Eifion E. Evans
10
THE PURITAN CONCEPT
OF DIVINE INTERCESSION
Eifion E. Evans
Through the tender mercy and loving kindness of God our Savior, His elect, in times of fearful declension and deadly lassitude, have not been left without a divine cordial of the most stimulating kind, prepared in the divine purpose, according to the terms of His gracious covenant, and providing the sweetest comfort, encouragement, and consolation. For those of His oppressed and despairing ones in Egypt He prepared a deliverer of divine appointment and a deliverance beyond human imagination. The mere sighs, cries, and groans of His people drawn from them by reason of the excessive yoke of insufferable bondage, coming up unto God, brought His covenant into remembrance and His power into operation. When opposition, persecution, or accusation is arraigned against them, though with considerable show of force, malice, and hatred, all will come to nought through the cancelling and overcoming quality of God’s provision. Thus, though Satan himself should stand at the right hand of Joshua the high priest, vigorously resisting and defiantly accusing God’s anointed servant, and though his garments are filthy and defiled, yet is Satan the loser and Joshua the better by it, for God, who has chosen Jerusalem has undertaken the rebuke of His enemy and the protection of His people. Whence comes this timely intervention, and what office has God inaugurated in the eternal counsel to manage such vital affairs? The answer must be—through the gracious, compassionate, and effective intercession of His own beloved Son, Jesus Christ!
For such times as ours, then, few considerations are more necessary, few truths more invigorating, than those of the intercession of Christ and of His Spirit.
Among Christians, there seems to be a prevalent and widespread ignorance concerning these valuable doctrines. The sad consequences of this lack of knowledge are to be felt in many aspects of the Christian’s spiritual experience, but particularly is this true in the realm of prayer. For herein lie those motives which move us to fervency, boldness, and confidence, and they, in their turn are tokens of blessing and an earnest of success in prayer. A serious investigation of the subject should therefore prove to be most timely and beneficial. Nor are we alone in recognizing its importance. Oliver Heywood’s estimate, in Puritan days, was not extravagant.
The subject is exceedingly necessary; our persons and our prayers would be lost, had we no intercessor. . . . This is a high privilege, a doctrine worth studying, for next to Christ’s satisfaction upon the cross, a Christian’s safety lies in Christ’s intercession.1
What Heywood says of Christ’s intercession, John Bunyan says, in effect, of Christ’s advocacy.
I fear the excellency of that doth still too much lie hid; though I am verily of the opinion that the people of God in this age have as much need of the knowledge thereof, if not more need, than had their brethren that are gone before them. These words, “if not more need,” perhaps may seem to some to be somewhat out of joint; but let the godly wise consider the decays that are among us as to the power of godliness, and what abundance of foul miscarriages the generality of professors now stand guilty of, as also how diligent their great enemy is to accuse them at the bar of God . . . and I think they will conclude, that, in so saying, I indeed have said some truth.2
The greatness of the subject’s importance is paralleled only by the wideness of its scope, for who can plumb the depths or measure the heights of Christ’s love in His intercession for sinners? Are the expanses of sin to which we have sunk vast? So are the pleadings of Christ for us comprehensive. Are there countless, grave, overwhelming hindrances which prevent our access to God and communion with Him? Then take note of the majesty of the Person, the sufficiency of the sacrifice, and the prevalency of the intercession of our great High Priest to remove these obstacles and guarantee not only entrance, but welcome, to the presence of the Most High!
From an honest enquiry into the nature of God and the state of man the evidence is conclusive that there is need for a Mediator. God’s majesty and holiness is separated infinitely from man’s creatureliness and sinfulness. It was to undertake the bridging of this gulf that the Son of God was delegated in the eternal purpose, to the office of High Priest with the authority, gravity, and finality of the divine oath. It was to accomplish the same that He appeared once on earth to bear our sins, and that He ascended into heaven to appear before God, to exhibit His perfect sacrifice, and to intimate His gracious will. Not only so, but, in His capacity of Advocate, He opposes and annuls the monstrous rage and fierce accusation of Satan against those whom the Father has given Him. Furthermore, so that their link with heaven may be preserved intact and guaranteed effective, He has sent His Spirit to determine and direct their heavenly traffic, and to manage those affairs on earth which He works in heaven. Thus have believers a dual comfort: for Christ appears on their behalf above, and the Spirit dwells, on Christ’s behalf, within.
There are, then, three main things to consider in our examination of the Puritan understanding and statement of intercession. First, Christ’s intercession in heaven; second, Christ’s advocacy against Satan; and third, the Spirit’s intercession in the believer. The Puritans determined their doctrines from scriptural rather than from philosophical or rational considerations. They surveyed them in the light of Reformed principles, and expressed them, with the aid of logic and method, in a clearly defined and typical manner. From the Scripture text they distilled the doctrine, adduced reasons in support thereof, and finally applied the teaching by way of exhortation. The texts principally expounded, to a lesser degree (comparatively) in commentaries, and to a greater degree in sermons or treatises, in respect of the concept of intercession were: Isaiah 53:12; Zechariah 3:2; Romans 8:26, 34; Hebrews 7:25 and 9:24; and 1 John 2:1–2.
Christ’s Intercession in Heaven
Christ’s intercession in heaven is a direct correlate of His atonement on earth, and the Puritans thought of it in this way. His present activity in heaven is declared to be an essential counterpart of His substitutionary sacrifice on the cross, and is correlative to it, just as “father” is to “son,” or “creation” to “providence.” Intercession is complementary to atonement and founded upon it, as Oliver Heywood states in his Treatise on Christ’s Intercession.
Thus doth our blessed Jesus step up to be arbitrator, mediator, and referee betwixt God and sinners. This is the case; God and man are at variance in consequence of Adam’s apostacy. . . . How must these be made friends? Infinite love and wisdom have found out an expedient that is sufficient to effect it, even the second person of the Trinity, assuming the nature of man, and interposing two ways:—(1) By suffering the penalty that man had deserved, and satisfying justice by his meritorious oblation of himself . . . and thus he hath reconciled God and man by his death on the cross. . . . (2) The intercession of Christ now in heaven; he is our advocate, because he is the propitiation for our sins, 1 John 2:1, 2. Thus Christ is now in heaven to pursue the same design he had upon the cross, so that Christ’s intercession sets out the perpetual efficacy of his sacrifice, and the continual application of it to believers. . . .3
The concept of correlation is also in accord with Old Testament typology, and here Thomas Goodwin shall speak for his Puritan brethren.
In the old Levitical priesthood, the high priest’s office had two parts, both which concurred to make them high priests. First, Oblation, or offering the sacrifice. Secondly, Presentation of it in the holy of holies, with prayer and intercession unto God, to accept it for the sins of the people. The one was done without, the other within the holy of holies. . . . Now then, in answer to this type, there are two distinct parts of Christ’s priesthood. First, The “offering himself a sacrifice” up to death, as Heb. 9:26, which answers to the killing of the sacrifice without the holy of holies; for answerably he was crucified without the city, Heb. 13:12. Secondly, He carried this his blood into the holy of holies, namely, the heavens, Heb. 9:12, where he appears, ver. 24, and there also prays in the force of that blood. And the type of those prayers was that cloud of incense made by the high priest. . . . Which incense is his own prayers in heaven, which he continually puts up when the saints pray on earth, and so perfumes all their prayers, and procures all blessings for them.
Indeed, the same author goes as far as to maintain that this second part of the sacerdotal office is the crowning part—and he has scriptural proof for it.
This part of his priesthood is of the two more eminent, yea, the top, the height of his priesthood. And this is held forth to us in the types of both these two orders of priesthood that were before him, both that of Aaron and Melchisedek: First, this was typified out in that Levitical priesthood of Aaron and his fellows: the highest service of that office was the going into the holy of holies, and making an atonement there; yea, this was the height of the high priest’s honour, that he did this alone, and did constitute the difference between him . . . and other priests. . . . Secondly . . . by Melchisedek’s priesthood. . . . Now Melchisedek was his type, not so much in respect of his oblation . . . but in respect of that work which he ever performs in heaven: therefore that same clause for ever still comes in, in the quotation and mention of Melchisedek’s priesthood in that Epistle. . . . And, thirdly, to confirm this, you shall find this to be made the top notion of this Epistle to the Hebrews, and the scope of it chiefly, to discourse of Christ’s eternal priesthood in heaven, and to shew how therein Melchisedek was a type of him . . . more expressly in chap. 8:1 . . . “we have such an high priest as is set down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.”4
The contrast between the shadow and the substance is very vivid, for by reason of death the high priests of old were not able to continue. Our High Priest, having offered Himself up for our sins, and having been raised and exalted by the power of God, ever lives to make intercession for us, not in an earthly tabernacle, but in heaven itself. This is the wonder of the divine economy.
Wherein, then, does his intercession lie? For whom is this blessed privilege secured, and for what does the Son appear before His Father? John Owen speaks of the “safest conception and apprehension that we can have of the intercession of Christ” as being,
his continual appearance for us in the presence of God, by virtue of his office as the “high priest over the house of God,” representing the efficacy of his oblation, accompanied with tender care, love, and desires for the welfare, supply, deliverance, and salvation of the Church. Three things, therefore, concur hereunto: (1) The presentation of his person before the throne on our behalf, Heb. 9:24. This renders it sacerdotal. His appearance in person for us is required thereunto. (2) The representation of his death, oblation, and sacrifice for us; which gives power, life, and efficacy unto his intercession. . . . But (3) Both these do not render it prayer or intercession; for intercession is prayer, 1 Tim. 2:1, Rom. 8:26. Wherefore there is in it, moreover, a putting up, a requesting, and offering unto God, of his desires and will for the Church, attended with care, love, and compassion, Zech. 1:12.5
Thus, even as it was necessary that a righteous substitute should suffer our penalty on the cross, so also it is necessary that a worthy representative should appear in heaven to claim our deliverance. As on earth we could not endure the infinite penalty incurred by our sin, so in heaven we dare not appear before a holy God. So that on earth, Christ alone, by virtue of the divinity and righteousness of His Person, can pay our penalty, while in heaven Christ alone, by virtue of the sufficiency and efficacy of His oblation, dare plead our cause. Thomas Horton, in his comments on Romans 8:34, makes this clear:
As for ourselves, we have so much sin and guiltiness upon us, and defilement in us, as that we know not how with any face to make appearance in the presence of God; now therefore does Christ himself, who is our Surety, appear in our stead. He that has paid the Debt for us, is not ashamed to shew his Head; but does boldly and confidently present Himself in our behalf: Here I am as the Surety, and Advocate, and Mediator for all mine Elect; what-ever thou hast against any of them, charge it upon me. As he was ready at first to undertake the Work. . . . So he is as ready now to own it, and to stand by it, being undertaken by Him.
Horton further enlarges upon those three elements in Christ’s intercession noted by Owen:
This Intercession of Christ . . . does not consist in a formal prostrating of the Body of Christ, but especially in these following particulars. First, In his appearing and presenting of Himself for us to his Father in both his Natures. . . . Look as in the Courts of men, there is usually answer made by the Attorney, who appears in the behalf of the Person cited, and speaks for him; even so does the Lord Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of God appear in the behalf of all his Members, to satisfie the justice of God concerning those Complaints and Accusations which are brought against them. This was shaddowed out to us in the Dispensations of the Levitical Law, Exod. 39:7, where it was the custom and manner of the High Priest to go into the Holy of Holies with the Names of the Children of Israel written in precious stones, for a Memorial of them, that he might remember them to God in his prayers. And thus now in like manner, Christ Jesus being entred into the Holiest of all, which is Heaven itself, does there present to his Father the Names of all his elect Children, and makes remembrance of them, that he may obtain reconciliation for them, and free them from condemnation. . . . Secondly, As Christ does appear in Heaven for us, so He does likewise further urge, and exhibit, and present to God the Father the vigor and merit, and efficacy of that Sacrifice which he once made on Earth for us. Christ deals with God now in a way of justice and equal demand; that whereas he has paid the price, and made full satisfaction to Him, that now therefore He may obtain that of Him which he bargain’d and agreed with Him for, which is the Salvation of the Souls of his people. . . . Thirdly, He does also actually apply this his Death and Merit, and Satisfaction to Believers themselves. . . . As Christ stands upon his own price, the justifying and maintaining of that as full and sufficient, so he does likewise make over this his price and payment to the benefit of the faithful. He perpetually wills and desires that this Satisfaction should be imputed to all whom his Father hath given unto him.6
It will be evident by now that Christ’s intercession is a privilege extended only to the elect, as is consistent with John 17:9, “I pray for them; I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me.” It is also clear that Christ’s intercession is for all the elect; that is to say, it embraces His elect before their coming into a state of grace as well as subsequent to it. Christ’s intercession is thereby related to the restoration and reconciliation of sinners, so that what the Spirit on earth does in the hearts of the unconverted, Christ in heaven pleads for before the Father, namely, the application of His redemption, John 17:20, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me.”
Christ’s intercession for the elect is not necessary merely to their justification. The body of sin is still with them, they are not yet free from weakness. Their best aspirations, motives, desires, services are all clouded with imperfections. Nonetheless, those to whom communion with God had been before most distasteful now count that to be most delightful; those who before shunned God’s face now long for it. How else can their thirst after God be assuaged, how else their persons be acceptable, and their petitions answered, other than through the mediation of their blessed Redeemer? To the Puritans this truth was a veritable fountain of good things, bringing renewal and refreshment to the weary, boldness and confidence to the hesitant, assurance and gladness to the despondent. Those matters therefore which relate to the complete, final, and utter salvation of the saints are also the concerns of Christ’s intercession. The bestowal of the Holy Spirit, union and fellowship with the Father, sanctification, prayer, perseverance in the way of grace, and final participation in glory, all these, and more besides, belong to the activity of Christ in heaven for the saints. As Bunyan says, “justification will stand with imperfection. . . . Justification . . . only covereth our sin from the sight of God; it maketh us not perfect with inherent perfection. . . . And this is . . . one reason, why they that are justified have need of an intercessor—to wit, to save us from the evil of sin that remains in our flesh after we are justified by grace through Christ, and set free from the law as to condemnation.”7 Heywood recommends as “the best way to ascertain what our Lord prays for now, in the highest heavens, on the behalf of believers,” the observation of “Christ’s prayer for his Church when he was on earth,” and proceeds to enumerate the several signal blessings desired by Christ according to John 17. Bunyan reduces them to four heads, “(1) . . . that the elect may be brought all home to him, that is, to God. (2) . . . that their sins committed after conversion may be forgiven them. (3) . . . that their graces which they received at conversion may be maintained and supplied. (4) . . . that their persons may be preserved unto his heavenly kingdom.”8
One matter of Christ’s intercession deserves our particular attention, namely, the offering up of our prayers to the Father. Here are the relevant comments from Anthony Burgess’s exposition of John 17:9, together with his applications:
This Mediatory praier of Christ is the ground of all the acceptance of our praiers; Our Praiers if not found in him are provocations rather than appeasements. . . . He is the Altar upon which all the oblations are sanctified, and from hence it is that the Incense of their Praiers are performed, so that God finds a sweet savour in them. . . . And this may unspeakably support under sad Temptations, when thou canst not pray, thy heart is bound up, Thy affections are faint and cold. Thou criest out, Oh the sinnes and infirmities of thy Praiers, yet Christ’s Praier is full and fervent for thee, There is no Imperfection, no fault to be found with him; Oh, it’s a good refuge to run unto, when thou art almost overwhelmed because of thy dull, formal and distracted Praiers!9
This work of Christ was according to one of three ways in which His intercession was “typed out” in the Old Testament. The living fire which was continually on the altar typified Christ’s prayers on earth, in His State of humiliation. The daily sacrifice was destined “to make continual application of the great, solemn, annual expiation, unto the consciences of the people.” The incense that was burned in the sanctuary every day by the priests represented prayer. Christ’s prayer for us in heaven, however, is the expression of His will and desires for us, and this was typified by the incense wherewith the high priest entered once a year into the most holy place on the day of atonement. “So did our high priest,” says John Owen, “he filled heaven with the coals of that eternal Fire wherewith he offered himself unto God.” He elaborates the point further,
We may apprehend its relation unto the types in this order: His prayer, John 17, was the preparation of the sweet spices whereof the incense was made and compounded, Exod. 30:34. His sufferings that ensued thereon were as the breaking and bruising of those spices; wherein all his graces had their most fervent exercise, as spices yield their strongest savour under their bruising. At his entrance into the holy place this incense was fired with coals from the altar; that is, the efficacy of his oblation, wherein he had offered himself unto God through the eternal Spirit, rendered his prayer as incense covering the ark and mercy-seat—that is, procuring the fruits of the atonement made before God.10
How necessary it is that we should remind ourselves continually of these glorious truths! How fitting for downcast souls are the gracious words of Hebrews 4:14–16. “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
No less comforting than the matter of His intercession are His qualifications for the office. Our intercessor is the Son of God, our advocate is Jesus Christ the righteous. The Puritans multiplied their adjectives in their attempts to describe the eminent fitness of Christ to represent us in heaven before the Father. Here, for example, are some of the words Heywood uses to commend Christ’s worthiness in this respect: able, judicious, skillful, just, condescending, easy of access, free, willing, nigh at hand, compassionate, gracious, faithful—and there are many more. Their very profusion should serve to convince us of the tremendous benefit of meditation upon this neglected subject. Let Bunyan draw the first part of our subject to a conclusion with a stirring exhortation.
Believers should not rest at the cross for comfort; justification they should look for there; but, being justified by his blood, they should ascend up after him to the throne. At the cross you will see him in his sorrows and humiliations, in his tears and blood; but follow him to where he is now, and then you shall see him in his robes, in his priestly robes, and with his golden girdle about his paps. Then you shall see him wearing the breastplate of judgment, and with all your names written upon his heart. Then you shall perceive that the whole family in heaven and earth is named by him, and how he prevaileth with the Father of mercies, for you. Stand still awhile and listen; yea, enter with boldness into the holiest, and see your Jesus as he now appears in the presence of God for you; what work he makes against the devil and sin, and death, and hell, for you. Heb 10:9. Ah! it is brave following of Jesus Christ to the holiest, the veil is rent, you may see with open face as in a glass, the glory of the Lord.11
Christ’s Advocacy against Satan
It is Bunyan who also deals principally with the second section of our study, in a treatise entitled The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate. George Offor, who edited Bunyan’s works a century ago, makes the following relevant remarks in his “advertisement” to this treatise:
This is one of the most interesting of Bunyan’s treatises, to edit which required the Bible at my right hand, and a law dictionary on my left. We are indebted for this treatise to Bunyan’s having heard a sermon which excited his attention to a common, dangerous, and a fatal heresy. . . . In this sermon, the preacher said to his hearers, “see that your cause be good, else Christ will not undertake it.” Bunyan . . . exposes the fallacy and uses his scriptural knowledge to confute it, by showing that Christ pleads for the wicked, the lost; for those who feel themselves so involved in a bad cause, that no advocate but Christ can bring them through.12
It is Nathaniel Hardy, however, in his exposition of 1 John 2:1, who provides us with the most succinct statement of the concept of advocacy.
Whensoever this title (paracle/tos) is given to the Holy Ghost, it is either in respect of the world, and then it noteth his pleading for God with men by way of conviction, John 16:7–8, or in respect of believers, and then it noteth his encouraging them in all their distresses, chap. 14:19 and enabling them by strong groans to plead with God for themselves, Rom. 8:28: but when it is given to Christ, it importeth his taking our cause upon himself, and undertaking to intercede with God on our behalf. . . . This will the better appear if we consider that advocate is . . . a judicial word, so that look, as in all such proceedings, there is the guilty, the accuser, the court, the judge, and the advocate, so it is here: heaven is the court, man is the guilty, Satan the accuser, God is judge, and Christ the advocate; and look as the advocate appeareth in the court before the judge, to plead for the guilty against the accuser, so doth Christ before God in heaven, to answer whatsoever the devil can object against us.13
That is to say, an advocate presupposes an adversary, antagonist, or accuser, so that this office of Christ is a specialized one. Furthermore, Christ’s office as advocate can be distinguished from his office as intercessor, and Bunyan does so in this way:
(1) They differ in name. . . . (2) In the nature of office. A priest is to slay a sacrifice; an advocate is to plead a cause. . . . (3) As to their extent. The priesthood of Christ extendeth itself to the whole of God’s elect, whether called or in their sins; but Christ, as Advocate, pleadeth only for the children. (4) As to the persons with whom they have to do. We read not anywhere that Christ as Priest, has to do with the devil as an antagonist, but, as an Advocate, he hath. (5) As to the matters about which they are employed. . . . (6) So that Christ, as Priest, goes before, and Christ, as an Advocate, comes after; Christ, as Priest, continually intercedes; Christ, as Advocate, in case of great transgressions, pleads: Christ as Priest, has need to act always, but Christ, as Advocate, sometimes only.14
This particular office of Christ therefore has reference to the sins of the believer after conversion, for which sins Satan indicts us in the court of heaven. In our absence our cause is taken up by our blessed Advocate, who takes our part before the Father, and pleading against Satan on the grounds of His atoning work for us, brings about our acquittal, thereby restoring to us communion with the Father and joy in the Holy Ghost.
While the offices of intercessor and advocate are distinguished, they are nevertheless related. For in Christ’s advocacy His work is not to deny our crimes but to argue His substitution for us; it is not to deny God’s justice, but to claim it on our behalf. He neither ignores our guilt nor neglects God’s law, but through the supreme efficacy of His unique satisfaction for sin, and through the prevalence as well as the excellence of His advocacy, His clients are released, their opponent thwarted, and His Father’s justice and mercy honored and glorified. The harmony between Christ’s being a sacrifice, a priest, and an advocate, is explained by Bunyan in this way: “As a sacrifice, our sins were laid upon him, Isaiah 53. As a priest, he beareth them, Exodus 28:38. And as an Advocate, he acknowledges them to be his own, Psalm 69:5. Now, having acknowledged them to be his own, the quarrel is no more betwixt us and Satan, for the Lord Jesus has espoused our quarrel, and made it his. All, then, that we in this matter have to do, is to stand at the bar by faith among the angels, and see how the business goes. . . .”15
Finally, for the comfort of those who need such an advocate Hugh Binning reminds us of His superb qualifications.
(With the Father,) speaks out the Relation he and we stand in to the Judge . . . therefore, there is great Hopes that our Advocate Jesus Christ shall prevail in his Suites for us, because he, with whom he deals, the Father, he loves him, and loves us, and will not stand upon strict Terms of Justice, but rather attemper all with Mercy and Love . . . he is the Christ of God, anointed for this very Purpose, and so hath a fair and lawful calling to this Office. . . . If a Man had never so great Ability to plead in the Law, yet, except he be a licentiate and graduate, he may not take upon him to plead a Cause. But our Lord Jesus hath both Skill and Authority . . . the Council of Heaven did licentiate him, and graduate him for the whole Office of Mediatorship: In which there is the greatest Stay and Support for a sinking Soul, to know that all this Frame and Fabrick of the Gospel was contrived by God the Father . . . he is called Jesus the Saviour, he is such an Advocate, that he saves all he pleads for . . . that never succumbed in his Undertaking for any Soul, be their Sins never so heinous, their Accusation never so just and true, their Accuser never so powerful, yet they who put their Cause in his Hand, who flee in hither for Refuge, being Wearied of the Bondage of Sin and Satan, he hath such a Prevalancy with the Father, that their Cause cannot miscarry . . . Jesus the Righteous. If he were not righteous in himself, he had need of an Advocate for himself, and might not plead for Sinners.16
Just as Binning argues for Christ’s qualification to this office, so Bunyan is earnest in urging us to make application of this to our own needs.
Is Christ Jesus the Lord mine Advocate with the Father? Then awake, my faith, and shake thyself like a giant; stir up thyself, and be not faint; Christ is the Advocate of his people, and pleadeth the cause of the poor and needy. . . . As we should make use of Christ’s advocateship for the strengthening of our faith, so we should also make use thereof to the encouraging us to prayer. As our faith is, so is our prayer; to wit, cold, weak, and doubtful, if our faith be so. . . . And according as a man apprehends Christ in his undertakings and offices, so he will wrestle with and supplicate God . . . we should use of this doctrine . . . to keep us humble; for the more offices Christ executeth for us with the Father, the greater sign that we are bad; and the more we see our badness, the more humble we should be . . . we should improve this doctrine . . . to encourage perseverance . . . to the driving of difficulties down before us, to the getting of the ground upon the enemy.17
See what strong consolation and lively hope is held out to us in the advocacy of Christ! How the consideration of it should reestablish our comfort and quicken our affections!
The Spirit’s Intercession in the Believer
Thus we come to a brief examination of the third and last section of our subject, the intercession of the Spirit in the believer. That this is a necessary employment of the Spirit none will deny who have any acquaintance with the corruption of their hearts and the strength of the enemy. These hindrances militate against the spiritual exercises of the believer, and there is a resultant disinclination to prayer which is lethal to spiritual health and progress. Here, however, the Holy Spirit renders His assistance and by His work of intercession within disposes, teaches, and enables the believer to pray “according to the will of God.” “Here note how the whole Trinity hath a worke in this holy exercise of prayer,” says William Gouge. “The holy Ghost frameth our requests. The Son offereth them up unto his Father. The Father accepteth them thus framed, and offered up.”18 Thus the Spirit’s intercession secures assistance, and Christ’s intercession secures acceptance, to our prayers. Henry Lukin, in a treatise on The Interest of the Spirit in Prayer, draws on a scriptural example to illustrate the distinction between Christ’s intercession and that of the Spirit.
As Advocates do not only plead for their Clients, but many times dictate to them what they should say; So both Christ and the Spirit are as Advocates to us. And as Nathan did first suggest to Bethsheba what she should say (1 Kings 1:12, etc.), and then came in himself to confirm her Word, to second them, further to urge them: So the Spirit doth first assist us in drawing up our Petitions, for which Cause we are said to pray in or by the Spirit. . . . And when we have presented our Petitions, when Christ doth by his Intercession further confirm them, and plead with the Father on our Behalf.19
The manner of the Spirit’s assistance in prayer is, according to John Owen, twofold; by working in us inclination and ability. Though He is called the “Spirit of Supplications,” he does not Himself pray for two reasons; first, because He is divine and prayer implies inferiority of nature; second, because such interposition on our behalf is attributed by the Scripture to the priestly office of Christ and His intercession. Therefore, concludes Owen, the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of Supplications only in the two ways noted.
To the end therefore that we might pray effectively, the Holy Spirit acquaints us with the depravation of our nature, the grace and mercy which are prepared in the promises of God, our failure in view of the precepts or commands of God, and the proper motives and matters of our prayers. Owen continues,
He doth not only enable them to pray, but worketh affections in them suitable unto what they pray about . . . the Spirit is said to “intercede for us with groanings”; which can be nothing but his working in us and acting by us that frame of heart and those fervent, labouring desires, which are so expressed, and these with such depth of intention and labouring of mind as cannot be uttered. . . . Secondly, Having truly affected the whole soul, enlightened the mind in the perception of the truth, beauty, and excellency of spiritual things, engaged the will in the choice of them and prevalent love unto them, excited the affections to delight in them and unto desires after them, there is in the actual discharge of this duty of prayer, wrought in the soul by the power and efficacy of his grace, such an inward labouring of heart and spirit, such a holy, supernatural desire and endeavour after union with the things prayed for in the enjoyment of them, as no words can utter or expressly declare.20
To stir up our affections in this salient duty the Holy Spirit works within us a delight in God, especially from a sense of his relation unto us as our Father. A “prospect of God as on a throne of grace,” an enlarged liberty, and a confidence of acceptance are also the products of this work of the Spirit within. Finally, says Owen, “It is the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer to keep the souls of believers intent upon Jesus Christ, as the only way and means of acceptance with God.”21 In this way, the Spirit’s work in prayer is consistent with His expressed concern, namely, to glorify the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Having attempted a survey of the Puritan concept of intercession, it behooves us to ponder over these things and apply them to our own condition. Have we an interest in Christ’s intercession? Have we engaged Him to be our advocate? Have we felt the movings of His Spirit in prayer? As we reflect on these great concerns of our souls, Christ should become more precious, and the Holy Spirit more necessary, to us. For surely we have seen in the office of Christ as our intercessor and advocate, and of the Holy Spirit as the inspirer of prayer; in the divine wisdom and according to sovereign purpose, that God is vitally concerned with His people and ever active on their behalf. The saints have assured for them their personal restoration and safety, their spiritual welfare and prosperity, their perseverance in grace, and their participation in eternal bliss. To God alone be the glory!