Our Redeemer, our Mediator

Our Redeemer

During the years when slavery was legal, a gentleman happened upon a slave-bidding in a crowded street. The man paused to observe the activities. as he watched from the edge of the crowd, he saw one slave after another led onto a platform, their arms and legs shacked with ropes as if they were animals.

Displayed before the jeering crowd, they were auctioned off, one by one. Some onlookers would inspect the "merchandise," grabbing disrespectfully at the women, examining the muscular arms of the men.

The gentleman studied the group of slaves waiting nearby. He paused when he saw a young girl standing at the back. Her eyes were filled with fear, she looked so frightened. He hesitated for a moment and then disappeared briefly. When he returned, the auctioneer was about to start the bidding for the young girl he had noticed beforehand.

As the auctioneer opened the bidding, the gentlement shouted out a bid that was twice the amount of any other selling price offered that day. There was silence for an instance, and then the gravel fell as "Sold to the gentleman" was heard.

The gentleman stepped forward, making his way through the crowd. He waiting at the bottom of the steps as the young girl was led down to her new owner. The rope which bound her was handed to the man, who accepted it without saying anything.

The young girl stared at the ground. Suddenly she looked up and spat in his face. Silently, he reached for a handkerchief and wiped the spittle from his face. He smiled gently at the young girl and said, "Follow me."

She followed him reluctantly. As they reached the edge of the crowd, he continued to a nearby area where each deal was closed. When a slave was set free, legal documents, called manumission paper, were necessary.

The gentleman paid the purchase price and signed the necessary documents. when the transaction was complete, he turned to the young girl and presented the documents to her. Startled, she looked at him with uncertainty. Her narrowed eyes asked, "What are you doing?"

The gentleman responded to her questioning look. He said, "Here, take these papers. I bought you to set you free. As long as you have these papers in your possession, no man can ever make you a slave again."

The girl looked into his face. What was happening? There was silence. Slowly, she said, "You bought me to set me free? You bought me to set me free?" As she repeated this phrase over and over, the significance of what had just happened became more and more real to her.

Was it possible that a stranger had just granted her freedom and never again could she be held in bondage and servitude to any man? As she began to grasp the significance of the documents which she now held in her hand, she fell to her knees and wept at the gentleman's feet.

Through her tears of joy and gratitude, she said, "You bought me to set me free? ... I'll serve you forever!"

Our redemption

You and I were once bound in slavery to sin. But the Lord Jesus paid the price to set us free when He she His blood At Calvary. That's what the Bible calls redemption.

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Eph. 1:7).

That's what Paul was referring to when he wrote: "For you wer bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:20)

The blood of Jesus was not spilled; it was shed. It was no accident. The Lord chose to die in our place, shedding His precious blood on our behalf.

Jesus said to Himself: "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28).

Why did Christ redeem us? So "that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin" (Rom. 6:6). That is the only way we could "be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:11).

Every day we can rejoice - not only in what we have been redeemed from, but to what we have been redeemed. We have been set free from slavery to sin and Satan. And we have been redeemed to a new liberty from sin and to a new life in Christ (2 Cor. 3:17, 18).

When you have been redeemed by His blood, you can say: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).

Reconciled by the Blood

Who was in most need - the slave girl or the man who bought her? The slave girl, of course. In the same way, God did not need to be reconciled to man; man needed to be reconciled to God.

"For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullnesss should dwell, and by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight" (Col. 1:19 - 22).

While it was God's desire to continue in love and fellowship with man, sin had compelled Him become an opponent. Although the love of God toward man remains unchanged, sin made it impossible for Him to admit man into fellowship with Himself.

In the Old Covenant, God instructed His people to offer sacrifices. These slain animals symbolically bore the punishment for sin that the people deserved. But the sacrifices had to be made over and over again.

The Old Covenant was the shadow (Heb. 10:1). The New Covenant brought the reality. Christ died "once for all," atoning for our sins and bringing back into fellowship with God (Heb. 10:10). Righteousness demanded it; love offered it.

Now the Lord gives us a new responsibility to share the message of reconciliation with the world.

"Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the World to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18. 19).

In the time of Christ, Gentiles were excluded from the family of God because they were not part of the Old Covenant. They were known as "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12).

But through "the blood of His cross" these two groups - the Jews and Gentiles - were made one. And He "has broken down the middle wall of separation" so "that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity" (Eph. 2:13 - 14, 16). He made he Gentiles "fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (Eph. 2:9).

Our Mediator

Because of His shed blood, the Lord Jesus has become our mediator with the Father.

"And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance" (Heb. 9:15).

Mankind has always needed a mediator. Job declared, "Oh, that one might plead for a man with God" (Job 16:21).

Under the Old Covenant, the high priest became the legal representative of the people regarding spiritual matters. But there were some issues that he could not arbitrate. Eli, when he was the high priest of Israel, said: "If one man sins against another, God will judge him. But if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him" (1 Sam 2:25)?

Today, Christ has become our high priest through shedding His blood. That is what gives Him the authority to be our legal mediator in heaven representing us before the Father. Because of the cross "He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant" (Heb. 9:15).

As our mediator, Christ intercedes on our behalf. The apostle Paul wrote, "It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us" (Rom. 8:34). The Greek word for "intercession" is "entunchano," which means "to meet with" and "to make petition."

And because He is our high priest, sin will not defeat us - no, not on a single score. He is our high priest, ever living to make intercession for us.

"Therefore He is also able to save us to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25).

There is only one reason why Christ can be our go-between in heaven - because He is both God and man.

"And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8).

"Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same" (Heb. 2:14).

Only Christ can say, "I know what man is like, and I can tell you what God is like. I understand them both fromth inside out." When we ae being tempted, Jesus can speak to the Father and say, "I went through the same thing."

He was sinless, and yet He became our sin bearer. Instead of symbolically cleansing us from defilement, the Lord cleansed us from actual sin. It was through the blood of the cross that the Lord Jesus removed the obstacle which caused an estrangement between God and man and restored our fellowhip with the Father.

"For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15).

Though Christ is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens (Heb. 7:26), He is nevertheless "touched with the feeling our infirmities" (Heb. 4:15, KJV).

herefore, as the writer of Hebrews says, "let us come boldly" today to His "throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy" (Heb. 4:16). This wonderful Savior does not condemn you. He loves you for He has died for you.

"For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all" (1 Tim. 2:5, 6).

And because of this reasom, God declares that we are free from the pit of sin and death.

"If there is a messenger for him, a mediator, one among a thousand, to show man his uprightness, then He is gracious to him, and says, 'Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom'" (Job 33:23, 24).

So come to Jesus Christ our mediator today. Jesus said, "I am the way, the ruth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).

Pleading our cases

We know that Christ is our mediator, but He does even more for us. In that role He is also our advocate, pleading and upholding our cases before the Father.

"My little children, these things I write you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).

Because of the unrelenting temptation os Satan, many Christians find themselves out of fellowship with the Father. That is when they need someone who will speak on their behalf.

Jesus does not plead the case of sinners. It is only when the blood has bee applied to our heart that the Lord becomes our advocate. It is then we can say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear" (Heb.13:6).

Boldness by the shed Blood

Because the Lord Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, we can enter boldly into the throne room.

"Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart if full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water" (Heb. 10:19 - 22).

Our boldness to enter comes only because of Christ's sacrifice, nothing else. If we are still in our sin, no amount of brazen courage can open heaven's gates. The password is: "I come by the Blood." The moment you speak those words, entrance is yours.

If you long to experience the power of redemption which Jesus accomplished, notice what the passage from Hebrews 10:19, 20 syas about the holy of holies, which is now open to us, and the freedom with which wd can enter through the shed Blood of Christ.

The shed Blood of Christ has removed any deed to be timid about approaching the Lord (read Heb. 4:16). it gives us the confidence not only approach His throne, but also to reach the lost.

After Christ returned to glory, the disciples were everywhere preaching the message of the cross. They proclaimed it with fear and were undaunted when cross-examined by priests at the temple in Jerusalem (read Acts 4:13; 4:29, 30).

Eternal inheritance

Christ shed His blood and became the mediator of the New Covenant so "those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance" (Heb. 9:15).

What God promised isn't just for today; it is for eternity. That's why it is an eternal inheritance. The death of Jesus Christ activated the power of the blood that guaranteed our inheritance (read Heb. 9:16, 17).

The promises of God's Word - both the Old and New Testaments - are ours when we are redeemed by the Blood. We don't deserve an inheritance because of our works of righteousness, "but according to His mercy He save us ... that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:4, 7).

Too many Christians fear that they'll never see their inheritance. That must be because they don't understand God's amazing grace.