“Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. . . . Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
The Lord Jesus is the better covenant. He is better than anything we can imagine or embrace or discover. He is able to save to the uttermost. Matthew Henry defines uttermost as “in all times, in all cases, in every juncture.” I think that I get confused or stopped in embracing this concept by an earlier, and wrong, understanding of saved. Salvation isn’t just about a one-time decision where the Lord saves me one time. It is about what He is doing in my life right now, all the time, everyday. He can save me in all times, both from my sin and from myself. He can save me at every juncture, in every circumstance. And He will save me in all cases when I come to God through Him.
I think, for me, there are times when I think He either can’t or won’t save me. But according to the writer of Hebrews, the Lord Jesus always lives to make intercession for me. John 1:3 tells us that it was through the Lord Jesus, as the Word of God, that all things were made. But now, His purpose—creation having stopped after the sixth day—is to make intercession for me. For me! It’s an amazing thought. The Lord Jesus stands at the throne of God and always is there to make intercession for me, saving me in all times, in all cases, and at every juncture.
The question, for me, then becomes whether or not I have the willingness to allow Him to save me or whether I think I can do a better job on my own. There are times—I know there are—when I think that He just isn’t doing a good enough job because the direction His will is taking me can’t possibly be truly saving me. And I take control and go in a different direction. And yet, His ability to save is never absent and His willingness to save is never lacking. He is always able to save and He always wants to save! I keep going back to Romans 8:28: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” God is working all things together for my good. Even the things I mess up. Even the times I sin. He is still working all of that together for my good. As long as I love Him (Romans 8:28) and come to God through the Lord Jesus (Hebrews 7:25), I have that promise.
Father God has promised us this salvation in the very body of His Son. We don’t think much about sureties or even promises these days. We promise, but if keeping that promise becomes difficult, we often step away from the promise, believing that the person we promised should understand that the promise was obviously conditional upon our ability to keep the promise. Fortunately, God doesn’t make promises like that. Father God promised us a better covenant, a better means of salvation, and then gave the Lord Jesus as the surety or guarantee of that promise. In other words, the Lord Jesus is not only the proof, but the Person Who guarantees that the promise will be kept. And that surety or guarantee was provided through His very body and blood. So even if God were inclined (which He would never be) to back out on this covenant, He can’t because of the Lord Jesus. God backed up His own promise with Himself!
We can look around at all the other philosophies and ideas in the world that deal with religious concepts and realize that there is nothing that comes close to this idea. There is no other religion that boasts this kind of promise. The only part of our salvation that is dependent upon us is coming to God through Jesus; the rest is completely dependent upon God and has been guaranteed through the body of His Son. It is an amazing thing, a gift that I need to cherish everyday: the idea that the Lord Jesus is standing at the Throne, interceding for me, that He died for me, that He is both my guarantor and guarantee, that He is able to save me to the uttermost.
© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.
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