Foundations of Christian Joy: Access in Christ
After Pastor Emilio preached Friday’s sermon, entitled “Principles of Christian Joy – Pt 2” from John 16:23-28 [sorry, we don't have the audio up yet... still working on it], he wrote the following:
Another building block in the foundations of Christian Joy is the concept of access in Christ. To this, the book of Hebrews would be essential not only for understanding the great Old Testament imagery behind the concept of God’s presence, the priesthood, and the significance of atonement and sacrifice but as well as the contemporary significance for believer in the New Testament age (see esp. Heb. 4:16; 7:19, 25; 10:19-23; also cf. Eph. 2:18).
The apostles were given the incredible privilege of prayer in Jesus’ name (Jn. 16:23-28). They had prayed before, they had certainly addressed the heavenly Father, even in the manner Jesus directed in Mt. 11:1-4, and Lk. 6:9-13. Yet Jesus would go on to tell them, “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name”.
They have yet to experience the wonders of praying in Jesus name. But what makes it so wonderful to pray in Jesus’ name? Why is it necessary and why are we to be conscientious that we are praying rightly? Is there a correct way to pray? I can think of numerous reasons why we would do well to follow Jesus’ directives here. Two are noteworthy.
1. It forces us to contemplate the person of Christ.
Prayer in Jesus’ name means prayer on the basis of Christ and all that He is. Everything that Jesus represents, that is what is in His name. His deity, His sinless life, His sacrificial death, His beauty, His Sonship, His Kingdom, His nature, His love, kindness and mercy, as well as His offices of Prophet, Priest, and King (the threefold description of Christ’ – offices according to Calvin). In short, it is a contemplation of the God man.
2. It forces us to contemplate the greatness of the Cross.
Prayer in Jesus’ name causes us to contemplate the greatness of Jesus’ cross work. That is, that it is through the cross that we have this access. It is through what Jesus did in reconciling us to God that we now have this new found access.
Peter Lewis in his book entitled The Glory of Christ, stresses that all of these things are part of Christ being that mediator between God and man,
“Nothing, in fact, is more constantly emphasized than that the mediator is of God’s appointment— in his coming into the world (1 John 4:9), in his priestly act at Calvary (Heb. 5: 4-6) and in his continuing priesthood in heaven. (Heb. 7:20-22)… all that he does as man had the value of God’s doing: his righteousness is the righteousness of God for us (Rom. 1:17), his atonement is the achievement of God for us (Rom. 8:3, 2 Cor. 5:21), and his victory is the triumph of God for us (Rom. 8.31-39).” (P. Lewis, The Glory of Christ (Carlisle: Paternoster, 1992), 220.)
the throne of grace becomes the throne of God’s justice and wrath…
And that is what we are praying when we pray in Jesus’ name, we are praying according to all that God has done in Christ for us (1 Cor. 1:29). Without Christ as our Mediator, the throne of grace becomes the throne of God’s justice and wrath, but we must remember that we do have this Great High Priest through whom we can approach God and obtain the help we need for each and every day until He takes us home or returns.
What Jesus has done for us in the gospel is simply immeasurable (Eph. 3:8). Each and every time we pray in His name we ought to be sensitive to the fact that Christ died for us, that because of Him we live, and that because of Him, through Him, by Him, and on the basis of His cross-work, we now have the unbelievable access to the Father that Jesus spoke so plainly about to His disciples (Jn. 16:26-27).
what then keeps you from your knees?
Christian, what then keeps you from your knees? What then keeps you from entering His throne of grace seeing that in doing so we are privileged with contemplating Christ’s great name and all that is contained therein. In Jesus we have a portal to the greatness of God’s wisdom and to the apex of His redemptive purposes in human history (Eph. 1:10).
1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
Soli Deo Gloria