Consequently, 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.
The intercession that saves is his, and it does not end.
Week 2 of 4
One mediator
You pray for your house. You do not stand between them and God.
He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.
Hebrews 7:25
A husband can hear “spiritual leader” and quietly become a priest his wife must go through. Scripture will not have it. There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He always lives to intercede. In John 17 he prays for his people, that the Father would keep them. Your prayers matter. They are the prayers of a brother and a husband who joins Christ’s intercession. They are not a second mediation. She does not need your permission to draw near. She needs a man who will pray, and who will get out of the way.
Scripture
Formal study reading, written for this series
Formal study reading, written for this series
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
One mediator. Do not add yourself.
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
Jesus prays for his own, and he prays that they be kept in the world, not removed from it.
NASB, the Amplified, and the ESV open on Bible Hub. The Legacy Standard Bible opens on its own reader. Close, Expanded, and Easy on this page are original study readings. WEB is the World English Bible, public domain.
Join the intercession. Do not replace it.
Hebrews 7 ties salvation and intercession together in Christ. To draw near through him is the whole access. A husband’s prayers are priestly only in the way every believer’s are, a holy priesthood of offering spiritual sacrifices, not a household clergy that outranks his wife’s access. If she is in Christ, she draws near. If she is not, you still do not become the door. You pray, you speak the gospel, and Christ remains the mediator.
John 17 keeps intercession from becoming escapism or control. Jesus does not ask that they be removed from the world. He asks that they be kept from the evil one. Pray that way for your wife and your children: kept, not managed; guarded, not used as the proof of your spirituality. Name them. Then trust the one who always lives to pray.
In the house
Check the way you talk about “covering” the home. If it means she cannot pray, decide, or disagree until you have blessed it, repent of a second mediation. Pray for her. Ask her how she is actually seeking the Lord. Receive the answer.
This week, intercede in the shape of John 17: keep them from the evil one, in this actual world — the job, the child, the fear — not a prayer that they become easier for you.
Seven days
At the table
- 1Have you acted as if your wife’s access to God runs through you?
- 2What do your prayers try to take her out of, instead of asking that she be kept?
- 3Do you trust Christ’s intercession enough to stop hovering?
- 4Where should you pray harder and control less?
Your note
Stays on this device. No account.
A prayer
Lord Jesus, you are the one mediator, and you live to intercede. I have wanted a priesthood you did not give me. Forgive me for standing in the doorway. I pray for my wife and my children: keep them from the evil one, in this world, in this week. I draw near through you, and I will not block anyone else from doing the same. Amen.