immutability of his counsel, (Heb 6:16-18), and that he is utterly
unchangeable in his resolutions ‘to save them to the uttermost that
come to God by Christ.’ And this also shows that this covenant, and so
the promise of remission of sins, is steadfast and unmovable. And it is
worth your noting the manner and nature of this oath, ‘The Lord sware,
and will not repent.’ It is as much as to say, What I have now sworn I
bind me for ever to stand to, or, I determine never to revoke; and that
is, ‘That thou art a priest for ever.’ Now, as was said before, since
his priesthood stands by covenant, and this covenant of his priesthood
is confirmed by this oath, it cannot be but that he that comes by him
to God must be accepted of him; for should such a one be rejected, it
must be either for the greatness of his sins, or for want of merit in
the sacrifice he presented and urged, as to the merit of it, before the
mercy-seat. But let the reason specified be what it will, the
consequence falls harder upon the sacrifice of Christ than it can do
anywhere else, and so also upon the covenant, and at last upon God
himself, who has sworn, and will not repent, that he is a Priest for
ever. I thus discourse, to show you what dangerous conclusions follow
from a conceit that some that come to God by Christ shall not be saved,
though ‘he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’ And this I have
further to say, that the Lord’s swearing, since the manner of the oath
is such as it is, and that it also tended to establish to Christ his
priesthood to be unchangeable, it declareth that, as to the excellency
of his sacrifice, he is eternally satisfied in the goodness and merit
of it; and that he will never deny him anything that he shall ask for
at his hands for his sufferings’ sake. For this oath doth not only show
God’s firm resolution to keep his part of the covenant, in giving to
Christ that which was covenanted for by him, but it declareth that, in
the judgment of God, Christ’s blood is able to save any sinner, and
that he will never put stop nor check to his intercession, how great
soever the sinners be that at any time he shall intercede for; so that
the demonstration is clearer and clearer, ‘He is able to save them to
the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them.’
Third, This unchangeableness of the priesthood of Christ dependeth also
upon his own life: ‘This man, because he continueth ever, hath an
unchangeable priesthood.’ (Heb 7:24) Now although, perhaps, at first
much may not appear in this text, yet the words that we are upon take
their ground from them. ‘This man, because he continueth ever, hath an
unchangeable priesthood: wherefore he is able also’—that is, by his
unchangeable priesthood—‘to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’
The life of Christ, then, is a ground of the lastingness of his
priesthood, and so a ground of the salvation of them that come unto God
by him: ‘We shall be saved by his life.’ (Rom 5:10) Wherefore, in
another place, this his life is spoken of with great emphasis—the power
of an endless life. ‘He is made [a priest], not after the law of a
carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.’ (Heb 7:16)
An endless life is, then, a powerful thing; and indeed two things are
very considerable in it—1. That it is above death, and so above him
that hath the power of death, the devil. 2. In that it capacitates him
to be the last in his own cause, and so to have the casting voice.
1. We will speak to the first, and for the better setting of it forth
we will show what life it is of which the apostle here speaks; and then
how, as to life, it comes to be so advantageous, both with respect to
his office of priesthood and us.
What life is it that is thus the ground of his priesthood? It is a life
taken, his own life rescued from the power of the grave; a life that we
had forfeited, he being our surety; and a life that he recovered again,
he being the Captain of our salvation: I lay down my life that I may
take it again: ‘this commandment have I received of my Father.’ (John
10:18) It is a life, then, that was once laid down as the price of
man’s redemption, and a life won, gained, taken, or recovered again, as
the token or true effect of the completing, by so dying, that
redemption; wherefore it is said again, ‘In that he died, he died unto
sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.’ (Rom 6:10) He
liveth as having pleased God by dying for our sins, as having merited
his life by dying for our sins. Now if this life of his is a life
merited and won by virtue of the death that he died, as Acts 2:24 doth
clearly manifest; and if this life is the ground of the
unchangeableness of this part of his priesthood, as we see it is, then
it follows that this second part of his priesthood, which is called
here intercession, is grounded upon the demonstrations of the virtue of
his sacrifice, which is his life taken to live again; so, then, he
holds this part of his priesthood, not by virtue of a carnal
commandment, but by the power of an endless life; but by the power of a
life rescued from death, and eternally exalted above all that any ways
would yet assault it; for ‘Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no
more; death hath no more dominion over him.’ (Rom 6:9) Hence Christ
brings in his life, the life that he won to himself by his death, to
comfort John withal when he fainted under the view of that overcoming
glory that he saw upon Christ in his vision of him at Patmos: ‘And he
laid his right hand upon me,’ said he, ‘saying unto me, Fear not; I am
the first and the last: I am he that liveth and was dead, and, behold,
I am alive for evermore. Amen.’ (Rev 1:17,18) Why should Christ bring
in his life to comfort John, if it was not a life advantageous to him?
But the advantageousness of it doth lie not merely in the being of
life, but in that it was a life laid down for his sins, and a life
taken up again for his justification; a life lost to ransom him, and a
life won to save him; as also the text affirmeth, saying, ‘He is able
to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him, seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them.’
Again; it is yet more manifest that Christ receiving of his life again
was the death and destruction of the enemy of his people; and to
manifest that it was so, therefore he adds (after he had said, ‘And,
behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen’), ‘And I have the keys of hell
and of death.’ I have the power over them; I have them under me; I
tread them down by being a victor, a conqueror, and one that has got
the dominion of life (for he now is the Prince of life), one that lives
for evermore. Amen. Hence it is said again, He ‘hath abolished death,
and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.’ (2 Tim
1:10) He hath abolished death by his death (by death he destroyed him
that had the power of death, that is, the devil), and brought life (a
very emphatical expression); and brought it from whence? From God, who
raised him from the dead; and brought it to light, to our view and
sight, by the word of the truth of the gospel.
So, then, the life that he now hath is a life once laid down as the
price of our redemption; a life obtained and taken to him again as the
effect of the merit that was in the laying down thereof; a life by the
virtue of which death, and sin, and the curse is overcome; and so a
life that is above them for ever. This is the life that he liveth—to
wit, this meriting, purchasing, victorious life—and that he improveth
while he ever so lives to make intercession for us.
This life, then, is a continual plea and argument with God for them
that come to him by Christ, should he make no other intercession, but
only show to God that he liveth; because his thus living saith, that he
has satisfied for the sins of them that come unto God by him. It
testifies, moreover, that those—to wit, death, the grave, and hell—are
overcome by him for them; because indeed he liveth, and hath their
keys. But now, add to life, to a life meritorious, intercession, or an
urging of this meritorious life by way of prayer for his, and against
all those that seek to destroy them, since they themselves also have
been already overcome by his death, and what an encouraging
consideration is here for all them that come to God by him, to hope for
life eternal. But,
2. Let us speak a word to the second head—namely, for that his living
for ever capacitates him to be the last in his own cause, and to have
the casting voice, and that is an advantage next to what is chiefest.
His cause; what is his cause? but that the death that he died when he
was in the world was and is of merit sufficient to secure all those
from hell, or, as the text has it, to save them that come unto God by
him, to save them to the uttermost. Now, if this cause be faulty, why
doth he live? yea, he liveth by the power of God, by the power of God
towards us; or with a respect to our welfare, for he liveth to make
intercession, intercession against Satan our accuser, for us. (2 Cor
13:4) Besides, he liveth before God, and to God, and that after he had
given his life a ransom for us. What can follow more clearly from this,
but that amends were made by him for those souls for whose sins he
suffered upon the tree? Wherefore, since his Father has given him his
life and favour, and that after he died for our sins, it cannot be
thought but that the life he now liveth, is a life that he received as
the effect of the merit of his passion for us.
God is just, and yet Christ liveth, and yet Christ liveth in heaven!
God is just, and yet Christ our passover liveth there, do what our foes
can to the contrary!
And this note, by the way, that though the design of Satan against us,
in his labouring continually to accuse us to God, and to prevail
against our salvation, seems to terminate here, yet indeed it is also
laid against the very life of Christ, and that his priesthood might be
utterly overthrown; and, in conclusion, that God also might be found
unjust in receiving of such whose sins have not been satisfied for, and
so whose souls are yet under the power of the devil. For he that
objects against him for whom Christ intercedes, objects against Christ
and his merits; and he that objects against Christ’s intercession,
objects against God, who has made him a priest for ever. Behold you,
therefore, how the cause of God, of Christ, and of the souls that come
to God by him are interwoven; they are all wrapt up in one bottom.
Mischief one, and you mischief all; overthrow that soul, and you
overthrow his intercessor; and overthrow him, and you overthrow even
him that made him a priest for ever. For the text is without
restriction: ‘He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto
God by him.’ He saith not, now and then one, or sinners of an inferior
rank in sin, but them that come to God by him, how great soever their
transgressions are, as is clear in that it addeth this clause, ‘to the
uttermost.’ ‘He is able to save them to the uttermost.’ But if he were
not, why did the King send, yea, come and loose him, and let him go
free; yea, admit him into his presence; yea, make him Lord over all his
people, and deliver all things into his hand?
But he liveth, he ever liveth, and is admitted to make intercession,
yea, is ordained of God so to do; therefore he is ‘able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto God by him.’ This, therefore, that he
liveth, seeing he liveth to God and his judgment, and in justice is
made so to do, it is chiefly with reference to his life as Mediator for
their sakes for whom he makes intercession. He liveth to make
intercession. And in that it is said he liveth ever, what is it but
that he must live, and outlive all his enemies; for he must live, yea,
reign, till all his enemies are put under his feet. (1 Cor 15:25) Yea,
his very intercessions must live till they are all dead and gone. For
the devil and sin must not live for ever, not for ever to accuse. Time
is coming when due course of law will have an end, and all cavillers
will be cast over the bar. But then and after that, Christ our high
priest shall live, and so shall his intercessions; yea, and also all
them for whom he makes intercession, seeing they come unto God by him.
Now if he lives, and outlives all, and if his intercession has the
casting voice, since also he pleadeth in his prayers a sufficient merit
before a just God, against a lying, malicious, clamorous, and envious
adversary, he must needs carry the cause, the cause for himself and his
people, to the glory of God and their salvation. So, then, his life and
intercession must prevail, there can be no withstanding of it. Is not
this, then, a demonstration clear as the sun, that they that come to
God by him shall be saved, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them?
Fourth, The duration of Christ’s intercession, as it is grounded upon a
covenant betwixt God and him, upon an oath also, and upon his life, so
it is grounded upon the validity of his merits. This has been
promiscuously touched before, but since it is an essential to the
lastingness of his intercession, it will be to the purpose to lay it
down by itself.
Intercession, then, I mean Christ’s intercession, is, that those for
whom he died with full intention to save them, might be brought into
that inheritance which he hath purchased for them. Now, then, his
intercession must, as to length and breadth, reach no further than his
merits, for he may not pray for those for whom he died not. Indeed, if
we take in the utmost extent of his death, then we must beware, for his
death is sufficient to save the whole world. But his intercessions are
kept within a narrower compass. The altar of burnt-offerings was a
great deal bigger than the altar of incense, which was a figure of
Christ’s intercession. (Exo 27:1, 30:1, Rev 8:3) But this, I say, his
intercession is for those for whom he died with full intention to save
them; wherefore it must be grounded upon the validity of his
sufferings. And, indeed, his intercession is nothing else, that I know
of, but a presenting of what he did in the world for us unto God, and
pressing the value of it for our salvation. The blood of sprinkling is
that which speaketh meritoriously, (Heb 12:24); it is by the value of
that that God measureth out and giveth unto us grace and life eternal;
wherefore Christ’s intercessions also must be ordered and governed by
merit; ‘By his own blood he entered into the holy place, having [before
by it] obtained eternal redemption for us,’ for our souls. (Heb 9:12)
Now, if by blood he entered in thither, by blood he must also make
intercession there. His blood made way for his entrance thither, his
blood must make way for our entrance thither. Though here, again, we
must beware; for his blood did make way for him as Priest to intercede;
his blood makes way for us, as for those redeemed by it, that we might
be saved. This, then, shows sufficiently the worth of the blood of
Christ, even his ever living to make intercession for us; for the merit
of his blood lasts all the while that he doth, and for all them for
whom he ever liveth to make intercession. Oh, precious blood! oh,
lasting merit!
Blood must be pleaded in Christ’s intercession, because of justice, and
to stop the mouth of the enemy, and also to encourage us to come to God
by him. Justice, since that is of the essence of God, must concur in
the salvation of the sinner; but how can that be, since it is said at
first, ‘In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,’ unless
a plenary16 satisfaction be made for sin to the pleasing of the mighty
God. The enemy also would else never let go his objecting against our
salvation. But now God has declared that our salvation is grounded on
justice, because merited by blood. And though God needed not to have
given his Son to die for us that he might save us, and stop the mouth
of the devil in so doing, yet this way of salvation has done both, and
so it is declared, we are ‘justified freely by his grace, through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past—to declare, I say, at this time
his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus.’ (Rom 3:24,25) So, then, here is also a
ground of intercession, even the blood shed for us before.
And that you may see it yet more for your comfort, God did, at Christ’s
resurrection, to show what a price he set upon his blood, bid him ask
of him the heathen, and he would give him the uttermost parts of the
earth for his possession. (Psa 2:8) His blood, then, has value enough
in it to ground intercession upon; yea, there is more worth in it than
Christ will plead or improve for men by way of intercession. I do not
at all doubt but that there is virtue enough in the blood of Christ,
would God Almighty so apply it, to save the souls of the whole world.
But it is the blood of Christ, his own blood; and he may do what he
will with his own. It is also the blood of God, and he also may
restrain its merits, or apply it as he sees good. But the coming soul,
he shall find and feel the virtue thereof, even the soul that comes to
God by Christ; for he is the man concerned in its worth, and he ever
liveth to make intercession for him. Now, seeing the intercession of
Christ is grounded upon a covenant, an oath, a life, and also upon the
validity of his merits, it must of necessity be prevalent, and so drive
down all opposition before it. This, therefore, is the last part of the
text, and that which demonstrateth that he that comes to God by Christ
shall be saved, seeing ‘he ever liveth to make intercession for him.’
I have now done what I intend upon this subject when I have drawn a few
inferences from this also.
[Inferences from the certainty of benefit from Christ’s Intercession.]
First, then, hence I infer that the souls saved by Christ are in
themselves in a most deplorable condition. Oh, what ado, as I may say,
is here before one sinner can be eternally saved! Christ must die; but
that is not all; the Spirit of grace must be given to us; but that is
not all;—but Christ must also ever live to make intercession for us.
And as he doth this for all, so he doth it for each one. He interceded
for me, before I was born, that I might in time, at the set time, come
into being. After that, he also made intercession for me, that I might
be kept from hell in the time of my unregenerate state, until the time
of my call and conversion. Yet again, he then intercedes that the work
now begun in my soul may be perfected, not only to the day of my
dissolution, but unto the day of Christ; that is, until he comes to
judgment. (Phil 1:6) So that, as he began to save me before I had
being, so he will go on to save me when
I am dead and gone, and will never leave off to save me until he has
set me before his face for ever.
But, I say, what a deplorable condition has our sin put us into, that
there must be all this ado to save us. Oh, how hardly is sin got out of
the soul when once it is in! Blood takes away the guilt; inherent grace
weakens the filth; but the grave is the place, at the mouth of which,
sin, as to the being of sin, and the saved, must have a perfect and
final parting. (Isa 38:10) Not that the grave of itself is of a
sin-purging quality, but God will follow Satan home to his own door;
for the grave is the door or gate of hell, and will there, where the
devil thought to have swallowed us up, even there by the power of his
mercy make us, at our coming thence, shine like the sun, and look like
angels. Christ, all this while, ever liveth to make intercession for
us.
Second, Hence, also, I infer that as Satan thought he struck home at
first, when he polluted our nature, and brought our souls to death, so
he is marvellous loath to lose us, and to suffer his lawful captives
now to escape his hands. He is full of fire against us, full of the
fire of malice, as is manifest—
1. Not only by his first attempt upon our first parents, but behold,
when the Deliverer came into the world, how he roared. He sought his
death while he was an infant; he hated him in his cradle; he persecuted
him while he was but a bud and blossom. (Matt 2) When he was come to
riper years, and began to manifest his glory, yet, lest the world
should be taken with him, how politicly did this old serpent, called
the Devil and Satan, work? He possessed people that he had a devil, and
was mad, and a deceiver; that he wrought his miracles by magic art and
by the devil; that the prophets spake nothing of him, and that he
sought to overthrow the government which was God’s ordinance. And, not
being contented with all this, he pursued him to the death, and could
never rest until he had spilt his blood upon the ground like water.
Yea, so insatiable was his malice, that he set the soldiers to forge
lies about him to the denial of his resurrection, and so managed that
matter that what they said has become a stumblingblock to the Jews to
this very day. (John 10:20, 7:12, Matt 9:34, John 7:52, Luke 23:2, Matt
28:11-15)
2. When he was ascended to God, and so was out of his reach, yet how
busily went he about to make war with his people. (Rev 12) Yea, what
horrors and terrors, what troubles and temptations, has God’s church
met with from that day till now! Nor is he content with persecutions
and general troubles; but oh! how doth he haunt the spirits of the
Christians with blasphemies and troubles, with darkness and frightful
fears; sometimes to their distraction, and often to the filling the
church with outcries.
3. Yet his malice is in the pursuit, and now his boldness will try what
it can do with God, either to tempt him to reject his Son’s mediation,
or to reject them that come to God by him for mercy. And this is one
cause among many why ‘he ever liveth to make intercession for them that
come to God by him.’
4. And if he cannot overthrow, if he knows he cannot overthrow them,
yet he cannot forbear but vex and perplex them, even as he did their
Lord, from the day of their conversion to the day of their ascension to
glory.
Third, Hence I infer that the love of Christ to his, is an unwearied
love, and it must needs be so; an undaunted love, and it must needs be
so. Who but Jesus Christ would have undertaken such a task as the
salvation of the sinner is, if Jesus Christ had passed us by? It is
true which is written of him, ‘He shall not fail, nor be discouraged,
till he have set judgment in the earth,’ &c. If he had not set his
‘face like a flint,’ the greatness of this work would surely have
daunted his mind. (Isa 42:1, 50:6-7)
For do but consider what sin is from which they must be saved; do but
consider what the devil and the curse is from which they must be saved;
and it will easily be concluded by you that it is he that full rightly
deserveth to have his name called Wonderful, and his love such as
verily passeth knowledge.
Consider, again, by what means these souls are saved, even with the
loss of his life, and, together with it, the loss of the light of his
Father’s face. I pass by here and forbear to speak of the matchless
contradiction of sinners which he endured against himself, which could
not but be a great grief, or, as himself doth word it, a breaking of
heart unto him; but all this did not, could not, hinder.
Join to all this, his everlasting intercession for us, and the
effectual management thereof with God for us; and, withal, the infinite
number of times that we by sin provoke him to spue us out of his mouth,
instead of interceding for us, and the many times also that his
intercession is repeated by the repeating of our faults, and this love
still passes knowledge, and is by us to be wondered at. What did, or
what doth, the Lord Jesus see in us to be at all this care, and pains,
and cost to save us? What will he get of us by the bargain but a small
pittance of thanks and love? for so it is, and ever will be, when
compared with his matchless and unspeakable love and kindness towards
us.
Oh, how unworthy are we of this love! How little do we think of it!
But, most of all, the angels may be astonished to see how little we are
affected with that of which we pretend to know. But neither can this
prevail with him to put us out of the scroll in which all the names of
them are written for whom he doth make intercession to God. Let us cry,
Grace, grace unto it.