CHAPTER 8: Of Christ the Mediator
(Parts Five & Six)
Jesus, the eternal Son of God, was, and is, both God and man; having both natures in One Person. He was like no other man who ever lived (Matthew 8:27). Besides having a divine nature, He was filled with the Holy Spirit as no other man ever was or will be: “holy, harmless, undefiled” (Hebrews 7:26), and “full of grace and truth” (John 1:17). When it was time to execute the office of Mediator, He did so willingly, not of His own accord alone, but in obedience to the will of His Father (John 5:19).
As the Mediator, He fulfilled the Law for those He represents (Matthew 5:17). He underwent the punishment due those He came to save (Romans 4:25, Matthew 1:21). Though He “knew no sin,” He was “made sin” and was a “accursed” for His elect (2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 3:13). He endured not only the hatred of the Jewish religious elite, but also the wrath of Rome as He was beaten, mocked, and scorned. Yet these were nothing compared to His death on the cross where He received the unbridled wrath of His Father for the sin and guilt of His people.
While dead for three days, He experienced no corruption and on the third day He arose from the dead with the same body in which He suffered (John 2:19-21), with which He also ascended into Heaven (Luke 24:51, Acts 1:9-11), where he continues as Mediator, ever interceding for His own (Hebrews 7:25).
(Part Six)
We were all born with two BIG problems. The first is that our sin condemns us (Romans 3:23, 6:23). The second is that even if our sins were forgiven, we lack righteousness (Romans 3:10). Jesus, our perfect Mediator, has addressed and overcome both of those problems. How?
First, by His active obedience to do the Father’s will throughout His sinless life, Jesus earned the reward that He would give to the righteous, if there were any righteous—which there are not. Second, by His passive obedience Jesus subjected Himself to death on the cross, by which He purchased complete forgiveness for all sins of those He came to save.
By these two acts of obedience, our Mediator made His people “not guilty” and altogether “righteous” in the eyes of God. God’s justice regarding our sins has been satisfied, and His requirement of righteousness has been met—not by us, but by Jesus on our behalf.
Our Mediator will one day return to earth as Judge of all people. Those who have sinned (all men) and who have rejected God’s one and only Mediator, will be assigned their place in the eternal lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). Those who have sinned (all men) but who have received God’s one and only Mediator as Savior and Lord, will be gathered by Christ and will be delivered safely into Heaven for eternity as both “not guilty,” and as “righteous as Christ is righteous.”