Our Advocate

There were essential qualifications required before the man, Christ Jesus, could enter into the Throne Room of Glory and plead the sinner's cause in the Halls of eternal Holiness. The High Priest in Israel dare not cross the threshold of the Holy of Holies, in the innermost courts of the Temple, until he fulfilled the necessary requirements, and then he could only enter in once in the year. "But Christ, being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."

The Lord Jesus Christ, to be our Great High Priest, "must be taken from among men." He must possess our nature, and so be related to those for whose welfare He intercedes in the Courts of Holiness. At Bethlehem, 2,000 years ago, He fulfilled that condition. He veiled His glory which He shared in equality with the Father and the Holy Spirit, in human nature and became the Babe of Bethlehem. The hosts of heaven proclaimed that the Son of God had completely fulfilled that condition, when they said to the shepherds "For unto you is born this day, in the City of David, a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord."

The ordination of our Great High Priest is also a necessary qualification; He must be ordained of God. Concerning Christ's ordination the Apostle said: "And inasmuch as not without an oath He was made Priest: (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by Him that said unto Him, The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedek.)" Not after the order of Aaron but Melchisedek, that servant of God of whom we catch a glimpse in the days of Abraham, whom Abraham, the father of the faithful, acknowledged as a priest of the Most High God. Melchisedek was more highly favoured and greater than Abraham, for the Apostle said, "And without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the greater." Melchisedek blessed Abraham when he returned from the battle of the kings.

Thus the Lord Jesus Christ was taken from among men, and is ordained an High Priest for men. He takes the office for men, and He will take action for them, and His action or work will be complete and effectual. For though He was taken from among men, He is the Lord from Heaven and His work is perfect. The purpose of the priesthood was to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin; so Christ offered Himself a sacrifice for sin. It was the will of God that He should do so. The Lord Jesus Christ delighted to do the will of the Father; as it is written, "Behold, I come, to do thy will, O Lord." No one could use force or compel Him to pass through the vestibule of hell and give his life on the Cross of Calvary. The content of suffering symbolized by the Cross is summed up by Dr. Hugh Martin when he says: "Earth and hell and heaven, earth's rulers and her rabble, her kings and priests and soldiers and malefactors assailed Him; her Jews and Gentiles; her dumb creatures even; earth's curse embodied in her thorns, in mockery and pain crowned Him; hell's utmost force and fury gathered up against Him, earth and hell and heaven thus in conspiring action against Him, unto the utmost of heaven's extremest justice, and earth and hell's extremest injustice." The Glory of the Cross is this; that such action conspiring to subdue and crush Him in utter defeat was frustrated. His love for wretched sinners, His immovable strength and power outlasted and outlived them all. Christ did not die subdued or defeated. He did not die, till He gave himself up in death.

It would have been a simple matter for Christ to have come down from the Cross when they mocked Him and called upon Him to come down. His incomparable greatness and strength is revealed in His refusal to come down. It was His Father's will that He should stay there, and it was Christ's choice to do the will of His Father and exhaust the penalty against all unrighteousness. "Let heaven's justice and earth's injustice do their worst." He would not be moved or shaken in the fulfilment of the necessary qualifications to enter into the Holy Place not made with hands. He remained on the Cross not because of Pilate, or the High Priest, or the hostile crowds; but because He willed it so. He is our Great High Priest, readily and willingly making Himself an offering for sin. Nothing could keep Christ on the Cross, save His own will to remain there. This is the Glory of the Cross that He magnified the law and made it honourable, He delivered Himself for us, an offering and sacrifice. No man taketh His life from Him. He laid it down of Himself, by His own act and by His own will, and when the storm clouds charged with divine vengeance had been exhausted, the serpent's head was crushed beneath His heel. The price was paid, the debt wiped out, the work finished. "It is finished." Then, and not till then, did He choose to dismiss His spirit, saying, "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit."

On the third day Christ rose from the dead. He had said, "I lay down my life that I might take it up again." The same power by which He laid down His life, He now exercises to take it up again. He is now ascended into heaven, and passed into the Courts of Holiness, illuminated by the Glory of Light inaccessible. He has entered in as our Advocate. He is our High Priest by the supreme authority of the Godhead. He has carried our nature to the very Throne of God. And it is before the Throne that He gives expression to His own will: "I will that those whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am." The Father will not refuse the Son. When Christ was on the earth God broke the silence of heaven to speak to men, saying: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And in heaven He saith: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, the sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." If we are to enjoy the favours of God and eternal life, it is only through Christ that we can receive them. Christ's sacrifice is the only sacrifice that the Father will accept, and Christ alone has been appointed by the supreme authority of the Godhead to be the Great High Priest and Advocate for the household of faith. "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me," said Christ.

The great commission that Christ has given unto His disciples in all ages is; "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel." This is the condition of Salvation: "He who will confess me before men, him also will I confess before my Father which is in heaven." Who can accuse us when Christ is our Advocate? All the charges that earth and hell and heaven could bring against us were fully met on Calvary's Cross. The wrath of God against all unrighteousness was poured out upon Him. "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God the Father, who maketh intercession for us."