Christ’s great substitutionary work and His work in the new creation would be of no value if He didn’t take care of and protect this new creation by means of His present ministry.
JESUS’S RESURRECTION
Matthew 28:5–6 gives us the story of His resurrection, of the women coming to the sepulcher and seeing the angel who said, “Fear not ye; for I know that ye seek Jesus, who hath been crucified. He is not here; for he is risen, even as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”
He died as Jesus. He died as a Lamb. He arose the Lord High Priest.
John 20 gives another little picture of His resurrection. Mary had gone to the sepulcher and found the stone rolled away. In verses 12–13, we read,
And she beholdeth two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
Then she turned around and looked behind her:
And beholdeth Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turneth herself, and saith unto him in Hebrew, Rabboni; which is to say, Teacher. (verses 14–16)
She fell at His feet, but Jesus said, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father” (verse 17). He was saying, “I must first go to the Father and carry my blood in into the Holy of holies, which must be accepted by the Supreme Court of the universe as the red seal upon the document of your redemption.”
Hebrews 9:12–14 Nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
In Hebrews 2:17 Jesus is called the merciful and faithful High Priest in the things pertaining unto God in making propitiation for the sins of the people.
The first ministry at the right hand of the Father was to satisfy the claims of justice against humanity.
Romans 4:25 illustrates this: “Who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.”
He was not raised until we were justified. He was not raised until the Supreme Court of the universe was satisfied.
Now He takes His blood into the Holy of holies and puts His red seal upon that document.
JESUS’S MINISTRY AS SAVIOR
His next ministry is that of a Savior.
Acts 4:12: “And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.”
He is the sinner’s only Savior, but the sinner cannot reach God without a Mediator.
Hebrews 8:6: “But now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.”
This is taken with 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus.”
His substitutionary work would have been of no value to the unsaved man unless Christ had become the Mediator between the unsaved and the Father.
Job illustrates this in Job 9:33: “There is no umpire betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.”
Job recognized the need of a Mediator. The unsaved might cry to God for a thousand years, but if there is no Mediator, there would be no hope for them. No man can approach God except through the Mediator.
John 14:6: “I am the way [to the Father], and the truth [there is no reality outside of Him], and the life.” That life is eternal life, the nature of God. Here is His master sentence, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Man not only needs a Mediator, but after he becomes a Christian, he is living in a world dominated by Satan and needs an Intercessor, someone who will pray for him, whose prayers are always heard.
Hebrews 7:25: “Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
His ministry of intercession is little appreciated by the believer. In every temptation, in every trial, and at every hard place, Jesus ever lives to pray for us. That is the reason for our victory.
Paul says, in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me.” Strength comes through His intercession.
1 Peter 5:7: “Casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you.”
The Father’s love is manifest in the intercessory work of His Son. He is not only our High Priest, Savior, and Mediator, but whenever we sin and our fellowship is broken, we have someone at the right hand of the Father who ever remains faithful.
1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
When we lose our sense of righteousness, and the adversary has gained the ascendancy, then we make the confession of our sins and we cry for mercy. Jesus takes up our case.
He is the righteous One. He can stand for us. When we lose our sense of righteousness, He can restore us again to our fellowship.
Righteousness, you understand, is the ability to stand in the Father’s presence without a sense of guilt or inferiority. You understand that when a believer sins, he doesn’t lose his place as a son, but he loses his fellowship.
Jesus is our family lawyer. He ever lives to watch over those for whom He died and suffered. It is one of the most wonderful things in the world to me that we have a heavenly Lawyer.
Now you understand Hebrews 9:24. Write out this verse:
When the heart can remember that Jesus is there on our behalf, and that he loves us even as He loved us before He died for us, it can joyfully come with boldness. He loved us as sinners, but now we are His redeemed ones, members of His very body.
John 15:5: “I am the vine, ye are the branches.”
It is the Vine caring for the wounded branch. It is the Vine that depends to utterly upon the branch for the fruitage of the world. So, He is in the presence of the Father on our behalf now.
Now you can understand Hebrews 4:14–16 Having then a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need.
Can’t you see what it means to have a High Priest, a Mediator, an Intercessor, an Advocate, and a Lover in the highest seat of authority in the universe? He ever lives to make intercession for you.
Now He bids you to come boldly to the throne of grace. That means that you are to come into His presence with your needs. You are in the throne room, and the Father that loved you and gave His Son up for you is on the throne. The Man who loved you and gave Himself up for you is seated by His side, there to love you.
You come boldly now because they have made you a new creation. They have made you the righteousness of God in Christ. (See 2 Corinthians 5:21.) You are now His very righteousness because you are a partaker of the divine nature. You are a very son, a very daughter, and He is your own Father.
Can’t you see what it can mean to you to come into a throne room under such conditions? There is your Advocate. There is your Savior. There is your Lord on your side.
Can’t you hear Him say, “How will He not with Him freely give you all things?” (See Romans 8:32.)
Romans 8:31: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”
Your heart becomes quiet. You look up into His face and whisper your request. You know it is going to be granted. How your heart thrills with joy. You are making your request with thanksgiving because it is your Father who is on the throne.
It is your Lord who is seated by His side. With that fearless confidence you make your requests—those requests that are coming in continually from men and women with sick loved ones you take with fearlessness into your Father’s presence.
There is no sense of unworthiness. You become His righteousness. Jesus is your Sponsor. You have a legal right to stand in His presence without a sense of guilt or inferiority if you are His. (See Hebrews 4:16.)
This is His throne room. You are one of His own family.
Now you can understand what it means to hold fast your confession. The old version gives it “profession” but the new version is better. We hold fast our confession. Your confession has been of your position in Christ, of your legal rights as a child of God, of what He is to you now as a Father, and of what Jesus is as Savior, High Priest, and Advocate. You have dared to confess that you are more than a conqueror. You have said boldly now, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:37).
You have known Romans 8:33–35: “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Then the Spirit triumphantly cries: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” There can’t be anything. Satan has no ability to do it. Circumstances can’t do it; sin can’t do it because we have our own Advocate, we have our own Savior, our own Intercessor. We are more than conquerors.
But I want you to turn with me to Hebrews 7:21–22. After he has been discussing the fact of the disannulling of the old covenant and the establishing of the new covenant, he says this about Jesus: “Thou art a priest forever; by so much also hath Jesus become the surety of a better covenant.”
You see, here is the secret of faith. Jesus is the Surety of every word from Matthew 1 to Revelation 22.
Here is where the heart rests with a quiet sense of security. Jesus is the Surety, the Guarantor of every word. If any Scripture should go by default, Jesus becomes responsible. He said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
We are in the presence of absolute faithfulness. The integrity of the Scripture is based upon the throne, and the throne upon the very heart and life of the Father and the Son.
If the Word can be broken, the throne can be overturned. That cannot be. “No word from God is void of power [or fulfillment]” (Luke 1:27).
Isaiah 55:11: “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
Jeremiah 1:12: “For I watch over my word to perform it.”
The word of the angel to Mary in Luke 1:37 verifies this: “For no word from God shall be void of power.” There isn’t anything that can void (make of none effect, or rob of its verity or strength) this living Word.
You are depending on that Word. Jesus and Word are one. “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). Jesus was that Word. The universe has been brought into being by the Word of God. That is the Word that we are depending on.
You see, when you are talking about the Word you are talking about the foundation of the throne of God, the throne by which Jesus is seated.
Jesus is the Surety of that throne, but I want you to go beyond that, and notice that Jesus is not only all that I have told you, but He is our Lord.
Notice this wonderful sentence in 1 Corinthians 1:2: “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, even them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their Lord and ours.”
We can say, “Their Lord and mine.” “He is my Lord. The one who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (See Galatians 2:20.)
Now notice this: He is my Lord here on earth in His relationship to the body, but He is my Head in heaven.
Ephesians 1:22: “And he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church.”
He is our heavenly Head, and the church is His body, “the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (verse 23).
Colossians 1:18: “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”
He is my heavenly Head. I am a part of His body. He loves me.
HOW MUCH DO YOU REMEMBER?
- What provision has God made for the care and protection of the new creation?
- Explain Hebrews 2:17.
- Why was it necessary for Christ to become Mediator?
- What is the ministry of Christ as Mediator?
- What does Hebrews 7:25 reveal?
- Explain what having an Advocate can mean to the believer.
- Explain Isaiah 55:11.
- Tell what Jesus, the Surety, means.
- Explain 1 Corinthians 1:2.
- In His relationship to the body, what is Jesus here on earth? In heaven?