Chapter 5
Man's Need of a Mediator
In our foregoing lessons we studied the problems that our heavenly Father faced in providing a redemption for man.
After man had died spiritually (Genesis 2:17; Ephesians 2:1-4), his first need was that of receiving eternal life, the nature of God. We saw, however, that God could not impart to man His own nature, except on grounds of righteousness -- the second need.
The third need of man was that of a mediator, someone who could approach God on his behalf.
We remember that after Adam's sin of High Treason, he was cast out of the presence of God. He had lost his fellowship with his heavenly Father. Man stood in the unrighteousness of Satan (John 16:11). He had no standing with Deity and no right to approach Him.
The universal man in his condition of spiritual death recognized that he had no standing with his creator. The temples, the altars, the 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.
We have seen in 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; 1 John 3:10). This identification with Satan caused the judgment and unrighteousness of Satan to become his (man's) — John 16:11.
Man became alienated from God (Ephesians 4:18). His mind and understanding became darkened by the god of this world (2 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 that there is none that understandeth and knows how to seek God (Romans 3:11). Ephesians 2:12 describes the condition of spiritually dead men. He has no covenant claims upon God; he has 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. Man forfeited these by his treason, and his condition is described as being without hope and without God.
Adam, who had rejoiced in his fellowship with God, felt immediately after the entrance of sin and spiritual death his inability to stand before God (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, to approach God in 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, no approach; if God hears his prayer it is only upon grounds of grace alone.
God, our heavenly Father, in His love for the human family and in His 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, Genesis 4:4).
Israel approached God through its tabernacles, priesthoods, and offerings. Outside of God's appointed way, man had or has today no approach to God Almighty.
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 had a right to approach God except through a Divinely appointed priesthood, over a bleeding sacrifice, dreams, visions, or angelic visitation.
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 by Jesus Christ, and justification on 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 were 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 raised; the Shekinah presence had filled it with glory; the majesty of almighty God was resting upon Israel.
Behind them lay a series of Divine miracles that had marked them as God's people; 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 and curiosity, took up censors with live coals, poured incense upon them and entered the Holies of Holies contrary to God's appointed way. No one but the high priest could go there, and he could only go 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 what Jehovah spoke saying, 'I shall be sanctified in them that come nigh me.'" And Aaron held his peace. Israel had learned that man could not approach God uninvited and in his own way.
We have another example of man's attempting to approach the Lord unauthorized in Numbers chapter 16. It is the story of Korah and his rebellion.
Korah and a company of leaders of Israel are jealous of Moses and Aaron, and insist that they have as much right to approach God, as the God appointed High Priest. In response, Moses puts the issue to the test before the whole congregation. He invites Korah and his followers to appear before God with their censors, ready to 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, when the earth opened its mouth, and the men and 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 1 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-shomesh.
The cattle that were drawing the cart turned off the road into the fields. When some of the people that labored in the fields 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 turn back to their homes.
It has been shown again and 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 live a problem was man's need of a mediator in Job's day.
Read Job 4:12-17. We have a picture of Job 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?" This is the old problem; this is the eternal problem that has confronted the thinking man of all ages.
Can mortal man be justified or acquitted before God? Shall fallen man be pure before his maker? Note the word "mortal." The word "mortal" has to do with the physical body; it means "subject to death; doomed to die; frail" and such is man's circumstance brought about by Adam's allegiance to Satan, he became a subject of Satan. Man became mortal (i.e. subject to death) when he passed under the dominion of the devil. The problem is, shall mortal man, dominated by Satan, stand uncondemned in the presence of God? Read Job 9:25-35.
In the 9th chapter, Job speaks out of the deepest soul longing of universal man. He lies in his tent surrounded by those whom he loves. He opens his heart with perfect freedom, speaking the fear that grips his soul in the death struggle. He gives figures of speech which describe the rapidity with which life passes to the aged. He continues: "If I say I will forget my calamity, I will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer. I am afraid of my sorrows. I know thou wilt not hold me innocent; I shall be condemned."
Every false hope has fled; he is alone with his guilt and despair. he says, "What is the use of trying to brighten up, and put off my sad countenance, I am afraid of my sorrows."
It is the frankness of despair. It is the hopelessness of full-orbed knowledge. I shall be condemned. He cries: "Why do I labour in vain, why spend my time making a garment of fig- leaves? If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands ever so clean: yet thou wilt plunge me in the ditch, and my own clothes shall abhor me."
What a picture! "Mine own clothes shall abhor me; for He is not a man as I am that I should answer Him, that we should come together in judgment."
Job knows that he cannot face God, for God is not mortal. He is not under the bondage of guilt and sin as is Job. Then Job utters the saddest words that ever fell from the lips of a human. "There is no umpire betwixt us that he might lay his hands upon us both." (Job 9:33) In other words, there is no mediator betwixt us who has a legal standing with God and at the same time can sympathize and understand as well as represent the human. This is Job's heart cry for a mediator. It is not the cry of Job alone. Job has gathered up the cry of the ages and breathes it forth as a hopeless sob.
How bitterly he says: "Let him take His law, His rod away from me, and let not His terror make me afraid, then I would speak to Him face to face, but now I am not able."
Job 25:4-6 How then can man be just before God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in His sight. How much less a man that is a worm!"
"How can he be clean that is born of a woman?" The writer here has the fall of man through Eve before his mind. When he tells us that the stars are not pure in the sight of God, he is referring us to Adam's Treason when he turned creation into the hands of the Devil. Satan has defiled it so God cannot look with joy upon it. Moses and Paul record the fact that all creation is effected by the fall. (Genesis 3:14-19; Romans 8:22 - compare with context).
In speaking of man as a worm, he shows the depths into which man has fallen.
Jeremiah recognized that man needed a mediator.
Jeremiah 30:21 "And their prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from the midst of them and I'll cause him to draw near and he shall approach me." "For who is he that hath boldness of heart to approach me? saith Jehovah." R.V.
Jeremiah realized that no man had a right to stand in God's presence nor power to do it, and he tells us that there is one being who will be able to draw near standing uncondemned in God's presence. He foretells of the Mediator God will provide for man.
Requirements of a Mediator
We saw that man's need of eternal life, and righteousness could be met only by the incarnation of God's son.
Again the incarnation is the only answer to man's need of a mediator. No human being, born of natural generation could approach God on man's behalf because of the universality of spiritual death.
The requirements of a mediator for man are the following:
1. He must be a man for he must represent humanity.
2. He must possess the capacity to understand and to sympathize with the temptations of man.
3. He must also possess a standing of righteousness with Deity.
4. He must not be a subject of Satan; He must be free from all Satanic authority.
These requirements could only be met by the union of God and man in one individual. They were met in Jesus Christ!
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