(1) THE MEDIATOR
([p. 361] 1) THE MEDIATOR
1 Timothy 2: 1 - 7; 2 Corinthians 5: 17 - 21
My thought, in this present course of lectures, is to take up successively various names under which Christ is presented to us in the New Testament in their own import, and in their bearing in regard to ourselves. It is plain that under whatever name Christ may be presented to us, our knowledge of Him must be according to that name and it may be added that no one name can be lost in another.
Now, there are many names under which Christ is spoken of, each having its own significance. You may not enter into that all in a moment, but the learning of it is the way in which we come to the knowledge of Christ.
In speaking of a name the idea I intend to convey is of that which is set forth in the person who bears that name. So if I speak of Christ by a name, that name indicates something which is set forth in Him. Another idea connected with name is that of renown. God has given Him a name which is above every name.
To make the matter plainer, if I speak of Christ as Mediator; that is a name which attaches to Him — and which sets forth what He is as from God to man. I may speak of Him also as the Son of God; that is a name said to be inherited, which shows His superiority to angels. If I speak of Him as Lord; He bears that name, and it sets forth His relation to us down here, and ours to Him. Again I may speak of Him as Head; and that indicates what is set forth in Him in relation to the Church — His body.
I refer to those names to give you shortly an idea of what is before me; but I would desire now to present to [p. 362] you the Mediator and its import to man. I begin there because that is really God’s true starting point as regards man. His beginning is the presentation of Himself in grace to man in a mediator. That may not be the first thing which people understand, for many a person has faith in Christ who understand very little indeed of the import of the Mediator, and I doubt if such have really the full good of it. They apprehend Christ as a Saviour: they have faith in the efficacy of His sacrifice; that is the case with thousands of Christians; and yet they have very little sense of the import of any particular name which belongs to Christ.
Now the name Mediator stands in connection with the attitude which God has taken up towards man, namely, that of a Saviour God, for that has necessitated the Mediator. Everything which God does is, in a sense, a moral necessity flowing from what He is, and there is nothing that He does which is really arbitrary. There are certain moral consequences which must flow from what God is, and if God was to come out as a Saviour there must be the Mediator. As far as I can judge it was by a mediator alone that God was able to approach man in grace. It was not possible otherwise.
In taking up the name of Mediator, I purpose to give you some simple and plain thoughts in connection with the subject, and then to illustrate it.
And here I may say that it is really of very little good to speak of what is set forth in Christ, unless it is to have some moral power and influence over us; and that it may have this is my desire. I have no idea of attempting to form the minds of people, but I would seek to set forth that which will have its own effect upon you morally. I want you to be affected by the truth, and the truth is, that which may be known of God — that is what is revealed. This ought to have the most powerful influence and effect upon every one of us.
There appears to me to be a connection between what is presented in the two passages which I have read:
[p. 363] the thought in 2 Corinthians 5 is kindred to that of mediatorship in Timothy, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation”. In this verse we have the principle of mediatorship in connection with the ministry of reconciliation. The passage shows us the attitude of God when Christ was here on earth. God presented Himself to men, in a man, the Man Christ Jesus; in the Mediator. God approached men, but did not impute unto them their trespasses. He had another mind: He was reconciling the world unto Himself. We hear Christ saying when He was on earth, “Neither do I condemn thee”. He was not imputing trespasses. To others also He said as they came to Him: “Go in peace”, and, “Thy sins are forgiven thee”. It was evident that God was not imputing unto men their trespasses, but that on the other hand, He was reconciling the world unto Himself.
Now I want to show you what mediatorship implies. Not that I know very much about it myself; I can speak of it only according to measure, but my impression is that a great many Christians are very indefinite indeed in their thoughts in regard to the Mediator.
A mediator is one in whom God addresses Himself to man. That is certain enough. You could not read the passage in 1 Timothy 2 without getting that impression. “For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”. The Mediator is man-ward from God, and is a necessity consequent on the will of God to present Himself in the character of a Saviour God. Apart from the Mediator, such a presentation was impossible.
The first statement in verse 5 is: “There is one God”, or, as the passage would possibly be more correctly read, “God is one”. In the Godhead there is no possible divergence of mind, or of purpose, or of judgment. The Lord Jesus when here upon earth could say: “I and my Father are one”. So that while, on the one hand, there is distinction of Persons; on the other, God is one, in perfect unity of mind, spirit and purpose. That is a first principle in our thoughts of God. The truth that comes out in the Old Testament is: “Jehovah our God is one Lord”, but in the New Testament it is, “God is one”. In Christianity God is fully revealed, in the Persons of the Godhead. We read in Colossians 1: 19: “In him was all the fulness pleased to dwell”. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit, have all come to light in Christ, and hence we find the Lord in Matthew 28: 19, enjoining the disciples to go and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But while we have God thus fully revealed, the truth remains that, “God is one”.
Then follows “there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”. There is not a variety of mediators but one, and the application of this is universal, for “God would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”. There is unity in the Godhead, and universality in regard of the Mediator. It was not one mediator for the Jew and another for the Gentile, it was one towards all. It is connected with the presentation of God, and with that, of God’s approach to man. God had approached man in Christ. “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. God is declared in the Mediator, He has by Him come close to man. That is a point of the greatest importance in one’s thoughts of God.
We have long been accustomed to the idea of the Trinity, which, though true, is a human expression. I very much prefer scriptural expressions, and the expression with regard to the Godhead is this: “In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”. The expressions of Scripture are safer than human expressions, for the latter may fail you sometime.
[p. 365] We come now to certain things which are descriptive of the Mediator. One is, that He is Man. There is a significance in the way in which the name is put here. It is not “Jesus Christ”, but “the man Christ Jesus”. That is one mark of the Mediator, and the other is, “who gave himself a ransom for all”. If you apprehend the force of these two points, you will enter into the idea of the Mediator.
I am going to speak a little on these two points, and to show the effect which the apprehension of them has upon us.
If the Man Christ Jesus is the Mediator between God and men, then He must be of God, and therefore according to God. The mediator could not be a fallen man, and if not a fallen man, then He must be a Man of another order altogether; He could not be mediator if He were not according to God. Now that is a point which I want everyone to take in, because the introduction of a man of another order is of the greatest possible moment to us. It is unlikely that God can have two orders of man before Him, and if He brings in a man of another order, then the first order of man is displaced; and if you do not understand that, you do not understand Christianity. That is what led me to refer to 2 Corinthians 5. The first man is completely displaced by Christ coming in, and now, “If any man be in Christ, it is new creation”.
I will now turn to the few verses I read in 2 Corinthians 5. “God was in Christ”. When Christ was here on earth, do you think that fallen man was under the eye of God? No, the One who was under His eye was Christ, not fallen man. When Christ was born into the world, the angels praised God, saying, “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good pleasure in man”; but in what man? Certainly not in fallen man; it was in Christ, another man altogether. There was plenty of praise there. A multitude of the heavenly host praising God at the introduction of another man;
[p. 366] a Man of another order; the Mediator. I want you all to appreciate the wonderful way of God’s approach to man. God approached men in a Man who was to displace every other man; and when that Man came in, it could not but be that the first man was displaced before God. The Man who was here under God’s eye, was Christ. He was the heavenly Man. He could say, “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven”. I admit that He had come into the line of the first man, being made of a woman, made under law, but that was that He might die for all.
This brings me to the second point. “He gave himself a ransom for all”. He was not going to reinstate man. “If one died for all, then all were dead”. He was not minded to revive them in the old condition. He died to secure a claim upon all; His death was the proof and evidence of all being dead, for if one died for all it is plain that all were dead, and “He died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again”. Christ died and rose again, and we as Christians are of His order: we must be so. Christ gave Himself a ransom for all, that He might have a place in and claim upon all; that is the thought of the passage. There were other questions in the death of Christ, but the point of which I speak now, is the giving Himself a ransom for all, to establish His right over all. My first point is, “the man Christ Jesus;” the second, “He gave himself a ransom for all;” and the effect of that is, that He is the Head of all: He is Head of every man, and if Head of every man, then the first man is displaced.
Christ was never like the first man, Adam. Adam was perfect as God’s work, innocent and intelligent; but without knowledge of good and evil; that was not like Christ. There was little similarity between Christ and Adam save as to sinlessness; and the new man is not like Adam, for he is created after God, in righteousness and holiness of truth. Christ was here in perfect [p. 367] righteousness, holiness and love. He was from God and according to God: the Man Christ Jesus. I want you to apprehend the moral significance of that, and then that He gave Himself a ransom for all, that He might be the Head of all the position which He takes consequent on having given Himself for all.
We read in 1 Corinthians 11, that the Head of every man is Christ, and in Ephesians, that “He has ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things”. The idea connected with Head is, that He fills. He is entitled to fill, and the position He has now with regard to every man is, that He is Head, to fill all.
But how can Christ fill if there is no room for Him? Room must be made — He must displace everything else. The fact of Christ’s filling must of necessity displace what is already there. We get this idea expressed in the passage, “If one died for all, then were all dead: and he died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again”. They are subdued too and take character from Christ.
I want you to see how very far this goes. Every Christian in the world would acknowledge that Christ has a claim upon him, but the point is, is he content to have everything in him displaced, so that Christ should fill? For if He fills, there is no room for anything else. A great many people are content with sentiments in regard of Christ. They know His grace, and thus they cannot help having sentiments in regard of Him; but the point is to have everything in you displaced so that Christ should fill. But someone might say, ‘If everything in me is to be displaced, that would displace natural affections too’; but really natural affections could not be displaced if you would, yet they may be displaced as to the undue place they have in the hearts of people; and when Christ comes in, the old things are displaced: old things have passed away and new things have come to pass.
[p. 368] Now I want to illustrate to you the working of these things, and to show that all is effected through the Mediator.
I turn to four passages in Luke’s gospel and I may say that these passages are found only in Luke. The first is in chapter 7: I refer to the case of the woman of the city who was a sinner. There you get the beginning of Christ’s filling. She was displaced. She loved much; she was forgiven much: she was displaced, and Christ had the affection of her soul as Saviour. She had no knowledge of Christ beyond this; but that is the beginning of displacement, though it has to go on to completion. Another thing is, that it has to be effected in the saints here on earth. Christ gained a place in the woman’s heart by His grace; and if you apprehend the wisdom and grace manifest in the place which Christ has taken as Mediator, and the fact that He gave Himself a ransom for all, it is totally impossible but that your heart should have affection for Him.
There are two things which strike me in connection with mediatorship. On the one hand, the wisdom of God which devised the Mediator; and on the other, the grace of Christ, which led Him to come down under the judgment of God on man. What could God do for man except to displace him; but He did it by the introduction of another Man — of Christ — that He might fill all things. Everybody should be struck with the way of God’s approach to man: in the person of another Man — the Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus.
I pass on now to chapter 10 to the parable of the good Samaritan. The Lord had in chapter 7 gained the affection of the woman. She had found a Saviour, and He had gained her heart; but in the parable of the good Samaritan, the man who had fallen among thieves found not only a Saviour but a neighbour — One who would charge Himself with him, to care for him so long as he was in need of care. It was not simply that the good Samaritan had engaged the man’s affections, but he brought home to him the consciousness: ‘I have [p. 369] found a neighbour; One who cares for me’, and that is an advance on the truth of chapter 7. We have an apprehension in the soul of the One who has come into the scene to take up man’s part in the fullest sense.
I come next to chapter 15, to the parable of the prodigal son. What we find here is, that the repentant man is invested in a robe brought forth from the Father’s treasures. It presents the thought of a soul being clothed in Christ and having the acceptance of that Man in the presence of God. Morally the prodigal has disappeared, and nothing but Christ is seen.
Lastly, in the case of the thief on the cross in chapter 23, we learn that one who had possibly been a murderer is to be so completely divested of himself that he can be a companion of Christ for paradise. He is not simply invested in Christ, but completely divested of self. The Lord said to the thief, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”, and if he was going to be in paradise with Christ, it must be as entirely apart from himself — not a bit of the thief could go to paradise, and it is of the greatest importance that we should apprehend this. I do not think that anyone who realised the truth of this would, if called upon to serve the Lord in any way, placard himself as a converted thief or in regard of anything that had made him notorious here. A man is divested of all, that he may be all for Christ. Our hearts should be in the good of that now, so as not to leave it to the end of our journey. If I understand the Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus, that Man is intended to displace everything, to displace me, in order that I might practically prefer Christ to myself. I naturally prefer myself to Christ, but if I am displaced I prefer Christ to myself, and He then rules in my heart; I give Him His place.
The Mediator has come in to take the position of Head of every man, and it is in order to fill every man. If a man be not filled by Him, that man will disappear from the scene of God’s blessing. Christ has ascended [p. 370] up on high that He might fill all things, and in that scene of bliss which is the result of this there will be no room for anyone who is not filled by Christ; such will find their portion in another place, where there will be an eternal witness of the righteousness of God.
It is blessed to think of Christ’s place — an acquired place in a sense — in relation to man. Head of every man; to fill every man. We are prone to cling tenaciously to things in this world, liking to have a status here; and the practical result is, that we are unwilling to be filled by Christ. We often obstruct; what I would desire is our recognition of the title of Christ to fill, then we should be prepared to be displaced by Christ, for He displaces that which otherwise God would condemn. He displaced on the cross the man that was under the condemnation and judgment of God, bearing his judgment that he might be practically displaced in us.
The Mediator is the beginning of God’s testimony; He is, as we have seen, from God and according to God. God presents Himself in the Mediator, and He is still the Man Christ Jesus. He has come forth out of death, that He might become everything to the heart of the Christian. He is my Saviour, my Neighbour. I am accepted and invested in Him, and by His death divested of self. We should have the deepest sense of the grace and wisdom of God in approaching men in a Man, so that by a Man He should displace the man who was under the condemnation of God. God could have swept the whole scene in judgment, but with God it was a question of displacement, not of judgment, and that takes place now in those who are content to be displaced. One is content to be displaced, because displacement means that we are the companions of Christ in real joy and supreme happiness.
Many people find satisfaction of heart in service, but I do not want service alone. I wish to serve, but at the same time to have Christ as the satisfaction of my heart.