Jesus our praying priest

"Christ As Mediator: Christ showing His wounds to His Father" 
Artist unknown; Illustrator of 'Speculum humanae salvationis', 
Germany (?), c. 1400-1500

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Hebrews 7-8; Psalm 28

TO CHEW ON: "Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them." - Hebrews 7:25

Theologian Wayne Grudem writes about how Jesus is pictured in Hebrews in relation to the Old Testament covenant:

"In the Old Testament, the priests were appointed by God to offer sacrifices. They also offered prayers and praise to God on behalf of the people. In so doing they 'sanctified' the people or made them acceptable to come into God's presence, albeit in a limited way during the Old Testament period. In the New Testament Jesus becomes our great high priest .... Jesus functions as priest in two ways:

1. Jesus offered a perfect sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12, 24-28; 10:1-2 and more).

2. Jesus continually brings us near to God (Hebrews 6:19-20 and more)" - Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology p. 626, 627 (of course Grudem expands on these points).

And Jesus does one more thing as our high priest. "He always lives to make intercession ..." (Hebrews 7:25).  In other words, He continually prays for us.

Though Bible students have interpreted "intercession" in two ways: 1] as Jesus' presence mutely reminding God of our right-standing before Him and, 2] as Jesus actively interceding, the Greek word used for intercession here, entygchano, "clearly gives the sense of making requests or petitions before someone" - Gruden, p. 627.

How does Jesus know what to pray for? Well of course He knows everything so He knows the intricacies of our lives, our weaknesses, what will endanger, threaten, and tempt us. But implied here too, I believe, is the fact that we pray and He brings to God those prayers, petitions, sometimes even wordless groanings.  Grudem again:

"...Jesus continually lives in the presence of God to make specific requests and to bring specific petitions before God on our behalf .... Although God could care for all our needs in response to direct observation (Matthew 6:8), yet it has pleased God, in his relationship to the human race, to decide to act in response to prayer, apparently so that the faith shown through prayer might glorify him" - Grudem p. 628.

What an awesome privilege—to have our clumsily worded requests, tainted by our human imperfections, relayed to God by Jesus our eternal and perfect High Priest!

PRAYER: Thank You, Jesus, for being my High Priest, taking my prayers and interceding to God the Father on my behalf. Please teach me to pray. May my faith grow so that my life honours You more. Amen. 

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 28

MORE: "He always prays for us according to the Father's will"  (Grudem p. 628)

Grudem ends the section on Christ's role as interceding High Priest with this wonderful quote from Berkhof:

"It is a consoling thought that Christ is praying for us, even when we are negligent in our prayer life; that He is presenting to the Father those spiritual needs which were not present to our minds and which we often neglect to include in our prayers; and that He prays for our protection against the dangers of which we are not even conscious, and against the enemies which threaten us, though we do not notice it. He is praying that our faith may not cease, and that we may come out victoriously in the end" - Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p. 403, quoted in Grudem, p. 628.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Spiritual weapons for spiritual battles

Image: Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Exodus 12:1-14

TO CHEW ON: “‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.’” Exodus 12:12

What I find interesting in this passage is that this night was to be a night of judgment “against all the gods of Egypt.” God’s pronouncement here reminds us of the war between God and Satan declared in Genesis 3:15 when God told Satan:

"'And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise your head
And you shall bruise His heel.'”

I believe that spiritual battling continues to be present in the conflicts around us in greater measure than we realize or like to admit. From petty arguments between individuals to national riots and international wars, there is a “gods of Egypt” (read ‘spirit of whatever country and age we’re in with its accompanying deities’) element involved.

God judged these spiritual “gods of Egypt” with spiritual weapons—a slaughtered animal, blood, food prepared in a prescribed way, eaten within a time frame, and then the leftovers burned. Who would predict victory from this? It makes no logical sense.

Are there spiritual weapons we can use to oppose the “Gods of Canada” (or whatever place you live)?

Yes there are. Here are some of the verses that speak of the weapons we use to confront the spiritual foes in our lives and the world system around us, collected from the “Victory” section of my recipe card verse collection:

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”- 2 Corinthians 10:4,5

"For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" - 1 John 5:4,5.

"But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts" - Romans 13:14

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  Ephesians 6:10,11,13-18.

"Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  James 4:7,8

And finally, here’s one that takes us right back to today’s passage:

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death" - Revelation 12:11

PRAYER: Dear Father, please open my eyes to the spiritual battle behind the conflicts in my life and world. Help me to habitually pick up spiritual weapons to fight these battles. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

A song for all us lost sheep

"Christ, Savior of Mankind" - Unknown Flemish master, 1590s, Alabaster.

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Isaiah 52:13-53:12

TO CHEW ON: "All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned every one to his own way

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6

Our reading today is the final Servant Song. I don't think there's any doubt about who the Servant in it is; it's obviously Jesus. My Bible's notes say about this grand passage:

"It is one of the greatest passages in the Bible, the mountain peak of Isaiah's book; the most sublime messianic prophecy in the O.T. relating to so many features of Jesus' redemptive work" - Nathaniel M. Van Cleave New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 936.

In it we see a multitude of prophecies:

• Jesus' incarnation and early life: "He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant ... a root out of dry ground" - Isaiah 53:2.

• His rejection: "He is despised and rejected... He was despised and we did not esteem Him" - Isaiah 53:3.

• His suffering: "His visage was marred more any any man .... He was wounded ... He was bruised...", He suffered "chastisement" and "stripes" - Isaiah 52:14; 53:4-5.

• His death: "He was cut off from the land of the living... they made His grave with the wicked—But with the rich at His death" - Isaiah 53:8-9.

• His triumph and exaltation: "He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high .... Kings shall shut their mouths at Him .... Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong" - Isaiah 52:13,15; 53:11-12.

Significant is Isaiah's explanation of how Jesus will be the substitute lamb—that sacrifice for sin that will appease a holy God (Isaiah 53:4-6). I love how he makes it personal, implicating even himself in this unthinkable action:

"All we like sheep have god astray, we have turned every one to his own way and the He has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

And that is, finally, the personal message of Jesus' passion for each one of us. He didn't die because of some theoretical idea. His death wasn't to restore a blurry mass of people. It was an "offering for sin" for me and you because we "turned to our own way" and are full of "iniquity" and have no merit of our own on which to approach God.

All these thousands of years later, this Servant Song still has significance and application to each one of us on the most personal level. Jesus still invites us to come to Him and promises that God will accept us on the merit of His (Jesus') life, death and resurrection. Hear Him say it Himself, using the imagery of sheep and shepherds:

"I am the door of the sheep ... I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture .... I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly" - John 10:7-10.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You that You who had no sin became sin for me that I might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Help me to forsake sin every conscious moment and to live the life of rich abundance You promise. Amen.

MORE: Prophecies fulfilled

Did the prophecies of Isaiah's come true? Indeed they did. A handy table in my Bible details the prophecies in today's reading with their fulfillment:

- He will be exalted - Isaiah 52:13
Fulfilled - Philippians 2:9

- He will be disfigured by suffering - Isaiah 52:14; 53:2
Fulfilled: Mark 15:17,19

- He will be widely rejected - Isaiah 53:1,3
Fulfilled - John 12:37-38

- He will bear our sins and sorrows - Isaiah 53:4
Fulfilled - Romans 4:25; 1 Peter 2:24-25

- He will make a blood atonement - Isaiah 53:6
Fulfilled - Romans 3:25

- He will be our substitute - Isaiah 53:6,8
Fulfilled - 2 Corinthians 5:21

- He will voluntarily accept our guilt and punishment - Isaiah 53:7
Fulfilled - John 10:11

- He will be buried in a rich man's tomb - Isaiah 53:9
Fulfilled - John 19:38-42

- He will justify many from their sin - Isaiah 53:10-11
Fulfilled - Romans 5:15-19

- He will die with transgressors - Isaiah 53:12
Fulfilled - Mark 15:27; Luke 22:37

- From "The Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53:12)" - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 937.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Jesus - Mediator

"Advocate" by David Bowman

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Hebrews 12:18-29

TO CHEW ON: "But you have come to... Jesus, the Mediator of the new convenient, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel." Hebrews 12:24

When I hear the word "mediator" I think of union/management problems. A common way of solving them is by mediation, when an objective person seeks to find middle ground on which the two persons or sides who are at odds can agree.

I believe our sense of needing a mediator spiritually arises out of an accurate view of God. In Hebrews 12 the writer reminds his readers of God's appearance on Mount Sinai and how fearfully awesome and other He is. That's where He gave Moses the law, but told the people not to even touch the mountain where Moses was meeting with Him, certainly not climb it, or they would die (Exodus 19:12-13; 20:18-26). "For God is not an indifferent bystander. He's actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won't quit until it's all cleansed. God himself is Fire!" - Hebrews 12:29 The Message).

Jesus is the go-between, becoming the way to our holy, righteous, can't-stand-one-speck-of-sin God.

• Jesus is our mediator by fulfilling the demand of the first covenant (death for sin — our sin, not His) (Hebrews 9:15).

• He is the only mediator or way to God (1 Timothy 2:5).

• He understood this when He was on earth and clearly taught it (John 14:6).

• His death and resurrection put in place a new covenant which is for more than just the Jews. He has broken down the walls between Jew and Gentile. Now all are welcome to come to God through Jesus (Ephesians 2:14-18).

• Jesus mediates this "better" and "new" covenant (Hebrews 8:6; 12:24.  I love the way the New Living Translation puts it: "You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel."

• His mediation makes a way that we can come to God in the first place, and can keep our relationship with Him when we sin -- by having Jesus as our "Advocate" with the Father when we sin (1 John 2:1).

• He comes into the very presence of God on our behalf (Hebrews 9:24).

Doesn't all this make you want to say "THANK YOU!" over and over?

PRAYER: Dear Jesus Thank You for coming to earth and taking my death sentence so I can be right with God. Help me to never get blasé about this. Amen.

MORE: Our role as mediators

There is a passage in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 18:18-20) where Jeremiah reminds God about how he has acted as a mediator between God and the people to which he prophesied.

Can we similarly act as mediators between God and other people (of course I'm not talking of us being mediators in the way Jesus is)? One way I can think of is by praying for them. Can you think of other ways?