Focal Passages: Romans 8:26-34 and Hebrews 7:25
Isn’t it funny the things we remember and what brings them to the surface.
I declared public relations as my major at Texas Tech over 50 years ago without knowing much about the field. I sat in the back of the lecture hall, as was my custom, wearing my cloak of invisibility, hoping to never be called upon to share my limited understanding of the discipline I had chosen for my career.
The professor ambled slowly into class that first day wearing what I soon realized was his daily uniform–a rumpled, gray suit, that I suspect he had worn every day for the past 15 years. He opened his lecture by telling the class, “There is an old joke that defines public relations as the art of putting your best foot forward while lying about the other.” He laughed so we laughed with him.
I learned over the course of that morning and for the next four years that nothing could be further from the truth. A good public relations practitioner or spokesperson will not lie. The role as taught frames the message in a way that reflects the organization’s intentions, values and strengths, even when acknowledging mistakes that may have been made. The spokesperson speaks when the leadership team the pr professional represents is unable or hesitant to speak.
In his explanation, the professor said, “It is the pr practitioner who intercedes with the public on behalf of his or her client or organization.” It was the first time I had heard the word “intercession” outside of the church.
This week, in preparation for a Bible study class I’m teaching at my church on the Nicene Creed, I read these verses in Romans 8.
In the same way the spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for but the spirit himself intercedes for us with wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27)
This passage about the spirit’s intercession was familiar to me. However, in my head, I never linked it to the far more familiar verse that followed.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
I kept reading. Paul continues to talk about believers being called and justified by God, secured in relationship to the father.
Who will bring a charge against those God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one! Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us. (Romans 8:33-34)
Again, this passage feels overshadowed in my head by more familiar verses that followed.
Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:35, 37)
It’s that word interceding that intrigued me this week. The Holy Spirit’s interceding is familiar to me. His indwelling presence allows him to speak to God on behalf of his client…me…and you…when we don’t know exactly what to say or how to say it. My divine public relations specialist.
The Greek word Paul used to describe or define the Holy Spirit’s intercession is a word I cannot begin to pronounce…hyperentygchanei. Hyperentygchanei looks like it needs to buy another vowel or two. A few more consonants wouldn’t hurt.
Its root entygchano means to appeal or petition. Its prefix, hyper, can mean on behalf of or as a substitute for.
Paul says, in effect, the Holy Spirit petitions or appeals to the one who knows our hearts (God, the Father) in a strong or urgent way. Literally, to intercede for us with intense pleading, substituting his divine understanding and language for my feeble human insight and futile and ineffective words.
By adding hyper to the root, Paul stacks intensity into the word. This is not casual prayer language. It shows the Holy Spirit stepping into human weakness, translating the inarticulate into divine communication, pleading on our behalf the language of our hearts that we may not even fully understand.
It’s not that the spirit helps us pray better. The spirit carries our weakness into the presence of God and personally advocates on our behalf with divine depth and purpose which is to ensure that the desires we may not fully know or that we can’t fully express align more perfectly with the will of God (vs. 27).
The spirit intercedes for us even when we don’t know what to say or when we can’t see what’s next. Despite not understanding it all and because of the Spirit’s intercession, we can rest in the assurance that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. (Vs. 28)
I find this connection between the intercession of the spirit and God working for the good most comforting.
Still, here’s the twist that I never saw coming. Jesus also intercedes on my behalf…not just the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus took his place on the right hand of God, I always thought of it as a vindication of his death, a declaration of his victory. God honored him and gave him a name above all names. His presence at the throne of God demonstrated his exalted status as Lord and Savior. I assumed it meant his work was finished…and to a point, that’s correct. His work on the cross is done. The salvation for those who believe in his name has been bought by his blood.
However, Paul opens up a new perspective in verse 34. I’m sure I read the passage in the past, but I’m not sure I ever truly saw it. Jesus, my savior is sitting next to God the Father, speaking words on my behalf. Interceding on my behalf.
The word Paul uses in verse 34 about the intercession of Jesus uses the same word without the hyper prefix used to describe the intercessory work of the Holy Spirit. Here Paul uses just entygchanei…to speak on behalf of another, to appeal or petition for another.
Jesus is still at work on my behalf and yours. He sits at the right hand of God, but not with his feet on a ottoman, sipping a glass of iced tea, while some angel waves a feathered fan in his face. He is interceding on my behalf and on your behalf…still.
The writer of Hebrews paints a picture of Jesus as our High Priest, whose job in the Old Testament was to offer atonement for the sins of the people. To serve as an intermediary between God and those who belonged to him.
Jesus is our great High Priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses and gives us confident access to God’s throne of grace. (Hebrew 4:14-16)
His access to God is our access to God through him.
Hebrews emphasizes how Jesus actively intercedes for believers, every time for the purpose and process of salvation. Here’s where the theology gets deep for me. Jesus’ work on the cross, his death and resurrection, made salvation possible for anyone who would confess his name and believe that God raised him from the dead. (Romans 10:9).
Hebrews tells us that for every believer, that work of Christ is done.
He offered one sacrifice for our sins forever and now sits on God’s right hand, his intercession flows from a finished atonement. (Hebrews 10:12-13)
…Intercession flows from a finished atonement…
Here’s what I think that means in a simplistic way. When the spirit convicted me of my sin and I turned to Jesus, the one who offered his life in payment for my sin, I gave my life to him. The finished work of Jesus’ atonement was that moment when he Jesus, sitting at the right hand of God, whispered in the Father’s ear, “Yes, I died for Kirk. His debt has been paid.” Because Jesus interceded on my behalf, God’s poured out his grace on me.
Christ’s intercession for salvation seems pretty straightforward to me. This next part takes me deeper.
Jesus’ intercession on my behalf doesn’t end at that moment of salvation. It continues through sanctification, that beautiful church word that means the process of being made holy…the ongoing, Spirit-enabled transformation of a believer into Christlikeness.
It is that work for which Christ continuously intercedes on our behalf. Hear this word from Hebrews.
Therefore, he is able to save completely (literally, to the uttermost, to the end) those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them. (Hebrews 7:25)
Did you hear that?
…he always lives to intercede…
Christ intercedes to sustain our life in Christ to ensure we don’t collapse under pressure. To guarantee that repentance remains possible even after our failure to live up to his calling. To ensure our continued spiritual growth even amid our own weaknesses. Simply put, Christ intercedes to ensure that our standing with God remains intact while we are being transformed.
This is not a second or recurring atonement. It is a picture of Jesus remaining our advocate, presenting his finished work on our behalf, ensuring that our access to the Father never ends. After I am saved, I still sin. I still need forgiveness in real time. I still live in a broken world. Jesus stands in my corner as my advocate before God, pleading my case.
Hebrews 7:24 is a clear statement of Jesus’ continuous intercession. His work covers the full scope of salvation, not just our initial forgiveness and our becoming more like Christ, but our ongoing security and relationship to God for all eternity.
Maybe the concept is more simple than I first thought. The Holy Spirit’s intercession is experiential. He is at work within us, helping us in our weaknesses in prayer and aligning our hearts with the heart of God. Jesus’ intercession is positional. He represents us before God, securing our standing with him based upon his finished work.
As a former public relations practitioner, I understand the intercession of the spirit and of Christ a little more clearly than I once did. The spirit is my spokesperson who speaks on my behalf when I am unable or unwilling to speak for myself, even when I’m not sure what to say.
Christ speaks for us both when we fail to do things right and when we manage by God’s grace to follow him. He frames our lives in a way that reflects the intentions, values and strengths of Christ himself, even while acknowledging before God the mistakes we’ve made. Both the spirit and Christ, intercede to help us grow in our relationship to God as they transform us into the image of Christ.
We could ask for no better advocates.
Thinking Points
Most of us have found ourselves unable to pray because we did not know what to say or what we should ask for? What has happened once, will happen again. How does Romans 8:26-27 bring comfort in those moments?
How does the Holy Spirit’s intercession help you trust that God is working for your good, even when circumstances feel unclear or painful?
What difference does it make to know that Jesus is not only risen and exalted, but also actively interceding for you?
How does Christ’s ongoing intercession shape your understanding of forgiveness, sanctification, and your secure relationship with God?
In what ways does the image of the Spirit and Christ as advocates deepen your confidence as you approach God in prayer?