I Need Someone to Intervene
- Every one of my sins must be paid for.
- I need a Mediator.
- A mediator is someone who intervenes,
- who goes between two parties with the goal of bringing the two parties together.
But I do not just need any mediator.
- He must be special.
- He must be man, but not just any man.
- He must be a true and righteous man.
- Furthermore, he must be more than man;
- he must be true God.
I am dealing with a
mystery here.
- We cannot understand how a person can be true man and true God at the same time.
- We believe it because the Bible teaches this to us,1
- and we accept it in child-like faith even though we do not understand it.
Q. Why must He be a true and righteous man?
He must be a true man
- because the justice of God requires that the same human nature which has sinned should pay for sin.
- because one who himself is a sinner cannot pay for others.
Hebrews 2:14-16
- Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
- and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
- For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.
- For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;
- who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
- For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God,
- being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.
To be continued...
Adapted Excerpt from Only By True Faith by Van Delden
The Heidelberg Catechism
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