SRR 123 WLC: Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be man?

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The Necessity of the Mediator as Man

It is on we're taking the gloves off. It's time to battle from the larger catechism and So at any time if you guys have questions, feel free to jump in interrupt just whenever it's fine and So, let's I guess let's read it here let's jump to it.

Sure.

Heavenly Father we thank you Lord for this day for Christmas for sending your son to die for our sins Lord. We ask that you bless the fellowship in our study together and that your help is to glorify you and be edified by it and to apply the truths of your word and Of the the doctrine the sound doctrine that we learned today.

We thank you father. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, so let's read the question.

First.

So question 39 says. Why was it requisite that the mediator should be man? And Before we even read the answer. Come on in guys before we even read the answer. I want us to focus on a very important word.

Requisite.

Who knows what requisite means?

Yeah.

Necessary. Prerequisite requirement. So notice how the question is phrase is already saying a lot. Why was it necessary or a requirement that the mediator should be men? And so the answer is obviously going to go on to explain why but Necessary is a very important thing because in other words, there's no other way God could have done this.

God basically himself had to become a man and there's no other way that we could have been saved that he could have done any of the things that he did and a lot Of people sometimes will say like well God could have done anything.

He could have chosen to forgive us without necessarily sending His son to die and that's not true that it's all a very intricate system. That's tied together. And if if that was the case, then the Bible would have changed too because the Bible prophesies all of this.

So it was necessary and in the strongest sense of the word that everybody yeah, come on in everybody had. The only way it could have happened is the way that it actually happened. There's different views like Molin ism and things like that.

They talk about possible worlds and possible alternatives. There was no alternative. This was the only way that things could have happened that it was necessary that the mediator had to be a man had to become.

A man.

Mediator being Christ obviously right. The God-man. And so. Let's go ahead and read the answer and then we'll break it down part by part. So the answer says it was requisite that the mediator should be man that he might advance our nature perform obedience to the law.

Suffer and make intercession for us in our nature. Have a fellow feeling of our infirmities that we might receive the adoption of sons and have comfort and access with boldness unto the throne.

Of grace.

So this is an extremely pregnant.

Question.

This is why it was necessary for in summary why it was necessary for the mediator to be a man in addition to God which was the previous question and so The first phrase here is That he might advance our nature so in the Catechism there should be a reference there.

I can pull it up here. What does the reference say in y 'all's? booklet does anybody have the The reference the scripture reference. Yeah, let's turn to that to Hebrews 2 16 who wants to read that Hebrews 2 16, right.

Yeah, but yeah. Okay, right so This is one of the reasons why he became a man and not an angel for example, right because he died for men for us men Mankind and so he didn't die for angels. They have no mediator.

And so It was necessary for The and this is all tied to covenant theology as well. So it's extremely important to understand the first covenant and what happened there and what happened after that. When it was broken it was necessary for him to become specifically a man in order to Repair what had been broken in the first covenant.

And so So that's why he had to become man and the offspring of Abraham Abraham obviously because of the prophecies talking about how The seed of promise that Galatians also talks about that the seed of promise will redeem His people the elect of God so And then the next let's see.

Let's look at the next reference. So the next reference here is 2nd Peter 1 4 so you can turn to that one. And I have a different one, but I don't have that. Yeah, so.

1 4.

Okay, so 2nd Peter 1 4 says Oh, I'll start with 3. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness Through the knowledge of him who call us to his own glory and excellence.

By which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises. So that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

So here the important phrase is become partakers of the of this of the divine nature. Okay, that's a very important Phrase and that's what the question is basically hinting at the answer to advance our nature.

To become partakers of the divine nature. What what does that mean? Anybody want to take a stab at what that means? Does that mean that we will become God?

Well.

Yeah, let's draw that out. What. So it doesn't in Hinduism There's this thing called a big soul right. Like the great soul that you think it's called the great Dharma or something. And when we die, we go back to become one with the great soul and.

That's not obviously not what this is talking about. Right become partakers of the divine nature is. Specifically referring to something that will happen to us on the last day. It starts with a G Glorification right will be we will become perfected.

At the resident at the resurrection, well, actually that was my question. When when is when is that going to happen. That's a very important.

Question to.

It basically means glorification which means that our spirits so when people die now their spirits will be glorified in heaven. But their bodies are still in the grave. And so our bodies are not going to be glorified until Christ comes back at the resurrection and It's extremely important to keep that in mind, especially with a lot of modern teachers.

Even people like John Piper because they say glorification happens after the last judgment. So first in order to be glorified you have to be judged by God and that's a very that's a totally unbiblical notion.

Because the Bible teaches that as soon as Christ comes back at the resurrection, we will be glorified instantly. It says we're all going to be caught up in the air and the dead in Christ will be raised first and then.

The I mean those who are alive will be raised in Christ and then the dead in Christ will also be raised In a glorified state so that glorified state will happen as soon as Christ comes back. So that's an important thing to keep in mind there that's essentially what it's referring to there and so any questions about that or comments or.

Okay.

So the next phrase here is Perform obedience to the law right. And here is. The big question is obviously what law what what law is being referred to here? What do y 'all think there's is it the mosaic law?

What's that? Essentially yeah that. So there's different kinds of laws in the Bible right. There's ceremonial laws. There's mosaic law. There's a Judicial laws that are tied to the mosaic law. But that's not this is specifically referring to a specific kind of law namely the moral law, it's called the Historical theology.

The term is moral law and Moral law is what Christ came to fulfill for a very specific reason and so if you turn to your. Okay, let me run my notes here, so if we go to.

Question I.

Think it's in the Catechism. Turn to question 92 so question 92 says this. What did God at first reveal into man as a rule of his obedience? The rule of his obedience revealed to Adam in the estate of innocence and to all mankind in him.

Besides a special command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Was the moral law. Okay, so that's what the. That's what this is specifically referring to. Obviously he Christ fulfilled the entire law.

He fulfilled the entire mosaic law. He was a good Jew, and he kept the law perfectly. But what he specifically needed to fulfill for us was the moral law. And so question 93 the next question answers that answers what the moral law is.

So the answer the the moral law is The declaration of the will of God to mankind directing and binding everyone to personal perfect and perpetual conformity and obedience there unto in the frame and disposition of the whole man's soul and body and Performance of all those duties of holiness and righteousness which he owed to God and men.

Promising life upon the fulfilling and threatening death upon the breach of it. So this what it's basically saying is that this is the law that all men are bound to right. This is a law that doesn't change because there's different kinds of laws in the Bible.

There's the in reformed theology there's a positive law and Moral law moral law never changes. It's always the same so it's always wrong to murder. It's always wrong to lie cheat steal all that stuff.

Which is essentially summarizing the Ten Commandments? That's the moral law summarized and then it's further summarized by Christ with the two great commandments, right? Love God and love your neighbor.

So that is the essence of the moral law. And Positive law is commands like the one that God gave to Abraham to kill his son, right? That's a positive command. It doesn't apply to us. We're not required to kill our firstborn or to kill the son of promise.

So that's positive law. This is moral law that applies to all men at all times at all places and we are bound to keep it personally perfectly and perpetually and so that's in it in addition to The the command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil of knowledge of good and evil the the catechism here says that God revealed the moral law to Adam and all mankind in him.

So essentially what this is referring to is the conscience. Right that we all have an innate knowledge of God and an innate knowledge of the moral law. And so the moral law was revealed to Adam because it was always wrong to murder.

Would it have been okay to murder Eve or to murder Adam? Obviously not right. It's not it was always wrong to murder at all places and at all times even before the garden especially before the garden and so.

The.

So the concept here. This is what it's referring to in the catechism in question 39 that this is obedience. Perfect in order for us to be redeemed. Somebody had to come and fulfill the law perfectly. Personally perfectly and perpetually in order to satisfy the terms of the covenant that were broken in Adam.

Because what happened with Adam? Did he keep the law perfectly? No, right. He broke the whole thing. Basically when he Got caught and ended up blaming his wife and they basically all wanted to follow their themselves and the deception of the serpent instead of God and so.

They broke the law they broke the covenant. Okay, so that's another really important concept is. They broke the first covenant that God made with man and that is the covenant of works. Right. So the covenant of works.

Does any does everybody know what that means. The covenant of works the first covenant? Who wants to take a shot at defining it basic. Just a basic overview of what it is the first covenant the covenant of works.

Yes, so basically the. And we don't have.

But.

Right, so. Yeah, yeah, so it's a covenant. We need to probably define that to a covenant. There's several different covenants in the Bible, right. A basic definition of a covenant is a commitment with divine sanctions.

That's the most broadest definition that basically for the most part fits pretty much every covenant in the Bible because even marriage is a covenant. Right, and so it's not always a covenant between man and God.

It can be a covenant between two people and so a commitment with divine sanctions and so I'm gonna read we don't have it, but I'll just go ahead and read the the Westminster Confession and It's in the London Baptist as well.

But the so the Westminster Confession chapter 7 explains what that is.

Yeah.

What's that sanctions. Sanctions means consequences, right? So if you obey you get a reward if you disobey you die you you get punished, right? So Yeah, good question, so let me read Westminster Confession chapter 7 section 2 this is a section of God's covenant with men actually this section was removed.

Of well this this section specifically was taken out and kind of moved around in the London Baptist Confession. But it's they hold to essentially the same covenant of works the first covenant made with man was a covenant of works where in life was promised to Adam and In him to his posterity upon condition of perfect and personal obedience.

So that's a summary of what the covenant of works was in the garden. Now it's interesting here because a lot of people Reject the covenant. They either reject it the covenant of works or they're they they're ignorant of it.

They don't they don't they don't believe it they reject it or they Do other things with with the Bible that are even worse, but a lot of people don't believe it. Don't believe that it actually existed.

That God never made a covenant with man with Adam with Adam specifically and so it's really important. This is extremely important. It has implications on everything because it explains what man's Fundamental problem is what is man's fundamental problem?

In summary. Well, it's it's basically the fall right it's we broke the first covenant there was a covenant tied to the garden and They did not have eternal life priority keeping a lot of people assume that too.

They assume that Adam and Eve had eternal life Automatically and that's not the case. They had to earn they had to do something obey God in order to gain eternal life. Because if they had eternal life, then why did they lose it?

They would have because if you eat if you eat the fruit you will die, right? So they did not have eternal life at that point they had to do something to earn it that's the fundamental works principle tied to The the covenant of works.

That's why it's called the covenant of works because you have to do something in order to earn a Reward eternal life glorification. What's that? Yeah, it's obedience. You have to obey God perfectly. And so a lot of people think that this is not in the Bible, but you can actually it's extremely easy to prove in the Bible.

It's it's required. There's there's one simple little Bible phrase a two-word Bible phrase that.

Proves.

The covenant of works. Does anybody any guess as to what that could mean? Well, which what phrase that could be and to take a hint to give a hint. It's in 1st Corinthians. In fact, let's go to 1st Corinthians verse 22.

So I'm sorry 15 chapter 15 verse 22. Who wants to read that? 1522 anybody want to read it? There you go, so the phrase is in Adam right in Adam is referring to that original covenant and This is drawing a parallel here that has further developed in Romans as well.

Romans 5 for example. We're gonna get to that right now, but this is this is showing That in Adam There's a parallel right in Adam in Christ in Adam all died. So in Adam, we all died because we are we are all reckoned guilty.

We're all born guilty. What are we guilty of? Before even sinning we're guilty of something. What is that? Adams Adam sin, right? We're all legally guilty of Adam sin. So we're born condemned. That's why none of us could have fulfilled a lot because we're already guilty we're dead and condemned from the start.

What was that?

Yeah. Yeah, right. So this all in Adam Also means that he was our the. The term is called federalism. Federalism comes from the Latin foetus and that just means covenant.

So.

In Adam means that Adam was our head. He was our federal head or covenant head. Covenant head means that he was our representative.

Right.

This all sounds familiar right. Because Christ is our what? He's our representative. He is our head. He is our federal representative in the new covenant the covenant of grace, right. The covenant That he came to satisfy on our behalf.

And so likewise we were in Adam and. So whatever Adam did he did not only not only for himself but in all of mankind all of his posterity and. So this is what the covenant works is and it's an extremely important Doctrine that gets either ignored misunderstood or rejected because people don't understand it or they don't know they don't understand where it comes from the Bible and this has implications on everything because it's it it explains why we are in a Why we're sinners why we're why we're condemned.

Yeah.

No, they died, right? They failed. They didn't keep the covenant. If they had kept the covenant what would have happened if they had obeyed God in the garden? They would have gained eternal life. They would have gained Glorification right because the Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, right?

If they had kept the covenant perfectly they would have been glorified they would have gained glorification and eternal life. That was the goal and. And for all of us it would have been for all of us.

He would have done it for for for everybody's behalf. They failed they broke the covenant. They they broke the covenant. Therefore they died right now. There's it's they they believed they eventually came to believe in Christ right in the promise beside because God says in Genesis 3 15 that the seed of the woman will crush the serpent and will be.

Yeah, it will lead to saving the elect but that was a foreshadowing of the new covenant. But because the first covenant was broken. Somebody else in order for us to be saved and not be condemned. Somebody else had to come and satisfy the original terms of that covenant.

Right.

You will surely die. They knew yeah. That's that's more of an old English. It's not it's not. It's not yeah, no, it's not it's not telling them you're you're already damned. He was laying the terms of the covenant, right?

If you disobey you will die. That's the covenant works. If you fail to obey you're gonna be punished. If you keep it you will be rewarded, right? You will be glorified with eternal life and so Genesis 3 15 is a foreshadowing.

Yeah. They they they had types and shadows, right? There were types of shadows. And it's they don't know as much as we know now because it's after the first cut the new covenant came but they had an idea.

You were saved by believing in the promised Messiah right in the Old Testament You believed in the promised Messiah. You didn't exactly know how that was gonna look you had it. There were shadows foreshadowings and things like that prophecies that that hint at what it was going to be like, but.

Yeah, when when that that was a that was a form of covering their sin, right? It was a it was a symbolic of covering their their nakedness because they exposed. They sacra got slaughtered. Go to lambs lambs or something like that to.

In a sense to cover to a symbolic covering that's what's it ushers. Because in Leviticus, I think it's Leviticus 1711 it says without the shedding of blood. There's no remission of sins, right? So blood has to be shed.

About the about the Messiah. Yes, they they didn't know. Yeah, because everything it was hypothetical before. Hypothetically, they could have kept a covenant. But of course in God's plan if the he predestined it for them to disobey He made that was always the plan right and so.

Yeah, this is a really this is very Detailed well, there's so much in this question. And so it's really important to to understand that and so if we go to the cat to the catechism question 20.

Yes.

No, this is a this is a larger catechism. I may have a modernized version of it so. Question 20.

Okay.

Question 20 says. What was the providence of God toward men in the estate in which he was created? The providence of God toward men in the estate in which he was created was the placing him in paradise Appointing him to dress it giving him liberty to eat of the fruit of the earth putting the creatures under his dominion ordaining marriage for his up his help Affording him communion with himself and instituting the Sabbath Entering into a covenant of life with him upon condition of personal perfect and perpetual obedience of which the tree of life was a pledge and Forbidding to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil upon pain of death.

Okay, so that's a really. That's another kind of more detailed summary of that original covenant here they say the covenant of life which was the first covenant that God made with men and so. The verse there's a there's a verse here.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. That's also why God kicked them out he said you can't be here anymore because if you eat of the knowledge of free of.

The tree of.

Life you'll live forever. So you there. They broke it so they couldn't partake in that anymore. So they were they were condemned and cast out.

It's.

Forever in the sense that we will live forever when we are resurrected. We will never die. We're going to have a glorified body. No before the fall they had to earn it. There was a probe. It's called a probationary period, right?

God was testing them it during that time to make sure that to so that they wouldn't eat of the of the battery the knowledge of good and evil and and so doing. Would they would have gained eternal life?

Upon that and so this this is drawn out further. So let's go to Galatians 4 4 to kind of Unpack that a little bit more. So Galatians 4 4 says but when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son Born of woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

So that's again showing you Christ had to be born Subjected to the law the same law That was bound to Adam that was given to Adam and all of his posterity in him had to be he had to be born under that same law in order to fulfill it and In so doing earning righteousness on our behalf, right?

We couldn't keep the law perfectly. We never we can't we're already born condemned. There's no way there's just no way and Atop of that we have a sinful nature to to to add fuel to the fire, right? There's just no way it's it's impossible.

The only way that's why the virgin birth was necessary as well. Right. He couldn't have been born of man because man is by nature corrupt now after the fall and so. All of this as we start understanding this is closely tied together and related into the system of doctrine that's revealed in the Bible and so There's so many parallels with Christ and Adam Throughout the Bible that explains what what was what Christ the reason why Christ came and so if we go to.

Also to Matthew 3 15. I Don't know if that one is listed there, but this is also an important.

Verse.

That it sheds light on this. So Matthew 3 15 says but okay. Let me start in 13 Verse 13. Yeah, then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him saying I need to be baptized by you and do you come to me?

But Jesus answered him let it be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he consented that phrase there it was fitting For him to do this in order to fulfill all righteousness.

Fulfill all righteousness keep the law perfectly right satisfy the terms of the covenant that Adam failed miserably to keep and. So you can even see a further one of those starches starkest parallels.

Adam was in perfect paradise. He had everything he needed and yet he still failed miserably, right? He failed he just failed flat-out failed. By contrast Christ had to endure much more severe Circumstances in order to keep his part of the covenant.

To earn righteousness for us, right? What's the parallel to? Adam being in paradise where was Christ thrown into for 40 days? The wilderness right the desert no food. No water 40 days and nights. He was in the wilderness Undergoing the temptation a Similar temptation that Adam went through in the garden with the serpent, right?

That's a parallel. It's it's an explicit parallel given in the Bible to show At Christ came here to do something that Adam could not do that Adam failed to do. Right and he passed with flying colors. He passed perfectly even with dire circumstances, right because he was Subject to infirmities to he was subject to the curse.

He was not himself sinful by nature, but he was subject to all of the same things that we go through in terms of hunger pain and and and all of that stuff and so in temptation to be tempted by Satan into and all of those things so We can now so let's turn to there's there's a verse that the catechism points to here Romans 5 719 and I was saying earlier if you have any questions, like feel free to interrupt feel free to jump in comments, whatever.

Yeah.

Yeah, let's. Let's there's a really there's a question that answers your answers your question perfectly. Okay, let's go to question 25 in the larger catechism. So that one says Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate where with where into man fell.

The answer is the sinfulness of that estate where into man fell Consisteth in the guilt of Adam's first sin. The want of that righteousness wherein he was created and the corruption of his nature whereby he is utterly indisposed Disabled and made an opposite unto all that is spiritually good and wholly inclined to all evil and that continually.

Which commonly called which is commonly called original sin and from which do proceed all actual transgressions, that's why. Because after the fall we were all born legally guilty and with a sinful nature.

So we're born guilty and with a sinful nature that prevents us from doing anything good. It's we are. That's how that's how damning the effects of the fall were they. It's not a sin to be born it's a sin it's a sin to be Adams.

We're we're big by virtue of being an Adam. Anybody who's born is automatically guilty in Adam.

Yeah.

We're automatically guilty even before actually sinning, right? That that's the the federal. No, no.

You're.

You're no, well you you you're a sinner the moment you're born. Yeah the moment you're born you conceived even yet. You're a sinner. You're you're legally guilty in Adam sin. So yeah, I can add conception.

Yeah, no, no, no. That's but that is part of the fall right because the the sufferings of childbirth is part of the consequences of the fall as well.

Sinners.

Yeah, we don't yeah we don't.

Yeah.

We're not sinners because we sin. We sin because we're sinners. That's what Jesus was saying with the good tree and the bad tree. Right a good tree cannot bear bad fruit. Only good fruit a battery cannot bear a good fruit.

It's an ontological problem, right? That's what Luther was in the Luther movie one of the Luther movies. There was he was he was that was part of the this the debate between Rome and Luther. He's saying a you you can't do anything good because you're a bad tree, right?

Your nature needs to be changed. You need to be regenerated, right? We need the regenerating power of the Spirit of God in order for us to do good in the first place. And so the site we saw apart from that we're sinners and only send you nothing but evil.

We sin because we're sinners. Because we're sinners. Yeah, we're born sinners and born condemned. So let's go to Romans 5. Let's start with verse 2 verse 12.

So.

This is a little lengthy. So I'm just going to read through it starting at verse 12. Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sin.

For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given. But sin is not counted where there is no law yet death reigned from Adam to Moses even over. Those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam who was the type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the trespass for if many died through the ones meant through the one man's trespass. Much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that One man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if because of one man's trespass death reigned Through that one man much more will those who receive abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Therefore as one trespass led to condemnation for all men. So one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners so by one man's disobedience the many will be made righteous and.

What we just read is essentially what summarized in the questions that we've been reading in the catechism, right? It's exactly what's being summarized. Verse 18 is very clear as. One trespass by Adam led to condemnation for all men we are all condemned because of Adam's sin.

And.

So.

So one act of righteousness. So one act of righteousness. Oh, yeah, it's a parallelism and in there's Hebrew. That's it's a It's a figure of speech. It's like a it's a parallelism is what it's called.

It's not saying everybody was justified. That's obviously not what I'm saying. Because people go to hell right? There's people who are condemned. It's just drawing on a parallelism that all who are in Christ right in Adam all die in Christ.

So I'll be made alive you have to be in Christ. There's no ifs ands or buts about it because Christ was the one who fulfilled that covenant and if you are not in him. What are the conditions of the new covenant?

How are we in Christ? How are we brought in Christ in union with Christ? Well, yeah. Thank you exactly right the five solas by grace through faith. Faith is how we are brought into the new covenant. We we go from being dead in Adam.

And Adam all died right to alive in Christ. We have eternal life in Jesus Christ.

No, well.

That's that's a big issue. Well, that's that's the big issue. What. Well, what what would you all say? Well, what would you all say right? This is this is the very issue of the Reformation. This is what Luther was debating.

And the bondage of the will right? In order for us to believe. The because a man must be born again, right? Do we have do we have the power to do that on our own to regenerate ourselves? No, right. We're sinful by nature.

The Bible says explicitly. Even in Romans 8 it says We are the. The natural man is that constant hostility against God. He is unable to satisfy or to please God in any way. We have no desire not even a desire right Romans 3, right?

All are Undersinned. No one seeks after God. No one wants God. All of them are Condemned. There's no desire in order for us to even have a desire to believe. God first has to regenerate us and that's the big debate.