The Only One To Stand Up Under Such Punishment

My Mediator must be True God (that is, real God). 

• He must have more than just the title of God. 
• He must have the power and worth of God.

My Mediator must possess the power of God. 

• The burden of God’s wrath against the sins of all the elect is far too heavy for any creature to bear, including man. 

Consider this example: 

• Suppose that the punishment for our sin is forty lashes with a whip. 
• Now God has chosen “144,000” persons who are to be redeemed (a figurative number). 
• If a man were to take the punishment of all the elect upon himself, he would receive forty lashes for each of the “144,000” which totals 5,760,000 lashes. 
• No human being would be able to stand up under such punishment. 
• He would die long before he fulfilled the payment. 

For this reason our Mediator must be more than just a man. 

• He must be true God so that by His divine power He might bear the full weight of God’s wrath.

My Mediator must possess the worth of God. 

• He must be true God in order to give His sacrifice sufficient value to atone for the sins of all the elect. 

Consider this example. 

• If a rebel movement, hostile to a government, wishes to have ten of its members released from prison, they might take a man hostage in order to demand the release of their fellow rebels. 
• They would not take just any man hostage. 
• Rather, they would choose a man of high standing in the government, a man of great importance. 
• His life would be worth the life of the ten captive rebels. 

In a similar way my Mediator would have to be more than just an ordinary man. 

• In order for His death to serve as ransom for the “144,000”, He must be true God. 
• This death is of such great value and worth because the person who submitted to it is not only a true and perfectly holy man, 
• but also the only-begotten Son of God.

To Be Continued...

Adapted Excerpt from Only by True Faith by Van Delden