Wherefore now I come to the fourth and last head, and that is, TO SHOW YOU THE CERTAINTY OF THEIR REAPING THE BENEFIT OF HIS INTERCESSION. ‘Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lived to make intercession for them.’
The certainty of their reaping the benefit of being saved that come unto God by Christ is thus expressed: ‘Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’ The intercession of Christ, and the lastingness of it, are sure tokens of the salvation of those who come unto God by him.
Of his intercession, what it is, and for whom, we have spoken already; of the success and prevalence of it, we have also spoken before; but the reason for its success of that we are to speak now. And that reason, as the apostle suggested, lies in the continuance of it, ‘Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession.’ The apostle also makes very much of the continuation of the priesthood of Christ in other places of this epistle: he abides a priest continually, ‘Thou art a priest forever.’ He ‘hath an unchangeable priesthood.’ (Heb 7:3,17,21,24) And here he ‘ever liveth to make intercession.’
Now, by the text is showed the reason why he so continually harpeth upon the durableness of it, namely, for that by the unchangeableness of this priesthood we are saved; nay, saved demonstratively, apparently; it is evident we are. ‘He is also able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’ For,
First, The durableness of his intercession proves that the covenant in which those who come to God by him are concerned and wrap up is not shaken, broken, or made invalid by all their weaknesses and infirmities.
Christ is a priest according to covenant, and in all his acts of mediation he has regard to that covenant; so long as that covenant abides in its strength, so long Christ’s intercession is of worth. Hence, when God cast the old high priest out of doors, he renders this reason for his so doing: ‘Because they continued not in my covenant’; that is, neither priests nor people. Therefore, they were cast out of the priesthood, and the people were pulled down as a church-state. (Heb 7:6-9) Now, the covenant by which Christ acts, as a priest, so far as we are concerned therein, he also himself acts our part, being, indeed, the Head and Mediator of the body; wherefore, God doth not count that the covenant is broken, though we sin if Christ Jesus our Lord is found to do by it what by law is required of us. Therefore he saith, ‘If his children break my law, and keep not my commandments, I will visit their sins with a rod,’ &c. But their sins shall not shake my covenant with my Beloved, nor cause that I forever should reject them. ‘My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. His seed will I make to endure forever, his seed shall endure forever.’ (Psa 89:30-36) Hence, it is clear that the covenant stands good to us as long as Christ stands good to God, or before his face; for he is not only our Mediator by covenant, but he is our conditions to God-ward; therefore he is said to be ‘a covenant of the people,’ or that which the holy God, by law, required of us. (Isa 42:6) Hence, again, he is said to be our justice or righteousness; to wit, which answereth to what is required of us by the law.
He is made unto us of God so, and in our room and in our stead presenteth himself to God. So, then, if any ask me by what Christ’s priesthood is continued, I answer, by covenant; for that the covenant by which he is made priest abideth of full force. If any ask whether the church is concerned in that covenant, I answer, yea; yet so as that all points and parts thereof, that concern life and death everlasting, is laid upon his shoulders, and he alone is the doer of it. He is the Lord our righteousness, and he is the Saviour of the body so that my sins break not the covenant; but them notwithstanding, God’s covenant stands fast with him, for evermore. And good reason, if no fault can be found with Christ, who is the person that did strike hands with his Father upon our account and for us; to wit, to do what was meet should be found upon us when we came to appear before God by him.
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