Lesson 6 MAN'S NEED OF A MEDIATOR

 Lesson 6

MAN'S NEED OF A MEDIATOR

     IN OUR LAST TWO lessons we studied the problems that God faced in providing a Redemption for human. (Lesson 5, here) (Lesson 4, here) .

     After human had died spiritually, his first need was that of receiving Eternal Life, the nature of God. We saw, however, that God could not impart to human His own nature except on grounds of righteousness, which is the second need of human.

     The third need of human was that of a Mediator, some one who could approach God on human's behalf.

     We remember that after his sin of High Treason, Adam was cast from the presence of God. He had lost his fellowship with the Father-God. Human  stood in the unrighteousness of Satan (John 16:11). He had no standing with Deity nor right to approach Him.

     The universal man in his condition of Spiritual Death, recognized that he had no standing with his Creator. The temples, altars and priesthoods of all nations eloquently confess man's consciousness of sin, his fear of death and judgment, and his inability to approach Deity in his own righteousness.

     India, with its millions of priests struggling in absolute hopelessness, leading their soul-hungry people still deeper into darkness, is an illustration of man's conscious need of a Mediator.

Man's Condition Before God

     We have seen in the previous lessons that man's sin united him with Satan.

     Man now stands before God, not only as a subject of Satan politically (Colossians 1:13a), but also as one in vital union with him (Ephesians 2:2 and I John 3:10).

     This identification of man with Satan caused the judgment and unrighteousness of Satan to become his (John 16:11).

     Man became alienated from God (Ephesians 4:18). His mind and understanding became darkened by the god of this world (II Corinthians 4:4).

     Romans 3:9-18 gives fourteen charges against the human race in its condition of Spiritual Death.

     The declaration from the Throne of Deity is that there is none righteous (Romans 3:10), and there is none that understand and seek after God (Romans 3:11).

     Ephesians 2:12 describes the condition of spiritually dead man. He has no covenant claims upon God; he had forfeited every right God had conferred upon him.

     In his creation by the hand of God, man had stood in righteousness with legal grounds of approach and communion with Deity. Adam forfeited these by his treason, and his condition is described as without hope and without God.

     Adam, who had rejoiced in his fellowship with the Father-God, felt immediately after the entrance of Spiritual Death his inability to stand before God. This is shown in Genesis 3:8.

     Man then had need of a mediator, one who could stand before God in righteousness and at the same time represent humanity, and approach God on his behalf.

     Hopeless, and Godless in a world where Satan holds the authority of death, man's condition is certainly desperate. As far as human efforts are concerned, man's condition is hopeless. He has no grounds for prayer; if God hears his prayer, it is upon grounds of Grace alone.

     The Father-God in His love and desire for fellowship with man, immediately made a means of approach unto Himself for man.

     To Adam and his children God gave a medium of approach (Genesis 3:21 and 4:4).

     Israel's approach to God was through tabernacles, priesthoods and offerings.

     Outside of God's appointed way, man had, or has today, no approach to the Father-God.

     From the time of man's alienation from God at the fall, to the time that Christ sat down at the Father's right hand, no man has had a right to approach God except through a Divinely appointed priesthood, over a bleeding sacrifice, dreams, visions, or angelic visitations.

Man's Inability to Approach God

     In the life of Israel we have illustrations of man's attempting to force himself into the presence of God before Eternal Life came through Jesus Christ and justification on the grounds of His Finished Work.

      There are many acts of Divine Justice in the Old Testament which are hard to understand except in the light of man's need of a Mediator.

     Leviticus 10:1-3 is a recorded incident of one of the lessons that was necessary to cause Israel to know its spiritual condition before Deity.

    What a calamitous closing of the dedication of the priesthood. Aaron and his family that morning had been aspiring to the highest point of Divine favor: the tabernacle had been reared; the Shekinah presence had filled it with glory; the majesty of Jehovah was resting upon Israel.

    Behind them lay a series of Divine Miracles that had marked them as God's chosen people, and now Aaron's firstborn heir to the priesthood with his brother is suddenly smitten with death before the whole congregation. What had occasioned it?

     These two sons, lingering near the tent of meeting at noon, in a spirit of bravado or curiosity, took up censers with live coals, poured incense upon them, and entered the Holy of Holies, contrary to God's appointed way. No one but the High Priest could go there, and he could go only once a year.

    Suddenly, the young men stagger, stumble, and fall dead.

     As Aaron stands horrified, shocked and stunned in the presence of the dead, Moses cries to him, "Aaron, this is it that Jehovah spake, saying, I shall be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified." And Aaron held his peace. Israel had learned that man could not approach God uninvited and in his own way. 

We have another sample of man's attempt to approach Jehovah unauthorized in

Numbers 16. It is the story of Korah and his rebellion.

Korah and a company of the leaders of Israel are jealous of Moses and Aaron, and

insist that they have as much right to approach Jehovah as have God's appointed High

Priests.

Moses puts the issue to the test in the presence of the whole congregation.

 He invited Korah and his followers to appear before Jehovah with their censers,

ready for worship.

As soon as they came, Moses warned the people to get up from the tents of these

wicked men who dared to approach God uninvited and in their own way.

No sooner had Moses ceased speaking than the earth opened its mouth, and the men

with their families dropped down alive into Sheol.

Israel ran away from the scene, frightened, filled with awe and reverence for such a

holy God.

Another illustration is given to us in I Samuel 6:19. The Ark of the Covenant had

been captured because of Eli's great sin. It had been taken down into Gath by the

Philistines; and after a series of judgments that had fallen upon the heathen cities

because of their desecration of the Ark, they put it on a cart and sent it back to Beth-

shamesh.

The cattle that were drawing the cart turned off the road into the fields. When some

of the people laboring in the field saw the Ark, the news spread rapidly over the hillsides

until thousands of people gathered from the country round about, reverent and curious.

Then a bolder spirit than the others drew near and threw off the heavy covering from

the Ark of the Covenant, and the people for the first time saw that Holy Receptacle of the

Ten Commandments.

Suddenly, a plague struck them, and fifty thousand men fell dead upon the ground.

Awful fear and consternation fell upon the people; beating their breasts, they turned

back to their homes.

It has been shown again that no one can approach God but through a High Priest or

over a bleeding sacrifice. Man, because of his Satanic nature, cannot come into God's

presence uninvited. He needs a Mediator.

Man's Cry for a Mediator

Job voiced man's cry for a Mediator. The theme of his poetry could be called the

question of the ages: "How can man stand right with God?"

The book of Job is the oldest of all the books of the Bible. It was evidently written by

Jobab, a cousin of Abraham, about the time that Jacob went to Egypt. Portions of this

book show how vital a problem was man's need of a Mediator in Job's day.

Read Job 4:12-17. We have a picture of a man asleep in his tent at night. In a

vision he heard a voice saying, "Shall mortal man be just before God? Shall a man be pure before his maker?"(marginal rendering). This is the old and the eternal problemthat has confronted the thinking man of all ages. Can mortal man be justified or