Lesson 82: Christ the Intercessor, part 1
Luke 22:32 - I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.
John 16:26 - In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf…
Hebrews 7:25 - …He always lives to make intercession…
All growth in the spiritual life is connected with the clearer insight into what Jesus is to us. The more I realize that Christ must be all to me and in me, that all in Christ is indeed for me, the more I learn to live the real life of faith – dying to self and living wholly in Christ. The Christian life is no longer the vain struggle to live right, but the resting in Christ and finding strength in Him as our life, to fight the fight and gain the victory of faith. This is especially true of the life of prayer. As it too comes under the law of faith alone, and is seen in the light of the fulness and completeness there is in Jesus; the believer understands that it need no longer be a matter of strain or anxious care, but an experience of what Christ will do for him and in him—a participation in that life of Christ which, as on earth, so in heaven, ever ascends to the Father as prayer.
And he begins to pray, not only trusting in the merits of Jesus, or in the intercession by which our unworthy prayers are made acceptable, but in that near and close union in virtue of which He prays in us and we in Him. The whole of salvation is Christ Himself: He has given HIMSELF to us; He Himself lives in us. Because He prays, we pray too. As the disciples, when they saw Jesus pray, asked Him to make them partakers of what He knew of prayer; so we, now as we see Him as intercessor on the throne, know that He makes us participate with Himself in the life of prayer.
How clearly this comes out in the last night of His life. In His high-priestly prayer (John 17), He shows us how and what He prays to the Father, and will pray when once ascended to heaven. And yet He had in His parting address so repeatedly also connected His going to the Father with their new life of prayer. The two would be ultimately connected: His entrance on the work of His eternal intercession would be the commencement and the power of their new prayer-life in His Name. It is the sight of Jesus in His intercession that gives us power to pray in His Name: all right and power of prayer is Christ’s; He makes us share in His intercession.
Prayer: Blessed Lord, in lowly adoration I would again bow before You. Your whole redemption work has now passed into prayer; all that now occupies You in maintaining and dispensing what You purchased with Your blood is only prayer. You ever live to pray. And because we are and abide in You, the direct access to the Father is always open; our life can be one of unceasing prayer, and the answer to our prayer is sure.