Intercession

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. 

Isaiah 53:12 

Christ is our High Priest. The work of the High Priest is to intercede on behalf of the people. All the other high priests of the ancient order in Israel went in to the Holy of Holies, where the ark of the covenant was, to intercede for the people on the Day of Atonement. On that day he took a bowl of sacrificial blood to perform his intercession. Christ has made a greater and more permanent intercession. Hebrews speaks of this at length. The summary of Christ’s work is ‘For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another – He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.’ This shows us how Christ has interceded for breakers of the law of God. He is the perfect High Priest offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice, ‘the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world.’ Thus, He makes intercession for the transgressors. This is why we do not continue with priests and sacrifices. Christ has interceded once for all. He has, by His sacrifice, put away sin. Therefore, we look to Christ for everything. We preach Christ and Him crucified as the answer to our own sin problems and to the sin problems of everyone else. There is no other answer. Christ has done the work. He has succeeded in all He has attempted. Christ is the answer.  

Our Gracious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You are our Great High Priest. 
We praise You that Your sacrifice is once for all. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning