Commenting on the intercession of Christ and its salvific efficacy, Reformed Protestant Patrick Schreiner wrote:
While we
have a better priest (person) and better tent (place), priests were chiefly
defined by their actions. Priests were taken from among men, but
appointed to act on behalf of humanity by offering gifts and sacrifices.
High priests chiefly offered sacrifices for the people on the Day of Atonement.
Priests
in the Old Testament went behind the curtain to bring Israel with them. They entered
because of the sacrifice they offered. In the same way, Jesus’ intercession is
based on his sacrificial work on the cross. One aspect of Jesus’ priestly
service includes intercession—but intercession does not exist unaccompanied. As
with Moses, the Levites, and David, ascending and interceding only happens
after sacrifice. Intercession therefore is built on a more foundational
reality: sacrifice. Atonement is the groundwork on which intercession stands.
Jesus
does not sacrifice himself again in heaven; rather, he presents the
blood already sacrificed. His death was a single offering (Heb 7:27; 9:28;
10:12, 14). He enters into the throne room, behind the veil, with his
bloodstained body. Priests in the Old Testament came into the presence of God
with blood splattered on the curtains, their robes, and bodies. In the same way,
Jesus comes covered in blood before the Father, thereby completing his act of
atonement. In this manner, the ascension does not move past the cross but puts
the cross ever before our eyes. By faith we too look up and see Christ’s
sacrifice for us.
Christ’s
sacrificial presentation therefore restores the broken covenant between God and
humanity, and creates an intimate union between God and his people. We enjoy
the benefits of the Father’s love and presence as Jesus does in heaven because
we are united to Jesus. Torrance writes, “Christ was once and for
all sacrificed in our stead on the Cross but he has ascended into the Holy
Place and ever lives to present Himself (and us in Him because of
Himself for us) before the face of the Father” (Thomas F. Torrance, Royal
Priesthood: A Theology of Ordained Ministry [Edinburgh: T&T Clark,
2003], 14-15, 17).
If Jesus
were to leave heaven, then the pledge of our salvation would be removed. If
Jesus is not in God’s presence on our behalf, then we are not in God’s
presence. Our presence before God is Christ’s presence before God. To put this
more pointedly, without the Messiah’s ascent, we are not in the covenantal
presence of God. The ascent is good news because Jesus intercedes for his
people at the right hand of God and ever brings us with him on his breastplate
before the Father. (Patrick Schreiner, The Ascension of Christ: Recovering a
Neglected Doctrine [Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2020], 63-64, emphasis
in bold added)
