Westminster Larger Catechism # 55
Commentary by Dr. Chuck Baynard
Q55. How does Christ make intercession?
Answer: Christ maketh intercession by his appearing in our nature continually before
the Father in heaven, in the merit of his obedience and sacrifice on earth, declaring his
will to have it applied to all believers, answering all accusations against them, and
procuring for them quiet of conscience, notwithstanding daily failings, access with
boldness to the throne of grace, and acceptance of their persons and services.
References: Heb. 9:12,24; Heb. 1:3; John 3:16; John 17:9,20,24; Rom. 8:33-34; Rom.
5:1-2; Heb. 4:16; Eph. 1:6; 1 Pet. 2:5.
To begin with, "...by his appearing in our nature continually before the
Father..." is in my opinion the heart of the whole matter. Not that God needs such a
memory device, but having the essential essence of human nature restored and before Him
can but bring glory to God and be a sweet smell in His nostrils. Here in Christ the
God-man, now exalted above all creation, the first fruit of God’s eternal plan of
salvation for the elect have been made manifest.
The first and only "man" to have merited the exaltation by remaining sinless
and in perfect obedience to God the Father; Jesus Christ fully man, yet fully God. The
restoration completed, the nature of man, united to God for all eternity. The prefect
sacrifice accepted by God, the proof of its acceptance being in the return to the glory He
had known from eternity. Now, through Him alone, the ("services") sacrifices of
man are made acceptable to God. I believe these sacrifices are more in the order of
"praise and worship" than of earthly deeds. The elect will stand one day to be
"judged" (rewarded) according to what they have done while in the flesh. This I
believe refers to the other activities (charities) in this life. The ultimate sacrifice
before God has always been the willing heart, laid on His altar. Accordingly Christ said
the first commandment was "Thou shalt love the lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" (Mt. 22:37). And accordingly Paul wrote
"...that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which
is your reasonable service. (Rom. 12:1). Nonetheless, without the perfect sacrifice of
Christ as the first fruit, eternally exalted and at the right hand of God, neither could
be acceptable to God. In this context I believe we also see the fullness of the answer to
the first question and answer of the catechism. We glorify God in worship and praise, we
enjoy Him when we learn to sacrifice all to Him.
This eternal plan of God manifested as His own will in the great prayer of John 17, is
then set before us as an example in the acceptance of Christ being united with the nature
of man. We need to understand here the fullness of God in three persons. Where one is, so
is the fullness of the Godhead. Thus we can say that Christ is God in this sense, but
should be extremely careful we do not co-mingle the personalities and works of the
individual persons of the Godhead. Thus the promises of Scripture take on more depth and
meaning, and we can claim them as our own in Christ with a holy boldness that denies the
apparent circumstances of this temporal life. The Divines in a way present this concept as
they continue in this statement with what Christ’s intercession procures for the
believer (present tense!).
How often do we stop to consider that this fantastic plan of God’s has a present
tense as well as eternal promises? Our Lord said "And every one that hath forsaken
houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for
my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
(Mt. 19:29). Here we see then the same concept of a present reward, as well as an eternal
one. This is clearer in Mark’s Gospel where we read in a parallel passage, "But
he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time..." (Mark 10:30).
God spoke through one last prophet to the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, and
then for 400 years heaven was silent, and the chosen people wandered as slaves in strange
lands. Malachi clearly teaches that this period of silence was brought on largely by the
people dishonoring God in holding back the tithe and presenting polluted offerings. They
held to a formal religion, but the giving of themselves as living sacrifices was not
present, their hearts were not upon God. Through this prophet God calls the people to task
for this and their adultery, He calls for repentance of the people and especially the
priests. Because they do not, God withholds His blessing for four hundred years. That
repentance of Israel at this point would have brought blessing and perhaps an earlier
giving of the Messiah returns us to Genesis and God’s conversation with Cain, where
God asks if it isn’t so that if Cain does good, God will bless, and if not God will
curse him. Some have problems with such statements carrying predestination to an extreme I
do not think Scripture supports. That God knew they would not, and had already made plans
for the Birth of Christ at the exact moment in history it came, is foreknowledge and not
to be confused with predestination or foreordained. We see God is planning the events in
history that lead to the birth of Christ in the conversation of Daniel and the Angel where
the spiritual warfare in the heavens is revealed, in preparation for earthly events.
Nonetheless, if the condition was met, as with Nineveh, God would honor it. His perfection
demands nothing less.
That said, I believe that when we as individuals will grasp this truth, our personal
joy in this life will increase tremendously. I believe that much of the misery of the
present world could be averted. With this fact of the "power" given into the
hands of the obedient servant our prayer life would increase dramatically and though the
curse itself would not be lifted until the coming of Christ, the world could approach such
perfection. We see just a hint of this truth in James chapter five where we find the
curious expression concerning the healing of the sick, that sin will be forgiven, not
because of the action of the sinner as such, but by God in response to the fervent prayer
of the righteous man. Who is this righteous man? I submit it is the one who has overcome
the world and presented his life as a living sacrifice to God, Whom in seeing the Son and
the nature of man constantly before His throne will even forgive the sins of another
because of the prayer of one conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. Sinless?
Absolutely not. Forgiven moment by moment because Jesus Christ makes intercession moment
by moment.
It is in this sense of the perfect submission to God and becoming this living sacrifice
that "predestination" does not interfere with the "free will" of the
created. We will deal with this in more detail in future questions dealing with
Christ’s mediation and the covenant of grace (57-59).
Dr. Chuck Baynard -- May 1998
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