Christ, Our One Mediator

Hebrews 8 and the Mediator of a Better Covenant

This morning we read through the entire chapter. We won't read through the entire chapter again this evening. Instead, we will focus primarily upon verse 6 and actually we'll be moving from this text to another text as we look at this subject of the mediator.

But before we dive into the Word, let us ask the Lord to bless our time together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, once again, we ask that you would help us to understand your Word, especially what it teaches about the role of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as the mediator of a better covenant.

May we understand, may we rejoice, may we be changed as we consider your truth. We pray in Christ's name. We have of late, once again, had it emphasized to us, if we are aware of what's going on in our culture, the importance of the legal system and the importance of justice and righteousness in the legal system.

You may be aware that over the past few weeks, a judge who is himself a homosexual has presented to our nation allegedly legal findings that are little more than what you would find in the rhetoric of the most rancid pro-homosexual literature around.

In fact, this man has so completely abandoned any semblance of acting as a judge based on law that he is now seeking to make sure that immediately homosexual marriage might begin once again in the state of California.

He doesn't care about precedent. He doesn't care that he will be overturned and overturned with prejudice and being rebuked. It doesn't matter because he is accomplishing his goals, his ends, and we are reminded once again of the vital importance of righteousness and justice in legal proceedings.

Hebrews 8: The More Excellent Ministry and the Better Covenant

Well, you may have noticed in our reading this morning that this text in Hebrews chapter 8 talks about God's justice in his law in the sense of that system that he has established for his worship and yet it introduces us to this concept of different covenants, the old covenants and the new covenant, and we have in this text a discussion of our mediator, one who stands in our place, one who truly guarantees because of his work that we will never have to face a situation like we face in our land today of unrighteous judges and unrighteousness running rampant.

No, there will always be justice done when the king is upon his throne. Notice the words of Hebrews chapter 8. Now, the main point in what has been said is this, we have such a high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, so it was necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all since there are those who offer the gifts according to law who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle, for see, he says, that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.

But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. Now, we looked this morning at this concept of this more excellent ministry, this sacrificial priestly ministry, from which we get the term liturgy, the divine service of worship that the priest would engage in in the tabernacle and in the temple.

But Jesus has obtained a more excellent ministry. It is of a higher order than that which can only be enacted in the shadows and the types here upon earth, those which are just copies of the heavenly reality.

He actually has entered into that heavenly realm and is our high priest there. He has a more excellent ministry, and he is also the mediator of a better covenant, a covenant which has been enacted, and there you have the legal aspect.

It has been legally enacted on the basis of better promises. Now, we'll see what those promises are, but I wanted this evening, as I promised this morning, to look at this assertion that he is the mediator of a better covenant.

Now, he's already been called the guarantee of a better covenant in chapter 7. Now he's called the mediator. Now, are these just synonyms for one another? Are these the same things? Well, they're clearly related.

They're clearly related to one another, but I think the term mediator is one that would be very fruitful for us to contemplate and to consider this evening. A mediator, in our own language, and even as we look at the word that we use, to mediate, media, the middle, to stand in the middle.

A mediator is one who, in essence, stands in the middle, and interestingly enough, and rarely enough, the English word, fairly accurately, even in its background, communicates the same thing that we have in the original Greek term, which likewise refers to one in the midst, in the middle.

The Latin did a fairly decent job bringing that over to us in the term mediator. One who stands in the middle, one who mediates, one who communicates between two sides, but in this case, the mediator of a better covenant.

Now, remember that Paul talks about the mediator, one who brings about a covenant in the book of Galatians, but I think what would be most helpful for us this evening would be to consider another text that very clearly addresses this very same topic, and it does so in such a way as to, I think, bring us into a deep area of consideration concerning who the mediator is and why Jesus is perfectly suited, and only Jesus is perfectly suited to be the mediator of this better covenant.

And I refer to Paul's letter, his epistle to Timothy, 1st Timothy chapter 2. So let's turn there to 1st Timothy chapter 2. This is the only other place outside of Galatians where this term is used, outside of Hebrews, Hebrews and Galatians.

Here is the other use. And here we have a text that we all probably are familiar with. I want to deal with a common misunderstanding of the text and then really, hopefully, focus our minds upon how Jesus, being who he is, fits him perfectly to be the mediator that is described here.

Listen to what Paul writes to Timothy. So here we have this tremendous text, and let us, once again, just briefly remind ourselves of one of the controversies about the text. We can put that out of our minds, lay that aside, and focus upon this concept of the mediator as it relates to Hebrews chapter 8.

We all know, when we read this, that this is one of what we call the big three, at least what I've called the big three, Matthew 23, 37, 2nd Peter 3, 9, and 1st Timothy 2, 4. This is a text that is utilized by many, out of its context, without any concern, really, I think, for the exegesis of the text, to try to overthrow the biblical testimony to divine election.

Specifically, the assertions, who desires all men to be saved, is taken to mean, well, all men means every single human being who has ever lived. God has an equal desire to the salvation of every single one, and he wants every single one to come to the knowledge of the truth, and that's why Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all, that is, for every single individual who has ever lived on the planet.

That is what the text is referring to. That's what we are told. Now, the problem is, of course, that when we allow language to be language, we recognize that Paul had begun by saying that he wants prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings to be made on behalf of all men.

And as soon as he said, all men, he then defined his terms. For the very first term after that is, in behalf of kings. Now, if he meant all men, as in every single person who had ever lived, was then alive, and would ever be alive, it would be superfluous to then start talking about kinds of people.

Why would he say to the people that they should pray for kings and all who are in authority, so that we might lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness? Well, because there was a danger that the Christians might not pray for kings and those in authority.

Why? Because it was the kings and those in authority who were persecuting them. It was kings and those in authority who were putting Christians in prison and telling them to stop preaching and teaching in the name of Jesus Christ.

And indeed, it's a good reminder for us today that we need to pray for kings and all who are in authority. We don't have kings, at least we're not supposed to, but we do have those who are in authority, and it's very easy for us not to pray for those individuals.

But we need to pray. We need to pray that God would reveal himself to them, that God would restrain them, that God would bring salvation to them, and would cause them to rule righteously, and to give to them wisdom.

And so, you have Paul immediately identifying what he means. It would not make any sense in the way that the people thought in this day to think in the individualistic, particularistic way that we do today.

They would understand that thanksgivings would be on behalf of all men, refer to all kinds of men. And that's exactly what Paul goes on to say when he talks about kings and all who are in authority. And so, when we encounter the phrase that God, our Savior, desires all men to be saved to come to the knowledge of the truth, what would be the natural meaning of these words?

Well, just look around at our own fellowship. Look at around the church today. You have men and women, as the scripture says, from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. You have Jews and Gentiles. You have God showing absolutely no desire to cut off any particular one people from a knowledge of Christ.

He has his people amongst all the peoples of the earth. That's why we can go into all the world and we can command everyone to repent because God has his people amongst every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

And so, Timothy wouldn't have been confused when Paul first wrote to him and he wouldn't have thought, well, you know, if let's say the epistle got cut off. Let's say Paul ran out of ink after verse 1 of chapter 2 and he says, ah, just take Timothy.

He'll do fine. And it said, be made on behalf of all men. Would Timothy have gone, well, okay, we need to go get the white pages and we need to start with Alpha. And these prayer meetings would get very long.

There's a lot of people in Ephesus, but we're gonna start with Alpha and then we're gonna pray all the way through Omega. And that's what we're gonna do all the time. Does anyone seriously think that that's how Timothy would have understood this?

Of course not. And yet, that's how many people present it today. But it also says that he gave himself as a ransom for all. Now, of course, the scripture also says he gave himself as a ransom for many.

And so the all would seem to refer to the all kinds of men that has already been in reference in the previous portion. That actually brings us to the important part of this text. The text that whenever anybody raises this particular section of verses, I ask them one particular question and it pretty well ends the conversation.

Notice what is said. When Paul exhorts Timothy and he says, look, the gospel is to go into all the world. The gospel is for all people. Why is it for all people? Why is it that we don't have to sit here and go, well, you know, we're going into a particular area where there hasn't been any gospel preaching before.

I wonder if the Lord would have us to do that. I'm not sure if this people would, you know, if we preach repentance to them, is it really God's intention to save even these kinds of people? Why does that never cross the mind of a Christian?

Why has it never been a part of the mission's mindedness of the church to go, well, not sure if we really need to preach the gospel of these folks because of the nature of the Christian message. There is one God and one mediator also between God and man.

It doesn't say certain kinds of men. It just says men. The man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and apostle as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

So here's a man, I think one of the reasons he keeps emphasizing this is because of his own background. Remember Acts 15? He had to testify, no, God told me to do this. God sent me to these people. God has blessed the proclamation of the gospel outside of the Jewish context.

And he's instrumental in making sure that there is no split, no division between a Jewish Christian church and the Gentile Christian church, but let's focus in then on that verse 5. Really 5 and 6. For there is one God and one mediator, same term found in Hebrews 8, one mediator between God and men.

Now there you have that very idea of mediation. The one in the middle, the one who stands in the middle and one mediator also between God and men. The man, the Messiah Christ Jesus. Now think of the position that he holds here, the position that he holds here.

There is one God. Christians have always been and will always be monotheists. There are people today that feel that's one of the biggest problems in the world today are these monotheistic religions. Look at all the conflict between Christians and Muslims.

As long as you believe there's only one God, then if you believe there's one God, then there's really only one way of salvation. You got to worship that one God. So we need to, you know, back in the olden days when you had pagans, they might fight with each other, but it wasn't so much about trying to get you to believe they're God.

They didn't have any problem with you believing in a different God. It's just monotheism is a bad thing, see. Well, Christians have always been and will always be monotheists. But because we're monotheists, we also believe that that one God is the creator of all things.

That means he's revealed his will, he's revealed his law, and that means we've broken that law. And you see, it is fundamentally understanding that there is a division between God and men, not just on the ontological basis, not just on the basis of existence.

Yes, God is God. Man is man. Man is a created being. God is not a created being. God is eternally existed, but there's also division due to sin. Paul recognizes this when he uses the term ransom in verse 6.

There is a debt. The law has been broken. So you have God. If he's holy and he's just, then his judgment must come. So there's one God and there is one mediator also between God and men. The man, Christ Jesus.

Now, how can Jesus stand in the gap, so to speak? Well, notice how he is described. He is truly a man. Remember, the earliest heresies in the church were not those that denied the deity of Christ. We're so used to that today.

We have the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Way International and all these groups, obviously entire religions like Islam, that deny the deity of Christ. That's sort of where we focus. But the earliest heresies recognized that you couldn't read these texts and come up with a Jesus who's just a prophet or some creature only.

And so there were those who who denied the real humanity of Christ. He didn't really have a physical body. He really didn't come in the flesh. And yet Jesus was truly man. That's why we celebrate his incarnation.

Without the incarnation, the cross would have been a fable. Because what is the cross? It is his self-giving of his life. It was a real life. He didn't just appear. He truly took on flesh. And so he is truly man, but he is the Messiah.

He is Christ Jesus. Notice it does not say was given. It's important to look at the tenses of verbs. I hope you didn't have a 7th or 8th grade English teacher that soured you on ever looking or considering grammar again.

I had one. She was quite good, but she didn't sour me on it, thankfully. But notice it says he gave himself. Not was given. He gave himself as a ransom for all. It's the self-giving of the mediator that is in view here.

Jesus can stand between God and man because he is the God-man. No man ever had the authority, the power to give his own life. What did Jesus say? He had the authority to lay it down and the authority to take it back up again.

No mere prophet ever had this kind of authority, this kind of power. This was the one who was prophesied. He was the Messiah, the very one who is seen in Isaiah as the virgin-born one who would come from God, the one who is called the mighty God in Isaiah chapter 9.

And so you see he is perfectly suited to be the mediator between God and men. Mankind in general that doesn't mean however that we're to take this and meet to mean well that means that Jesus gives a universal atonement and now he is mediating for every single human being.

We've already established that in this text this men is being used generically, kinds, not in an individualistic way. And so when we put all of this together, what do we have? We have a mediator who is absolutely unique.

Moses could never have done this. Moses did function as a mediator in a type. I mean Moses had to many times stand in the gap for the people, but even he didn't enter into the promised land. And while his mediation turned away the wrath of God in a sense, it did not bring about a change in the hearts of the people.

We have a unique mediator and he stands between God and men and as that mediator he gave himself as a ransom for all the testimony given at the proper time. I think that testimony given at the proper time relates to Paul's understanding that the cross is the very centerpiece of all of time itself.

Everything before was pointing to it. Everything afterwards pointing back to it. It is the very center point of time. It happened exactly as God decreed it would happen and exactly the way that God desired it and decreed that it would happen.

And so this one that Paul proclaims is a mediator. But what does a mediator do? Of course a mediator seeks to bring the two sides together. There is an element of that, but we need to be careful to avoid the wrong element of that.

As if there are two sides that are angry with one another. And Jesus steps in the middle and says, oh come on guys. And makes everybody nice to each other. The reason there's a division is because the holiness and wrath of God requires his judgment to come upon rebel sinners.

But you see Jesus comes as mediator in the very purpose and plan of that very same God. There is perfect unity between the Father, Son, and Spirit in the roles that they take in salvation. And so we need to avoid the misapprehension that the Father is somehow not a part or not desirous of the role that Jesus takes.

And he has to somehow be ameliorated. His wrath has to be appeased, but don't think of that as a human being. Because human beings when they're wrathful, there has to be a changing of their mind and of their heart.

The role of Jesus's mediation found its very origin in the heart of the Father in eternity past. Now it's hard for us to hold those things together. It's hard for us to hold together the holy righteous wrath of God against sin and the fact that it is his love and his condescension that has brought us the gospel.

But that is the message of Scripture. And so this mediator mediates between God and men. And what does he mediate? Well, because of his ransom sacrifice, he mediates grace, forgiveness, redemption. He is the only source of these things.

One of the greatest blasphemies of the Roman system is its assertion that while Jesus is the one mediator, there are all sorts of lesser mediators. But one that's only barely a lesser mediator is Mary.

Taught by the Popes for at least 130 years now to be co-mediatrix. That's simply the feminine form of mediator in Latin. Co-mediator together with Jesus. Oh, but it's only under his authority, but they've actually taught that Mary is the neck that turns the head of God in grace and all graces flow through Mary to us.

No grace accrues to anyone except through Mary. What a light that shines upon the unbiblical nature of that religion. Because you see, when we look at this text, we see that only Jesus can mediate God's grace to us, God's forgiveness to us, because of the uniqueness of who he is.

If he was not truly man, then he did not truly give a ransom. If he was not truly God, he was not who he claimed to be and he could not give himself as that ransom. You see why the church in ancient times did recognize and did understand the importance of standing for the truth as to who Jesus is?

Folks, think about with me for just one moment. How many people who in our land this evening claim to be Christians, truly believe that Jesus Christ was the God-man, the incarnate Son of God who took on flesh and who is the only means of salvation, the only means of eternal life?

How many who call themselves Christians actually believe that to be true? Not just some type of nice spiritual platitude, but actually believe it to be true. What percent? If you're looking at me to tell you, I haven't any idea, but something tells me it's not nearly as high as we'd like.

This mediator is unique in his role and his abilities because of who he is. He is the God-man. That is why the angel could say, you will call his name Jesus for he will do what? He will save his people from their sins.

He has that capacity. He has that ability. He gave himself ransom for all, not just Jews, but for Greeks and for people. The Apostle Paul could never have even imagined. Paul never thought about us. What was beyond Spain for Paul?

He didn't know. Could he have imagined someday that that around the world these words would be treasured and read and studied? You see he understood that whatever God was doing it was for all the world.

It was not limited in the way that the Judaizers wanted to limit the gospel to just those who entered into, interestingly enough, by circumcision. The what? Old Covenant. And so with that in mind, we go back to these words in Hebrews 8 and we will pick up the next time I have the opportunity, Lord willing, of presenting the Word of God from this pulpit with verse 7, but he has obtained a more excellent ministry.

No high priest had ever gone where he went. No high priest had ever been established on the basis that he had been established. The promises of God and oath the Melchizedek priest, he has obtained a more excellent ministry.

It excels that of the high priest who was still busy at this time in the temple offering sacrifice. As much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant. He has brought to us the very essence of the covenant.

How did he describe it? We've all heard it. These flowers aren't here and the table's out a little bit. And we're partaking of the Lord's Supper and we read from the Gospels. How does Jesus describe this covenant?

The covenant in his. You see, the high priest of the old covenant can never do that. He was not self-giving. He could not give himself. He was a sinner. He had to atone for himself. You see, he has brought to us the essence of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises because it's a covenant in his own blood.

Not the blood of goats and calves and bulls, but that self-giving. The voluntariness, the freeness, the purposefulness. That's why he can stand as mediator. That's why when we see the picture of him in the book of Revelation, it should bring tears to our eyes.

Remember how he's seen? Oh, he's seen so many different ways in Revelation. We saw that when Pastor Fry labored through the book and it was laborious work. It's difficult to work through all the types and signs, but one thing that all the controversy can't cause you to miss there.

He's seen as conquering King. He's seen as the one with the Word of God coming out of his mouth. But that one picture, when John is weeping, no one's worthy to take the scroll to open it. Then he looks and what does he see?

A lamb standing as if slain. The marks of sacrifice on him and yet he stands before the throne of God. There's John's understanding of what the writer of the Hebrews, he has gone as our forerunner into the holy of holies.

But he does not enter in with blood that's not his own. He enters in having given himself. That is why he is the mediator of a covenant that gives to you and I the peace promised to everyone who has a right standing with God.

Romans 5 .1, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Only through him, absolutely exclusive, but perfect and complete in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Let us pray. We do rejoice our Heavenly Father in what you have accomplished for us. As we think upon our mediator, as we think of his self-giving, as we think of his uniqueness as the God-man, that the second person of the triune Godhead, the eternal Son of God, would voluntarily and in grace and mercy enter into human flesh so that this great salvation can be accomplished.

We are once again humbled to think of what you have done for us. Our Heavenly Father, make us to be bold witnesses of this gospel and may you use our witness to draw your people unto yourself to your honor and glory.

We pray in Christ's name, Amen.