To Pray in ’ Name Praying through Our High Priest Philip Graham Ryken

Seeing the sacrificial basis for prayer helps us answer a question people often ask; does God hear the prayers of the ungodly, or does he only listen to Christians? To put the question another way, does God pay any attention to Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and others who do not call on him in the name of Jesus ?

There is a sense in which God hears everyone’s prayers. He is omniscient (all-knowing). Therefore, nothing that anyone ever says escapes his notice. Not one cry for help, not one desperate plea, not one invocation of his divine name (whether in blessing or as a curse) ever goes unnoticed. God hears everything. Of course he does! However, that really is not the question. The question is whether or not he receives every prayer with the same fatherly concern. What does it take for God to accept someone’s prayers?

To answer this question, we need to remember that access to God in prayer depends on having atonement for our sins. Sin separates us from God. We cannot have fellowship with a holy God in prayer unless something is done about the penalty we deserve for our sin. We need forgiveness through the blood of a sacrifice.

So where is our sacrifice? The Israelites offered their sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. But the only sacrifice available for us today is the one that Jesus offered when he suffered and died for our sins on the cross. The Scripture says, “We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh” (Hebrews 10:19,20). When Jesus died on the cross, he was opening the way for us to come to God in prayer.

This explains why Christians always pray “in Jesus’ name,” This is not simply a way of signing off, like “sincerely yours.” Rather, it establishes the basis for our praying to God at all. Jesus Christ has atoned for our sins through his death on the cross; therefore we are able to come to God in prayer. It is the blood of his sacrifice that sprinkles the sweet altar of our prayers.

John Newton wrote about this in one of his famous hymns. The hymn begins with an invitation to prayer, based on what the priests used to do in the tabernacle:

Approach, my soul, the mercy seat Where Jesus answers prayer;

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There humbly fall before his feet, For none can perish there.

But what gives us the right to come to God in prayer? Only the atonement that Jesus made for our sins by dying on the cross. So Newton ends by praising Christ for his saving work:

O wondrous love! To bleed and die, To bear the cross and shame, That guilty sinners, such as I, Might plead thy gracious name!

God accepts our prayers when we approach him in the name of Jesus Christ, claiming his atoning death as the basis for our access to his throne of grace. When we come to God in Christ, he will hear all our prayers!

As we come to God in prayer, it is important to realize that Jesus is no longer on the cross. He was raised from the dead, he ascended into Heaven, and now he sits at God’s right hand, where he presents our prayers to God. One of the most important things we learn from the tabernacle in the wilderness is that Jesus is our great High Priest. If the Israelites wanted a relationship with God, they had to go through Aaron. But now that God has sent Jesus to be our priest, we deal with God directly, and we do not need any other priest.

This has special importance when we pray because it means that our prayers go straight to God. One of the priestly duties Jesus performs for us is to present our prayers to God. He is always interceding for us (Hebrews 7:25), constantly appearing for us in God’s presence (Hebrews 9:24). What, exactly, does Jesus do there?

One thing he does is to claim that we have forgiveness for our sins. The says, “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1b, 2a). Jesus serves as our advocate, our defence attorney. Whenever we sin, he speaks on our behalf, securing our forgiveness on the basis of his sacrifice. It is only by the merits of Christ that God receives our prayers. In her book Gold by Moonlight, Amy Carmichael writes:

I did not fully understand the Divine simplicity of the words “And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the , ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand,” till I saw incense used, as it has been from time immemorial in India, in simple household ways. You throw a few grains on burning charcoal and a column of smoke rises straight up. Anyone coming into the room notices the fragrance long after the smoke has disappeared. It fills the

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room, floats out through the open doors and windows, and for an hour or so, if the air be still, you are still aware of it about the house. I never watch that white column of smoke, laden with its own peculiar fragrance, without a grateful thought of that of which it is the figure. There is nothing in our prayers that would cause them to rise. But they are cleansed and perfumed and lifted. It is all of Him who ever liveth to make for us.

By his intercession Jesus ensures that God hears our prayers. When we come to God through Christ, all our praises and petitions go straight to his throne of grace. Ultimately, this is what the altar of incense was intended to signify. As A. W. Pink has written, the altar portrays “the ministrations of our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Though He is now seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, yet He is not inactive. He is constantly engaged before God on behalf of His redeemed, presenting to the Father – in the sweet fragrance of His own perfections – both the petitions and worship of His people.”

By way of example, consider what the intercession of Christ means for the petitions we offer in the Lord’s Prayer. When we pray the way Jesus taught us to pray, all our petitions go straight to God. As soon as we say, “Our Father,” we are talking directly with the God of the universe. When we ask for his name to be hallowed, we are asking the thrice-holy God who is adored by angels. When we ask for his kingdom to come, we are asking the God who rules over every authority in Heaven and on earth. When we ask for his will to be done, we are asking the God “who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11). When we ask for our daily bread, we are asking the God of all providence. When we ask for our debts to be forgiven, we are asking the God who sent his Son to pay for our sins. When we ask him to deliver us from the evil one, we are asking the God who “will soon crush Satan under [our] feet” (Romans 16:20a).

This is a lot to ask for! Nevertheless, it all goes from our mouths to God’s ear, because Jesus has opened up the way. When we approach the throne of grace on the basis of the blood that Jesus shed on the cross for our sins, God hears all our prayers.

This article is an extract from Philip Graham Ryken’s commentary on Exodus in the Preaching the Word series, published by Crossway, dealing with Exodus chapter 30 under the heading Sweet Altar of Prayer, p880-882. One of our faithful members, Nicholas Boardman, kindly transcribed the section, having been so richly blessed in his reading of these pages.

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