He Ever Liveth to Make Intercession

Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. HEBREWS 7:25

Behind all of Bounds’s urging there is a Person. He did not think of prayer chiefly as a human technique, but as a sharing in what Jesus Christ has always done and is doing still. The Reality of Prayer gives most of its pages to Christ as the teacher and example of prayer, to His prayer in John 17 and His agony in Gethsemane, and then to the Holy Spirit as our helper in prayer. This chapter gathers that teaching, which is the deepest thing Bounds wrote and the ground beneath everything else.

The praying Christ

Bounds never tired of pointing out how much Jesus prayed. He prayed at His baptism, and the heavens opened. He prayed all night before choosing the twelve. He prayed on the mountain and was transfigured. He rose early to pray, withdrew into the wilderness to pray, and prayed at the grave of Lazarus. In Gethsemane He prayed with strong crying and tears, and on the cross He prayed for His murderers.

Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; HEBREWS 5:7

To Bounds this was astonishing. If the Son of God, who was one with the Father, needed to pray, how could anyone else think prayer optional? Jesus, he said, is not only our Saviour but our teacher and pattern in prayer. When the disciples asked Lord, teach us to pray, they were asking the one person who could.

The High Priest’s prayer

Bounds gave a whole chapter to the prayer of John 17, which he called the sacerdotal prayer, the prayer of Christ as priest. He was moved by its calm and majesty, so different from the anguish of Gethsemane a few hours later. Here Jesus prays for His disciples: that they may be kept from the evil one, sanctified through the truth, made one as He and the Father are one, and brought at last to be with Him and see His glory.

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. JOHN 17:15

What struck Bounds most was the burden of that prayer for unity. He grieved over the divisions of the Church, the walls of separation, the warring parties, and he saw in them a wound to the heart of Christ. Christ prayed for His people to be one, and those who share His prayer will pray for the same.

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; JOHN 17:20

That verse means that on the night before He died, Jesus prayed for you by name, in advance.

Christ at the right hand

The prayer of John 17 did not end when Jesus rose from His knees. Bounds drew attention again and again to the New Testament teaching that the risen Christ continues to intercede for His people at the right hand of God. In The Possibilities of Prayer he asked whether the earthly Jesus was the Christ of prayer, who sought solitude and wrestled in agony; and whether He does not ever live, enthroned above at the Father’s right hand, there to pray for us.

Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. ROMANS 8:34

This is the deepest comfort in all of Bounds. Our prayers are weak, broken and often confused. But they are not the only prayers offered for us. The Son of God prays for us continually, and He is heard. In The Essentials of Prayer Bounds spoke of the comfort and hope of knowing that one in heaven ever lives to intercede for us, whose compassion does not fail. And he drew a remarkable conclusion: “The benefits of His intercession flow to us through our intercessions.” When we pray for others, we are not acting alone. We are joining our small voices to the great intercession already going on in heaven.

The Spirit who helps

Bounds taught that believers have not one intercessor but two. Christ prays for us in heaven; the Holy Spirit prays in us on earth. In The Reality of Prayer he wrote warmly of Romans 8, where Paul admits that we do not know what to pray for as we ought, and says that the Spirit helps our weakness.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. ROMANS 8:26

The Spirit, Bounds said, takes hold with us as we struggle, adds His wisdom to our ignorance and His strength to our weakness, and shapes our praying according to the will of God. We do not pray by our own resources. We pray, as Jude says, in the Holy Ghost.

Where this must be read with care

Bounds wrote about Christ’s prayers with devotion but not always with theological precision, and a few of his phrases need care.

First, he sometimes spoke of the Holy Spirit as another Christ, or the other Christ. He meant, rightly, that the Spirit continues Christ’s work and brings His presence to us. But the Spirit is a distinct Person of the Godhead, not a second Christ, and Scripture calls Him the Spirit of Christ rather than another Christ. The phrase is best read as a devotional figure.

Second, in Purpose in Prayer he wrote that Jesus gained His transfiguration and His mighty works by importunate prayer, as though the Son had to earn His Father’s gifts as we do. Jesus truly prayed, and His prayers truly mattered; but He did not pray from lack. He prayed from perfect communion, as the beloved Son.

Third, Bounds wrote that in Gethsemane Jesus prayed, on that one occasion, against the will of God. It is better to say that He expressed with perfect honesty the shrinking of His human nature from the cup, while submitting wholly to His Father. There was no rebellion in Gethsemane, only the costliest obedience in history. Bounds himself saw that clearly: he said the prayer was made in declared and inviolable submission.

With those cautions, his central point is one of the most encouraging truths in Scripture. You do not pray alone. The Son prays for you in heaven, and the Spirit prays in you on earth. When you cannot find words, they have not stopped.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Read John 17 slowly, remembering that verse 20 includes you. Give thanks that Christ prayed for you before you were born.

2. When you feel your prayers are too weak to matter, read Romans 8:26 and 34 and rest in the two intercessors who never stop.

3. Pray this week for the unity of Christ’s Church, especially with believers from traditions different from your own.

4. When you intercede for someone, consciously join your prayer to Christ’s prayer for them, asking what He is asking.

5. Ask the Holy Spirit each day to help you pray, especially about the things you do not know how to put into words.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You prayed in the days of Your flesh with strong crying and tears, and You ever live to make intercession for us. Thank You that You prayed for me before I knew You, and that You pray for me still.

Holy Spirit, help my weakness. When I do not know what to pray for as I ought, pray in me according to the will of God.

Let my small intercessions be joined to Yours, and let Your blessings flow through them to those I love.

Make Your people one, as You and the Father are one, that the world may believe. Amen.