Christ is Praying for You

At least two passages in the New Testament teach us that our Lord is interceding for us at this very moment.

Hebrews 7:25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Romans 8:34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
In addition, Christ is called our "advocate" in heaven.

I John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

How does Jesus pray for us, and what is the effect of His praying? We know that the Father gives Him whatever He asks, but can we know specifically how and why Jesus prays for His followers? For a clue to the way our Lord is praying for us, let's consider His own account of the prayers he prayed for His beloved disciple, Peter.

Luke 22:31-34 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.”

We may note the following for our encouragement:

Two witnesses stand before God

Both Jesus and Satan stand before God making requests concerning us. Satan's requests are sometimes approved, but Jesus' requests are never denied. Satan accuses and attacks, while Jesus intercedes.

Satan's evil activities are ultimately used for our good

Peter's testing is compared to the sifting of wheat. That is a highly beneficial thing! Just try eating bread made from wheat that has not been sifted, and you will taste the difference. Sifting gets the bad out while preserving the good.

Jesus' prayers do not prevent us from suffering 

Peter was facing that darkest days of his life. The Lord by His prayers was not going to stop the testing of Peter's faith, but He did prevent the destruction of it. Our faith may be shaken, but if it is real it can never be shattered. Why? Because Jesus is praying that our faith may not fail.

Jesus' prayers do not necessarily prevent sinful failure on our part 

On the contrary, Jesus knew with certainty that Peter would deny Him. Our Lord's prayers are not hindered by the reality of our sins - past, present, or future. He is praying for imperfect - though saved, and partly sanctified - sinners. Do we find that in some ways we still love this world? If we are honest, the answer is probably yes. But there is a victory that overcomes the world: our faith.

Christ's prayers guarantee that our faith will not fail, and that we will continue in repentance despite our failures and sins 

Our Lord's primary concern was Peter's perseverance in faith, not his immediate perfection in holiness. But just as the disciple's failure was guaranteed, so was his repentance: "WHEN you have turned again . . ." The battle is real, and humbling, and sometimes terrifically brutal. But the ultimate victory is guaranteed, certified, and promised. Count on it, because He has settled the matter.

Dear brother or sister in Christ, know for certain that your ongoing perseverance in repentance and faith is the result of your Lord's infallible praying from heaven. Be assured that none can pluck you from His hand. Accept the sifting that God allows and thank Him that He is working through it for your good. Be encouraged that your tested faith will prove to be of greater worth than gold, and will result in praise, glory and honor for your Lord on the day He appears. Until that day, He is praying for you.

Lakeside Retreat 2011 - What I Brought Home

My wife and kids, of course! And my guitar and mandolin. But besides all that, I brought home a powerful reminder of the importance of faithfulness.

Someone mentioned the way David had saved his father's sheep from lions and bears. He noted, "David could easily have said, 'oh well, it's just one little sheep. No one will miss it.' But instead he risked his life to save that sheep." When I heard these words, I immediately recognized that there have been times when I have not guarded my Father's "sheep," have not stood up bravely to oppose the aggressor, have not risked my life, have not been faithful in the "little things," have not "shed blood" in the fight against sin. I suddenly realized (anew) that seemingly small compromises are serious violations in God's eyes. God values His little sheep very highly, and He values our faithfulness very highly. All things are HIS, and I have no right to relinquish any of His property to the enemy. Whatever He has given me, I must guard carefully.


My mind is His. My mouth is His. My body is His. My life belongs to Him, and I must show that I belong to Him in all of the small ways as well as the big ways. I need to be fierce and courageous in guarding the little sheep in my life. Every stray word, thought and deed must be repented quickly, and every detail must be kept in faithfulness. I have to guard the trust.


My wife and children are His. I must place myself between them and the destroyer. I must stand my ground without flinching, and oppose every threat that comes against them. I must defend them with my life. Love always protects.


That's what I brought home from the retreat. I am grateful that God loves me so much that He will not let me go astray in these things without conviction, rebuke and discipline. Because I am also His sheep, and His son. He calls me, like David, to be a man "after His own heart" - a man who will defend himself and his family against evil.


I Samuel 17:34-37 But David said to Saul, "Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God." And David said, "The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you!"

Sermon: "The Mercy and Grace of God" by Paul Washer

This message is supposed to be about the mercy and grace of God, but it's really about sanctification, devotion, and consecration. That's okay with me. It's a strong word of encouragement and challenge from Paul Washer - A great way to start the New Year!

Isaiah 53:4 - Stricken of God

Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.

In verse 3, we found the Savior acquainted with grief.

Here we find that it is our grief He bears.

In verse 3, we found the Savior a man of sorrows.

Here we find that it is our sorrows He carries.

In verse 3, we found that we did not take account of the Savior.

Here, we find that our account of Him was misguided.

• "Surely" is the Hebrew word AKEN, אָכֵן, meaning "truly," or, "in reality," or, "but in truth," denoting a strong contrast between this verse and the one before it.
• "He Himself" is the emphatic Hebrew demontrative pronoun, HUW', הוּא, showing that He personally and voluntarily lifted our burdens when we were not even aware.
• "We ourselves" is the emphatic Hebrew personal pronoun, 'ANACHNUW, אֲנַחְנוּ, indicating that our own judgment was far from the reality, and when we finally took notice of Him we drew the wrong conclusions. The cross forces us to take account of Jesus Christ - yet we must not only notice Him, but also discover what His work means.

Why Does He Suffer So?

The common belief in Jesus' day was that a person suffered as a result of his own sin or that of his parents. Suffering was not voluntary, it was not in behalf of others, and it was considered to be a well deserved punishment meted out by God against evildoers. Apparently the book of Job had little effect on the thinking of first century Israel.

While He suffered, the people looked at Jesus and concluded He was being punished by God. This far along they were correct. But they failed to apprehend the reasons: that He suffered voluntarily, bearing only the wrath that we deserved for our sins. Christ's motivation and the motivation of the Father were both misinterpreted because the underlying cause of His suffering was not seen for what it was: a substitution for us, due to His representation of us, resulting in an imputation of sin from us . . . with the attending wrath of God pressing down heavily upon Him.

The sorrow and grief of sin are infinitely heavy. Can you feel them in your soul? Have guilt, condemnation and the wounding of conscience trampled you down into the miry mud bog of despair? Are you drowning in the turmoil of a heart that is deeply aware of its sinfulness? It may seem that way at times, but you and I barely know the measure of the weight of our guiltiness. Only Jesus truly knows it. Our finite emotions can hardly sense the true depth of our trouble. Yes, it's worse than you think. Our sin-warped minds are hard pressed to formulate the real implications of our revolt against Almighty Goodness. We have only a slight perception of these things . . . and even what we have is nearly unbearable to our fragile spirits.


Moreover, our perception of our own sin is stretched out over a lifetime and revealed progressively. Jesus carried it all - yours, mine, the whole world's - concentrated together in one small bit of time and space, a mere 3 hours! Imagine the weight He felt in His soul. No wonder His sweat was like great drops of blood in the hours leading to this event, and He uttered the most grave self-assessment: "I am deeply sorrowful to the point of death."

The regenerated righteous are peculiarly aware of their own unworthiness and misery. They feel most pressed down by their corruptions. However, far from leading to hopelessness, this terrible reality causes more dependence on Christ, more humility, more grace, more fleeing to the Word of God for refuge, more pleadings and prayers for deliverance, more sensitivity to the needs of others, more intercession for those who are not blessed with such vast spiritual resources - and all of this builds a sturdiness of character in which hope solidifies us and leads us to an inexplicable joy, peace, and rest! Just as sin is worse than you think, grace is stronger than you realize.

When it comes to our sorrows and griefs, Jesus is the great Carrier. We can - we must - cast our burdens upon Him. We must always remember that those discomfiting revelations of our depravity are but the residual shadows of a condemnation which has already passed. It has been borne by another in our place.


Psalm 55:22 Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.

For those who will not cast their burden of sin upon the Lord Christ, the crushing guilt that is felt now is only a shadow of what is to come. But for those who turn to God in faith, trusting Him to bear away their sin, the feeling of condemnation is temporary and ultimately inconsistent with the truth of full redemption in Christ. 


So, in the objective sense, our sin and guilt have already been carried away to judgment. We find nothing but mercy from our self-propitiating Father. But in the subjective sense, we wrestle with sin and guilt and must daily apply the truth of the Gospel against its powerful advances. We also receive God's loving, fatherly discipline, His temporary judgments that are redemptive and spur us on to growth in Christ. While we await the final perfecting of our minds and the redemption of our mortal bodies at the coming of the Lord, we struggle through the process of sanctification. We're on the way to our promised glorification in Christ, but we haven't reached it yet. However, it is so sure and certain that the apostle writes of it as if it is finished: "... whom He justified, He also glorified." (Romans 8:30). He also says we are presently seated with Christ in the heavenlies, though this does not yet appear in our experience. We live between the cross, with its "finished" judgment against our sin, and the ultimate fulfillment of the redemption purchased there. In such a state, we are both wretched justified sinners needing further sanctification, and redeemed saints in the process of being glorified, being made holy, and being changed into His image. This situation itself is only temporary, as we move onward to the culmination in our own experience of God's eternally finished work. It is so finished, and so guaranteed, that we are even now called "holy" and "perfect" and "glorified" in Christ.

He Willingly Bore the Injustice of Bearing our Just Condemnation

"Stricken," "Smitten," and "Afflicted" are each passive participles in the Hebrew, perhaps showing our misapprehension in thinking that Christ was the unwilling recipient of divine justice.

In reality, He was bearing our sins freely and without coercion. He was not merely being acted upon, but was actively and purposefully submitting to the will of the Father. He certainly did not crucify Himself, but He allowed Himself to be crucified. He did not act to stop it, though His agony would have ended with a mere word from His lips or an unuttered prayer for deliverance. And while we stood looking on and misjudged the reasons for His death, He did what we should have been doing: He asked the Father, "My God, My God, WHY . . ." The simple, child-like faith we should have expressed was instead expressed by Him in fulfillment of Job's prophecy: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him!" The answer to His question is this: He was forsaken because we are desperate, depraved sinners - and God loves us too much to give us the justice we deserve but cannot bear - so He absorbed His own wrath. And the cross shows us that even for God, this is (to use the human expression) "more easily said than done." There was a price to pay for our lawlessness - a price so costly that God's spoken Word alone was not enough to remedy it - though a Word would have been sufficient to seal our deserved condemnation. For mercy to appear, there needed to be a divine act of bearing sin, and an obedience that answered our disobedience, for the sake of His pure justice. Christ acted, Christ obeyed, and Christ guaranteed the purchase.


The justice He received was the just wrath we were due. There was no sin in Him to elicit any divine judgment or wrath against Him. The inherent virtue in Him merited only praise. He was falsely condemned by the same humanity whose crimes He bore, while at the same time He was rightly condemned by the Father because He stood as our representative receiving the penalty for our crimes. His sufferings were vicarious and substitutionary - in our place.

When you face the darkness of your heart, do you remember His sufferings on behalf of that heart? When you fall into sin, do you believe He suffered to redeem you from that very sin? When you are victorious over temptation, do you thank Him for purchasing that victory? Do you recognize that your obedience in faith is impossible apart from His sacrifice? The cross (including the resurrection) is the flaming core of our faith and the center point of our sanctification. As we live before the cross, bear the cross, gaze upon the cross, meditate upon the cross, sing of the cross, embrace the cross, and love the cross, we grow in newness of life by the same power that raised Him from the dead.


Dear friend, let us pray thus: may the cross of Christ - and the Christ of the cross - ever captivate our hearts!

A Team Effort

Recently I posted some links to Barry Wallace's excellent blog, "Who Am I?" For several months now, Barry and I have been linking our sites and enjoying fruitful discussion on many topics. Last week, we decided to make our partnership official and list one another as team members. I'll continue to do what I'm doing here at THEOparadox, but I'll occasionally post to "Who Am I?" as well. And I hope we'll get a few paradox articles out of Barry right here. As much fun as it is to guest post on other sites, that was not the reason we formed an alliance.

We are both strong believers in the idea of team blogging. There is an added sense of solidarity and accountability that comes with forming a team. Blogging, like any other form of communication, presents opportunities for sin (and opportunities for grace, too). As team members, we set out to admonish, encourage, and confront one another whenever there is evidence of pride, discouragement, anger, loss of focus, or an error in logic or theology. I know Barry will hold my feet to the fire and rebuke me if, for example, I say something un-Christ-like to a trolling hyper-Calvinist or posit some kind of legalism.

On my profile page, you will find four team members listed for this blog.



The first to join was my very astute friend, Tony Hayling (he's the one one the left). Tony doesn't post here, although he's very welcome to do so. He is a well-studied and thoughtful believer, and he occasionally disagrees with me. I'm okay with that. He's got his own ideas about paradox, and his own unique way of articulating the theology of the Reformation, which often helps me to think through the issues more thoroughly. He's probably a higher Calvinist than I am, but he has a good sense of balance. I really appreciate his friendship and his perspectives. He's also a tremendously gifted writer and an edifying person to talk to.

My 7-year-old daughter is also on the team. She occasionally posts here as a guest, so I finally broke down and gave her a blogger profile, "Girl Whom God Loves." As you will see from her posts, she's quite a good thinker when it comes to theology. She's somewhat precocious, and God has given her a uniquely logical mind. Like my Mom, she is probably a genius. Apparently, that trait skips a generation.

And now, Barry Wallace has joined the team (he's the one on the right). In my first post on his blog, you can read more about why I've chosen to join ranks with him. Maybe we can convince Barry to do at least one guest post here in the near future . . . but above all I'm grateful for the added encouragement, wisdom and accountability he will bring.

What a Good Pastor Does

I had an interesting conversation with my pastor recently. We met for lunch, and I had a very pressing matter to discuss. It concerned my struggle with another person, in which it seemed quite clear to me that the other person was in the wrong. After I related my horrific tale of how I have been abused and mistreated by this person, my pastor asked me a few simple questions. I walked away from those questions very troubled. I walked away unsettled. I walked away more humbled and confronted than I have been in a long time. I suddenly found myself begging God to show me the ways I have sinned in the matter. Without being presumptuous or overbearing, my pastor had asked me if I was willing to take the big fat log out of my own eye.

It seems that we often need to be gently confronted with the reality of our sinfulness in specific situations - something we are oddly blind to, no matter how much we practice spiritual disciplines and try to serve God. I'm fairly good at developing the theology of my general depravity. But when it comes to the truly humbling aspect of this truth applied directly to myself on a daily basis, I am woefully inadequate. I can't self-pastor. This is one of the reasons God has established the Church. It's one of the reasons He has commanded us to exhort, encourage, rebuke, restore and forgive one another. In essence, He tells us to "be Jesus" to one another. And that's what a good pastor does. I wouldn't trade it for a thousand purpose-driven sermons. I'm convinced that God is much more pleased with a servant who preaches the Gospel and authentically disciples others than He is with a CEO-pastor building a mega-"church" for the masses or leading a social movement. I know I'm helped more by the servant.

My Testimony

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.

I Tim 1:12-15

What follows is a brief account of the path by which God has graciously brought me to Himself . . .

B.C.
From my earliest recollections, I grew up with the belief that I was a good person who did many good things and had a basically good heart. I thought God loved me because I was good, and any wrong I did was not really my fault. My family attended church and I made a commitment to Christ as a teenager. Afterward, for many years, I earnestly tried to follow God's commands as I understood them. But these efforts led to nagging frustration whenever I realized I was failing, and implacable self-deception whenever I managed to obey outwardly. No matter how much I tried to please God, my heart remained dead and cold. My actions proved that I was as proud, deceitful and self-centered as I was merciless, moralistic, legalistic, harsh, judgmental and condemning. The more determined I was to follow God's rules, the more troubled my soul became, and my sins multiplied. I was characterized by pride, anger, fear of man, hatred, lust, complaining, selfishness, unforgiveness, worry, criticism, and some sins too shameful to mention. My misery became unbearable. Nevertheless, I clung firmly to a strong trust in my own natural abilities and flawed wisdom.

At The CROSSROADS
Through hard circumstances, bitter failures, devastated relationships and a terrifying sense of hopelessness, I finally came to understand that I was a sinner, completely lost, darkened in my mind, foolish, justly condemned by a holy God, and desperately in need of His mercy. Gradually, through the light of Scripture, the counsel of caring friends and the Holy Spirit's persistent drawing, I began to see something utterly wonderful in God - a fact to which I had previously been inexplicably blind. Namely, that God loves sinners and desires to show mercy to them. That He is good, and His mercy is forever. That He is gracious, and ready to forgive, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness. That His mercy prevails over us and His kindness leads us to repentance. Captivated by these truths, I came to Christ as a poor sinner, trusting that He had the greatest love for me in spite of my wickedness. I cried out to Him to save me, holding fast to the promise that He had come to "seek and to save that which was lost." I trusted that the Friend of sinners would indeed "forgive all my iniquity" and "remember my sins no more," and that He would save me by His grace - for He had sacrificed His own life and blood FOR ME. I realized that these were merciful works of God, and that no man could do - or undo - what He had accomplished for me at the cross.

A.D.
From that time, in spite of an ever-growing awareness of the depth and extent of my sinfulness, I have found rest in the assurance that all my sins are forgiven. I have discovered heart-level transformation happens only by His grace, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit - not by my futile striving and straining under the law. Some of the first evidences of new life were seen when I found myself viewing other people through a merciful rather than judgmental lens. Instead of getting angry about the sins of others, I was now able to draw my attention back to my own sin. The Lord helped me to take responsibility and stop blaming others for my faults. I began to trust God's sovereign plan, discipline, and fatherly care for His children. My heart became truly thankful for the many undeserved kindnesses He gives each day. And I learned to be grateful under the painful circumstances which He has ordained for His glory and my good. In short, my stubborn self-righteousness faded before the glorious radiance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

I Timothy 1:17

Psalm 32:7 - Hidden

You are my hiding place;
You preserve me from trouble;
You surround me with songs of deliverance.
Selah.

David takes us a step further into God’s boundless mercy, showing us that God not only forgives repentant sinners, but actually receives them into His protection. He does not merely cover our sin with His grace – He covers US with HIMSELF. Dear friends, needy ones such as you and I will find no better refuge than the Lord.

David expands the idea of a hiding place in two ways: as that which preserves us, and as that which surrounds us.

GOD PRESERVES US. A notable characteristic of sin is that it destroys, decays and deteriorates what God has made. Apart from grace, we would be literally consumed by sin. Sin always brings trouble with it. But God preserves those who trust in Him. This word “trouble” can also be translated “adversary” or “foe.” Sin always fights us, opposes us, deceives us, pursues us, flatters us, lies to us, accuses us, harms us, binds us and tries to destroy us (see Romans 7 for a detailed description of this). Sin is indeed our greatest enemy, but God has become our Great Friend. He has become our Protector, our Advocate, our Defender and Savior from the very sins we formerly chose and cherished. He has taken sin’s destruction off of us and placed it on a substitute Who suffered in our place.

GOD SURROUNDS US. Every saint who has fought the daily battle with sin knows that it comes at us from every side, it appears unexpectedly, it reinvents itself, it snipes at us and it intimidates like a hell-bent terrorist – all in an attempt to make us its slave again. God is prepared for our struggle, and responds by surrounding us with loud cries of deliverance. What comfort we feel as we are encompassed not only by the enemy, but also by the truth of divine grace! What joy and hope as we hear the songs of the Lord! What encouragement as we are filled with the knowledge of His delivering power! Intimidating and enticing voices call out to us from every side, but our ears also hear TRUTH.

Who sings these songs? Is it God Himself? Is He singing over us in “Surround Sound?” Is it the angels? Are they telling of the wondrous deeds of the Lord, even as they marvel at God’s redeeming grace at work in us? Is it other believers? Are they all around us, testifying to the mercy they have received? Are they telling about their sinful ways and God’s redeeming love? Is it perhaps all three – God, angels, and our brothers and sisters in Christ? Who is telling YOU that God is able to save?

If you are a repentant sinner, you are preserved and surrounded by a God Who is a Hiding Place for all who come to Him in faith. And there are only two kinds of people in the world: repentant sinners who live by amazing grace, and unrepentant sinners who abide in their chosen condemnation.

Psalm 37:39-40 But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in time of trouble. The LORD helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in Him.