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through their word will believe in Him. It is a consoling thought that Christ is praying for us,
even when we are negligent in our prayer life; that He is presenting to the Father those spiritual
needs which were not present to our minds and which we often neglect to include in our
prayers; and that He prays for our protection against the dangers of which we are not even
conscious, and against the enemies which threaten us, though we do not notice it. He is praying
that our faith may not cease, and that we may come out victoriously in the end.
C. THE PERSONS FOR WHOM AND THE THINGS FOR WHICH HE INTERCEDES.
1. THE PERSONS FOR WHOM HE INTERCEDES.
The intercessory work is, as has been said,
simply the complement of His redemptive priestly work, and is therefore equal to it in extent.
Christ intercedes for all those for whom He has made atonement, and for those only. This may
be inferred from the limited character of the atonement, and also from such passages as Rom.
8:34; Heb. 7:25; 9:24, in every one of which the word “us” refers to believers. Moreover, in the
high priestly prayer, recorded in John 17, Jesus tells us that He prays for His immediate disciples
and “for them also that believe on me through their word,” John 17:9, 20. In the 9th verse He
makes a very explicit statement respecting the limitation of His high priestly prayer: “I pray for
them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me.” And from the 20th
verse we can learn that He does not intercede for present believers only, but for all the elect,
whether they are already believers, or will believe some time in the future. The intercessor is
mindful of each one of those that are given unto Him, Luke 21:32; Rev. 3:5. Lutherans
distinguish between a general intercession of Christ for all men, and a special intercession for
the elect only. For proof they appeal to Luke 23:34, which contains Christ’s prayer for His
enemies, but that prayer need not be considered as a part of the official intercessory work of
Christ. Dabney believes that it was, and that the objects of this prayer were later on converted.
But it is also possible that this prayer was simply a prayer such as Christ taught all his followers
to pray for their enemies, a prayer to ward off an immediate and terrible punishment for the
enormous crime committed. Cf. Matt. 5:44.
2. THE THINGS FOR WHICH CHRIST INTERCEDES.
Christ has a great deal to pray for in His
intercessory prayer. We can only give a brief indication of some of the things for which He
prays. He prays that the elect who have not yet come to Him may be brought into a state of
grace; that those who have already come may receive pardon for their daily sins, that is, may
experience the continued application to them of the fruits of justification; that believers may be
kept from the accusations and temptations of Satan; that the saints may be progressively
sanctified, John 17:17; that their intercourse with heaven may be kept up, Heb. 4:14, 16; 10:21,