A Great Song With A Great Message

Before the Throne of God Above
Charitie Lees Bancroft - 1841-1923

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea:
a great High Priest, whose name is Love,
who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on his hands,
my name is written on his heart;
I know that while in heaven he stands
no tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair,
and tells me of the guilt within,
upward I look, and see him there
who made an end of all my sin.

Because the sinless Savior died,
my sinful soul is counted free;
for God, the Just, is satisfied
to look on him and pardon me.

Behold him there! the risen Lamb!
My perfect, spotless Righteousness,t
he great unchangeable I AM,
the King of glory and of grace!

One with himself, I cannot die;
my soul is purchased by his blood;
my life is hid with Christ on high,
with Christ, my Savior and my God.

I have a new favorite worship song (new? Lyrics written over 100 years ago!). This is a really powerful song, which we sang Sunday, rich with Biblical allusions. The word that comes to mind when singing this is: intercession. Perhaps, intercession is not a word that we use very often when speaking about Christ as Savior. Yet the ministry of intercession is integral to who Christ is, what he did and how we are saved. What does it mean for Christ to intercede for us?
First of all, intercession is necessary because humanity is dead in our sin, alienated from God, and lives in rebellion to Him. Psalm 130:3 puts it well: “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?" We know the obvious answer. Therefore, we see our need for one to go before the Father and intercede on our behalf for the salvation of our souls. This is one of the roles of Christ. Yet, God the Father is a just and righteous God and so he cannot simply disregard our sin. Our sin must be atoned for and we must also obtain some more positive active righteousness whereby we can then be seen as worthy to be in God’s presence. Scripture teaches that Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God came to this earth and lived the perfect life which met the righteous demands of God. Not only this but he suffered, died and rose to life in order to make atonement for our sin. It is then these two things, Christ’s life of righteousness and his “death as substitute” which become the basis for his intercession before the Father on our behalf. So we see then how Christ’s life, death and resurrection are intimately connected with his role as intercessor. Those for whom Christ lived and died are those for whom he intercedes before the Father. Let me share with you a passage from Hebrews 7:25 which clearly bring out this point: “…he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them”. I also like how John puts it in 1 John 2:1, “we have one who speaks to the father on our behalf.”
Turning more specifically to the song, we see the emphasis upon Christ as intercessor from the very first line, “before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea, a great high priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me.” The second and third verses beautifully fill out the understanding of Christ bearing on his body the penalty for our sin and also achieving for us a righteousness which we then obtain only by faith.
One final thing about this song is the line, “my name is graven on His hands, my name is written on His heart”. This line comes from Isaiah 49:16, where God says of Israel, “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” This is a profound statement in light of the Ancient Near East culture. The pagan religions of that day would carve the names of their gods into their flesh. This is similar to what we find with the prophets of Baal when they confront Elijah in the contest they had. The ironic thing is that this grotesque picture of utter devotion for the pagan religions is exactly the thing which our God says he has done with those whom he loves. He has quite literally, written our names upon the palms of his hands. This is the message of the good news and the reason why we sing. Sorry for the long blog, but may you sing that song with a new devotion to our intercessor!