The Need for a Mediator

Now that resurrection Sunday 2015 has been celebrated, let us live everyday never forgetting where we came from and mostly let us never forgot what Christ did for us. Due to the fall of man in the Garden, all mankind has paid the price for Adam's act of treason, "just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men." (Romans 5:12) Man has lost his approach to God and is described by Paul as "without Christ...having no hope and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12) Think about this. Man without Christ is hopeless, Godless, and in the world where Satan has the power of death. (Hebrews 2:14)

To take this sorrow even further, man is described as having become a partaker of Satan's nature. He is not only a subject of Satan politically, but he is vitally united with him. Jesus pointed this out to the Pharisees when they feverishly tried to defend their self-righteousness, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it." (John 8:44)

Job had a startling encounter that also reveals man's state without a mediator before God, "Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it. In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair on my body stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence; then I heard a voice saying: Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?" (Job 4:12-17) 

This is the age old problem. This is the eternal problem that has confronted the thinking man of all ages. Can mortal man be justified or acquitted before God? Shall fallen man be pure in the presence of his Maker? Job also paints  a graphic picture of an aged man on his death-bed facing eternity and the approach of judgment. Job continues and speaks out of the agony within his soul. "Now my days are swifter than a runner; they flee away, they see no good. They pass by like swift ships, like an eagle swooping on its prey. If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face and wear a smile, I am  afraid of all my sufferings; I know that You will not hold me innocent. If I am condemned, why then do I labor in vain? If I wash myself with snow water, and cleanse my hands with soap, yet You will plunge me into the pit, and my own clothes (self-righteousness) will abhor me." (Job 9:25-31)  

Job knows that he cannot face God, for God is not mortal and He is not under the bondage and guilt of sin as Job is. Job then utters the saddest words that ever fell from the lips of a human. "There is no mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both." (Job 9:33) In other words, there is no Mediator between man and God who has a legal standing with God and at the same time can sympathize, understand and represent man. This is Job's cry for a mediator. But it is not the cry of Job alone. It is the age old cry of man, who in vain has worked hard to sooth their guilty sin laden conscience by creating various religions and or acts of the flesh. Some of the ways man has tried to appease his conscience come in the form of so called Christian cults such as Russelism, Mormonism and Christian Science. Others such as, eastern religions of idolatry, human and animal sacrifices and the beating of the flesh. Worshipers of Satan as well as others who go about committing murder and mayhem in the name of Allah which are considered good works. 

All of these twisted means are an attempt to get right with God. However, even in all of these things, God's character has not changed and man's fallen nature is still the same. Man today can no more approach God without a Mediator than he could throughout his entire history. Some men will even tell us that if they live a good moral life, that this is all God can require of them, and that if there is a heaven they have as much right to it as those who trust in the merits of Jesus of Nazareth, the one and only Mediator. Paul tells us, "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Timothy 2:5-6) Peter tells us, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

Only the people who have welcomed Jesus Christ as Savior and have received the life that He brings from God have an assured confidence that they can once again can approach God without guilt, condemnation or inferiority. Let no one deceive you. It is only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone that one can, "...come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16) "...and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 1:3) The writers of the Bible all teach one great truth, "Man needs a Mediator." Today, scholarship if it is scholarship, knowledge if it is real knowledge, should lead all minds to the same goal. "How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?" (Job 25:4) As with Job, it is still the cry of the human heart, man needs a Mediator and that Mediator is Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God.

Please take some time to ponder the words written here. There are people that you know who need Jesus the Mediator. He is the only one who can set people free from the guilt of sin. He is the only one whose sinless blood has paid in full the crimes of humanity. He is the only one who came to give life and give it abundantly. Never forget what He has done for you. So, now go and tell another person the Good News, Jesus is alive and "this is the promise that He has promised us, eternal life." (1 John 2:25) PTL...