************ Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 18 ************
Doctrine: Jesus is the only Mediator
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on March 4, 2001
Q & A 18
1 Timothy 2:1-7
"The Mediator"
Introduction
We are in the season of Lent – that time of the church year when we remember the suffering and death of Christ. Also, we are being asked today to prepare our hearts for the Lord's Supper. We heard 9 people publicly confess their faith in Jesus. And we witnessed the baptism of two of God's covenant children.
Do you know what all of this have in common? They all have in common Jesus as Mediator. During Lent we remember Jesus as Mediator. In the Lord's Supper we celebrate that Jesus is our Mediator. In professing our faith we confess Jesus to be Mediator. And in baptism we are reminded that we are washed clean of our sin only because of Christ as Mediator.
Jesus is our Mediator. That's the message of the Bible today. And that's the message of the Catechism based upon the Bible.
What does it mean to say Jesus is Mediator?
Mediators are used to bring two opposing and dead-locked sides together. For example, a number of years ago a mediator was called in when the employees of the Caterpillar Corporation and when baseball players went on a strike. Or, when a couple's marriage is in trouble they decide they need a mediator to help them work out their differences – their pastor, for instance, or a counselor.
The Catechism, based upon the Bible, tells us that we need a Mediator. You know what this means? It means that everything else has failed. It means that the situation is out of control. It means that on account of sin the relationship between God and man is so fractured, the chasm between God and man is so great, that only a Mediator can bring God and man back together.
I Christ is Our Only Mediator
A Question 18 asks who is the Mediator between God and man? He is our Lord Jesus Christ.
The clear teaching of Scripture is that He is our only Mediator:
(1Tim 2:5) For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus ...
Or, consider the words of our Lord Himself:
(Jn 14:6) I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
We believe that Jesus is the only Mediator between God and man. We believe that Jesus is the only way to the Father.
B In this season of Lent, as we prepare for the Lord's Supper, as we consider the professions of faith and the baptisms this morning, we have to admit we are all guilty of something. We are all guilty of what our culture considers to be the sin above all sins. We are all guilty of the sin of intolerance.
Our culture today prizes tolerance above anything and everything else. That's why so many people became upset with the nomination of Senator Ashcroft as the United States Attorney General – because they consider him to be intolerant. Our culture expects and demands tolerance. And in the name of tolerance our culture accepts gay and lesbian behavior, immoral lifestyles, any and every religion and religious practice, animal right's activists, abortion, euthanasia, adultery, extreme environmentalists, and so on. Our culture prides itself in tolerating all of this and every kind of weird behavior. The one thing our culture does not tolerate, however, is intolerance. Our culture does not tolerate those people and those beliefs that are not tolerant of all other people and all other beliefs.
Based upon the Bible we teach and believe and confess that Jesus is the only way to the Father. This, my brothers and sisters, is an intolerant teaching and it makes the Christian faith an intolerant religion. It gives no saving credit to other religions. It is fashionable today to believe that all paths, all faiths, and all religions lead to God and eternal life. People want to believe that all people will be saved. They say it is not important what you believe or whom you believe in just so long as you believe. Whether your faith be Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Humanism, New Age, Atheism, or whatever, if you believe in something than that is good enough. But I need to say up front that we cannot subscribe to this. We are intolerant of any other religion or faith as a way to be saved. Because there is only one path that leads to God – Jesus. And there is only one Mediator between God and man – Jesus.
Topic: Salvation
Subtopic: Only Through Christ
Index: 3117
Date: 4/1996.18
Title:
Many European towns still bear the marks of having been surrounded by walls in the Middle Ages. Streets near these old walls are curved and sometimes come to dead ends.
A visitor to one of those towns stopped a resident and asked him the way to reach a certain address. The resident directed him but the visitor was a little dubious. "Is that the best way?" he asked. The resident quickly answered, "It is the only way. If you follow the other turning it will bring you back here."
This is a great illustration of the way to God. Think of the Mediator, Christ Jesus, and His death on the cross. Someone might ask, "Is that the best way?" The answer is, "It is the only way." Any other way will bring you right back to where you already are – being separated and alienated from God.
According to the Bible, Christians are bound to only one Mediator, by whom all people must come to God. And, it is our task in this world to tell others to come to this one and only Mediator between man and God. If the Christian church ever stops telling men that Christ as the only Way to the Father, it is no longer the church.
C In this season of Lent, as we prepare for the Lord's Supper, as we consider the professions of faith and the baptisms this morning, we also have to admit something about all human effort. You see, to say Jesus is our only Mediator with God is to declare all human effort to be hopeless, it is to declare you cannot save yourself by going to church or by leading a good life or by doing good works. Yet, many people try to save themselves anyway.
Topic: Grace
Subtopic: Salvation by
Index: 1447
Date: 12/1989.18
Title:
Perhaps you heard of the German businessman who completed his conversion to the Hindu faith by piercing himself through the cheeks with a 1¼-inch thick, 4- foot-long steel rod, and pulling a chariot for 2 miles by ropes attached to his back and chest with steel hooks. Others walk through 20-foot-long pits of fire, put on shoes with soles made of nails, or hang in the air spread-eagled from hooks embedded in their backs.
The Christian faith has no room and no place for such acts of self-righteousness. When it comes to God and salvation all human effort is hopeless and useless. Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the only Mediator and the only way.
II Vicarious Atonement
A In this season of Lent, as we prepare for the Lord's Supper, as we consider the professions of faith and the baptisms this morning, we also want to say something about Jesus' work as Mediator. The job of a mediator is to bring two conflicting parties together. How does Jesus accomplish this? What did He do, as Mediator, to bring God and man together?
Our Bible reading tells us that He "gave himself as a ransom for all men" (1 Tim 2:6). You know what a ransom is: it is the money paid or favors given in order to secure the release of a captive or of seized property.
Perhaps you read or heard of J. Paul Getty. According to a 1981 autobiography his net worth exceeded $4 billion. A grandson, J. Paul Getty III, was kidnaped. Soon after, Mr. Getty received a note demanding the payment of $2.9 million as a ransom in order to secure the release of his grandson.
Because of our sin we deserve to be punished both now and in eternity (A 10,11). Christ ransoms us from this. He paid the price in order to secure our release from the eternal punishment of body and soul. The ransom He paid was Himself: His own body and blood. He took the punishment for our sins. He died because the wrath of God against our sins was poured out on Him. He died in our place so that we will no longer be in conflict with God.
B As Mediator, Jesus suffered and died in our place. We call this teaching the "vicarious atonement of Jesus." In this season of Lent, as we prepare for the Lord's Supper, as we consider the professions of faith and the baptisms this morning, we confess this vital truth.
The word "atonement," as you know, comes from the Old Testament. When a person sinned against God he or she had to make atonement for sin. Atonement refers to the process God established whereby humans could make an offering to God to restore fellowship with God. When the sacrifice went up in smoke, that person knew that both the sin and God's anger against that sin was removed. That person was now reconciled to God.
The Mediator's self-sacrifice atoned for our sins. He died, not for His own sins, but "in our place." That's what we mean by "vicarious." The root of the word "vicarious" is the word "vicar." Among Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, and Anglicans the "vicar" is the man who rules the Church "in the place of" Christ. Another root is "vice." Everyone knows that the "vice" president may have to take the place of the president. Jesus' suffering and death, His atoning sacrifice, are vicarious – He suffered and died in our place. The Spirit-inspired Apostle can say, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us" (2 Cor 5:21). That's vicarious. He took on the debt of our sins and suffered the penalty of our sins.
Ron Rand gives us this illustration of Christ's vicarious atonement:
Topic: Example
Subtopic:
Index: 1175-1178
Date: 7/1996.21
Title:
Michael usually takes his family out each week to see a movie or sports event. When they come home, they make a fire in the fireplace and pop popcorn. During one of these evenings little Billy made a real pest of himself in the car on the drive home, so he was punished by being sent to sit in his bedroom while the rest of the family had popcorn. After the family had the fire going and the popcorn ready, Michael went back to Billy's room and said, "You go out with the others. I'll stay here and take your punishment."
What Michael did for Billy, Jesus – as Mediator – has done for you and me. He has taken our place.