************ Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 18 ************
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on March 5, 2006
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.
Jesus is our Mediator. That's the message of the Bible today. That's the message of the Catechism based upon the Bible. And that's the focus of Lent.
What does it mean to say Jesus is Mediator?
Mediators are used to bring two opposing and dead-locked sides together. For example, a mediator was needed by the National Hockey League last year when the players went on strike and there were no hockey games for an entire season. A mediator is needed to mediate between opposing parties in the Middle-East. I noticed in the news this past week that the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to mediate between Anna Nicole Smith and the family of the old guy she married.
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? It answers with "Our Lord Jesus Christ" (A 18).
The clear teaching of Scripture is that Jesus is our one and only Mediator. Consider our Bible reading for this morning:
(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. Lee Strobel writes:
Topic: Way
Subtopic: Christ the
Index: 3793
Date: 9/1998.2
Title: The Cure for Sin
Every person has a terminal illness called sin. The reason that followers of Jesus cling to him so tightly is because he is the great Physician who has the only cure. We could try to scrub away our sins with good deeds. Friends, it will not work. We can sincerely think that there are other ways of dealing with it, but we would be sincerely wrong.
-- Lee Strobel, "Are There Many Paths to God?" Preaching Today, Tape 179.
B To say Jesus is the only Mediator means that we who are Christians are all guilty of intolerance. We are all guilty of what our culture considers to be the sin above all sins.
Our culture today prizes tolerance above anything and everything else. That's why so many people become upset with the nomination of pro-life judges by the White House. 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. So our culture lumps conservative, biblical Christians with extreme Muslims and those activists who bomb abortion clinics.
Based upon the Bible we teach and believe and confess that Jesus is the only Mediator, 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. R. C. Sproul has this to say:
Topic: Christ
Subtopic: Only Savior
Index: 3368
Date: 9/1998.1
Title: Only Jesus Could Atone
Moses could meditate on the law. Muhammed could brandish a sword. Buddha could give personal counsel. Confucius could offer wise sayings. But none of these men were qualified to offer an atonement for the sins of the world.
-- R.C. Sproul, quoted by Lee Strobel, "Are There Many Paths to God?" Preaching Today, Tape 179.
Only Jesus can make atonement for our sins. Only Jesus is the Mediator between sinful man and a righteous God.
We who are Christians are like a compass. A compass, you see, is narrow-minded. No matter what, it always points to the magnetic north. In the same way, Christians always point to Jesus. He, and He alone, is the way to the Father.
Topic: Way
Subtopic: Christ the
Index: 3793
Date: 9/1998.10
Title: Only One Right Road
I have a friend--he's one of the smartest men I know in terms of sheer intellectual horsepower--who thinks all roads lead to God as long as you're sincere. But he doesn't think that way about the car he drives. If a mechanic said to him, "The tires on your van need replacing, but I don't have your size in stock," he wouldn't reply, "Then let's put in a new ignition system," as if any repair will solve the problem."
-- Kenneth G. Elzinga, "Exclusive Territory," Preaching Today, Tape 179.
God never said all roads lead to him. Only Jesus does.
We need to stop apologizing for believing this. Without apology we need to state that in Christ we have the only way to the Father.
Jesus is the only way to God. He is the only Mediator. His death on the cross is not only the best way of salvation; it is the only way.
As a church and as Christians, 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, 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: Salvation
Subtopic: By Works
Index:
Date: 3/2006.101
Title: Cake Mix that flopped
I read about an instant cake mix that was a big flop. The instructions said all you had to do was add water and bake. The company couldn't understand why it didn't sell -- until their research discovered that the buying public felt uneasy about a mix that required only water. Apparently people thought it was too easy. So the company altered the formula and changed the directions to call for adding an egg to the mix in addition to the water. The idea worked and sales jumped dramatically.
R.W.D. Daily Bread, June 2, 1992.
This story reminds me of how some people react to the plan of salvation. To them it sounds too easy and simple to be true, even though the Bible says, "By grace you have been saved through faith...; it is the gift of God, not of works" (Eph. 2:8-9). They feel that there is something more they must do, something they must add to God's "recipe" for salvation. They think they must perform good works to gain God's favor and earn eternal life. But the Bible is clear – we are saved, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy" (Titus 3:5). Unlike the cake-mix manufacturer, God has not changed His "formula" to make salvation more marketable. The gospel we proclaim must be free of works, even though it may sound too easy.
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.
It seems that most people either don't know this or don't want to believe this.
Topic: Salvation
Subtopic: By Works
Index:
Date: 3/2006.101
Title: Survey
7000 Protestant youth from many denominations were asked whether they agreed with the following statements:
-"The way to be accepted by God is to try sincerely to live a good life." More than 60% agreed.
-"God is satisfied if a person lives the best life he can." Almost 70% agreed.
-"The main emphasis of the gospel is on God's rules for right living." More than half agreed.
According to a survey by the Barna Research Group, only 55 percent of those who identify themselves as born-again Christians believe they will go to heaven because of accepting Christ as their personal savior. Most of those surveyed said they would go to heaven because of living a good life, or obeying the 10 commandments, or because all people will go to heaven. Others who said they had made a commitment to Christ said they were unsure about what will happen to them after they die.
Reported in Inland Northwest Christian News, March 1990, p. 3.
A couple of weeks ago I read in World Magazine about a study by two Harvard economists. They found a specific link between belief in the afterlife and a nation's economic growth. Fear of hell, they claimed, produces economic growth at a faster rate than any other religious idea, including belief in heaven. Do you realize what this comes down to? Believers work hard out of a fear of hell. But we should know that no amount of hard work will keep any person out of hell; only faith in Christ will do that (World Magazine, January 21, 2006; p.43).
II Vicarious Atonement
A In this season of Lent 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). The Catechism says our Lord Jesus Christ "was given us to set us completely free and to make us right with God."
Notice the word "give." Christ "gave" Himself. He "was given us." The Mediator ought to have been given by us, and to have proceeded from us, because we are the ones who sinned. However, we are totally unable to provide such a Mediator. Our Mediator had to "give himself" and be "given us" by God. That's the miracle of God's love: "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son" (Jn 3:16). What amazing, wondrous, beautiful grace!
B Paul writes Timothy that Christ was given as a ransom. 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.
We hear about ransom demands from Iraq all the time. Reporters or Aid workers or diplomatic staff are held captive by various Iraqi groups. The Iraqi groups threaten to execute their captives unless troops are withdrawn from Iraq.
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.
C As Mediator, Jesus suffered and died in our place. We call this teaching the "vicarious atonement of Jesus." In this season of Lent we confess this vital truth.
The word "atonement" 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." 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.
D As sinners, you and I have two needs. First, we need to escape the punishment we deserve. Second, we need to return to God's favor. In this light, I want you to notice the two-fold result of Christ's atoning sacrifice: "set us completely free" and "make us right with God" (A 18).
Christ has set me free from the tyranny of the devil (cf Q & A 1). However, it is not enough to be set free from sin and evil and Satan. On our own we would immediately become slaves again. We also need something else. We also need to return to God's favor. So, Christ earns for us and restores to us righteousness and life.
Christ's atoning sacrifice provides us all that we sinners need. He frees us from our captivity and brings us into the kingdom of God.