Jesus’ great substitutionary work on the cross 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 But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
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 speculator and found the stone rolled away.
12 And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13 Then they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
14 Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”
She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.”16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher).
17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ ”
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 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Hebrews 2: 17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
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 because of our offenses and was raised because of 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
Acts 4: 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which 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 He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
This is taken with 1 Timothy 2: 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.
His substitutionary work would have been of no value to the unsaved person unless Christ had become the Mediator between the unsaved and the Father.
Job illustrates this in Job 9: 33 Nor is there any mediator between us,
Who may lay his hand on 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 person 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 most important sentence, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Mankind not only needs a Mediator, but after they become a Christian, they are living in a world dominated by Satan and need an Intercessor, someone who will pray for them, whose prayers are always heard.
Hebrews 7: 25 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.
His ministry of intercession most believers are never taught about, so it is not 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 through Christ who strengthens me.
Strength comes through His intercession.
1 Peter 5: 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares 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 agree with God concerning our sin, that we need cleansing of our sins and we ask 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, they do not lose their place as a male or female son, but they lose their fellowship, we are now incompatible with him, he cannot fellowship with unrighteousness.
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 for us to have a heavenly Lawyer.
Hebrews 9: 24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.
When we can remember that Jesus is there on our behalf, and that he loves us even as He loved us before He died for us, we 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, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
It is the Vine caring for the wounded branch. It is the Vine that depends upon the branch for the fruitage displayed for the world. So, he is in the presence of the Father on our behalf now.
Hebrews 4: 14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We need to understand 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 us.
We need to continually come boldly to the throne of grace, because mercy and grace are conditional upon our coming to the throne of Grace. That is what it says in the Greek.
We are not talking about cheap grace here, it cost Jesus a suffering we can never imagine or understand, He just wants us to agree with him that sin is such a serious matter, that we will lose our inheritance if we do not receive mercy and find the grace to overcome it.
Sure, it is great to die and go to heaven. But we want to inherit the family business, which is the kingdom, to rule and reign as his bride. If we cannot govern our soul and body, we lose our reward of rulership.
So, if you sin or are a slave of a certain sin, agree with God, that you are powerless in yourself to overcome it, and you need his grace (his empowering presence) or else you will live a miserable life here on earth, and miss out on the abundant life here on earth. And then when you die you will be saved, yet so as through fire and suffer loss, no reward.
We are to come into His presence with our needs. You come into 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 and help you.
You come boldly now because they have made you a new creation. They have made you the righteousness of God in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5: 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
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 you see what it means 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 YHWH say, “How will He not with Him freely give you all things?”
Romans 8: 32 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?
Romans 8: 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Your heart becomes quiet. You look up into His face and make your request. You know it is going to be granted. You are making your request with thanksgiving because it is your Father who is on the throne.
You also make requests for others.
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 Advocate. You have a legal right to stand in His presence without a sense of guilt or inferiority if you are His.
Hebrews 4: 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
This is His throne room. You are one of His own family.
This is why you must hold fast your confession.
Your confession is 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 confess that you are more than a conqueror.
Romans 8: 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Romans 8: 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 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. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
The word says “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.
Hebrews 7: 21 (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: “The Lord has sworn And will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek’ ”), 22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.
After disannulling the old covenant and the establishing of the new covenant, YHWH 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. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). That is talking about the Old Covenant, but that is another and deeper subject.
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 goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which 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 no effect) 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.
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?