Painstakingly the Catechism has shown us our need for redemption. We have seen from Scripture the seriousness of our sin and guilt. We have seen that the Holy God will not ignore our sins, but demands that our sins be paid for. His justice requires satisfaction. Of that there is no escape. We have also seen from Scripture that such satisfaction is impossible for us to make, and that therefore we need a Mediator. But that Mediator, the One Who alone can save, must be God's Mediator, nothing less. He must be very man, for man has sinned. And at the same time and in the same Person He must be without sin and almighty in power, One Who is able to stand in our place and to bear the infinite and eternal wrath that is our due, all the while offering Himself in love to God.
Lord's Day 6 continues the preceding thought. In the first two questions and answers before us today, we consider the necessity that our Mediator be both true man and true God in One Person. And then the identity of that Savior is finally revealed. "Who then is that Mediator, who is in one person both very God, and a real righteous man?" What a tremendously important question that is! And the answer that every believer will give, the answer written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit is this: Who is that Mediator? Our Lord Jesus Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." I say, How tremendously important to be able to give answer to that question, and to give that answer to that question.
But there is one question that is even more important. And it is that to which Lord's Day 6 leads us: "Whence knowest thou this?" You see, it is important to lay claim to the Savior. But multitudes lay claim to a Savior, while their claim obviously makes no difference in their lives. Isn't something wrong? Who is their Jesus? That is a critically important question. For our Lord warned us concerning the end of the ages (Matthew 24) that the first of the primary signs of Christ's coming is the sign of many being deceived. Men shall arise, said Jesus, which shall seduce the undiscerning into the worship of false gods and false christs. The falling away from the true gospel shall occur on a massive scale. And as Paul writes the church at Corinth, the message of those deceivers shall sound quite similar to that of the Apostles! They shall speak of Jesus, of Christ, of love and peace, of the cross even, of life. They shall speak of unity, of heaven, of a new world, the kingdom of God. Those who are superficial in their Christianity shall quickly follow that message, because of its similarity to the truth. But that message is so different, says Paul, that it is nothing less than another Jesus, whom we have not preached, and another spirit, another gospel.
So when you and I give our confession concerning Christ, we must also be able to answer with conviction: I know this! This is the truth that lives in my heart. For I have been taught it "from the holy gospel, which God Himself first revealed in Paradise; and afterwards published by the patriarchs and prophets, and represented by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law; and lastly, has fulfilled it by His only begotten Son." We must know our Savior. By that knowledge alone comes our only comfort. But the only way of knowing is from the holy gospel. So we consider the instruction of Lord's Day 6 today, giving emphasis to the revelation of our only Savior. We do so under the theme:
THE GOSPEL OF THE PERFECT MEDIATOR
I. WHO HE IS
II. HOW HE IS MADE KNOWN
III. THE RESPONSE HE DEMANDS
THE FOCUS OF THIS LORD'S DAY IS OUR PERFECT AND ONLY MEDIATOR.
I WANT TO BEGIN TODAY BY EMPHASIZING A POINT MADE IN THE 18TH Q & A, WHERE THE QUOTATION IS GIVEN FROM I CORINTHIANS 1:30.
We jump right to the point: "Who then is that Mediator, who is in one person both very God, and a real righteous man? Answer: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." That which I would immediately emphasize is this: That Mediator is of God. He is our Lord Jesus Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
Oh, I know, all of us are of God. Yes indeed. He created us all. Our life, our breath, is of Him. That is true of all the creation. That is eminently true of man, who in Acts 17:29 is even recognized as "the offspring of God." But there is peculiar significance to the fact that our Mediator is said to be "of God." We see here the revelation of God in the height of His glory. We see here the most magnificent of all His works, his masterpiece.
The Savior is not One Who is from us. He is not One Whom we would have chosen. He is not One Whom man can be counted on to describe. He is of God. He is the Mediator, indeed; but not One Whom we called to act on our behalf. He is our advocate with the Father; but not One Whom we chose. There is nothing in Him that is to be attributed to us. God's Mediator is He, eternally anointed and entirely commissioned by God to accomplish the things of God, even our salvation. Which is to say, beloved, even as the Apostle emphasizes in the context of that chapter, God Himself chose the foolish things of the world, and weak things, and things that are despised, yes, even things that are not, that He might accomplish His own sovereign purpose in the salvation of His people. Because no flesh may ever stand before God and boast in anything, except in Jesus Christ, God's Mediator. God determined before the foundation of the world that His Son should be the revelation of all His fulness. God determined from eternity that His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, should be the firstborn of every creature, and the first begotten of the dead. And according to Ephesians 1, to Him was given the Church by God, for we are chosen in Him. To Christ was given that Church, that He might redeem that Church unto Himself and unto God, and that the fulness of God's glory, dwelling in Him, might be reflected in the multitudes of His redeemed saints.
And as the Catechism emphasizes by quoting from I Corinthians 1:30, Christ is made unto us of God the whole of our salvation! Unto us! What an amazing wonder! We have seen, in the past few weeks, just who we are. We have stood before the inescapable law of God, which reveals to us our misery. We have weighed ourselves in the scales of God's perfect law and found ourselves wanting. And now we are told that Christ is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Us—the company of traitors, the band of rebels who chose to follow Satan rather than to love God. Unto us, who by nature are dead in trespasses and sins. The purpose was eternally motivated in God's own sovereign will, that He would send forth His Son, to lead us into the fellowship of His love, and to reveal the glory of His grace.
I'm going to dwell on the broader teaching of the Catechism today, even as is the purpose for that instruction. So I'm not going to spend much time on this expression from I Corinthians 1:30. But one thing we should notice. In that list of that which Christ has been made for us, the word redemption is last. We could spend much time considering that whole expression. But when you look at that list and think about the work of our salvation, then redemption is not last, but first. The reason it is placed last here is for emphasis. Christ is our wisdom, righteousness and sanctification, because He is our redemption. For redemption, you understand, is the purchasing free of one who is a debtor, the paying of a ransom. Redemption presupposes that we are guilty, that we are debtors to God. We have no right to be delivered from that bondage. We are legally bound in the prison house of sin and death, the lie and corruption. If, then, we are to be liberated, the ransom must be paid for us. That price of redemption was paid by our Savior upon the cross. This we could never do in ourselves. There is only One Who could redeem us. And He is the One sent from God.
Having redeemed us, He is become our wisdom. He is the light in our darkness, the solution of all the mysteries that we have faced concerning our spiritual hopelessness. He is the One Who makes known the full counsel of God concerning our salvation. He is our righteousness! In ourselves we heard the judgment of condemnation—not man's judgment, but God's. But our Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all righteousness before God, righteousness that is worthy of life everlasting in perfect glory. And while in ourselves we are dead in sin, haters of God and one another, seeking the things of the flesh rather than the things of God, when Christ has become ours, the Mediator of God, in Him is our complete sanctification, so that we are consecrated unto God, and focused with gratitude to God on the calling of holiness unto the Lord. When Christ has become ours, His life becomes our life. We are those recreated after the image of God's dear Son. What a wonderful salvation! The salvation given by God. The salvation wrought by the perfect Mediator.
That same truth is emphasized in the passage that we read earlier, Hebrews chapter 1. There also the truth is set forth that God has appointed His own Son heir of all things. That Son Who with Him created all things, that Son Who being also eternal God upholds all things by the word of His power, is the One appointed by God to purge our sins. And when He had by Himself purged our sins, according to the eternal purpose of God, He sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, there to fulfill all God's pleasure. That is the heart of the gospel, the gospel of the perfect Mediator.
THAT MEDIATOR WHO IS OF GOD, IS BOTH TRUE GOD AND REAL RIGHTEOUS MAN IN ONE PERSON.
That truth is emphasized in the first two questions and answers of Lord's Day 6, both of which are motivated by a long controversy in the church about these questions. Because our Lord Jesus Christ is God's Mediator, those who are not of Him, have long opposed Him. And they have opposed Him most frequently by trying to obscure His true identity. That is always the case with those who hate God. They obscure and try to destroy the truth by turning it into a lie. That can be done by attacking the doctrine, or by living a lie. But besides the truth concerning the Trinity, which first came under attack in the history of the church because of that truth's central importance to all of Christianity, the second truth which came under attack from earliest New Testament history was that of Christ's identity. And even today, let us not forget, there are multitudes of false teachers who would rob the church of God's Christ. If they would succeed—and they cannot, they would rob the Church of everything. Lose the Christ of the Scriptures, and the very foundation of Christianity is destroyed. Make Christ only a man, albeit even a perfect man, a good example, and you have lost salvation. Make Christ a powerless God, One Who would like to save everybody, but cannot, and you are left without hope. You have destroyed your own salvation. The devil understands those things full well. That is why the Reformed fathers have always emphasized the careful exposition of the Bible and the humble submission to the whole truth.
Our Lord Jesus Christ must be in one Person both God and true but perfect man. The Catechism explains why.
"Why must he be very man, and also perfectly righteous? Because the justice of God requires that the same human nature which hath sinned, should likewise make satisfaction for sin; and one, who is himself a sinner, cannot satisfy for others" Q & A. 16. It isn't just that He appears as a man. He becomes man! Why? Because if there shall be a Mediator Who shall save us, He must die our death. He must pay the price in our place. Our Mediator cannot die the death of a goat or a lamb or a bull. An angel can't take the place of man. If He is to die our death in our place, He must have our nature. He must also be perfectly righteous. If He is sinful, He cannot pay for His own sins, let alone the sins of others. The Mediator must be so perfectly righteous that there was no possibility of Him falling into sin. He could not sin. Still more, if we are to become members of Christ's body, we must become part of the Head. We must be one. So there must be a likeness of human nature.
"Why must He in one person be also very God? That
He might by the power of His Godhead sustain in His human nature the burden of God's
wrath; and might obtain for, and restore to us, righteousness and life" Q & A 17.
God became flesh, beloved. That is the wonder of our salvation. God came down to save us.
He condescended to our low estate, in order to bring us unto Himself in the way of His
just mercy. Our Mediator is the very Person of the Son of God! God, the God of our
salvation, became flesh and dwelt among us. God in the flesh, to save us from our sins!
His name is Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Oh yes, He died in human
nature, not in the divine nature. But the Person of Christ, God and man in unity of divine
Person, went to the cross for us. Do you believe that? Nothing less could possibly have
saved us and atoned for our sin and guilt. Nothing. Only God's Mediator, God Himself, God
in the flesh, shall save us from our sins—so great are our sins and misery! That's
the gospel.
THIS MEDIATOR, OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, IS MADE KNOWN BY THE GOSPEL.
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
The gospel is not to be identified with the Bible. I don't say that to deny, as some do, that the whole of the Bible is gospel. There are many, denying the authority of Scripture, who are only willing to say that the gospel is contained in the Bible. Many parts of the Bible, according to them, are not gospel. And therefore the only important part of the Bible is that which reveals the gospel. We don't say that. In fact, we take the offensive over against that heretical denial of Scripture's authority and importance. The whole of the Bible is gospel! I want you to understand that clearly. But when I say that the gospel is not to be identified with the Bible, I mean to emphasize the truth that the gospel is more than the Bible. In fact, the gospel was before the written Word of God in Scripture. Some 2,500 years before there was ever a word of the Bible written, the gospel was there. And when the instructors in our Catechism answer the question, From what do you know this Mediator our Lord Jesus Christ, their answer is well-thought-out. They very purposely do not point to the Bible, but to the gospel.
The gospel is the good news of salvation. And even as the Mediator is of God, so also the gospel. He conceived of it, He realized it, He proclaims it. Scripture tells us what are the contents of that gospel. The gospel of God is called "the gospel concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord," or simply, "the gospel of His Son." It is the revelation of the Son of God in the Person of Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the revelation of the anointed Savior, "who shall save his people from their sins." And so it is also called "the glorious gospel of the blessed God, the gospel of your salvation, the gospel of peace." There are many other similar expressions which help us understand what the gospel is. But all these expressions tell us that the holy gospel is something divine, something that is not of this world. It concerns that which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man to conceive.
The Catechism speaks of that gospel being revealed and fulfilled. There is therefore a very intimate and inseparable relationship between the gospel and the promise. The gospel is good news concerning the promise. In the promise of God, the promise of salvation in Christ Jesus, the one who brings the gospel in the name of God has good news to proclaim. The idea is expressed in Galatians 3:8, where we read, "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." In other words, the gospel that was preached to Abraham was this promise: "In thee shall all nations be blessed." And that promise was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So we read in Acts 13:32,33, "And we declare unto you glad tidings"—that is, literally, And we proclaim the gospel unto you—"how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." The promise, therefore, fulfilled in Christ, is the heart of the gospel.
AND THAT GOSPEL IS GIVEN TO US THROUGH PREACHING.
Immediately the Catechism would emphasize the importance of gospel preaching to the very salvation of God's people in Christ. That is an emphasis that continues throughout the Catechism as opportunity arises. But the preaching of the gospel is the God ordained way by which His people are brought to the saving knowledge of the only Mediator. Not merely by reading the Bible; but by gospel preaching. Thus it has always been. The Catechism points out that the holy gospel was preached already in Paradise. God Himself proclaimed His gospel to Adam and Eve. That is recorded for us in Genesis 3:15, to which text also the Catechism points us in one of the footnotes. That so-called "mother-promise" of Genesis 3:15 is the holy gospel, the complete gospel. Later, as it was given by God to be proclaimed by the patriarchs and prophets, and represented by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law, that gospel was revealed in richer form. But make no mistake, that gospel that was given to Adam and Eve was the complete gospel. Just because it was more fully revealed as history progressed according to God's counsel does not mean that Adam and Eve had a lesser gospel. Oh no. They had the full gospel, the unspeakably blessed good news of salvation through God's promised Mediator, the Seed of the woman. But if you liken that gospel proclaimed in Genesis 3:15 to a little tree, even though the full tree is there, in time that little plant will stand tall and spread wide with all its branches and foliage.
In the Old Testament the saints lived, as it were, in a deep valley surrounded by high mountains. And there were a few who were given to stand on the mountain tops—Enoch and Noah and Abraham and David and the prophets, to mention but a few. And they were given to see the realization of the gospel promise from afar off. And the people of God in the valley, the elect people of God—for there were multitudes of course who claimed to be the people of God but were reprobate—the elect people of God stood in the valley calling out to those on the mountain tops and saying, "Any more news of the promise?" They were eager to hear more of the gospel! And the prophets proclaimed to them the promise as God revealed its development. The people of God—even though they often were very few—were enriched by the preaching of the gospel.
And then He came, the promise! Christ came! He came with
the words of eternal life. He said, "I am. I am the way, the truth and the life. Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That was
the gospel, proclaimed by Christ Himself. But He left. He had to leave, to accomplish the
promise. He ascended up on high. But He continues to proclaim His gospel. He does,
beloved. Not from the mountain tops any more, through His Old Testament prophets. But from
the very right hand of God! He received the Spirit of promise. And by the Spirit through
men of His choosing, weak and sinful men so that all power is of God, Christ proclaims His
promise. Oh yes, now by the Scriptures. That also is His eternal good pleasure. He didn't
have to give us the Scriptures. He could have simply given us to rely upon memory and upon
revelation as in the Old Testament times. But in mercy He gave to us the fulness of the
Scriptures. And He gave all His people to understand. So that by the preaching of the
Word, through the faithful exposition of Holy Scripture, Christ says, "Come and drink
of the water of life freely. Come and have the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting
through Me, forevermore."
TO THAT GOSPEL GOD IN CHRIST DEMANDS A RESPONSE.
FROM YOU HE DEMANDS A RESPONSE: BELIEVE!
Repent and believe. Because that gospel comes to sinners, it comes with a call to repentance. For faith is only revealed in the way of repentance. Where there is no hatred of our sin, no recognition of God's holiness, where there is no turning from sin, there is no faith either. That is impossible. The response that is commanded by this gospel of God is the demand to repent and believe. That demand, that call to repent and to believe the gospel, is procliamed wherever God in His good pleasure sends it. But the response to that demand is twofold. That is also according to God's eternal good pleasure.
Throughout history there are multitudes who will not hear the gospel. Their eyes are blinded; their hearts hardened. The gospel is to them a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Why? Because in their impenitence and rebellion they stumble, being disobedient. That stumbling casts them down into destruction, according to I Peter 2:8, "whereunto also they were appointed." They often do not stumble quietly. Because they will not hear the call to repentance, the preaching of the gospel often brings from such people a response of fierce opposition. They hate that gospel that they will not hear! That gospel of God is a heavenly intrusion into their world of sin and the hatred of their heart! That is why some would murder to stop it! How often don't we read of that in Scripture! How often don't the prophets lament the hard-heartedness in Israel, where the multitudes would not hear the voice. Always they would voice their opposition to the prophets God sent them. Sometimes they would even seek to kill them. Though Jehovah spoke to them, confronting them with the gospel and its demands; though He spoke to them through His prophets, they would not hear. Not only would not, but could not—i.e., not with spiritual ears. There was, after all, to their spiritual ears no gospel to them, no good news. All they heard were the rebukes, the judgments, the condemnations, the exhortations. That's all they could hear. Refusing to repent, they denied themselves the good news of the gospel. Refusing to hear God Who spoke to them through His servants, they rejected His Mediator. And let us understand, without this Mediator we are undone, pitiful losers, masses of misery, altogether ignorant even of our tragic circumstance and condition, natural fools, condemned slaves of sin.
BUT WONDER OF WONDERS—AND THAT ALSO IS THE WORK OF GOD'S IRRESISTIBLE GRACE—HIS SHEEP HEAR HIS VOICE, AND FOLLOW HIM.
By this same gospel He speaks powerfully, efficaciously, to the salvation of all who are His. So Paul said (Romans 1:16), "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." For this reason and with the calling to proclaim that glorious gospel God sends forth His ambassadors. "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:11-13). Who are ministers but those sent by God to call all to repentance and faith, and to set forth the only way of salvation? Who are His ministers, but those who are sent by Him to preach this gospel? And whom He did predestinate, them He also called—with that effective, powerful call that brings life out of death; the call that brings to faith the one who He predestinated in Christ Jesus. And whom He called, them he also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.
So important is this gospel to us, beloved! Apart from this gospel, and the Spirit writing these things upon our hearts; apart from the Spirit giving us ears to hear our Savior and hearts that desire to follow Him, there is for us no salvation. But with great thanksgiving to God, we preach with the Apostle Paul in I Thessalonians 1: Our gospel—being God's Word—"came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost." May you continue to hear and to receive this gospel.
Amen.
Preached: 1) Randolph PRC 9/8/96 (am)
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