for He “also maketh intercession for‘us.’”’ That means, He is praying for us. One would have thought that when He went back to heaven, after all His suffering for us on earth, He would have done enough for us, and would have something else to do than be thinking about us any more. But as long as one of His dear children lives on earth, He will go on praying for each one to the end, even as He loves each one to the end (John xill. ); for “He ever liveth to make intercession for us”? (Heb. vii. HY
Think now, Jesus is praying for you to-day! Perhaps you have thought very little about Him, and grieved His loving heart, and only said a few words of cold prayers without really praying to Him at all; and He has been praying for you all the time!
Would you like to know for certain that He prays for you? Then see what He says in that beautiful last prayer of His on earth: “neither pray I for these alone, but for ad) them which shall believe on Me through their word” (John xvii. ). So if you are, “one of these little ones which believe in Me” (Matt. xviii. ), Jesus prays for you as certainly as He did for Peter when He said, ‘I have prayed for thee” (Luke KXiL ).