My church is working its way through the names and titles of Christ at our weekly prayer meeting. The idea behind the series is that a variety of speakers will study one name or title and take twenty minutes to present a summary of scripture’s teaching about it. I think it’s a terrific plan, but one that may take until the return of the Lord to execute. The Lord Jesus has a great many names and titles.
Last week’s title of Christ was “advocate”.
Mediation, Intercession, Advocacy
This is not going to be a critique of the speaker. Not at all. He handled advocacy quite well, but there was a brief discussion at the time, and the subject arose again this weekend. A couple of things eventually became apparent. (1) More than a few folks are not entirely clear on the distinction between an advocate and a mediator, muddling the two together with some aspects of Christ’s role as intercessor. (2) There is also a lack of clarity about what a discussion about your sin or mine might look like in heaven. Some folks have obviously not worked through the relevant theological issues. The picture they have in their minds of Christ’s advocacy inadvertently diminishes the Godhead and makes it appear to be play-acting, or something worse.
Both subjects are worth addressing. If one small group of Christians has a few confused people on any subject, you can bet the internet has thousands. So let’s try to unconfuse, Lord willing.
I will stick strictly with the Lord’s roles in the life and salvation of the Christian, as spelled out in the Greek New Testament. We find the words “intercessor” and “mediator” in the OT as well, but they are harder to distinguish because of translation choices. Isaiah speaks of intercession, for example. Most Greek translators call that particular act mediation.
The Perfect Sacrifice
Let’s start with this: one aspect of Christ’s involvement with God on our behalf is called mediation. Jesus is the “mediator of a new covenant”.
The act of mediation was a one-time thing. The “one mediator” Paul describes to Timothy “gave himself [past tense] as a ransom for all … at the proper time.” Christ’s mediation on our behalf inaugurated the new covenant. He’s our ongoing insurance policy for the eternal blessings of God.
In dying on the cross on our behalf, Christ bore our sins and established the way to permanent peace between a holy God and fallen man. His resurrection proved the effectiveness of his work as mediator: he was raised because of our justification. His mediatorial role is associated with both his and our transformation from death to life; it was a one-time deal. The blood once sprinkled need never be sprinkled again. It testifies to a finished work.
So then, we do not need his mediation on a daily basis as we sin; it is something he did for us corporately rather than individually. By one perfect act of mediation, Christ has established our relationship with our Father in heaven for eternity. Our security in him will never again be threatened or debated before the throne of God.
Emery compares the Lord’s two ministries as follows:
“These two ministries of Christ may thus be compared. His work of mediation was effected on earth, through his finished work on the cross; His work of advocacy is effected in heaven, the work on the throne, but on the ground of His propitiatory sacrifice. The former is past and final, but the latter present and continuous. As a Mediator He ‘brings us to God’; as Advocate He maintains us before the Father.”
I think that’s the best summary I’ve come across.
The Great High Priest
The second aspect to Christ’s involvement with God on our behalf is his priestly ministry. Where Christ mediated for us by becoming a perfect sacrifice for sin, he accomplishes his intercession and advocacy by representing us before God as our Great High Priest. That’s a distinction worth observing.
There are two aspects to this ongoing role, intercession and advocacy:
1/ Intercessor
Christ’s mediation was a one-time, corporate event associated with his sacrifice on the cross. His role as intercessor is ongoing, individual and associated with his resurrection:
“He holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost [or at all times] those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
The words “draw near” translate a common Greek term frequently associated with making requests of God. To “draw near the throne of grace” is surely to come to the Lord in prayer. Our intercessor is able to help us approach God because he sympathizes with us. Again, as Paul puts it:
“Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”
Our confidence before God as believers depends on the knowledge that when we approach God in prayer, Christ is standing there with us, upholding our cause in sympathy with our weaknesses. We might liken his role to that of an interpreter or editor of our prayers, bringing our faltering, inadequate requests into line with the will and glory of God.
2/ Advocate
The Lord’s role as advocate is also high priestly, but I believe this second aspect is slightly different. As intercessor he interprets, edits and supports our prayers in heaven. As our advocate, Christ defends us against every accusation raised against us on earth or in heaven, and those accusations are coming in night and day, 24/7.
His role as intercessor has to do with our weakness and limitations. His role as advocate has to do with the sins we commit as believers:
“But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
He advocates for us not by making excuses for our misbehavior as a human lawyer might for a precocious client, but by standing as evidence that the price for all our sins — past, present and future — has already been fully paid in his own precious blood. “He is the propitiation for our sins.”
Perhaps this is one reason he continues to bear the marks of his crucifixion in his resurrection body. The proof of our justification is always before the court.
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Jonathan Edwards once preached a famous sermon entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” that has been called the catalyst in the First Great Awakening. Addressed to unbelievers, such a sermon makes perfect sense. Regrettably, too many Christians today feel instinctively that they are in some kind of analogous position when they sin: faced with the anger of a wrathful God. They misinterpret the “courtroom” language of Hebrews, imagining a furious Father on the throne ready to unleash his Old Testament-style wrath on his failing children, while our good buddy Jesus tries to talk him down.
Two seconds of thought should put that erroneous picture away forever. The Father and Son are never at odds about anything. The entire plan of salvation was conceived within the Godhead for our good, not so the Father and Son could stand in heaven bickering about our sin or, worse, pretending to bicker, since both in their omniscience know what the outcome of any such conversation will be! Can we really imagine deity putting on such a charade for the universe?
No, says Paul:
“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”
“Who is to condemn?” indeed! God is very much on our side. The accusations come from elsewhere, and one day soon — glorious thought! — they will be silenced forever.
No comments :
Post a Comment