Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleA Mediator Is Not Of One
Bible TextGalatians 3:19-20
Synopsis Christ Jesus is the Mediator between God and his chosen people. Listen
Date10-Dec-2020
Series Galatians 2020
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
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Audio HI-FI Listen: A Mediator Is Not Of One (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: A Mediator Is Not Of One (128 kbps)
Length 36 min.
 
Title:  A Mediator is Not of One 
Text: Gal 3: 19-20 
Date: Dec 10, 2020 
Place: SGBC, NJ 
  
Galatians 3: 19: Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. 20: Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
 
Having declared that God saved Abraham by his everlasting covenant of grace, 430 years before the law of Sinai was given, the Spirit moved Paul to raise the question, Wherefore then serveth the law?
 
It was added because of transgressions.  God added the ten commandments to show his people our transgressions in breaking that one law in Adam and to show our own personal transgressions.  God never intended for his child to be justified and saved by our works under the law; it was only to give us a knowledge that we are guilty sinners to shut every mouth and make us see our need of Christ.
 
But the law was only for a set timetill the seed should come to whom the promise was made.  That Seed is Christ.  It was until Christ came and fulfilled the law and took out of the way for his people.  Experimentally, it is until Christ comes into the heart, makes us hear the law then reveals he fulfilled it for us and brings us under the covenant of grace.
  
But notice, even when God gave the law at Sinai, he foreshadowed Christ our Mediatorand it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.   I want to focus on this one statementNow, a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. There are innumerable commentaries on this; all disagreeingBut I want to look at this in light of Christ. 
  
What is a mediator? A mediator goes between two parties who are at odds, who have no communion, no peace.  Moses in a limited sense typified Christ the Mediator.  At Sinai, the two parties represent God and his true elect Israel.  The children of Israel sinned against God and God was against the children of Israel.  Moses acted as the mediator, the go-between, the daysman.  He represented God to the children of Israel and he represented the children of Israel to God.  In a limited sense he typified Christ. 
  
Proposition: Christ Jesus is the Mediator between God and his chosen people.  
  
1 Timothy 2:5: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 
  
Hebrews 9:15: And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 
  
Hebrews 12:24: And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 
  
A MEDIATOR IS NOT OF ONE
 
A mediator is not a representative of only one of the parties.  He represents both.  But God is one of the offended parties.  So first, it is amazing that God, who we offended, provided a mediator to bring he and his people together. 
 
God is the offended party and we are the offenders.  God created us and gave us breath and one command in a perfect world.  Yet, we sinned against him and cut ourselves off from God.  We do not perceive how wickedly we transgressed against God, both, in the garden and personally ourselves. 
 
God has every right to be offended at us but we have no right to be offended at God.  We transgressed against God, not he against us.  The carnal mind is enmity against God though we have no right to be angry at God.  He has every right to be angry against the wicked but not we against him. 
  
If someone steals a sinner’s property a sinner will hire a prosecutor, hoping the robber will be convicted and have to make restitution.  How much worse if the robber blames the one he robbed and spews hatred toward him.  Even if a man is a third party, whose property has not been stolen, his response is to side with victim and condemn the robber.  But a sinner who was robbed and hated and maligned providing a mediator for the offender to bring him and the offender together, who ever heard of such? 
  
A mediator is not of one but God is oneGod is the offended party that we offended yet the Offended party provided the Mediator to reconcile his people to himself.  God did not send a lawyer to prosecute us, though we were guilty and worthy of the death penalty.  Instead, the very God we offended provided the Mediator to bring he and his people together—and the Mediator he provided is his only begotten Son. 
  
Do you see God’s glory?  He is not like us.  As high as the heaven is above the earth so are his thoughts above our thoughts.  God provided a mediator, not for those who loved him, but for a people who have only provoked God to his face by our sins.  That is the good news God uses to melt our hard hearts.  That humbles a believer.   That makes God’s child want to be a mediator, a peacemaker, rather than a fault finder. 
  
1 John 4: 10  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11: Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 
  
BUT GOD IS ONE
  
Now, a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.  A mediator is not a mediator of only one of the parties but both.  The parties are God and Man.  So, secondly, consider that God sent his Son to take flesh like those he came to save that he might be God and Man to represent both. 
  
Moses could not be the perfect mediator between God and men because he was only a man.  He was not God and man.  Moses could not represent both.  Even more amazing, not only did God the Father as the offended party provide the Mediator, but he also sent his only begotten Son to take flesh that he might be the GodMan, Mediator. 
  
Moses was a sinful man, one of the offenders.  But the Mediator God provided for his people is holy God and sinless Man in one.  Christ can Mediate for his sinful people because he is a holy Man, without sin.  Christ can Mediate for God because he is the holy Son of God, the second person in the trinity. 
  
Luke 1:35: And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 
  
A mediator has the interests of both parties at heart.  God is one party.  But Christ did not come to seek the interests of God only or his people only.  He came not to condemn his people but to put away all reason for blame; to bring us together in peace, while declaring God just and the Justifier.  When Christ said, “Blessed are the peacemakers” we immediately think of Christ who is the Preeminent Peacemaker! 
  
Nor did Christ come for his own self-interests.  The glory of Christ is that he made himself of no reputation.  He was NOT interested in his reputation. He was interested in the reputation of the two parties he mediated for.  His interest was God’s glory and his people’s perfection in him.  The glory of Christ is that to mediate he took the form of a servant.  He did not come as Judge and Jury and Executioner.  He served to bring about peace.  The glory of Christ is that he obeyed the Father by denying himself unto the death of the cross.  So Christ Mediated with both parties’ interests at heart.  
  
For God: God’s law must be upheld, his justice must be poured out on the offenders, his offending people must die in order for God to be holy.  For his brethren: we must be justified before God, our sins must be put away and we must be made righteous before God. 
  
How did our Mediator serve the interest of both parties? By one great act he served both.  
  
For his brethren: Christ took the place of his offending brethren, took our sins and offenses against God and bore them on our behalf—even the unyielding justice of God.  Thus our Substitute bore our burdens away.  He blotted out our sins.  He robed us in his righteousness. 
  
For God: Christ served God’s interest by magnifying and honoring God’s holy law.  He declared God just and the Justifier of his people.  He highly exalted God’s holy and just character by bearing the justice his brethren deserved. 
  
All that Christ did for God and his brethren is what Paul calls in this epistle to the Galatians “the law of Christ.”  It is the law of love.  This is the spirit Christ gives us when he produces love in our hearts in the new birth.  He makes us desire mediation and peace rather than blame and division. 
  
UNITED IN PEACE
  
Christ is the Mediator who brought God and his people together in peace.  His brethren are not willing to be reconciled until his grace changes our hearts.  So what does Christ use to do it?  This message of his Mediatorial work.  He makes his brethren know our sin—not by coming to us in judgment and condemnation in the letter—but in grace and truth in spirit.  He shows us our sins in light of how he put our sin away and covered our sins in his righteousness and God remembers them no more. He makes us know that God who we offended sent him and reconciled us to himself by his own blood. 
 
2 Corinthians 5: 18: And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19: To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20: Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21: For he [the very one we offended] hath made him [his own Son] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 
  
The Spirit of God melts the heart with that word of sovereign, unchangeable love.  And for the rest of the life of faith, anytime our flesh rises up, that is the message with which he subdues it using our brethren to remind us of his grace and love and mercy and forgiveness in Christ our Mediator. 
  
Romans 5: 6: For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7: For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8: But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9: Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10: For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 
  
By that good news, he makes us be reconciled to him in the first hour and every hour of need.  The gospel of Christ is always the word in season. 
  
But a Mediator pleads not with one party only.  While he mediates bringing us to confess our sins, promising us God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrightoeusness, Christ also mediates with God, saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”  Thus he brings us both together in peace in him by his blood and righteousness and free forgiveness. 
 
So what is Paul’s point.  False brethren were agitating the Galatians to be lawyers.  They were encouraging brethren to take each other to the letter of the law and condemn.  Paul calls is “biting and devouring one another.”  So Paul speaks the one remedy.  He declares the law came by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.  The new covenant is a better covenant, with a better minister, established on better promises.  Paul said all of this to encourage the spirit of Christ’s mediation amongst the Galatians; he describes it when he says to them, 
  
Galatians 5: 26: Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. 6: 1: Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 2: Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. 

That is how our Mediator served the interest of God his Father and you and me his sinful brethren!  That is how Christ makes his people serve the interests of one another. 
 
Amen!