The Mediator, Our Lord Jesus Christ
Minister: | Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: | 9/15/2013 AM |
Text: | I Timothy 2; Lord's Day 6 |
Psalters: | 131, 141, 116, 81 |
- What He must be
- Deliverance from our sins and miseries comes from the "Mediator".
- Our Mediator/Substitute must be a perfectly righteous human (q. 15).
- First, He must have the same human nature all sinners have (Hebrews 2:14-17).
- Second, He must be perfectly righteous, without any corruption or any actual sin.
- And our Mediator must be very God (for three reasons).
- God Himself provided the "one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5).
- The Mediator is provided by God Himself, not by us, nor by a joint effort of God and man (cf. Gen. 15).
- Jesus Christ met the qualifications to be Mediator.
- Jesus took upon Himself our flesh and blood (14) and of the seed of Abraham (15).
- Also He was free from Adam's sinfulness, because He was conceived by the holy Spirit, not by a sinful man.
- And He is "true God" (I Tim. 3:16; I John 5:20).
- The union of these Divine and human natures of Jesus is called the "incarnation" (coming in flesh).
- For the first few centuries the Christian Church fought against several errors about the two natures of the Mediator.
- The Belgic Confession (Article 19) speaks well to the union of Jesus’ two natures in the person of God the Son.
- And the Counsel of Chalcedon, 451 A.D. (p. 84 of Psalter) concluded that Jesus is two natures united in One Person.
- Of this Mediator we learn in the Gospel.
- The Gospel is God’s good news about Christ and His perfect work of reconciliation.
- This good news God has published through-out the ages, beginning with the protevangel of Genesis 3:15.
- Since that time God has revealed it with increasing clarity.
- This Gospel is incorporated by God in the inspired Scriptures.
- This Gospel is preached by the Church into all the world (John 3:16-18).
- It is the power of God unto salvation to the elect, while others find it to be foolishness.
- Faith embraces the Redeemer spoken of in the Gospel.
- The Gospel is God’s good news about Christ and His perfect work of reconciliation.