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Mediator
The Mediator by Joe La Bianca
Hebrews 9:11-15
When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance - now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
The writer to the Hebrews calls Christianity, “the good things that are already here.” This is a good way to view our faith. Remember this when you hear some preacher heaping guilt, rules, and burdens upon your back. Remember that our faith is “the good things that are here.” Do not feel guilt because you are blessed of God. You are blessed because you’ve believed the Son of His love. You are blessed because salvation is by grace apart from works, apart from obedience to the law. After all, the gospel means the good news. We have a faith of good news, good things, a good Shepherd, and whatever is lovely, peaceful, and of good report. So reject the prevalent teaching of legalism in these last days.
When Jesus came to earth, He prepared Himself as the lamb of God, by living without sin. After He fulfilled the law of Moses, right down to the jot and tittle, He then offered Himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for sin. Jesus’ life was the only sinless life ever lived, and He submitted to death even though He didn’t have to, for the wages of sin is death, and since Jesus never sinned, He never earned His death wages. Did you know that death entered the world only after Adam and Eve’s sin? Mercifully, Christ was willing to die for us, as our substitute. We, however, though deserving of death, receive Christ’s life and righteousness instead. How gracious is the Lord Christ!! This is why I love God. I do not try to love God to gain His acceptance. That’s insulting. How can someone try to love anyway? Either you love or not. And I love God because He first loved me in Christ.
After the reconciling act of the sacrifice of Jesus, He sprinkled His own blood seven times on the mercy seat of heaven. Seven is the number of perfection. The work of Christ was finished on the cross, and no one could stop Jesus from taking His finished work, His blood of redemption, before the glory of the Father, as the justifying proof of His love. Just as God accepted the shadows of the earthly sacrifices before Messiah came, He much more willingly accepted the eternal blood of the new covenant, sprinkled on the atonement cover in heaven. The blood covered the book of the law that was inside the box!
What’s better, the blood of animals, or the blood of the only Son of God? Animals have no righteousness of their own, and though they have a semblance of innocence, they are not moral agents. The Son was a free moral agent and lived His entire earthly life free from all guilt. The righteousness and absolute innocence of Jesus, makes His blood of utmost value to God. The blood spilled out of the body of an animal cannot bring eternal redemption, but the Son of Man’s blood brings a perpetual ransom to those who continue to believe. Hebrews 10:4 says in no uncertain terms that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. These are the animals used in the sacrifices on the day of atonement, and so we see that the day of atonement did not take away sins, for it was a shadow of the real sacrifice, which is the eternally redeeming blood of Christ. The animal sacrifices of Israel were antitypes of Jesus. An antitype is a foreshadow or hint beforehand of a true reality. The reality is found in Christ.
You see, Christ became a curse for us so that we could be saved from the curse of trying to obey the law for salvation. People mistakenly believe that all the wonderful benefits of being in Christ Jesus are to be constantly worked for and earned. This defeats the very purpose of Jesus our Savior. Remember that Christ is the Savior, and we are the saved.
Christ, our cure, is our entrance into the blessings of God. When Gal. 3:13 says that Christ became our curse, it means that Jesus was willing to be hung on a tree and fulfill Deut. 21:23 where it says that anyone who is crucified is under God’s curse. Jesus was under God’s curse when He was hung on the tree. He took our curse upon Himself and we are given the blessings of Jesus in exchange. Pretty unfair, isn’t it? Be thankful for the loving grace of Jesus.
To believe that you can earn salvation takes away from what Jesus did on the cross. Do you want to diminish the great cross of Christ? Do you want to cancel grace for yourself? Then add your supposed self merit to the salvation equation. Jesus took the cup that God the Father gave Him, and drank it to its bitter end. God didn’t get you the cup of redeeming love. He gave it to the only One who could drink it, Jesus! This is the love of God and the greatest act of love ever done. On the third day Christ rose from the dead to justify everyone who would simply believe what they’ve heard about Him.
Those under the first covenant were made only outwardly clean. The consecration of the “law followers” didn’t reach their hearts, they only knew God, and were known of God, on the surface. The ashes of a perfect red heifer or young cow were to be mixed with water and sprinkled on the ceremonially unclean for outward cleansing. The blood of Jesus sprinkled on our hearts cleanses us from inward sin and enables us to boldly approach the throne of grace.
If water and young cow ashes could somehow cleanse someone who broke a regulation, so he could be outwardly clean, how much more can the spotless lamb of God’s blood cleanse our minds from real acts of the hell-worthy kind, so that we can fellowship with God. It says that God cleanses our consciences from dead works. This means that the evil deeds we have done should not bother us anymore. I know they bother a lot of people, but try to not let them. God cleanses both our hearts and minds. Our hearts are cleans with the new godly nature that comes by grace. And our minds are cleansed so that we need not feel guilty about our lives. God takes care of it all. He makes us perfect on the inside, and able to overcome on the outside, howbeit imperfectly. All this is by grace through faith in the cross.
Our guilty consciences are cleansed by the offering of the body of another. Christ’s unblemished sacrifice cleanses our consciences if we just believe in His cross. You would think that our guilty minds could only be relieved by the acts of righteousness that we have done ourselves, but not so. We cannot erase sins with good works. We can do good works forever and still be stain with the sin that only the blood of Jesus can remove. Jesus heals our standing with God and removes our sins with His blood when we believe.
The ashes of the heifer, mixed with water, were sort of a ready-made sacrifice. If someone touched a dead body, and became defiled, all that was necessary was to sprinkle this portable, made-in-advance sacrifice on the person, and they were made outwardly clean. Christ’s blood, in like manner, is our instant access forgiveness when we sin. But Jesus’ blood cleanses all the way to the heart and mind, releasing use from guilt and renewing our inner man. This is better because we are both cleared and empowered by Jesus.
Our consciences instantly approve, or condemn the lawfulness, or unlawfulness of our actions. This is what has been cleansed by the actions of Jesus. Our moral sense has been purified by the blood of Christ. We no longer feel obligated to God for our salvation. Jesus performed the saving work for us. We no longer feel it is our duty to save our souls by works, for Jesus saved us when we believed what we’ve heard when we were confronted with the gospel.
The unblemished blood of Jesus is our confidence before God. Jesus is without rebuke, and by grace, so are we. Jesus is without blame and by grace, so are we. Jesus is without spot, faultless, and perfect and by faith, so are we. Jesus has already presented us holy, spotless, and free from accusation, by Christ’s physical body through His death on the cross. This blessing will be lost if we don‘t believe it, so continue to believe, for that is all He asks.
All we must do is trust that Jesus will do all these wonderful things for us and it will be done.
Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant because of His precious, perfect blood. No other person could become a mediator of this covenant because all others beside Jesus Christ are sinful human beings. This includes Mohammed, Moses, Buddha, Mary, Confucius and all other religious leaders. Jesus is the world’s only Savior. All religions outside of Christ are unsaved, without God, and without hope in this world.
Who are those who are called by God? Many. Many, in this context means all who will. God does not choose people to go to hell. This is a false doctrine which portrays God as evil. Those in hell are there by virtue of their own guilt, not some supposed eternal decree. Every soul may receive the promised eternal inheritance of heaven if they will just believe in Jesus. Christ, our ransom, has set us free from our sinful guilt. Christian salvation is a salvation from the sins we committed under the law. We are not partially ransomed by the offered body of Christ. We are, by our faith and God’s grace, fully redeemed from our guilty lives. Jesus set us free from a sure hell, and pardoned us gracefully. So receive the gift of the offered body of Christ, and by so doing, receive an eternal inheritance that we can never, ever deserve. We receive it by believing. Amen!
Hebrews 9:11-15
When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance - now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
The writer to the Hebrews calls Christianity, “the good things that are already here.” This is a good way to view our faith. Remember this when you hear some preacher heaping guilt, rules, and burdens upon your back. Remember that our faith is “the good things that are here.” Do not feel guilt because you are blessed of God. You are blessed because you’ve believed the Son of His love. You are blessed because salvation is by grace apart from works, apart from obedience to the law. After all, the gospel means the good news. We have a faith of good news, good things, a good Shepherd, and whatever is lovely, peaceful, and of good report. So reject the prevalent teaching of legalism in these last days.
When Jesus came to earth, He prepared Himself as the lamb of God, by living without sin. After He fulfilled the law of Moses, right down to the jot and tittle, He then offered Himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for sin. Jesus’ life was the only sinless life ever lived, and He submitted to death even though He didn’t have to, for the wages of sin is death, and since Jesus never sinned, He never earned His death wages. Did you know that death entered the world only after Adam and Eve’s sin? Mercifully, Christ was willing to die for us, as our substitute. We, however, though deserving of death, receive Christ’s life and righteousness instead. How gracious is the Lord Christ!! This is why I love God. I do not try to love God to gain His acceptance. That’s insulting. How can someone try to love anyway? Either you love or not. And I love God because He first loved me in Christ.
After the reconciling act of the sacrifice of Jesus, He sprinkled His own blood seven times on the mercy seat of heaven. Seven is the number of perfection. The work of Christ was finished on the cross, and no one could stop Jesus from taking His finished work, His blood of redemption, before the glory of the Father, as the justifying proof of His love. Just as God accepted the shadows of the earthly sacrifices before Messiah came, He much more willingly accepted the eternal blood of the new covenant, sprinkled on the atonement cover in heaven. The blood covered the book of the law that was inside the box!
What’s better, the blood of animals, or the blood of the only Son of God? Animals have no righteousness of their own, and though they have a semblance of innocence, they are not moral agents. The Son was a free moral agent and lived His entire earthly life free from all guilt. The righteousness and absolute innocence of Jesus, makes His blood of utmost value to God. The blood spilled out of the body of an animal cannot bring eternal redemption, but the Son of Man’s blood brings a perpetual ransom to those who continue to believe. Hebrews 10:4 says in no uncertain terms that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. These are the animals used in the sacrifices on the day of atonement, and so we see that the day of atonement did not take away sins, for it was a shadow of the real sacrifice, which is the eternally redeeming blood of Christ. The animal sacrifices of Israel were antitypes of Jesus. An antitype is a foreshadow or hint beforehand of a true reality. The reality is found in Christ.
You see, Christ became a curse for us so that we could be saved from the curse of trying to obey the law for salvation. People mistakenly believe that all the wonderful benefits of being in Christ Jesus are to be constantly worked for and earned. This defeats the very purpose of Jesus our Savior. Remember that Christ is the Savior, and we are the saved.
Christ, our cure, is our entrance into the blessings of God. When Gal. 3:13 says that Christ became our curse, it means that Jesus was willing to be hung on a tree and fulfill Deut. 21:23 where it says that anyone who is crucified is under God’s curse. Jesus was under God’s curse when He was hung on the tree. He took our curse upon Himself and we are given the blessings of Jesus in exchange. Pretty unfair, isn’t it? Be thankful for the loving grace of Jesus.
To believe that you can earn salvation takes away from what Jesus did on the cross. Do you want to diminish the great cross of Christ? Do you want to cancel grace for yourself? Then add your supposed self merit to the salvation equation. Jesus took the cup that God the Father gave Him, and drank it to its bitter end. God didn’t get you the cup of redeeming love. He gave it to the only One who could drink it, Jesus! This is the love of God and the greatest act of love ever done. On the third day Christ rose from the dead to justify everyone who would simply believe what they’ve heard about Him.
Those under the first covenant were made only outwardly clean. The consecration of the “law followers” didn’t reach their hearts, they only knew God, and were known of God, on the surface. The ashes of a perfect red heifer or young cow were to be mixed with water and sprinkled on the ceremonially unclean for outward cleansing. The blood of Jesus sprinkled on our hearts cleanses us from inward sin and enables us to boldly approach the throne of grace.
If water and young cow ashes could somehow cleanse someone who broke a regulation, so he could be outwardly clean, how much more can the spotless lamb of God’s blood cleanse our minds from real acts of the hell-worthy kind, so that we can fellowship with God. It says that God cleanses our consciences from dead works. This means that the evil deeds we have done should not bother us anymore. I know they bother a lot of people, but try to not let them. God cleanses both our hearts and minds. Our hearts are cleans with the new godly nature that comes by grace. And our minds are cleansed so that we need not feel guilty about our lives. God takes care of it all. He makes us perfect on the inside, and able to overcome on the outside, howbeit imperfectly. All this is by grace through faith in the cross.
Our guilty consciences are cleansed by the offering of the body of another. Christ’s unblemished sacrifice cleanses our consciences if we just believe in His cross. You would think that our guilty minds could only be relieved by the acts of righteousness that we have done ourselves, but not so. We cannot erase sins with good works. We can do good works forever and still be stain with the sin that only the blood of Jesus can remove. Jesus heals our standing with God and removes our sins with His blood when we believe.
The ashes of the heifer, mixed with water, were sort of a ready-made sacrifice. If someone touched a dead body, and became defiled, all that was necessary was to sprinkle this portable, made-in-advance sacrifice on the person, and they were made outwardly clean. Christ’s blood, in like manner, is our instant access forgiveness when we sin. But Jesus’ blood cleanses all the way to the heart and mind, releasing use from guilt and renewing our inner man. This is better because we are both cleared and empowered by Jesus.
Our consciences instantly approve, or condemn the lawfulness, or unlawfulness of our actions. This is what has been cleansed by the actions of Jesus. Our moral sense has been purified by the blood of Christ. We no longer feel obligated to God for our salvation. Jesus performed the saving work for us. We no longer feel it is our duty to save our souls by works, for Jesus saved us when we believed what we’ve heard when we were confronted with the gospel.
The unblemished blood of Jesus is our confidence before God. Jesus is without rebuke, and by grace, so are we. Jesus is without blame and by grace, so are we. Jesus is without spot, faultless, and perfect and by faith, so are we. Jesus has already presented us holy, spotless, and free from accusation, by Christ’s physical body through His death on the cross. This blessing will be lost if we don‘t believe it, so continue to believe, for that is all He asks.
All we must do is trust that Jesus will do all these wonderful things for us and it will be done.
Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant because of His precious, perfect blood. No other person could become a mediator of this covenant because all others beside Jesus Christ are sinful human beings. This includes Mohammed, Moses, Buddha, Mary, Confucius and all other religious leaders. Jesus is the world’s only Savior. All religions outside of Christ are unsaved, without God, and without hope in this world.
Who are those who are called by God? Many. Many, in this context means all who will. God does not choose people to go to hell. This is a false doctrine which portrays God as evil. Those in hell are there by virtue of their own guilt, not some supposed eternal decree. Every soul may receive the promised eternal inheritance of heaven if they will just believe in Jesus. Christ, our ransom, has set us free from our sinful guilt. Christian salvation is a salvation from the sins we committed under the law. We are not partially ransomed by the offered body of Christ. We are, by our faith and God’s grace, fully redeemed from our guilty lives. Jesus set us free from a sure hell, and pardoned us gracefully. So receive the gift of the offered body of Christ, and by so doing, receive an eternal inheritance that we can never, ever deserve. We receive it by believing. Amen!
Great post. I see so many " Christian " groups who can't get this most essential of teachings correct. The Popes have added the Church sacraments, Mary as Coredemptix, Roman Priests as forgivers of sin, indulgences (grace for sale) - a monstrosity of Religiosity! What does the Bible say? 1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MEN, the man CHRIST JESUS... Acts 10:43 To him (Christ) give all the prophets witness, that through his (Christ's) name whosoever BELIEVETH IN HIM (Christ) SHALL RECEIVE REMISSION OF SINS." Some of the Protestant Churches are not much better, promoting legalism of a more Biblical sort, but nevertheless legalism - instead of faith. Some of the Messianic Jewish groups, can't seem to escape the law. It's like they accept Christ in name only, not his new covenant - they can't let go of Moses. Personally, what I think needs to happen, is that everyone needs to wake up to the fact that we are not saved by religion, and even the Bible is useless, if it doesn't point you to a personal relationship with God. We are saved by a person (Christ), not by the Bible, or a Church, or laws, or a Roman Priest. It's the same problem the Pharisees had - they studied, performed ceremonies, strove to keep laws, set themselves up as high and mighty, argued and bickered over doctrine, but none of that could save them - only Christ could . John 5:39-40 You examine the Scriptures carefully because you suppose that in them you have eternal life. Yet they testify about me . But you are not willing to come to me to have life. This is a link for further study. Who can forgive Sins?
Amen brother!! I love your insight into God's word. Thanks for this site too! God bless, Joe