There Is One Mediator, Pt 2

13. The Romanist teachers, according to Calvin, were impudent and shameless.  I think they still hold to the same doctrine of Calvin’s time but there may be some differences.  They have forged doctrines and teachings contrary to the gospel.  Rome does not think there is but one mediator.  She thinks that Mary is another mediator.  Paul defines that there is one mediator and one God, but are equally true and equally and exclusively doctrinal.  The practical side to this is that we ought to pray through Jesus Christ as our one mediator.  We see in Rome the manifestation of the wrath of God and His vengeance.  By adding things to the mediatorship of the office of Christ, they take away from the strength of grace that it offers.  We profess that Rome has dishonored God by “another gospel.”  Paul says in Galatians that there is only one gospel.  The Father commands both small and great to do homage and worship to the Son of God alone.  There should be no homage or devotion to Mohammad or the Virgin Mary.  All knees will bow to Christ our King.  We worship the majesty of our God.

14. The Romanists say that Christ is the only mediator as far as redemption but according to intercession the saints also have a role as mediator before God; however, Paul says we were redeemed by the blood of the Son of Man.  I would also say that Rome says that Mary suffered redemptively for our sins at the Cross.  We would acknowledge that she suffered but not redemptively.  There is one mediator who has opened heaven with His outstretched arms at the Cross whereby we come to God.  He has made us reconciled by His death in His blood and this is why He is called our mediator and through Jesus we are heard by His unequaled merits.  He joins together the offices of redeemer and mediator in Christ alone.  We are redeemed by His death and passion.  There is no way that God should not welcome us and accept us because we come through Jesus alone.  He never rejects anyone who comes on the basis of Christ alone.  We ought to come!  Come, therefore, come!  Let your sins be washed away!  Come and receive the living waters!  Come and take part of the salvation that is only through Jesus Christ!  Jesus still makes intercession for us before our Heavenly Father. 

15. The Bible tells us to pray for one another; however, this in no way hinders His mediatorship to God for us.  We are all made one together.  We ought to pray for ourselves but also the whole church of Christ Jesus.   We ought not to be separate in which God has joined together.  Gospel truth must be guide and rule.   We ought not to pray for departed saints and God does not appoint us to be our patrons or advocates.  Heaven is a place where joy cannot be increased or decreased.  We can’t increase the joy of someone in heaven.  We can’t increase the sorrows of hell.  There is no place in the Bible that says the saints are our patrons or advocates.  We have two advocates with the Father which are Jesus and the Spirit of God.  We ought to love one another and that means our neighbors.  We ought to pray for our neighbors but we should not go beyond what the Bible has shown us.  We go astray as soon as we go another or different path then the Bible tells us.

16. Jesus Christ is our great High Priest, but in the OT the people could not come near to the sanctuary and had to remain in the court and at the temple’s entrance and only the person offering the sacrifice could enter.  If we reflect on prayer we ought to consider our own corruption, wretchedness and unworthiness.  We are not only earthly creatures but we are also full of sins because we were polluted in Adam.  We cannot bring to God anything of value because we are corrupt vessels.  We are unworthy to open our mouths before Him.  We ought to acknowledge our misery and our woeful state but He has the remedy for us in His own Son’s shed blood.  We may ask, what is the remedy for us?  It is to have Jesus as our High Priest.   He is the one who shed His blood.   He gave a ransom for all kinds of people.  He paid the ransom not to Satan but to God.  God is merciful to us without doubt through His well-beloved Son.  He reconciles us to His Father through His death and passion.  We ought not to forget His sinless life that earned heaven for us.  He earned heaven for us by His matchless life in lived in our place.

17. The high priest bore the names of the sons of Israel on his shoulders.  He had twelve stones fastened to his breastpiece.  He bore all our sins on the Cross.  He bore every level or degree of sin on the Cross.  Jesus now bears it in His heart.  He took every evil and filth and defilement upon Himself.  He took every low thought, every criminal passion and every act of the insanity of sin upon Himself.  We stand on this foundation.  It is the basis or the rock upon which we stand.  There is no doubt that we will find favor with God if we come to God on the basis of Christ alone.  We must come to Him on the name of the mediator.  This is the sole basis upon which He accepts us.  It is because of our Lord and Savior and God and Redeemer Jesus Christ alone!  Praise God for the simplicity of His divine truth!  We ought not to think of other advocates or mediators or patrons but rest on Christ alone.  There is no need for this, because we stand in His shed blood at the Cross for our sole basis of redemption, intercession and salvation.  We must stand on the simplicity of the written Word of God.  Christ is our sole mediator.  He even now makes intercession for us and paid for the sins of the whole world. 

18. We ought to come to God solely through Jesus Christ alone.  This is how heaven comes to us.  We ought to glorify God.  We ought to thank, rejoice, bless and praise God with all humility.  It is because He has delivered us out of all abominations.  The Romanists do not have true forgiveness because they deny the exclusivity of the one mediator.  I pray God would give them a spirit of repentance on this matter.  We ought to be stirred up to walk before God in all practical righteousness, obedience and self-control in light of the Day of Judgment.  We ought to walk before Him with all reverential fear and carefulness.  We have Jesus as our advocate and mediator; that is, God’s own dear Son.  We should not be scared to present ourselves before Him.  We ought to call upon Him for all our needs.   We ought to come to God privately and pray for the church and all mankind.  

I will add more as the days go on.  Let us mediate on the mediatorship of Christ alone.  May God grant you the faith to trust Him alone for spiritual salvation.  Grace and peace.