Now, if by blood he entered there, by blood he must also make intercession there. His blood made way for his entrance there; his blood must make way for our entrance there. Though here again, we must beware; for his blood did make way for him as Priest to intercede; his blood makes way for us, as for those redeemed by it, that we might be saved. This, then, shows sufficiently the worth of the blood of Christ, even his ever living to make intercession for us; for the merit of his blood lasts all the while that he doth, and for all them for whom he ever lived to make intercession. Oh, precious blood! oh, lasting merit!
Blood must be pleaded in Christ’s intercession, because of justice, to stop the mouth of the enemy, and also to encourage us to come to God by him. Justice, since that is of the essence of God, must concur in the salvation of the sinner; but how can that be, since it is said at first, ‘In the day thou ate thereof, thou shalt surely die,’ unless a plenary satisfaction is made for sin to the pleasing of the mighty God. The enemy would also never let go of his opposition to our salvation. But now God has declared that our salvation is grounded in justice because it is merited by blood. And though God needed not to have given his Son to die for us that he might save us, and stop the mouth of the devil in so doing, yet this way of salvation has done both, and so it is declared, we are ‘justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past—to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.’ (Rom 3:24,25) So, then, here is also a ground of intercession, even the blood shed for us before.
And that you may see it yet more for your comfort, God did, at Christ’s resurrection, to show what a price he set upon his blood, bid him ask of him the heathen, and he would give him the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. (Psa 2:8) His blood, then, has value enough in it to ground intercession upon; yes, there is more worth in it than Christ will plead or improve for men by way of intercession. I do not at all doubt that there is virtue enough in the blood of Christ, would God Almighty so apply it, to save the souls of the whole world. But it is the blood of Christ, his own blood; and he may do what he will with his own. It is also the blood of God, and he may restrain its merits or apply it as he sees fit. But the coming soul, he shall find and feel the virtue thereof, even the soul that comes to God by Christ; for he is the man concerned in its worth, and he ever lived to make intercession for him. Now, seeing the intercession of Christ is grounded upon a covenant, an oath, a life, and also upon the validity of his merits, it must of necessity be prevalent, and so drive down all opposition before it. This, therefore, is the last part of the text, and that which demonstrates that he that comes to God by Christ shall be saved, seeing ‘he ever lived to make intercession for him.’
