The objective of this lesson is to increase the students' understanding/insight into Jesus' qualifications as the mediator between God and us. Only through mediation can our alienation from God be healed. [Our need of a mediator is an ongoing need.]
To focus on the concept of mediator, we need to begin with the situation known as alienation. To most people, alienation is a common reality. Far too many people in our society [and in some congregations] experience alienation. Alienation refers to the disintegration of a former relationship that makes it impossible for the parties to continue their association. Ties are so stressed between the parties that they can no longer communicate with each other. Even if they were to try to speak to each other, either (a) their words would be misunderstood or (b) incorrect motives/meanings would be assigned to their statements.
The best understanding of the human need for a mediator between humans and God is produced by understanding the need for mediators when humans are alienated from humans.
Alienation is a consequence of numerous circumstances: ill willed competition; hostile feelings; jealousy; insecurities; win/lose situations; racism; gender strife; sibling rivalries; divorce; seriously dysfunction families; philosophies founded on hate or resentment; etc. Even in the best circumstances, when alienation exits, an emotional war exists. Commonly, when alienation exists, the alienated parties involved are helpless to heal their breech.
The condition of alienation can be produced in human relationships in numerous ways. Alienation is the consequence of relationship failure.
A mediator is trusted by all parties involved in the alienation. Each victim of alienation trusts the mediator. All alienated sides know the mediator understands them, their grievance, and their reasons for feeling alienated. Thus the mediator can speak to each distressed party in the alienation, be understood, and be accepted.
A mediator can be helpful in healing a relationship failure resulting in alienation only if the mediator is trusted by all parties involved in the alienation. For a mediator to be effective in his/her mediation role, it is essential that he/she be trusted.
Peace can replace alienation because the mediator helps. Relationship can be restored because the mediator helps. Friendship can be reestablished because the mediator helps. Without the mediator, there can be no restored relationship, no restored friendship. The mediator occupies an essential role.
In a genuine alienation situation, a mediator is essential in the healing process.
In the above perspectives, a human-to-human relationship is used to understand alienation. In the God-to-human alienation, there are some basic differences. In the human-to-human alienation, weakness and flaws exist in all parties. In the God-to-human alienation, there are neither flaws nor weakness in God. The rupture of the relationship between God and people is 100% people's failure with no fault or failure on God's part. When a human-to-human alienation occurs, it is rare for one of the alienated parties to supply the mediator. In human-to-human alienation, fears of partiality prevent the alienated from supplying the mediator. In the God-to-human alienation, God supplied the mediator. He could supply the mediator (even had to supply the mediator!) because the mediation could be absolutely impartial.
The understanding produced by the illustration of a human-to-human alienation is excellent for grasping (a) the need for mediation and (b) the nature of the problem. However, there are some basic differences in resolving alienation in a human-to-human situation and in a God-to-human situation.
How was and is this possible? God did not stop loving humans when alienation occurred. Humans stopped loving God. God did not break promises to humans when alienation occurred. Humans rebelled against God. God's loving nature did not change when alienation occurred. Humans' natures changed--we incorporated evil as part of our natures. God could impartially supply a mediator to end the alienation because His enormous love for us before alienation continued after alienation. He supplied the mediator to heal the breech, not to vindicate Himself. He supplied the mediator to enable us to benefit from His enormous love.
The basic situation that resulted in evil invading human natures must be understood. God was neither the source nor the cause of the failure. He created people with the power of choice. He created them with the freedom and ability to rebel against the One Who made them and loved them. Alienation between God and humanity did not occur because God changed or actively participated in human rebellion. God did not and has not changed. Humans changed by choice. They choose to rebel. They exercised their human wills in rebellion. They endured the consequences of their rebellion by becoming evil. The effect of human rebellion was a welcoming of evil into human natures. While God had to be just in His reaction to human rebellion, God did not abandon His love for people. Though human rebellion perverted God's "very good" creation and made humanity an ally of all that opposes God's nature and character, God continued to love people in such depth that He reacted to human failure with a commitment to mercy and grace.
The problem: uniting the holy, pure God with unholy, impure people. For that to occur, someone had to understand God's absolute purity [qualifying the mediator to relate to absolute purity] and at the same time understand human weakness and temptable natures.
The primary problem is and always has been this: creating association between the holy, pure God and unholy, impure people. Perhaps the problem is illustrated in the impossible situation of uniting absolute light with absolute darkness without compromising the absolute light in any manner.
The solution: God qualified His son to become mediator between Himself and humans by allowing His son to become a human. The son came from God's presence. With admiration and joy he understood God's absolute purity. The son was born as and lived as a human in a full human existence. With grief, he understood human weakness and temptable natures.
The solution involved a mediator. The objective was not for the mediator to cause God to compromise His holiness and purity by meeting humanity on some middle ground. The objective of the mediator was to provide people the choice of ending alienation with God in the total confidence that the holy, pure God could accept them. People cannot undo what human rebellion did. The mediator makes it possible for them to know they are understood when it is never possible for them to be pure and holy in the sense God is. They obey to express appreciation for the end of alienation, not to make themselves pure and holy through human deeds. They trust their mediator Jesus to make their imperfect minds, hearts, and actions understandable to the holy, pure God.
His qualifications for being mediator: the son as a human must not sin. He must allow his choices to be controlled exclusively by a holy, pure God, never by evil's unholiness and impurity. In Jesus' devotion to God, he must never allow Satan to compromise him.
Jesus is qualified to be the mediator because (a) he has a perfect understanding of the pure, holy God and (b) he has a perfect understanding of weak humanity. Experience equips him to understand each party. Though he never sinned as a human, he had the experience of dying covered with sin [evil] and abandoned by God (Matthew 27:46; 2 Corinthians 5:21). That is the ultimate human experience.
Consider Hebrews 4:14-16. "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
Though these verses do not used the word "mediator," they do declare what our mediator does for us. One of the basic spiritual roles of a high priest was to serve as mediator between people and God (Hebrews 5:1-3).
Note these facts. (1) Christians have solid reason to trust Jesus as God's son. (2) Jesus sympathetically understands our weakness. (3) He understands because [in our words] he has "been there." He knows and understands temptation from the human perspective. The difference: he was tempted, but did not yield to evil. He knows from experience the appeal of evil and the deception of sin. (4) Not only because of who he is, but also because of his human experience, we can trust him. (5) We can come to God's throne in the times of our greatest need with the assurance we will receive mercy and find grace.
These facts are the basis for (a) Jesus representing us perfectly before God and (b) making mercy and grace continuously available for obeying, trusting, imperfect humans. Imperfect humans who trust enough to repent and obey are assured the mercy and grace of God are continuously available to them.
Jesus, as a human, had to trust God in ways we cannot comprehend. He had to trust God to restore him to his place in God's world (John 17:5). He had to trust when God made Him to be sin that God would not permanently abandon him (Matthew 27:46; 2 Corinthians 5:21) He had to trust that God would allow him to enter the place of the dead and then bring him back to life (1 Peter 3:18,19). He had to trust God to make him the Christ upon resurrection. Jesus understands the surrender of obedience and the challenges of placing trust in God (Hebrews 5:7-9).
It is essential for us to realize that Jesus had to trust God just as we also must trust God. If we do not realize that, Jesus' human example becomes irrelevant to other humans.
Jesus as a human honored God's purity. He is our best insight into the meaning of a human listening to and obeying the God of absolute purity and holiness. Jesus, our mediator, shows us human nature and character that exclusively belongs to the pure, holy God. Jesus is also God's best insight into human weakness and temptable natures. Jesus can represent us before God in our weakest moments, in the height of our temptation failures. When we surrender to God in the confidence that Jesus represents us well in every situation, we can be totally assured (a) of a hearing at God's throne (b) that will result in our receiving mercy and grace. We can be assured because Jesus represents us well! God understands our struggles! Our challenge is to love God in the manner that He loves us!
For us to trust Jesus as our effective mediator, we must understand that he is our best "window" [insight] into the impact of God's holiness and purity on human character and integrity. He is also God's best insight into our weakness and susceptibility to temptation. God cannot be tempted by evil. Evil does not exist in Him and has no appeal to Him (James 1:13). God beckons us toward Him. He does not entice us to enter further alienation. In some manner, Jesus enables the God in Whom there is no evil to relate to people who cannot [of themselves] escape evil.
Share thought: Why are you delighted to have Jesus as a mediator?
The response to this question will be based on (a) an understanding of Jesus as "my" mediator and (b) experiences produced by human need and failure. The objective is to understand the openness and sharing, not condemn the failures. This in no way is intended to condone evil. It is to encourage Christians to trust their mediator and their access to the throne of mercy and its grace.
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 5