Of First Importance

“Jesus’ intercession . . . is his identification and involvement with the will of the Father. If we started with Jesus as the ultimate word of God to humankind, the Word incarnate, we now see him in his exaltation as the ultimate word of humankind to God. His resurrection has shown that he is the perfectly acceptable advocate for sinners. His very presence with the Father pleads our cause, but pleads it from the God who loves to give his true children what they ask. Since this role of Jesus is from start to finish on our account, it gives us confidence to ‘draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith’ (Heb. 10:22).”

- Graeme Goldsworthy, Prayer and the Knowledge of God (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2003), 35.

“Jesus is not only the Word of God who has come in the flesh, but as the true image of God he speaks the truly human word to the Father in heaven. . . .     

We conclude that God speaks within himself before anything else exists and that, before human beings existed, the prior word spoken to God the Father is the word of God the Son. As the one who spoke to his Father before the creation, and as the God-Man who spoke to his Father in heaven, he becomes our focus for understanding the reality of prayer as a human address to God. . . .    

The fact that the Son of God is at the same time God the Son incarnate shows that discourse in prayer reflects or images the divine discourse that characterizes the relationships within the Trinity.”    

- Graeme Goldsworthy, Prayer and the Knowledge of God (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2003), 23, 28.