“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 26 In that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you; –27)

Don’t make God’s Son more of a Mediator than he is.

Jesus says: “I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf.” In other words, I’m not going to insert myself between you and the Father, as though you can’t go to him directly. Why? “The Father himself loves you.”

This is astonishing. Jesus is warning us not to think of God Almighty as unwilling to receive us directly into his presence. By “directly” I mean what Jesus meant when he said, “I am not going to take your requests to God for you. You may take them directly. He loves you. He wants you to come. He is not angry at you.”

It is absolutely true that no sinful human being has any access to the Father except through Jesus’s blood ( Hebrews 10:19 19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, –20). He intercedes for us now ( Romans 8:34 34 who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. ; Hebrews 7:25 25 Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. ). He is our advocate with the Father now ( 1 John 2:1 Chapter 2 1 My little children, these things write I unto you that ye may not sin. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: ). He is our High Priest before the throne of God now ( Hebrews 4:15 15 For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as `we are, yet' without sin. –16). He said, “No one comes to the Father except through me” ( John 14:6 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me. ).

Yes. But Jesus is protecting us from taking his intercession too far. “I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you.” Jesus is there. He is providing an ever-present, ever-living witness to the removal of the Father’s wrath from us.

But he is not there to talk for us, or to keep us at a distance from the Father, or to suggest that the Father’s heart is guarded toward us or disinclined to us — hence the words, “For the Father himself loves you.”

So, come. Come boldly ( Hebrews 4:16 16 Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help `us' in time of need. ). Come expectantly. Come expecting a smile. Come trembling with joy, not dread.

Jesus is saying, “I have made a way to God. Now I am not going to get in the way.” Come.