In our current series we’ve been going through an old list of questions and answers contained in the Westminster Larger Catechism published in 1648. Recently we’ve learnt about the covenant of grace by which God forgives sin and grants eternal life. This week I want to show you that there is a mediator of the covenant of grace.
A mediator is someone who acts as a link between two groups and oversees negotiations between the two parties.
Now as we have seen, a covenant is a promise between two groups and therefore it is natural that a mediator would be involved. This is even more apparent when we consider that the covenant of grace is a covenant between a holy God and sinful creatures. Just as you (probably) don’t have the status to waltz into the presence of the Queen of England, so you don’t have the status to waltz into the presence of God. Your sin has tainted your character and God is wrathful toward you.
Yet God uses a mediator to extend to you a covenant of grace to grant you eternal life, in spite of your sinfulness.
So who is the mediator of the covenant of grace? The Lord Jesus Christ. Paul writes: ‘For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men–the testimony given in its proper time’ (1 Timothy 2:5-6). The author of Hebrews agrees and says that Christians have come ‘to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant’ (Hebrews 12:24).
Thus Jesus becomes what Job cried out for. Job was a man in the Old Testament who experienced great suffering and was not able to see why. Yet Job recognises he cannot just go into God’s presence demanding answers. Speaking about God, Job says: ‘He is not a man like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court. If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot’ (Job 9:21-35).
So do you have what Job cried out for? The mediator Jesus Christ to go between you and God?
Joel Radford, Preaching Elder.
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