When he saith he can save, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession, he addeth saving to
saving; saving by his life to saving by his death; saving by his improving of
his blood to saving by his spilling of his blood. He gave himself a ransom for
us, and now improves that gift in the presence of God by way of intercession.
For, as I have hinted already, the high priests under the law took the blood of
the sacrifices that were offered for sin, and brought it within the veil, and
there sprinkled it before and upon the mercy seat, and by it made intercession
for the people to an additional way of saving them; the sum of which Paul thus
applies to Christ when he saith, 'He can save, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession.'
That also in the
Romans is clear to this purpose, 'Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that
died.' (Rom 8:31-39) That is, who is he that shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect to condemnation to hell since Christ has taken away the curse
by his death from before God? Then he adds, that there is nothing that shall
yet happen to us, that shall destroy us since Christ also liveth to make
intercession for us. 'Who shall condemn? It is Christ that died; yea, rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us.'
Christ, then, by his
death saveth us as we are sinners, enemies, and in a state of condemnation by
sin; and Christ by his life saveth us as considered justified, and reconciled
to God by his blood. So, then, we have salvation from that condemnation that sin
had brought us unto, and salvation from those ruins that all the enemies of our
souls would yet bring us unto, but cannot; for the intercession of Christ
preventeth. 4 (Rom 6:7-10)
Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. Whatever the law can take hold of to curse us
for, Christ has redeemed us from, by being made a curse for us. But this
curse that Christ was made for us, must be confined to his sufferings, not to his
exaltation, and, consequently, not to his intercession, for Christ is made no
curse but when he suffered; not in his intercession: so then, as he died he
took away the curse, and sin that was the cause thereof, by the sacrifice of
himself, (Gal 3:13), and by his life, his intercession, he saveth us from all
those things that attempt to bring us into that condemnation again.
The salvation, then,
that we have by the intercession of Christ, as was said—I speak now of them capable of receiving comfort and relief by this doctrine—is salvation that follows upon, or comes after justification. We that are saved as to
justification of life, need yet to be saved with that preserveth to glory;
for though by the death of Christ we are saved from the curse of the law, yet
attempts are made by many that we may be kept from the glory that justified
persons are designed for. From these, we are saved by his intercession.
A man, then, that
must be eternally saved is to be considered, (a.) As an heir of wrath. (b.) As
an heir of God. An heir of wrath he is in himself by sin; an heir of God he is
by grace through Christ. (Eph 2:3, Gal 4:7) Now, as an heir of wrath he is redeemed,
and as an heir of God he is preserved; as an heir of wrath he is redeemed by
blood, and as an heir of God, he is preserved by this intercession. Christ by
his death, then, puts me, I being reconciled to God thereby, into a justified
state, and God accepts me to grace and favor through him. But this doth not
hinder but that, all this notwithstanding, there are, that would frustrate me of
the end to which I am designed by this reconciliation to God, by redemption
through grace; and from the accomplishing of this design I am saved by the
blessed intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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