ONE MEDIATOR.
There is "one mediator between God and men, the man [Greek anthropos--human being] Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom [Greek antilutron --a corresponding price] for all."-- 1 Tim. 2:5,6.
The Greek word translated Mediator in this text is mesites, and has the significance of the English word mediator, viz., "middle man," or reconciler, or, as defined by Webster, "one who interposes between parties at variance for the purpose of reconciling them."
On this subject there are two views, both of which we believe to be very erroneous. First, we mention the view growing popular recently among so-called advanced thinkers, viz., that God, after trying to secure man's attention and love and reconciliation for four thousand years with very little success, changed his plan of operations and sent Jesus to entreat for him with mankind and to win man's love over to God, that thus reconciliation between God and men might be effected. They take this view because a false theory compels it; their theory being that God has nothing against mankind that would require a Mediator to adjust and settle, while mankind has supposed grievances against God which the Mediator was needed to dispel. This class, for the same reason, find no meaning or sense in the Scriptural statement that Jesus was a ransom for all men. They claim that God required no ransom for sinners, but was so full of love for men that he could not permit his justice to act in opposition to them; that God's love over-mastered his justice.
This theory makes void the ransom, and the atonement through it, in a most deceptive manner, because it pretends to accept all the Scriptural statements on these subjects, though it as really opposes and makes void the Scriptures on these subjects as do open infidels.
Its influence is really more misleading than theirs. But not only does such a theory make void the ransom, but it is totally unreasonable of itself, being in opposition to all the known facts.
Facts testify in hundreds of ways that "the wrath of God" rests upon the race. Sickness, pain and death, pestilence, cyclones and earthquakes are facts however we may account for them. We must either conclude (1) that our Creator cannot prevent and remedy these evils, or (2) that he is careless of our welfare, or (3) these evils are permitted by him as a penalty for sins, and as a manifestation of his just wrath and righteous indignation therefor. We are not left to conjecture as to which of these views of the facts are correct; for the Bible not only assures us (1) that God is able to prevent evil, and has all power in heaven and in earth, and (2) that he is not careless and indifferent to the welfare of his creatures, and that he loves them; but (3) that death with all its attendant miseries and troubles, is the just penalty for sin, (Rom. 6:23; Deut. 32:45; Gen. 2:17; 3:17-19; Rom. 5:17-19.) and that exposure to the disorders of nature as experienced in earthquakes, cyclones, etc., are incidental adjuncts of the curse which came upon man as the just wages or recompense for the sin of their representative Adam, and are therefore evidences of divine disfavor or opposition.
That the Scriptures clearly state these facts to be evidences of the WRATH of God, should be known to all. The apostle speaking for himself and the Church, says, We "were by nature [through the fallen nature inherited] children of wrath even as others." (Eph. 2:3.) "For the wrath of God is revealed [displayed] from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness." (Rom. 1:18.) Not only is there the present general display of divine displeasure against the race, (death, etc.) but the Scriptures point to a "wrath to come," "a day of wrath and righteous judgment of God" (Rom. 2:5.) the great time of trouble in the end of this age. The wrath manifested in death, etc., for Adam's sin, is supplemented by that to come because of the wilfulness and perversity of Adam's fallen children.
Such as shall accept of Christ as their ransom, we are expressly told "shall be saved from wrath through him" (Rom. 5:9): while on such as believe not in the Redeemer "the wrath of God abideth" [continues]. (Jno. 3:36.) Such as now accept of Christ and become his obedient followers, are saved or delivered from wrath to come; and even now, though not delivered from present wrath and penalties of sin, they are assured of God's acceptance of the ransom and of his favor toward them and of a full release shortly from every vestige of the curse and wrath now resting on all. Thus by faith we reckon ourselves delivered or "saved from wrath through him" (Rom. 5:9.) whom God raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from wrath to come. 1 Thess. 1:10. The same word is rendered vengeance, Rom. 3:5. Is God unrighteous that taketh vengeance? Compare verses 23 to 26.
From these texts, as well as from the facts about us, slow indeed would be the mind, or obstinately obtuse the heart that would claim that the great Creator could not be angry under just and proper cause. It would be as improper for our Creator to refrain from righteous indignation and wrath when there is a just and proper cause, as it would be for him to be angry without a cause. He is angry with wickedness and sin every day (Psa. 7:11), and declares that ultimately, sin, and all who love it, shall be no more.
The same Greek word rendered "wrath" in the above texts, is rendered "angry" in Mark 3:5, "He [Jesus] looked about on them with ANGER, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts." This was proper anger, a righteous indignation at hypocrisy and wilful opposition to the light.
While God announces his anger, and shows its justice, he bids us beware of it, lest, because of our fallen condition, we err in judgment. We therefore recognizing ourselves as imperfect in judgment, are admonished to leave it for him who cannot err, and who says "Vengeance is mine I will repay." Hence we are exhorted to "put off all these--anger, wrath," etc., (Col. 3:8) and let all bitterness and wrath and anger... be put away from you," (Eph. 4:31.) and to be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." (James 1:19.) The Greek word used in these three illustrations referring to the Church is orge the same exactly as used above in referring to the "wrath" of Jehovah, and the "anger" of Jesus. The reason, as we have shown, is that we are not capable in our present fallen condition to judge our fallen fellow creatures; hence while God's wrath is a righteous indignation "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." (Jas. 1:20.) Hence the command, "Be ye angry and sin not." There may be instances of wrong and oppression when we should be angry, when to be otherwise minded would be wrong, and would show either a sympathy with the wrong, or a lazy fear of the result of opposing it. We must remember our own weakness and liability, and be ready to cease resentment upon evidence of true repentance and reform, remembering that God has said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." (Rom. 12:19.) We say, therefore, that this view, which ignores and denies the wrath of God against sin and sinners, and which therefore sees no necessity for Christ as a mediator for man's sin toward God, is in direct opposition, both to the facts of life and to Scripture testimony.
But now let us look at the other distorted view of the mediation of Christ, the view generally known as orthodox. It pictures before men's minds, a God so angry as to be ferocious and cruel, whose rage against sinners pursues them not only during the present existence, but beyond the grave, and supplies them with existence for the one and only purpose of torturing them everlastingly. Then dropping for the time being their unscriptural and absurd idea that there are three Gods, "one in person," they speak of Christ Jesus as being very different from Jehovah; for whereas the one, as described, would be the personification and embodiment of hate, anger and malice, the other, they represent as love and love only. While according to this view Jehovah was engaged in hurrying off earth's millions to everlasting torture, Jesus appeared and by a sacrifice of himself, placated, or in a measure, satisfied the wrath of Jehovah.
According to this view, Jesus having finished the sacrifice for man's sins, ascended to heaven, where it is claimed he sits upon what is termed his mediatorial throne. It is claimed that Jesus will occupy the mediatorial throne until the end of all probation. Their claim is that while he sits as mediator between God and men, he will plead for the sinner, and importune God not to send him into everlasting torture, but to let him come into heaven; and that when Jesus shall leave that mediatorial throne and come a second time, there is no more hope for sinners. Then it is claimed Jesus will look again over the already fixed verdict of the just and unjust, in what they term the judgment day, and thereafter Jesus and his Church join with Jehovah in the grand (?), glorious (?) and delightful (?) work of superintending the everlasting and hopeless torture of the great majority of the human race in endless woe, either mental or physical, or as claimed by some, both.
We deeply pity the benighted mind to which this view of God's character and plan has the slightest appearance of right or truth. Such know neither the Father nor the Son.
The idea of so-called Protestants on
the Mediatorship of Jesus is very closely
related to that of Roman Catholics on the
same subject. The Church of Rome directs
the sinner to go to the priest, who
will intercede for him with the Virgin
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and dead saints, and these in turn intercede
with Jesus, who finally intercedes
with Jehovah and secures the forgiveness
of sin. Protestants, leaving out the mediation
of priests, dead saints, and the
virgin, come directly to Jesus, as a Mediator
and Intercessor. The thought
presented is that of the angry Jehovah
approached by the loving Jesus, who
PLEADS for us, showing the wounds of
Calvary, until finally the Father relents
and reluctantly receives the sinner. This
view is forcibly expressed in the following
verse from an old and familiar hymn:
"For me he ever lives,
Alas! that any claiming the name of
Christ, and possessing the Bible, should
be in such ignorance of the character of
Jehovah therein revealed. Instead of
repelling his ransomed creatures and requiring
the pleading and interceding of
a Mediator to induce him to be reconciled
to us, the very reverse is true. All
the mediation is in the past, so far as
God is concerned; and ever since the
ransom-sacrifice of Jesus was accepted
as the propitiation or satisfaction for our
sins and the sins of the whole world, Jehovah's
attitude has been propitious [favorable
--gracious] toward the sinner,
ready and willing to receive all that come
to him in and by the merit of that propitiatory
sacrifice. And it has been the
mission of the Apostles and of all who
have become the children of God through
faith in the finished work of Christ, to
herald the fact to all men that God
is now ready and willing to receive all
who thus come. Therefore, as says the
Apostle, it is, "As though God did beseech
you by us, we PRAY YOU in Christ's
stead, BE YE reconciled to God." (2 Cor. 5:20.)
This text shows that the part
of Christ's work of mediation which related
to the settlement of the claims of
justice against us, as sinners, was at a
full end--finished, completed, and that
the part remaining was the making
known of this divine reconciliation to the
sinners, making them aware of God's favor
and willingness to receive all that
come unto him through the finished work
of the Mediator.
How clearly the Scriptures guard us
against the two extreme theories of man.
They assure us that God is love; that
the Lord is very pitiful and of tender
compassion; that he has no pleasure in
the death of the wicked, but would that
all would turn unto him and live; that
he authorized Christ and all his followers
to be his ambassadors and ministers, to
make known the good tidings of reconciliation
accomplished "by the death of
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his Son, whom he set forth to be a propitiation
for our sins, and not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world."
(Rom. 3:25, and 1 John 2:2.) They
assure us also that Jehovah's love and
wisdom planned the redemption, and that,
in raising Christ from the dead, he gave
proof of the acceptableness of the sacrifice,
and of the certainty of the resultant
blessing. It is not only true that in due
time God sent his only begotten Son for
our redemption (Rom. 5:6), and that
God commendeth his love toward us, in
that, while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us (Rom. 5:8), but it is true
also that this was Jehovah's original plan,
and that before sin entered, even before
the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:18-20;
Rev. 13:8), his wisdom and love
provided, and beheld in the distance,
"the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world."
So far as God is concerned, the mediation
of Christ Jesus is all in the past.
As the Apostle expresses it in the text
under consideration, the Mediator who
stood BETWEEN the just Creator and his
condemned and guilty creatures, was
"the man Christ Jesus," and not the exalted
Jesus. He mediated by giving
himself a ransom [a corresponding price]
for all. It is not the glorified Jesus that
intercedes as mediator and prays pardon
for sinners. If such were the case, the
Son of God need not have come into
the world to die for the sinners, but
might from the first have prayed for
them. But if prayers only were needed,
no mediator would have been necessary,
for God himself "SO LOVED the world"
--"while we were yet sinners." It was
because no mediation, in the sense of entreaty,
was necessary, and because no
such action could mediate between God's
violated law and the sinner, that the mediation
was accomplished in a totally
different manner. The Mediator was
the man Christ Jesus. He became a
man that he might be the Mediator. The
act of mediation consisted in the man
Jesus giving himself a ransom [corresponding
price] for all men, to meet the
penalty of the law of God against all
men, that henceforth the condemnation
of sin and its penalty death being removed,
there might be no obstacle hindering
men from the enjoyment of God's
blessing and favor. In a word, the sacrifice
for sins is the mediation, and the
Sacrificer at the time of the sacrifice is
the Mediator.
That this is the correct idea, is not
only borne out by reason, and the above
statement of Scripture, but by every text
in which the word Mediator, as applied
to Jesus, occurs. The same word occurs
as follows: Gal. 3:19,20; 1 Tim. 2:5;
Heb. 8:6; 9:15 and 12:24. These
refer to Jesus and Moses, both as mediators.
They show that Moses, as the
mediator of the Law Covenant, was a
type of Jesus, the Mediator of the New
Covenant.
The apostle, after informing us that
Christ was mediator of the New Covenant,
adds, (Heb. 9:15-22--Diaglott)
"For where a covenant exists, the death
of that which has ratified it, is necessary
...a covenant is firm [binding]
over dead victims, since it is never valid
when that which ratifies it [or, is to ratify
it] is alive. Hence not even the first
[i.e. the Law Covenant] has been [was]
instituted without blood," [though the
blood used in the type was not the actual
blood of Moses the typical mediator
of that typical covenant, but the blood
of beasts representing Moses' blood].
For every commandment of the law having
been spoken by Moses to all the
people, taking the blood of bullocks and
of goats with water and scarlet wool and
hyssop he sprinkled both the book [of
the law, the covenant] itself, and all the
people, saying, "This is the blood of
[or evidence of the death, of that which
ratified] the covenant which God enjoined
on you."
It will be observed that the killing
[shedding of the blood] of the bullocks
and goats, was the mediation, their death
representing the death of Moses the mediator
of that covenant. In the killing
of these, the mediation was completed;
the covenant was ratified and in full
force that very instant. The sprinkling
of the blood upon the book and people
was not a part of the mediating of the
covenant, for the covenant had no force
or binding value until the mediation was
complete, finished. That which mediated
for the sins of the people RATIFIED, or
completed the covenant, i.e. made its
provisions applicable to the people. The
sprinkling of the people and book came
as a result of the ratifying of the covenant;
as a result of the mediation for their
sins typically represented in the death of
the beasts.
As in the typical, so in the real mediation
for sin, which ratifies and brings
into force the better covenant--the New
Covenant. The man Christ Jesus mediated
or came between God and man
by meeting the penalty of the law against
which mankind had sinned. He opened
up a new and living way [a new way of
life] by bringing into operation a New
Covenant or new arrangement between
God and man. The original arrangement
entered into between God and his
creatures was, that if obedient to God,
man should live forever. This we failed
in as a race, represented in Adam, and
the penalty--death--came upon all. God
could not make another contract or covenant
with men whereby they could have
life, while they were already under sentence
of death for the violation of the
original covenant or arrangement. Hence
it was impossible for a new covenant or
arrangement between God and man to
take effect at all, until the penalty of the
violation of the original engagement had
been met by the payment of a ransom--
a corresponding price. The one paying
that price and removing the obstruction
which hindered the making of a New
Covenant, is the MEDIATOR. The man
Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding
price, did thus cancel the penalty
of the violated covenant, and thus
opened the way for the "New Covenant,"
or new contract between God and
men; wherefore he is called, "The Mediator
of the New Covenant." Compare
Heb. 9:15.
Thus the death of Christ, by meeting
our penalty, mediating for us or making
"reconciliation for iniquity," RATIFIED
or established the New Covenant, putting
it into force, and so, immediately after
Jesus' sacrifice was complete and had
been formally presented to God on our
behalf, came the Pentecostal blessing,
marking the beginning of the New
Covenant.
It may help us to appreciate the matter,
if we examine the New Covenant and
see what kind of an arrangement it is,
and also the typical covenant of which
Moses was the mediator, as represented
in the dying beasts.
The New Covenant or new arrangement
between God and man, is that expressed
to Israel, whose sacrifices, covenants,
etc., were typical of those to be
instituted once for all men. "Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, that I will
make a New Covenant with the house of
Israel and with the house of Judah....
This shall be the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel: After
those days [after a while or by-and-by],
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saith the Lord, I will put my law in
their inward parts, and write it in their
hearts; and will be their God, and they
shall be my people. And they shall
teach no more every man his neighbor,
and every man his brother, saying,
'Know the Lord'; for they shall all
know me from the least of them unto the
greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I
will forgive their iniquity and remember
their sin no more." Jer. 31:31-34.
The new and future covenant is here
compared and contrasted with the Law
Covenant, under which, as a nation, they
had long been. The thing to be desired
was to get rid entirely of the original
sin and condemnation, and to get a clear
understanding of God's requirements
and have a fresh trial--i.e., to be permitted
each individually to stand trial
for life or death according to obedience
or disobedience, in hope of obtaining
and retaining everlastingly the right of
life.
Israel supposed that they had received
virtually this, when the Law Covenant
was ratified. With great pomp and
solemnity, that covenant was instituted
at the hands of Moses, and they were
assured, as the items of the Law were
announced to them, that "The man that
doeth these things shall LIVE" as a consequence
[have life as long as he doeth
them]. Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:12; Lev. 18:5.
But their bright hopes were soon
blighted, for one after another died, giving
evidence that none of them kept
their part of the covenant fully; and it
soon became evident that, By the deeds
of the Law [Covenant] could no flesh be
justified in God's sight. Rom. 3:20.
This was God's object in giving them
that typical covenant. He thus showed
them their own depraved condition, to
convince them that a great remedy was
needed for the great malady of sin--
that a great Saviour was needed to deliver
them from the enemy's power.
The Law Covenant was given to teach
this lesson, and to typify and illustrate
the operations of the New Covenant
coming after it, as well as to fill up the
time intervening before the right time
of the introduction of the New Covenant
which it typified.
The New Covenant is like its type, the
Law Covenant, except that its range will
be greater; it will embrace the world represented
by Israel; its provisions will
be grander and deeper as an antitype is
always superior to that which is used to
typify it. Comparing the two, under the
Apostle's direction, we can see the vast
superiority of the New Covenant over
its type: The typical covenant, established
or ratified or mediated by the
death of bulls or goats as sacrifices for
original sin, was insufficient; for such
sacrifices "can never take away sins";
(Heb. 10:11), their death was not a
ransom--not a corresponding price, to
the death of man, not equivalent in value
to the penalty resting upon mankind for
the violation of the original covenant by
their representative, Adam, and nothing
short of this could cancel the sin and remove
its penalty really. That God so
regarded their covenant is evident from
the fact that it had to be repeatedly ratified
every year by the sacrifice of more
bulls and goats on the typical "Day of
Atonement," thus indicating that the
original guilt was not blotted out and
canceled, but merely RECKONED SO for
a year at a time. This process of ratifying
the typical covenant yearly, and
offering life to every Israelite who would
live up to its requirements, was kept up
for centuries, though none of them
gained the coveted boon--until the man
Christ Jesus, came--a perfect man whose
life came not through a father of the
Adamic race, but from Adam's Father,
Jehovah. Thus we see another use for
the Law Covenant; it pointed out and
served to prove the man Christ Jesus the
only perfect man, and hence the only one
who could give a ransom--a corresponding
price for the transgression of the first
perfect man's failure to obey the first
covenant.
But as the sacrifices by which the Law
covenant was mediated were only typical
and temporary, and hence of no lasting
value to sinners, so also, the other
provisions of that covenant; for instance,
the law given them and which they covenanted
to obey, was written in tables of
stone, and their hearts being left in the
depraved condition, to keep the law was
an impossibility--it could only condemn
them, as out of harmony with it.
Now contrast with this the New Covenant
and its better conditions. The
foundation of the New Covenant is sure;
the mediation is thorough and complete
and needs not a yearly repetition; the
putting away of original sin is by "one
sacrifice for sins forever" (Heb. 10:12),
because the Mediator of the New Covenant
mediated not with the blood of
others [bulls and goats] "but by his
own blood," by "better sacrifices" than
those (Heb. 9:12 and 23), "when He
offered up himself" (Heb. 7:27) "a ransom
for all." Thus seen the security of
the New Covenant rests upon the cancellation
of the penalty of the original
covenant violated by Adam our representative.
A corresponding price, i.e.,
a ransom, is the only complete settlement
of the old case which would admit
of a new covenant being entered into
with us. Hence the importance of realizing
the RANSOM price given by the man
Christ Jesus, the mediator of the New
Covenant, before we can appreciate fully
its blessed provisions. The man Jesus
was not only a better sacrifice than bulls
and goats, but His better sacrifice became
the "surety of a better covenant."
Heb. 7:22.
Notice that by the provisions of the
New Covenant the sinners released from
the penalty of the former violated covenant,
will not only have a new trial, but
will, in addition, have restored to them
the original perfections of being, whereby
they shall individually have as full an
opportunity of rendering obedience, and
meriting life everlasting, as Adam their
representative had under the first covenant.
And their trial will be backed up
by the lesson learned from Adam's disobedience
and their own experience under
sin. This is indicated in the promise
of the New Covenant--"I will put my
law in their inward parts and write it in
their hearts." Thus it was with Adam;
he needed not to have God's law written
on tablets of stone, for his instruction,
because his very being was permeated
with that law. His mind (spirit) was in
harmony with God's mind (spirit). Sin
had not warped and twisted his judgment
and made wrong to appear right.
Malice, selfishness and pride had not at
that time displaced righteousness and
love, the image of God in which he was
created. And not only was his mind in
harmony with God, but his body also.
He had then none of the physical imperfections
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and tendencies to evil that now
so hinder and incapacitate, for perfect
obedience to God: So deeply was the
Law of God originally written in the
perfect human organism that even the
past six thousand years of degradation,
sin, ignorance, superstition, and misery
has not entirely blotted out that law; and
to-day even the most degraded savages
give evidence of some appreciation of
right and wrong, even without the written
law. "These having not the [written]
law," "show the work [or give evidence]
of the law, written in their hearts
...their thoughts the meanwhile accusing
or excusing." (Rom. 2:15.) This
glimmer of conscience, often so distorted
by superstition and error as to lead into
deeper error, serves to illustrate what it
would be to have the full Law of God
clearly and deeply written in the heart.
But, moreover, the word "heart" is
used to represent the center of affections,
hence the promise of the New Covenant
is not only to give mankind an intellectual
knowledge of the Lord, so that they
shall need no further instruction one of
another, but the law will be deeply and
lastingly engraven in the very center of
the affections of all who will accept the
provisions of that covenant. O how different
is this new covenant from its type
given to Israel! how much grander the
sacrifice of mediation which cancelled the
old and ratified the new. How much better
to have the heart-written law (which
implies restitution to God's image) than
the law written on tables of stone.
Thank God for the New Covenant,
praise him for its bountiful provisions for
every member of the fallen race; and
above all, noting how all else depended
upon its mediation and ratification by
the settlement of our indebtedness or
penalty under the original covenant
(death), let us, above all, praise God for
the gift of his Son, the Mediator, "the
man Christ Jesus who gave himself a
ransom." Compare Heb. 10:16-20 with
Jer. 31:31-34.
====================
For me to INTERCEDE;
His all redeeming love,
His precious blood to PLEAD.
Forgive him, O forgive, they cry,
Nor let that ransomed sinner die."