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His True Mediation
The apostle Matthew records the following:
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:26–29 NIV84, emphasis mine).
And Luke records,
“For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:16–20 NIV84, emphasis mine).
And John records,
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever” (John 6:53–58 NIV84, emphasis mine).
Jesus is God’s Mediator—the presence and person of God in human form, ministering the will and purpose of God to humanity. Jesus is the individual, the acting agent, and the ambassador of the Godhead to and for humanity, carrying out the joint purposes of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus is God in human form:
- “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6, NIV84, emphasis mine).
- “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9 NKJV, emphasis mine).
- “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3, NIV84, emphasis mine).
Jesus is God, full and complete, who became a real human being. And God’s purpose in sending Jesus was to save the world (John 3:16, 17). Thus, Jesus, the full embodiment of the Godhead, the Everlasting Father born into humanity, is the Mediator of the covenant of grace, the Administrator of the agreement of salvation, the Provider of the plan of healing, the Advocate of God’s arrangement to remove our sin-sickness and restore us to righteousness, and the divine Delegate who distributes God’s healing truth and love. The joint purpose of what the Godhead designed is constituted, implemented, fulfilled, carried out, and completed in the person of Christ. And Jesus in heaven today continues to mediate God’s grace, truth, love, presence, power, forgiveness, mercy, and plans to you and me through His representative, the Holy Spirit, here on Earth.
Thus, the symbols of His sacrifice, the symbols of His saving work, He dispensed to sinners not to His Father! He broke the bread and gave it to His disciples. He took the cup and gave it to His disciples, symbolizing the truth that He spoke in John 6—that His flesh must be ingested by sinners and His blood must be internalized by sinners in order for sinners to be healed and have eternal life. But all such language is symbolic. What does it mean in reality?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1, 14 NIV84, emphasis mine).
Jesus is the Word of God who became a real and full human. Thus, the Word, the truth of God that came to dwell with us, became flesh. This was symbolically taught through the sacrificial system in which the lamb represented Jesus. And just as the flesh of the sacrificial animal and the unleavened bread when physically eaten became building blocks for the bodies of those who ate them, supplying energy and structure to give life and health, so also Jesus is the Word of God, the embodiment of truth, that we are to ingest into our hearts and minds. As we partake of the truth that Jesus has revealed, the truth becomes building blocks in our minds, forming our understanding, the structure of our individuality, the framework of our perspective. The truth of Jesus sets us free from the lies of the devil and restores us to trust in God. In that trust, we open our hearts to God and invite the Holy Spirit in who brings us the “blood,” the “life,” the victory of Christ. We experience His love, power, presence, and a new heart and right spirit—we receive the life of Christ and become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). This is symbolized by the wine/blood, for the life “is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11 NIV84). We are reborn to a new life, with a new energizing, animating, purifying power that comes from Jesus.
Jesus mediates the covenant from the Father to us, not from us to the Father! This is what Jesus demonstrated at the Last Supper when He mediated the covenant to His disciples. He mediates the covenant to you and me by dispersing the truth that wins us to trust, and then He pours out His life and love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit so that we are reborn and recreated—and “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20 NKJV). We are the ones who need the truth; we are the ones who need a new heart—a new pure, holy, and righteous life.
Understanding all of this, we can now understand why Jesus said that He would not partake of these symbols again until we are all together in heaven: because He wants us to understand that He is not in heaven mediating His blood to the Father. His Father doesn’t need truth presented to Him. His Father doesn’t need a new, holy, and righteous life reproduced within Him. Jesus has told us the reality of His mediation. He says to every sinner on the planet,
“Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:26–29 NIV84, emphasis mine).
Jesus tells us plainly that when we have received the mediation of Christ and been reborn, with our new hearts reconciled to God by internalizing Him, He would not need to mediate between the Father and us but that we could ask of the Father directly because we have His “name”—we have His character reproduced in us!
I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God (John 16:23–27 NIV84, emphasis mine).
How sad it must make Jesus to find so many Christians teaching that He is in heaven presenting His blood to His Father. The Father doesn’t need Jesus’ sacrifice—the Father so loved the world that He sent Jesus to make the sacrifice to provide us what we need in order to save and cleanse us from sin!
Therefore, I invite you to rejoice in Jesus as our Mediator, the Mediator of the covenant of grace provided to us by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, because They love us with an everlasting love. And I invite you to reject the infection of imposed law, reject the legal lies that distort Jesus’ true mediation into a fear-inducing system of appeasement and legal adjustment with a god who requires payment, who must be pleaded with in order to be merciful. I invite you to …
Come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God … to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven … to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant (Hebrews 12:22–24, NIV84).
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