"For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Timothy 2:5-6).
1. We cannot purchase God's favor through ceremony because we are undeserving. We cannot purchase God's favor by anything we think, do or say. All of us should have been cast off and utterly condemned but we have the sacrificial atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ that appeases the wrath of God the Father and removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west.
2. The world is far from God; that is, all of us have deserved banishment from His kingdom. God chose a particular people to Himself and left the rest of the world into confusion. We are all separated from God in our original sin and totally depravity. He governs and maintains them by His virtue and power and goodness. People are headed to destruction because of sin. God does not join them to the gospel because He has not chosen too. However, people respond in faith to the gospel because of God's kindness. We must pity those who do not know God and call them to repentance.
3. The Bible says there is but one God. God has made all men and put them under His protection. There is no brotherhood among the damned. Those who do not agree with the gospel are far away from us. God unites us in the gospel. The image of God is imprinted on everyone; however, that which has caused us division is the gospel but it should bring us together but Jesus brings a sword of division.
4. There is one mediator between God and man and He is Jesus Christ our Lord and Redeemer. Unbelievers are poor because they do not have Christ who is rich. Unbelievers wander and go astray. We ought to have pity on unbelievers so they may be persuaded to come to a saving knowledge of Christ. God did not save a few individuals only but seeks to save the whole world. The world in the Bible has different usages but it may refer here to the Gentiles. Christ suffered according to the Scriptures for the all the sins of the elect, but He did not merely suffer for the sins in Israel but also for the entire world.
5. He made an atonement for the sins of the whole world. And He is the mediator between God and man. He took upon our flesh in the incarnation; that is, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We ought to submit ourselves to the Lord in all that He requires of us. Jesus was made like unto us but not unto sin. He was like us in every respect yet apart from sin. Jesus has become are advocate and mediator between God and us. He has provided a way for us to go to God.
6. We ought to have great regard to God's honor and bring our unbelieving neighbors to Him. They set boundaries for Him so He does not govern the whole world. To some extent they obscure the extent of the effectiveness of the passion and death of our Lord Christ and seek to lesson the mission given to Jesus by the Father. We ought to proclaim the Savior's message to the ends of the earth.
7. The mediator is Jesus Christ. He is a man but not a mere man, but God
Incarnate. Jesus was made like unto us,
His brethren. However, He did not give
up His deity but gave up His glory. He
was a merciful and faithful High Priest. He made propitiation for the sins of
God’s people. He was tempted but He is
able to help us in our temptation. We
ought to understand the adversity we suffer but if we did not understand it we
would not understand those who suffer.
Jesus partook of all of our miseries and He tasted all our affections;
however, He did not sin in all of His life.
He did this that when we call on Him He may help us. He experienced everything we have touching
temptation and He is able to go to God for us in our afflictions and
temptation.
8. We surely have nothing to fear because He stands as our
mediator. There is nothing in the entire
world to fear because He is with us and intercedes for us. We can call on God as our Heavenly Father
with uplifted hands to His glory and worship.
He receives us as children of God in and through Jesus Christ; that is,
it is through the merits of Christ alone.
He makes understand the fruits of our adoption. We have Christ as our awesome mediator and we
can come to God on His terms. He can
made known our griefs, pains, sufferings and torments to Him. He will relieve us of our pain. The Romanists want us to believe that the
saints are our patrons; that is, that they intercede for us. They wish us to believe that we are unworthy
to appear before our Heavenly Father.
But Jesus makes us able to approach the throne of grace because He is
our mediator. There is only one mediator
and there is none else.
9. We ought to understand what is in the law. People prayed unto God in the Old
Testament. The people stood afar off
regarding the court of the temple. Only
the priest was allowed to approach the sanctuary. And this priest is a figure of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. He is indeed our High Priest. He was clothed in new garments and
consecrated to God our Heavenly Father.
The high priest entered the sanctuary, but he carried with him the blood
of the sacrifice (as John Calvin says).
We understand through this that no one can find favor with God in and of
themselves. We can only find favor with
God through the blood of Jesus Christ our great High Priest who shed His
eternal blood on the Cross to save His people.
10. We could not call upon God except this that ceremony
unless there was an advocate. That
advocate would make intercession for the whole congregation. The intercession was based on the sacrifice
offered. Jesus gave Himself as a ransom
for all of the elect so that everyone of His people would be saved. We cannot separate the shed blood and the
advocate. Indeed, Jesus was the advocate
of His people. Jesus took upon Himself
the death of the Cross and we have access to His name to God the Father.
11. We must understand that Christ is our only
mediator. Jesus came to reveal the
truth. He came as the substance and
perfection of the things prefigured by the law (as Calvin says). But Satan comes to confuse our minds that
Jesus is not the only mediator. Heretics
believe that angels can be advocates. We
ought not to let anyone cheat us out of knowing Christ as our one true
Mediator. We must give honor to Jesus
Christ as our one mediator and not the worship of angels. The worship of angels is false humility. Jesus intercedes for us as our one true
intercessor (besides the Holy Ghost) and must be received as our only
Savior. It is said by the Romanists that
Jesus is our only Savior in the context that there is one male Savior but they
add Mary as co-redeemerix. I think this
is a violation of the writings of Paul. Surely, they have gone beyond what is
written.
12. We ought to know that Mohammed, Buddha and Confucius are
not the Saviors of the world. Calvin
thought that the Romanist would call Mohammed the Savior of the world. He was not far off because in Catechism 841
of Rome it says they worship the same God.
Somehow Calvin knew then the far off unity that would come in
apostasy. Jesus surely is our mediator
and advocate, but people would argue against it. People who argue with us would call us wrong
to argue that Jesus is our only advocate.
We must maintain the certainty that Jesus is our only advocate (as
opposed to other advocates besides
the Spirit of God), and we must understand He is the only mediator because God
designed it this way. We can only come
near to God except through Jesus’ mediatorship.
I shall write more on this for next week and continue the next part of this sermon. I hope and pray my notes were of use to you. Grace and peace.
