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22; that the services of the people of God may be accepted, I Pet. 2:5; and that they may at last
enter upon their perfect inheritance in heaven, John 17:24.
D. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS INTERCESSION.
There are especially three characteristics of the intercessory work of Christ, to which attention
should be directed:
1. THE CONSTANCY OF HIS INTERCESSION.
We need not only a Saviour who has completed an
objective work for us in the past, but also one who is daily engaged in securing for His own the
subjective application of the fruits of the accomplished sacrifice, Tens of thousands of people
call for His attention at once, and a moment’s intermission would prove fatal to their interests.
Therefore He is always on the alert. He is alive to all their wants, and none of their prayers
escape Him.
2. THE AUTHORITATIVE CHARACTER OF HIS INTERCESSION.
It is not altogether correct to
represent Him as a suppliant at the throne of God, begging favors of His Father for His people.
His prayer is not the petition of the creature to the Creator, but the request of the Son to the
Father. “The consciousness of His equal dignity, of His potent and prevailing intercession,
speaks out in this, that as often as He asks, or declares that He will ask, anything of the Father,
it is always eroto, eroteso, an asking, that is, as upon equal terms (John 14:16; 16:26;
17:9,15,20), never aiteo or aiteso.”[Trench, New Testament Synonyms, p. 136.] Christ stands
before the Father as an authorized intercessor, and as one who can present legal claims. He can
say: “Father, I desire that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am,” John
17:24.
3. THE EFFICACY OF HIS INTERCESSION.
The intercessory prayer of Christ is a prayer that never
fails. At the grave of Lazarus the Lord expressed the assurance that the Father always hears
Him, John 11:42. His intercessory prayers for His people are based on His atoning work; He has
merited all that He asks, and therein lies the assurance that those prayers are effective. They
will accomplish all that He desires. The people of God may derive comfort from the fact that
they have such a prevailing intercessor with the Father.
VIII. The Kingly Office
As the Second Person in the Holy Trinity, the eternal Son, Christ naturally shares the dominion
of God over all His creatures. His throne is established in the heavens and His Kingdom ruleth
over all, Ps. 103:19. This kingship differs from the mediatorial kingship of Christ, which is a
conferred and economical kingship, exercised by Christ, not merely in His divine nature, but as
Theanthropos (the God-man). The latter is not a kingship that was Christ’s by original right, but