Calvin on Prayer -- Christ's Mediation Is the Basis for Intercession

20. Christ is the eternal and abiding Mediator

Calvin was concerned about an error in his day which held that Christ was mediator, but left “intercession” (prayer on behalf of others) to believers. Elsewhere, Calvin speaks of the “Sophists” (the Roman theology professors at the Sorbonne in Paris) as “sporting with Scripture.” Here he speaks of their denial of Christ’s on-going intercession on behalf of believers as “nonsense.” He even mocks them for not giving Jesus the full honor due him.

This babbling of the Sophists is mere nonsense: that Christ is the Mediator of redemption, but believers are mediators of intercession. As if Christ had performed a mediation in time only to lay upon his servants the eternal and undying mediation! They who cut off so slight a portion of honor from him are, of course, treating him gently!

To refute such nonsense Calvin appeals to Scripture—citing those texts which teach what the Sophists deny, namely that Christ is mediator and intercessor.

Yet Scripture speaks far differently, disregarding these deceivers, and with a simplicity that ought to satisfy a godly man. For when John says, “If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Christ Jesus” [1 John 2:1], does he mean that Christ was an advocate for us once for all, or does he not rather ascribe to him a constant intercession? Why does Paul affirm that he “sits at the right hand of the Father and also intercedes for us” [Rom. 8:34]? But when, in another passage, Paul calls him “the sole mediator between God and man” [1 Tim. 2:5], is he not referring to prayers, which were mentioned shortly before [1 Tim. 2:1–2]? For, after previously saying that intercession is to be made for all men, Paul, to prove this statement, soon adds that “there is one God, and … one mediator” [1 Tim. 2:5].

Calvin cites a favorite of the Sophists (Augustine) to make his point, before appealing to additional texts from Paul.

Augustine similarly explains it when he says: “Christian men mutually commend one another by their prayers. However, it is he for whom no one intercedes, while he intercedes for all, who is the one true Mediator.” The apostle Paul, although an eminent member under the Head, yet because he was a member of Christ’s body, and knew that the greatest and truest priest of the church had not figuratively entered the inner precincts of the veil to the Holy of Holies but through express and steadfast truth had entered the inner precincts of heaven to a holiness real and eternal, also commends himself to the prayers of believers [Rom. 15:30; Eph. 6:19; Col. 4:3].

Our intercession on behalf of others is effectual only because Christ is the head of the church and as mediator he intercedes on our behalf to the Father thereby making our intercessory prayers effectual. Intercessory prayer is only effectual because of Christ’s mediation.

And he does not make himself mediator between the people and God, but he asks that all members of Christ’s body mutually pray for one another, “since the members are concerned for one another, and if one member suffers, the rest suffer with it” [1 Cor. 12:25–26]. And thus the mutual prayers for one another of all members yet laboring on earth rise to the Head, who has gone before them into heaven, in whom “is propitiation for our sins” [1 John 2:2]. For if Paul were mediator, so also would the rest of the apostles be; and if there were many mediators, Paul’s own statement would not stand, in which he had said: “One God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ” [1 Tim. 2:5], “in whom we also are one” [Rom. 12:5], “if we maintain unity of faith in the bond of peace” [Eph. 4:3]. Likewise, in another passage Augustine says: “But if you seek a priest, he is above the heavens, where he is making intercession for you, who died for you on earth.” [Cf. Heb. 7:26 ff.]

It is Jesus, as our mediator and intercessor, who brings our prayers before the Father.

But we do not imagine that he, kneeling before God, pleads as a suppliant for us; rather, with the apostle we understand he so appears before God’s presence that the power of his death avails as an everlasting intercession in our behalf [cf. Rom. 8:34], yet in such a way that, having entered the heavenly sanctuary, even to the consummation of the ages [cf. Heb. 9:24 ff.], he alone bears to God the petitions of the people, who stay far off in the outer court.

Institutes. 3.2.20