7.1 Key themes⤒🔗

• We need a mediator to make peace between us and God.
• Our mediator must be a human, because only a human can pay for human sins.
• Our mediator must also be God, because he must have the power:
  - to carry God’s holy anger against all our sin, and
  - to give us new life.
• Jesus Christ is the Mediator that God has given us.
• Jesus Christ is God and man at the same time.
• Jesus made peace between us and God, by paying for our sins on the cross.

7.2 John 1:1-3, 14-17←⤒🔗

^1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God.

^1:2 The Word was with God in the beginning.

^1:3 All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.

…

^1:14 Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory— the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.

^1:15 John testified about him and shouted out, “This one was the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than I am, because he existed before me.’”

^1:16 For we have all received from his fullness one gracious gift after another.

^1:17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.

© NET Bible

7.3 We need a mediator←⤒🔗

If we had to pay for our own sin, it would mean only one thing for us: eternal death. That is God’s punishment for sin. It does not matter how many shortcuts we try to take. We cannot run away from our sin. It is like a great debt that we owe to the holy God.

Sin has made us God’s enemies (Romans 5:10). What we need, is someone who can make peace between us and God. We need a mediator.

A mediator is someone who stands in the middle. For example, when a husband and a wife are fighting, they can ask a pastor to be a mediator between them. The pastor can talk to both of them, find out what the real problem is, and help them to make peace.

But we need a very special mediator: someone who can stand between us and God!

7.4 Our mediator must be a human←⤒🔗

God said to Adam, “When you eat from [the tree] you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). It is Adam and his children (you and me) who stand guilty before God. Sin is a human problem. It is not the problem of animals or angels. That means that our mediator must be a real human being. He must be one of us. Only a human can pay for human sins.

Our mediator must be just like us, but with one difference: he cannot have any sin. Otherwise, how could he pay for our sins? If he were also a sinner, he could never stand between us and God. He would also be an enemy of God!

No, we need someone whose relationship with God is right. He must be someone who has never broken God’s law.

7.5 Our mediator must be God←⤒🔗

But even if our mediator were a perfect human being, there would still be a problem. How can one person pay for the sins of millions of people? God’s holy anger is like a fire. No man has the strength to survive it. It is as the writer of Psalm 130 says: “If you, O LORD, were to keep track of sins, O Lord, who could stand before you?” (Psalm 130:3).

So our mediator must have great power. He must be able to carry God’s punishment for all of us. After he has done that, he must also give us new life, so that we can live in a new relationship with God.

Only God has the power to carry his own holy anger. And only God has the power to give life. That is why our mediator must be God!

7.6 Jesus Christ our Mediator←⤒🔗

It sounds impossible. How can a person be man and God at the same time? But that is exactly what Jesus Christ is.

He has always been God. In our passage the apostle John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God.” (John 1:1).

Here, John calls Christ the “Word.” And he says that Christ has always been with God, because he has always been God himself! We know that God is three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christ is the Son. He has always been there. God the Father made everything through him (John 1:3).

But then our passage goes further. John writes, “the Word became flesh and took up residence among us” (John 1:14).

The Son of God became flesh. This means that he became a human, just like us. He was born as a normal baby. He got a human name: Jesus. He grew up as we grow up. He experienced the same problems that we experience: hunger, tiredness, sadness, pain, and temptation. But there was one difference: he never sinned!

Jesus loved God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. And he loved other people like himself.

Even today, while Jesus is in heaven, he is God and man at the same time. We cannot understand how it is possible. But we can humble ourselves and worship him. He is the Mediator that we needed!

7.7 How Jesus Christ made peace←⤒🔗

On the night when Jesus Christ was born, a crowd of angels appeared to some shepherds. The angels praised God. They sang about peace on earth (Luke 2:14). That is because Jesus Christ has come to bring peace. God loved us too much to let us die in our sins. He sent his Son to make peace between us and himself.

On the night of Jesus’ birth, no-one could guess how he would make peace. But as Jesus grew up, he understood what he needed to do. The only way to make peace between God and humans was to pay for human sin. Death is the punishment for sin. Jesus knew that he lived to die (John 12:27).

Remember that death means death in the body, spiritual death, and hell. That is what Jesus went through on the cross.

Death in the body←↰⤒🔗

Jesus suffered all his life, but especially on the cross. There he suffered and died in the body. He was buried in a grave. This shows us that he was really dead.

Spiritual death and hell←↰⤒🔗

On the cross Jesus felt all the anger that his Father has against sin. He came under God’s curse (Galatians 3:13). Jesus experienced hell. Hell is where people do not see or experience God’s love. That is why Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Jesus Christ our Mediator came to bring peace between us and God. The only way to do this, was by paying for our sins. God is holy and just. He cannot ignore our sins. But God is also merciful. He gave us a Mediator, to pay for all our sins. Glory to God!