Christ Prays on Behalf of the Elect

As the great High Priest of the elect of God, Jesus Christ has ascended into the highest heavens. What Aaron did on the great day of atonement on earth (Ex. 30:1-10; Lev. 16:1-34), the Greater than Aaron has done in the Temple of Heaven (Heb. 9:1-12). Jesus Christ is the only Mediator between God and man. Therefore, whether Old Testament or New Testament, the Scriptures are clear on the subject of a Mediator.

God’s holiness is proved by His acts of creation. He created man in a state of uprightness. God’s holiness appears in His laws; He is both Lawgiver and Judge. This purity is evident in the moral law, in the ceremonial law, and in the judgments inflicted for the violation of both the moral and ceremonial laws. The holiness of God also appears in the redemption and regeneration of the elect.

The whole scene of redemption is nothing else but a discovery of judgment and righteousness. Holiness appears in the manner of our salvation in the death of Christ. It appears in our justification, regeneration, and glorification. Is there any wonder why we have such Scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments? Eli said to his sons, “If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him? But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the LORD desired to put them to death” (I Sam. 2:25).

God’s holiness cannot be charged with any blemish. There was no blemish in holiness when God created man in a mutable state. Immutability belongs only to God. Though God created man mutable, He did not create him evil—“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them…God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day” (Gen. 1:27, 31). Although God created man changeable, He was not the cause of man’s change in the fall. God’s holiness is not blemished by giving man a law, which He knew man would not keep. The law was not above Adam’s strength, but it was above depraved man’s strength. Therefore, God’s holiness is not blemished by the reprobation of some.

Charnock said, “As election is the effect of God’s sovereignty, our pardon is the fruit of His mercy, our knowledge is a stream from His wisdom, our strength is an impression of His power, and our purity is a beam from His holiness.” In contrast to this Puritan theology, the following statements reveal the Arminian view of God’s sovereignty and salvation. The Arminian says, “Christianity is going to be world wide. Man is saved because of the integrity, righteousness, and justice of God. His love for the world is the language of accommodation given to an inexperienced people. God loves His righteousness, and that is all; He does not hate anyone. These are terms of accommodation to let us understand what is in the mind of God. When anyone allows God to impute His righteousness, he moves within the circle of God’s love. God does not deal with anyone according to His sovereignty, nor according to His love. He deals with every person according to His integrity on the basis of His righteousness and justice.”

The elect are the Father’s by choice, the Son’s by redemption, and the Holy Spirit’s by regeneration. This threefold union can never be broken. No one but the impeccable Christ could represent the chosen ones before God the Father. Did not James say, “Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?” (James 2:5). Three things stand out in this verse: (1) God chose the poor for Himself. The Greek verb is the aorist middle indicative of eklegomai, meaning that the action is closely related to the subject. (2) The chosen are to be rich in the sphere of faith. (3) The chosen are to be heirs of the kingdom.

It should be interesting, at this point of our study, to learn how many ways believers are represented as being in Christ: (1) Believers are in Christ electively (I Cor. 1:26-31; Eph. 1:4; James 2:5). (2) Believers are in Christ representatively (Rom. 5:15-21; Gal. 2:20). (3) Believers are in Christ vitally, which takes in regeneration (John 3:8; John 15:1-7). (4) Believers are in Christ consciously, which is by faith (Rom. 5:1-5; II Tim. 1:12). (5) Believers are in Christ perfectively (I John 3:2, 3). From God’s standpoint, we are already in Christ perfectively. Therefore, the five give us the origin in the past, present benefit, and future consummation.

From early 1950 to late 1970, there were heated debates on the subject of Christ’s peccability. It is amazing to observe the spiritual ignorance manifested in failure to distinguish between the Creator and the creature. Anybody in Christ knows the difference between the Sovereign God, who has given him grace, and “the son of perdition” (the Hebrew idiom for one destined to perdition), who is incapable of destroying any of God’s chosen ones.

Arguments used against Christ’s impeccability should shock the weakest of the weak. Those who deny that Scripture condemns the doctrine (teaching) of peccability have made the following statements: “Why then didn’t God make Adam so he, too, could not sin, if it was impossible for Jesus to yield to temptation? Furthermore, what comfort is there for us to know that to keep Christ from falling, it was made possible, not by His voluntary victory, but by His inability? It is far more wonderful for Jesus to resist the temptation, than to be immune from its power. It is not sinful to be tempted, but it is sinful to yield to temptation.”

Even lost people can distinguish between God and man. This has to be classified. The Psalmist Asaph was inspired to say in Psalm 50:1, 7, and 21, “The Mighty One, God, the LORD, has spoken, And summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting” (v. 1); “Hear, O My people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you; I am God, your God” (v. 7); “…You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes” (v. 21). Christians know the Creator must be superior to the creature. Furthermore, the finite person has the capacity to sin, but the infinite person has no such power. How could it be more wonderful to trust a Savior who could sin, but did not? That is like saying one would rather ride an elevator that could fall than one that could not fall.

If Jesus Christ could have sinned but did not, what about His sameness yesterday, today, and forever? Was Malachi telling the truth when God spoke to him?—“For I, the LORD, do not change…” (Mal. 3:6). There is not the slightest semblance of variation in God according to James—“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17).

It is appropriate, at this point, to discuss some of Christ’s attributes, which are self-distinguishing characteristics, and show their relationship to His impeccability. Omnipotence, immutability, omniscience, holiness, omnipresence, etc., are attributes. Holiness is Christ’s chief attribute; therefore, it should be considered before any of the others. Holiness is the beauty of all the attributes. In Peter’s second sermon, in Acts 3, he said, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time” (Acts 3:13-21).

Jesus Christ was not merely sinless. He was not holy because He refused to sin, but He refused to sin because He was holy. For anyone to say Christ could have sinned denies His sinless character. Holiness is far more than the absence of sin; it is a denial of positive holiness. If Jesus Christ could have sinned, but did not, what about the statement, “For I, the LORD, do not change”? (Mal. 3:6). The apostle said, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Therefore, an immutable person is not one who does not change, but He is one who cannot change. Change cannot move from good to bad, from good to better, or from bad to good.

God has infinite intelligence. He knows everything; therefore, He cannot be informed about anything. What about God’s forgetfulness? What does He forget? Isaiah tells us what God said in Isaiah 43:25—“I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.” God’s forgetfulness of His chosen people’s sins is an attribute, a perfection which is not a defect.

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The NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE—UPDATED EDITION is the source of all Scripture quotations in this message, unless otherwise noted.