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A Little Time With The 1689: Day 148

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Day 148

Of Christ the Mediator.

Chapter 8, Paragraph 4.

“…and did perfectly fulfill it, and underwent the punishment due to us, which we should have born and suffered,…“

Scripture Lookup

Galatians 3:13

Isaiah 53:6

1 Peter 3:18

Reflection

What do we deserve?

Wrath.

Tainted with sinful nature, there is nothing we can do on our own that is good. Every effort is marred from the beginning. Consumed with self, we spurn God’s rule. We deny His existence. The consequences of such transgression are severe, since they are an affront to an infinite Being. Anguish and torment for eternity. The just punishment for our sin. That is what we deserve.

What does Jesus deserve?

Praise.

Sin had no hold on Jesus. He perfectly fulfilled every aspect of God’s law. No word of His ever misspoken. No thought of His ever slipped. No step of His ever wayward.

If Jesus simply lived to show us what perfectly righteous living looked like, it would be awe-inspiring, but would lead to despair. We could never attain such a life, no matter how much we attempted to model His. But that was not the purpose of His coming! His fulfillment of the law enabled Him to be accepted as a sacrifice on our behalf. The punishment we deserve, that by rights should have been ours, He endured. He lay down His life and bore the wrath that otherwise we would have had to bear. Through His fulfilling the law and through His suffering our punishment, we now have access to God through Him alone. Such a life and sacrifice leads to awe and grateful praise. Thank you, Lord Jesus!

Questions to Consider

  • How does Jesus’ life and sacrifice affect you?

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 147

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Day 147

Of Christ the Mediator.

Chapter 8, Paragraph 4.

“…which that he might discharge he was made under the Law,…“

Scripture Lookup

Galatians 4:4

Matthew 3:15

Reflection

“He’s above the law.” That phrase “above the law” is common, and we pretty much know what it means: that someone thinks the rules don’t apply to them. How often, though, have you heard it said, “He’s under the law”? That’s not normally said of anyone. What does it mean?

In order to perform the office of mediator, Jesus had to fulfill some requirements. One of these requirements was to be made under the law. All aspects of God’s law had to be followed in order to meet the requirement of righteousness necessary to mediate between God and sinful man. To neglect any aspect of the law of God would make His office as a guarantor void.

So to save His sheep, the one who created the law would now have to live by it. Jesus, being God, was free from any requirements the law had, since the law concerned His creation and not Himself. He truly was above the law. Yet to rescue the elect the law would have to be followed, and followed perfectly. To be the mediator, Jesus humbled Himself and constrained Himself to the law’s demands. He took on human nature and was born as a man, and thus under the subjection of the law.

Such laying aside of rights and privileges in order to save us is incomprehensible. To voluntarily plummet from an infinite Being without form, to becoming human, with all the frailties and weaknesses that entails! To subject Himself to the law! What wondrous love Christ has for us!

 

Questions to Consider

  • Since Jesus was made under the Law, how does that affect our relationship to the Law?

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 146

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Day 146

Of Christ the Mediator.

Chapter 8, Paragraph 4.

“This office the Lord Jesus did most willingly undertake,…“

Scripture Lookup

Psalm 40:7,8;

Hebrews 10:5-10;

John 10:18

Reflection

Jesus chose to be our mediator. Not out of compulsion, not out of fear, not begrudgingly, but freely and willingly. We know this because Scripture tells us that Jesus delighted to do His Father’s will. How often as Christians do we desire to do what God commands, and yet we fall so short? But Christ never wavered in His commitment to the Father.

In our cynical, fallen world, we eye such lavish generosity with suspicion. Usually there is an ulterior motive, a catch. There was no hidden motive behind Jesus’ willingness to fulfill the office of mediator. He loved His sheep. He loved His Father. To reconcile the two was His delight. “So free, so infinite His grace!”

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

– Philippians 2:5-8

Questions to Consider

  • How does knowing that Jesus willingly served as mediator affect your view of Him?

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 145

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Day 145

Of Christ the Mediator.

Chapter 8, Paragraph 3.

“…who also put all power and judgement in his hand, and gave him Commandment to execute the same.“

Scripture Lookup

John 5:22,27

Matthew 28:18

Acts 2:36

Reflection

Who are you to judge?

Throughout this paragraph, we have seen what kind of man Jesus was in His human nature. Sanctified and anointed by the Holy Spirit, He had wisdom and understanding. Holy, harmless, and undefiled, no sin was found in Him. He was full of grace and truth. In all things He did the will of His Father.

It is the same Jesus, holy, wise and truthful, that the Father appointed to execute all power and judgement. In the hands of anyone less, such power and judgment would be corrupting, and we would anticipate injustice. But the qualities that enable Him to be mediator also enable Him to be the perfect judge. Jesus, having the Holy Spirit without measure, will never be unjust.

As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. – John 5:30

Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. Do you think that He will let you off easily?  If you are an unbeliever, you may have convinced yourself that Jesus is like the cool teacher who overlooks the rulebreaking of his students. But Christ is just. Eternal transgression against a holy God must be punished, and it definitely will be punished, with those who rebel against Him paying the price. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” (John 3:18-19)

If you are in Christ, you have escaped punishment for your sin, but you were not let off easily: the price paid for your sin was paid with the blood of Jesus Christ Himself. Such a reality should encourage us to flee sin all the more swiftly. When we do sin, though, remember that Christ is just. He is the perfect mediator, and will not require more than His sacrifice for your redemption. The judge of all the earth will do justly.

Questions to Consider

  • Does Jesus being a judge scare you or comfort you?

Why Church Membership

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As mentioned in the previous blog, God visits and dwells with His people in a special way within your local church. However, our anti-institutional age has convinced us that we can piece together all of what we need from the local church through 21st century technological advances. Consider the number of ways in which technology can replace the elements of worship at any local church

  • If you want to sing as a form of worship to God, then you can listen to your favorite Christian artists on your phone. If you like traditional hymns and sacred music, you can listen to RefNet or Lutheran Public Radio or any number of other stations.

  • If you want to hear preaching, then you can click on SermonAudio.com, SermonIndex.net, or listen to any number of your favorite preachers on their ministry page.

  • If you want to have fellowship, you can join a local community group or join an online forum of likeminded individuals

  • If you want to hear pastoral prayer, you can read The Valley of Vision or read excerpts from The Book of Common Prayer

  • If you want to receive the sacraments, you can receive “drive-through communion” at certain locations.

If you are tech savvy enough, then you can, in essence, piece together your own liturgy. Moreover, these technological advantages give the impression that you can enjoy the benefits of church while ignoring its inevitable drama. While there are providential hindrances that may require some Christians to use these alternative resources outside the church temporarily, the reality is that much of this arise from a more sinister motive. In many cases, the “church-a-la-carte” mentality comes from a heart that rejects authority. Mark Dever has helpful words to address this mentality

It would seem that rejecting authority, as so many in our day do, is shortsighted and self-destructive. A world without authority is a world were desires have no restraints, cars have no controls, intersections have no traffic lights, games have no rules, lovers have no covenants, organizations have no purpose, homes have no parents, and people have no God. Such a world might last for a little while, but how quickly it would become pointless, then cruel, and finally tragic.

Regardless of how our culture views authority, the difference between what people call “community” and what the Scriptures calls the “church” comes down to the question of authority. In an attempt to escape this reality, many have simply walked away from the institutional local church. However, the New Testament clearly established that the governing authority of Christians belongs to the local church (cf. Matthew 16:13-20; 18:15-20; Hebrews 13:7,17; 1 Peter 5:1-5).

The local church is not just a fellowship of friends; in the local church, we are committed to another in a covenant/vow of membership. This is why participating in the life of your local church is mandatory. We are held accountable to each other through the vows that we take at membership and through the oversight of our elders. This is why gathering together with Christian friends does not provide the same level of genuine accountability as a true church. As a governing institution, the local church preaches the gospel, administers the sacraments, and exercises oversight and discipline to all of its members.

However, the cultural milieu in which we live provides Christians with a multitude of excuses for their lack of commitment to the local church. Some stay away from the local church because they are afraid of getting hurt (or being hurt again). While we must never minimize the pain that many have felt within local churches, a good dose of honesty is needed. Pain is never an excuse for disobedience to God’s Word. The local church was created for our sanctification and God’s glory, not for your convenience. Furthermore, if you are united to Christ, then He has given you spiritual gifts that are designed for the church (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:7; 1 Peter 4:10). Therefore, staying away from the local church means that you are burying the gifts that God has given you in the ground rather than using it for the sake of the local church (cf. Matthew 25:14-30).

Some stay away from the local church because they believe that most pastors are crooked. This is perhaps the most pervasive lie that our culture constantly promotes and it is the lie that most people believe about the church. First, we are told explicitly in Scripture that false teachers will arise (cf. Matthew 7:15-20; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15; 2 Peter 2:1-3) and therefore, we are told to be discerning. More importantly, the reality is that most pastors (within our country and around the world) labor with diligence and godly integrity in relative obscurity with congregations of less than 100 people. These pastors will never receive media spotlight because they are performing the basic task of the ministry. These are men who do not come with flattering speech, nor with a pretext for greed, nor by way of deceit, but these are men who have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel (cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:3-7). Dear Christian, have you believed Satan’s lie that there are only a few good pastors doing their job?

The local church is not just a group of believers at a park; it preaches the gospel and possesses the keys of the kingdom for binding and loosing through the ordinances (cf. Matthew 16:17-19). This means that it is the task of the local church who declares who does and does not belong to kingdom. This statement grinds against our modern sensibilities, but a question must be raised: if you refuse to be part of a local church, how do you know that you’re saved? If you have walked away from the local church, then who’s inspecting the fruit of your life? Gathering a few friends at the park and “doing life together” is no substitute for the objective evidence which is biblical church membership.

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 144

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Day 144

Of Christ the Mediator.

Chapter 8, Paragraph 3.

“...which office he took not upon himself, but was thereunto called by his Father;…“

Scripture Lookup

Hebrews 5:5

Reflection

You’ve probably heard it before. The harsh, stern, vindictive Father, demanding in His laws, unyielding in His punishment. The meek, gentle, loving Son, who fulfills the law and brings grace. But pitting the Father against the Son is not what the Bible teaches. The Father and the Son – indeed, all the members of the Trinity – are behind the redemption of the elect, 100%.

The Father never sat and brooded over the offense committed by man. There is no vindictive bitterness in Him. Rather, He was proactive in seeking reconciliation. In eternity past, He entered into covenant with the Son, appointing Him to the office of mediator and surety. Love towards the elect was and is the continuing motivation of the Father in sending Jesus to earth. Look at Ephesians 1:3-6:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

It is the Father who blesses us in Christ! It is the Father who predestined us in love! It is the Father whose will is kind! “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us…” (1 John 3:1)

Likewise, Jesus was not a rebel. Time and time again in the Gospels, we read of Him doing the will of the Father: “…I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent me.” (John 5:30) “…not My will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)  He came to make His Father known. (John 17:26) There is no renegade Son, no schism in the Trinity. The Son willingly agreed to be the mediator between God and His people. The covenant of redemption was entered into freely.

The Father and Son are of one mind concerning the redemption of sinners. The roles they play in carrying out that redemption differ, but their goal is the same. God is love. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are love. Let’s not fall into the trap of pitting one against the other.

Questions to Consider

  • Do you attribute love to one member of the Trinity more than another?

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 143

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Day 143

Of Christ the Mediator.

Chapter 8, Paragraph 3.

“...he might be thoroughly furnished to execute the office of Mediator, and Surety;…“

Scripture Lookup

Hebrews 7:22

Reflection

Stand in awe at the wisdom of Christ. Reflect on His holiness. Explore how Jesus is full of truth. But if you stop there, then you miss the reason why Jesus is all these things. For every quality of Jesus existed to enable Him to be a mediator and surety.

Jesus executes the office of mediator and surety. What does it mean for Jesus to be a mediator? There is conflict between sinners and God.  Jesus is the go-between among the two. He brings reconciliation and peace between God and His elect. Not only is He the mediator, He is also the surety. What’s a surety? One who takes a role of responsibility in the place of another who is liable. Jesus pays the debt that we owe as a result of our transgressing God’s law.

No Joe Schmo could be the mediator and surety between sinners and God. The credentials and qualities of such a man must be literally impeccable. “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus, fully God and fully man, is thoroughly furnished for those two offices. Full of grace and truth, He is our advocate before the Father. Being holy and undefiled, He is able to make the payment necessary due to our sin.

Before the Throne my Surety stands,
My name is written on his hands.

-Charles Wesley

Questions to Consider

  • Could anyone else be our mediator and surety?

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 142

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Day 142

Of Christ the Mediator.

Chapter 8, Paragraph 3.

“...and full of Grace, and Truth,…“

Scripture Lookup

John 1:14

Reflection

Jesus is full of grace. He does not cast anyone away, but freely welcomes them to Himself. How many times does He invite sinners to come to Him? To follow Him? As corrupt humans we are so fickle. We drop “I love you” like it was as common as air, but then that person hurts us and we want nothing to do with them. That never happens with Jesus. He will never leave us or forsake us. His sheep are never snatched out of His hand, and that hand is of the Great Shepherd, who does not cast away His sheep, but lays down His life for them. No matter how many times we sin, His grace is ready to cover it.

Jesus is also full of truth. Absolutely no falsehood is found in Him. To know Him is to know Truth. He declared it Himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) Jesus never yielded in speaking the truth. His words were sometimes hard to hear: “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” (John 6:60). Yet although He never compromised His stance on truth, He spoke it in love. For as He was full of truth, He was also full of grace.

To be full of grace and truth, as Jesus is, is a wonderful thing to behold. Yet like His being holy, harmless, and undefiled, His being full of grace and truth enabled Him to be our Mediator. We could not ask for a better one than Jesus.

Questions to Consider

  • How does Jesus being full of grace and truth help Him in His role as Mediator?

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 141

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Day 141

Of Christ the Mediator.

Chapter 8, Paragraph 3.

“...to the end that being holy, harmless, undefiled,…“

Scripture Lookup

Hebrews 7:26

Reflection

In His humanity, while united with His divine nature, Jesus was sanctified and anointed by the Holy Spirit. All fullness dwells in Him, to the pleasure of His Father. With such exultations by the members of the Trinity, it is no surprise that Jesus is holy, harmless, and undefiled. But what does it mean for Him to be so?

Jesus is holy: Jesus, in both His human and divine nature, has no sin in Him whatsoever. We have seen in previous days how He was set apart by His miraculous conception, so that His human nature was no corrupted. Throughout His life, Jesus never had an impure thought or acted sinfully. Every moment of His life, whether alone or in the midst of a crowd, conformed to God’s law. “… I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” (John 8:29) There was no deviation. He is perfect.

Jesus is harmless: Jesus never injured anyone. As the Great Physician, His main mission was and is to heal sinners. A deceitful word never fell from His lips. His tenderness is unsurpassed, as He “gently leads those that nurse their young” (Isaiah 40:11) and “a bruised reed He will not break.” (Isaiah 42:3)

Jesus is undefiled: Our sin does not taint Him. “This man receives sinners and eats with them”, but He does not succumb to their ways. No one has any evil influence upon Him, and He never was an accomplice to anyone’s sin. He has total immunity from our transgression.

These traits of Jesus are wonderful in themselves. But they serve a larger purpose in Him: they are qualifications enabling Him to be the mediator between God and man. All of Him serves the purpose of saving sinners. And He is all we need.

Questions to Consider

  • Could anyone other than Jesus have saved sinners?

The Beauty of the Local Church

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When considering the role of the church in our lives, it’s always important to consider the age in which we live. As discussed in the previous blog, I believe that it is self-evident that we live in a deeply anti-authoritarian age. Outside the church, this is often observed within national politics where disrespect and irreverence towards government officials has become commonplace. Within the church, this anti-authoritarianism rears its head in our skepticism for the church. In other words, the anti-authoritarian culture outside of the church has produced an anti-institutional and anti-polity culture within the church.

There are a large number of trends which have conspired together to produce this culture. Mark Dever provides a useful list

  • Since the dawn of the seventeenth-century Enlightenment, the Western mind has been trained to doubt all external authorities.

  • Since the middle of the nineteenth century, scholars in theology departments of elite European universities have assumed that the churches of the New Testament were in a state of flux, their polities were inconsistent, and they offer no normative model for today. And when biblical norms vanish, pragmatism steps into the void.

  • Church leaders in the twentieth century, therefore, found themselves enticed and eventually intoxicated by the methods of the booming American marketplace.

  • Beginning in the 1950s, the so-called neoevangelicals separated themselves from their separatist and fundamentalist parents by establishing their own seminaries, magazines, evangelism organizations, publishing houses, and other parachurch institutions.

We can also add other modern influences such as the Internet, social media, and MP3 sermons-on-demand, but the net result is that we have inherited a significant amount of historical baggage that has trained us to view the institutional church with a matter of indifference. It’s tempting to start this series by blaming crooked prosperity preachers, CEO-style megapreachers, and fundamentalism for the trends that we see, but that would be nothing more than blame shifting. It’s best to look at ourselves in the mirror first.

Lord’s Day Worship

The Lord called me to Himself about 16 years ago in an old-fashioned tent revival when I was in high-school. I was born and raised in a Pentecostal background in which my individual religious experience (which was called the “baptism of the Holy Spirit”) was prized above all others so it should not be surprising that this was the essential lens in which I viewed Christianity during my younger days. All of my spiritual disciplines were geared towards obtaining this experience, including corporate worship on the Lord’s Day. In those days, I didn’t consider myself as a member of the covenant community that gathered together to worship our Triune God; rather, I saw Lord’s Day worship as the best time to have my personal experience with Jesus.

Over the course of my young life, I’ve realized that although very few individuals would assent to the core tents of Pentecostalism, I’ve learned that many Christians have adopted this basic idea of seeking their “personal Jesus”. This has led to two polarizing and unbiblical responses to Lord’s Day worship: the first is to neglect public worship since you can “meet Jesus” at home and the second is to use public worship to “get what you need for Jesus”. The writer to the Hebrews give us a beautiful picture of what goes on in public worship.

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

Dear Christian, is this how you view the church? The church is called Mount Zion because it is beloved of God, chosen by Him, and is the place of His habitation. It is within the church that His word and ordinances are administered. It is within the church where He communes with His covenant people – not in a “personal Jesus” manner. Do you see the church as “the perfection of beauty and the joy of the whole earth”? The church is the city of the living God, which is built on Christ. As John Gill describes, the church is

… pleasantly situated by the river of God’s love, and by the still waters of Gospel ordinances; it is governed by wholesome laws, of Christ’s enacting, and is under proper officers, of his appointing; and is well guarded by watchmen, which he has set upon the walls of it; and it is endowed with many privileges, as access to God, freedom from condemnation, adoption, and a right to the heavenly inheritance.

The church is His building because He dwells, protects, and defends her. Hence, we are not just speaking about the church as an organism, but we are speaking of her as an institution.

Now, it’s important to understand what the writer to the Hebrews is specifically referring to. These words can be applied to the universal church, but his context is the local church. Yes… it is your local church that is place of His habitation; it is your local church in which we partake of ordinances and enjoy communion with Him. I must emphasize this because we have romanticized the universal church, while neglecting the local church. We have warm feelings in our heart concerning the church triumphant as seen throughout the book of Revelation, but that same raptured joy is not expressed towards our own local church today. Do you realize that your local church is the dwelling place of the Prince of Peace and is being encamped about by “myriads of angels”? When you gather with your local church, you are gathering also with “the spirits of the righteous” made perfect and at the table, you are communing with the risen Lord Jesus.

This is what actually occurs in the gathered worship of the local church, but our culturally-trained anti-institutional skepticism blinds us from seeing the glory of God’s local church. Until we love the local church and see her as she truly is, we will continue to drift away from her.