An Eternal Family Argument?

For a really long time, I believed that God & Jesus were not in agreement about me.

Jesus loves me this I know, but God, well, He had to accept me, technically, because of Jesus and the cross and all that jazz, but He didn’t have to be excited about it. He was so not excited about it, in fact, that I needed Jesus up there in heaven constantly interceding for me, which, I was taught, meant He was being my eternal defense attorney.

Cut to a clip from that one Carmen music video (IYKYK)

I had a theology of divine toleration, but certainly not divine favor.

Salvation? Sure. Grace? Not so much.

Hebrews 7:25 does say that Jesus lives forever to intercede on our behalf, but the idea that the intercession is a constant court room drama is not only bad contextual interpretation, but also, woefully short of the grandness of the truth found in the passage. Not to mention, it would mean that there is an eternal family argument going on within the Trinity.

The Greek word used here for intercede is entygxánō which means “to make intercession.” What’s intriguing to me is that the root of this word is tygxánō, which means “to obtain by hitting the mark.” One word lexicon notes that it is sometimes used in classical Greek as the antonym of the word we find throughout the New Testament used for “sin” which is harmartia (to miss the mark).

“Ok, that’s a lot of big words, Jess, what are you getting at?”

Christ lives forever as the antonym of sin for us, in us, with us.

It’s not about Jesus arguing something on your behalf. It’s about Jesus BEING something on your behalf.

The opposite of sin. The antidote for sin. Sin’s saboteur. The bulls-eye hitter.

“Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.” (Hebrews 7:25 CSB)

He is able to save us perfectly because He always lives to hit the mark on our behalf.

Jesus’ intersession is not about convincing a God opposed to us to accept us, but rather, the beautiful reality that the God of the universe is perpetually, forever, for us.

Jesus is not begging the Father to forgive you.
He is seated beside Him as the living proof that forgiveness is finished.

The Trinity is all in agreement on the matter. You’re allowed to believe it too.