An Intercessory Prayer for the Elect (3)

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. Luke 23:34

The reader who sent in a question concerning this text, phrased the matter this way: "This verse seems to have two problems associated with it: (1) It seems as if Christ is asking his Father to forgive all who hear him, indiscriminately. Does this mean therefore that Christ wants all who hear, indiscriminately, to be saved? Do we preach the gospel in this manner? (2) Christ seems to be suggesting that the people do not know what they are doing, and so therefore are not responsible for their actions. Is this really so?"

In our last two articles we answered the first question which is quoted above; in this article we propose to answer the second question: "Christ seems to be suggesting that the people do not know what they are doing, and so therefore are not responsible for their actions. Is this really so?"

In the last article we suggested that the conclusion of the reader to this question was true in a certain sense. To this we now turn.

It is, of course, not true at all that those who crucified Christ did not have any idea of what they were doing. They surely knew that Christ was the Son of God. Christ had repeatedly claimed this for Himself not only, but the chief grounds of Christ's condemnation by the Sanhedrin had been exactly His claim to be God's eternal Son.

They knew that Christ had gone about the land doing good; that He had not ever committed so much as one tiny sin; that He had done nothing worthy of death; that, in fact, He had preached the gospel of the kingdom and supported His claims to be the One Who brought the kingdom by many wonderful miracles.

They knew all this. Not only the leaders of the Jews knew this, but the common people also knew all these things -- although surely some understood them better than others. Jesus does not refer here to complete ignorance of their foul and vile deed.

But Scripture makes a distinction. It makes a distinction between knowing that Christ is the eternal Son of God, and knowing that Christ came to make atonement for sin by His death on the cross. Of the latter the people were ignorant. It is one thing to crucify the Son of God even though those who crucify Him know Who He is. It is quite another matter to reject Him and crucify Him knowing that in Him was accomplished atonement. For the first sin there is forgiveness. For the second sin there is not.

This ignorance is referred to in other parts of Scripture. In Acts 3:17 Peter tells his audience on Pentecost that they crucified Christ "through ignorance . . . , as did also your rulers." Paul claims a similar ignorance when in I Tim. 1:13 he says of himself, "Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief."

Scripture does not mean to say that crucifying Christ is not a horrible sin. It is indeed almost the greatest sin man can commit, and it is the culmination, the full realization of the desperately wicked depravity of the human heart.

But there is one sin yet greater: that sin is knowing that Christ died on the cross to make atonement for sin, and even confessing that truth for a while, but then rejecting that truth, denying the blood of atonement, and crucifying the Son of God afresh (See Hebrews 6:4-6).

This is the sin referred to in Hebrews 10:26, 27: "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." And even more: "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" (Heb. 10:28, 29).

So Christ's prayer, answered already at Calvary, was for those who were at the moment of the crucifixion engaged in the terrible work of crucifying Christ. But that same prayer is for all God's people for whom Christ died. In a sense we are all at Calvary represented by that blood-thirsty mob which screamed for Christ's death. For it is our corruption and depravity which is expressed in all its grim reality at Calvary. And for us all Christ prays, because our sin, horrible as it is, is not a crucifying of the Son of God afresh -- as Heb. 6 calls it. Christ prays for forgiveness therefore, not on the grounds of our ignorance, but on the grounds of our forgiveableness.

This prayer is the beginning of Christ's great Highpriestly prayer for His people. It is begun on Calvary; it continues into eternity. It is on the ground of His perfect sacrifice. It is made to the Father that we may be forgiven. It is made that all our sins may be forgiven, because our sin of crucifying Christ is the greatest of them all.

But it is at the same time a serious warning. To confess Christ and His atoning sacrifice, and then to deny it is a horrible sin -- for which there is no forgiveness; for it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31).