************ Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 12-15 ************
Doctrine: Jesus is the Mediator we need
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on December 10, 2000
Q & A 12-15
1 Timothy 2
"We Need a Mediator"
Introduction
Too many people think the Reformed Churches are preoccupied with sin and misery. And far too many Reformed Christians and churches tend to dwell on their sin and misery. While it is true we must never forget how great our sin and misery are, our focus must not be on the sin but on the salvation. We ought to note and follow the leading of the Catechism here: only 9 questions and answers deal with sin while 74 questions and answers deal with salvation. Throughout the Catechism our sin and misery is kept in mind but the emphasis falls on salvation. On this Lord's Supper Sunday, this second Sunday of Advent, we should do no less!
I We Need to Pay Our Debt in Full (Q & A 12)
A Very rarely today is the Gospel presented in terms of God's justice. Yet, that is how the Catechism presents the Gospel. In doing so, the Catechism uses language and concepts that are not all that popular today. Most preachers like to tell and most congregations like to hear the Gospel in terms of God's love or man's needs. But the Catechism does not begin with what man feels or needs. Rather, it begins with what God requires.
Question 12 of the Catechism basically asks, "How can I return to God's favor?" The answer: "the claims of his justice must be paid in full." Notice, the Catechism here starts with God and not with man. To become right with God, justice must be satisfied.
B What is justice? Justice means giving a person what is their due.
If a customer get newspapers from a papergirl, the customer has to pay his bill. It's owed. It's due. The papergirl has it coming. If a citizen breaks a law, the citizen will have to pay his debt to society – by paying a fine, for instance, or by going to jail. He has it coming. It is his due.
God's justice demands that when someone sins, someone must pay for that sin. From Genesis through Revelation, this truth is written in blood across the Bible. God cannot overlook sin. God will not go soft on sin. The axe must fall. Payment must be made. The blood of sacrifice must be shed. For when someone sins, someone must pay – even if it is not the sinner himself. And, payment must be made in full.
Our laws allow individuals or companies to file for bankruptcy if, for some reason, debts ever exceed assets. If the courts accept the filing, the business assets of the individual or company are sold in order to pay off the creditors. Creditors, however, are not paid off in full. Often, they can only expect five or ten cents on the dollar. Yet, they have to treat the bill like it is paid in full.
But God does not operate this way. He is not a creditor Who accepts part-payment. He demands that all the debt be paid. Says the Catechism, "The claims of his justice must be paid in full." That's the point of the Lord's Supper on this second Sunday of Advent – God's justice must be and is satisfied.
II We Are Unable to Pay Our Debt (Q & A 13)
A Q & A 13 is one of man's responses to his debt. It shows that man is searching for a way out of his debt or predicament. Man's search first of all leads to himself. So man asks, "Can we pay this debt ourselves?"
Certain kinds of bank accounts have over-draft protection. You are allowed to over-draw you account by $500 or a $1000 or $2000. According to Scripture, man has a monumental overdraft with God, an overdraft so big that no more checks are allowed. Yet, man asks if he can pay the debt he owes God.
B "Certainly not," says the Catechism. "Actually, we increase our guilt every day." There is no possible way of man saving himself. It is for this reason that God's grace in Jesus Christ is so very wonderful. Man doesn't deserve salvation. He can't save himself. He daily increases his debt. Yet, as the Lord's Supper shows us on this second Sunday of Advent, God shows us grace and mercy in and through Christ Jesus.
Do you realize the extent of man's sin and misery? Not only are we unable to pay our debt, we also sink further and further into debt every single day.
Our situation can be compared to that of someone who borrows money from loan-sharks in organized crime. Quite often the money is lent out at 50% interest per week. If you get behind on your interest payments, in two weeks you owe more than twice the original amount.
Likewise, we increase our guilt every day. Every day we fail in a thousand ways. Every day God says to us, "Love Me." And every day we say back, "I can't" or "I won't."
When man attempts to save himself, when man attempts to pay his debt to God, he is like someone in quicksand trying to pull himself out by pulling on his own hair. Not only does he fail to draw himself out, he also succeeds in working himself deeper and deeper into the mire.
Man's search for salvation in himself is useless. Man's attempt to pay his debt is in vain.
C Still, though, there are people who try to buy off God; people who try to pay their debt; people who try to satisfy the claims of God's justice.
The Pharisees, for instance, thought they were securing their salvation when they brought bulls and goats to the temple. They thought they did God a favor when they gave Him a tenth of all they had. They thought their external observance of the Law guaranteed themselves salvation.
The pagans of Hawaii used to throw lovely virgin women into volcanoes in order to appease the wrath of God.
Unfortunately, many people today are no better than the Pharisees or the pagans of Hawaii. I remember in family visiting the time I turned to a 17 year old girl. "Let's suppose you were to die tonight," I told her. "You stand before the judgment throne and God asks you, 'why should I let you into heaven?' What would be your answer?" The girl said, "because I have tried to lead a good life." Somehow this teenager missed the point of hundreds of sermons and Catechism lessons. Every day I meet people, like this girl, who expect to be saved by their works. They don't worry about their final destiny, they say, because they have always been good and honest.
Thousands of people seek their salvation in a religious life. When these people stand before the judgment throne they point with pride to their church membership. "Lord," they say, "I was a member in good and regular standing. Churchgoing was my second nature. My neighbors, maybe they spent Sunday working and touring and fishing and golfing and living for their own pleasure, but I went to church." Or maybe they point to their prayers, their charitable donations, their Bible reading, their attendance at Bible Study or Young People's Society, their attendance at a Christian school or college.
Hundreds of thousands believe that rites and ceremonies are roads to the everlasting God. They sprinkle water, they dip and immerse, they burn candles, and they say litanies. Or, they chant mantras and verses until their minds are numb. They call on saints and holy people, make pilgrimages, sing songs, pay money.
All of these people are fools. We can't buy off God. We can't pay our debt. We can't earn salvation.
Time after time, God's people have to learn what the Lord's Supper shows us on this second Sunday of Advent: that salvation is only by grace through faith!
III Man Cannot Find a Scapegoat (Q & A 14)
A Man now searches elsewhere for salvation. He has examined himself and realizes he is incapable of paying off his debt of sin. So he asks, "Can another creature – any at all – pay this debt for us?"
Some of you perhaps know of the time Luther made a trip to Rome. There he crawled up the steps Jesus supposedly climbed on His way to Pilate's throne. On each of the 28 steps Luther planted a kiss and offered a prayer. Why did he do this? The purpose of all this was to release the soul of his grandfather from purgatory.
Did Luther feel any better after doing this? Did he know for sure in his heart that his grandfather was now with Christ? No, of course not! It took a couple of years but eventually Luther learned another lesson as well: no mere man can release the soul of others from God's eternal anger against sin.
B Israel used scapegoats in the wilderness. A goat would be sprinkled with blood. Moses would put his hand on its head and confess the sins of the people. Then the goat would be sent into the wilderness to die.
Can we, like Israel in the wilderness, find a scapegoat, some creature or animal, whom God will punish for our sins? "No," says the Catechism. "To begin with, God will not punish another creature for man's guilt. Besides, no mere creature can bear the weight of God's eternal anger against sin and release others from it." That, too, is the message of the Lord's Supper on this second Sunday of Advent – that we need something or someone greater than any other creature to bear the weight of God's anger against our sin.
IV A Mediator Can Pay Our Debt (Q & A 15)
A What can man do? Surely there must be some way of escape. There is, but man cannot take the credit. There is escape from debt, but it is not up to man to fashion this escape.
A Mediator can pay the debt. A Mediator can make us right with God.
"What kind of Mediator and Deliverer should we look for then?" "He must be truly human and truly righteous, yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, he must also be true God."
B Who can possibly qualify to be such a Mediator: true man, truly righteous, true God? 1 Timothy 2:5-6 tells us Who He is: "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 ..."
C A mediator is well-known on the labor scene. When an agreement can't be reached between management and employees, a mediator is indispensable. He mediates between the two sides and tries to reconcile them.
Christ is the Mediator, the Go-Between Who brings God and man together.
Our Bible reading from First Timothy tells us two things about Christ as Mediator. First, He is the one or only Mediator between God and man; He is the only bridge between us and God; without Him there is no way we can escape punishment for sin and return to God's favor; as the Lord's Supper shows us, there is no other way of salvation. Second, as Mediator it is Jesus Who pays our debt for us; He paid our debt with His blood; as the Lord's Supper shows us on this second Sunday of Advent, He "gave himself as a ransom for all men."
Conclusion
People may not realize it, but they spend their life searching – searching for a way to return to God's favor, searching for a way to settle accounts with God. Man's search first leads him to look to himself. But he finds no satisfaction or peace there. Next, his search leads him to look for some other creature to pay off his debt of sin. Again he finds no satisfaction or peace. To find what he is looking for, man's search has to end up in Christ Jesus, the only Mediator between God and man, for only Jesus is able to pay our debt of sin. That's what we celebrate in the Lord's Supper on this second Sunday of Advent.
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