"In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God." (John 16:26-27)
We often talk about Christ's intercession and rightly rejoice in that. We also rejoice that we can come into God's presence covered by Christ's righteousness and cleansed by his blood.
But it's amazing to understand what this does not mean. It does not entirely mean, as a wonderful friend recently prayed, that we thank God that when we pray God does not see us but only sees his Son. Don Carson comments:
Jesus wants his followers to understand that the phrase in my name does not mean that they are thereby distanced from God. It does not mean that they are restricted to asking Jesus for things... Far from it: the Father himself loves you, and needs no prompting from the Son.
John Calvin comments:
This is a remarkable passage, by which we are taught that we have the heart of God as soon as we place before Him the name of His Son.
I think that's fairly wonderful.
We get the best of both worlds. We get to come to the Father ourselves and be heard by him because of his love for us AND Jesus himself, as he does a few verses later in John 17, prays for us. So that we are not alone, and don't need to fear that if we forget to confess one particular sin, or pray for our neighbour's salvation that God's good plan for his people will fail.
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