Lord’s Day 6 · The True Mediator
Was Jesus Truly God? Reformed Confessions 8 min November 15, 2024
Taught by
Joel Dykstra Wellandport United Reformed Church Read along About Transcript
Q16 Why must the mediator be a true and righteous man?
Because God’s justice requires that human nature, which has sinned, must pay for its sin; but a sinner could never pay for others.
Q17 Why must he also be true God?
So that, by the power of his divinity, he might bear in his humanity the weight of God’s wrath, and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life.
Q18 Then who is this mediator—true God and at the same time a true and righteous man?
Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given to us for our complete deliverance and righteousness.
Q19 How do you come to know this?
The holy gospel tells me. God himself began to reveal the gospel already in Paradise; later, he proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and prophets and foreshadowed it by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law; and finally he fulfilled it through his own beloved Son.
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Rev. Joel Dykstra was ordained at Wellandport URC in 1999. He and his family continue to serve there faithfully to this day.
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0:00 Why must the mediator be a true and righteous man? 0:16 Because God's justice requires that human nature, which has sin, must pay for its sin, but a sinner could never pay for others. 0:24 And why must he also be true God? 0:27 So that by the power of his divinity, he might bear in his humanity the weight of God's wrath, and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life. 0:36 And then who is this mediator, true God, and at the same time, true and righteous man, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given to us for our complete deliverance 0:45 and righteousness. And how do you come to know this? The Holy Gospel tells me. God himself began to reveal the gospel already in paradise. Later he proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and prophets and foreshadowed 1:00 by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law and finally he fulfilled it through his own beloved Son. So, Lord’s Day 6 presents a brilliant truth to us 1:14 concerning the incarnation of Jesus Christ and it does it in a way that is intended to demonstrate the craft of the authors of the Heidelberg Catechism itself. 1:27 The authors repeat themselves, which is something we tend not to want to do as preachers or as teachers, but the authors understand that there is a great benefit to learning again the truths of God's Word. 1:39 It has just finished in Lord’s Day 5, explaining why Jesus needs to be true man, true righteous, and truly God. 1:48 It repeats itself in the first two questions and answers of this Lord’s Day. 1:52 And it repeats itself because it knows that repetition is the mother of learning. 1:56 So it's important that we hear these things again and again. 1:59 But it also knows that... 1:59 that this is one of the central truths of our faith that is absolutely vital for us to get right. 2:05 The Athanasian Creed teaches us that if we would have eternal salvation, we must believe faithfully that Jesus is the incarnate Son of God. 2:13 And it's a hard thing for us to remember. 2:15 It's a hard thing for us to keep clear. 2:18 We have this unfortunate nature, this fallen nature that tends to think we can impress God, that in fact we can solve our own problems. 2:27 There's something about our humanity that makes us want to think we can get out of any trouble we've gotten into. 2:33 And so human nature says, "God may be angry with me, my life might not be the way I want it to be, but I'm pretty sure if I make the right decision, If I do the right things, I'm going to end up in a much better place. 2:43 So if I worship the Lord, if I give in the offerings, if I help and be kind to people, if I do good things, then God will be happy with me. 2:53 The evidence of this is throughout our lives, but especially at the end when someone passes into glory, and we gather for their funeral and we say how good they were. 3:03 We say how they did all these things and therefore they must be saved because they were so good. 3:09 The catechism reminds us, and we need to be reminded all the time, that that's not true. 3:14 That we are not saved, we cannot be saved because of anything we've done. 3:19 It is only because of what Jesus has done, because he's the only true God, true man, who is truly righteous. 3:27 And the justice of God, as the catechism reminds us, requires that. 3:30 The weight of God's wrath is beyond anything we can bear, so God alone can bear up under his wrath. 3:37 And so we need a Savior who is true God and true man. 3:39 and who is truly righteous. 3:42 That needs to be emblazoned and imprinted upon our souls in a profound way. 3:47 Now for some that may seem an impossibility. 3:49 The idea that there would be a God, that there is a God is already for our world, something that's not easy to believe. 3:56 Then to believe that this God took on human flesh seems beyond. 3:59 beyond our ability to comprehend. 4:02 And so our world, our neighbors and coworkers, those people that we know in our life that are unbelieving, might think this whole idea of the incarnation a bit laughable, the whole Christmas story, 4:12 Mary, Joseph and the rest, it's not really true, is it? 4:15 It's mythology. 4:17 But it must be true, and it must be true because it's the only hope salvation we have. If our sins are to be paid for, they can only be paid for a man 4:24 like this, truly human, truly God, and truly righteous. And then the catechism, understanding how difficult this is for us to grasp and understanding how this 4:34 might seem unbelievable to us, says to us in question answer 18, "Who then is this mediator?" 4:39 And for the first time since Lord’s Day 1, so in Lord’s Day 1 we're introduced to the theme of comfort in Jesus Christ, but for the first time since then, the name Jesus is mentioned in question and answers, 4:52 or in Lord's Days 2, 3, 4, and 5. 4:54 No mention of Jesus is made. 4:55 This is the first time since Lord’s Day 1 that we're told, His name is Jesus. 5:01 And that's a remarkable revelation. 5:03 That's a profound truth. 5:05 To be able to say the name of God incarnate in the flesh, come to redeem us, to be able to say that we know him in this way is already beyond thought a great gift. 5:17 As the Apostle Paul says, what no one says, eye has seen and no ear has heard no mind is conceived this is what God has prepared for those who love him we know the name of our Savior and that should 5:27 always be for every one of us whether we're very young or very old the most precious truth that we have that we can name the one who has died for us and redeemed us by his blood and the confidence we 5:39 have in this, which is also another important aspect to this question, is that it's God who's revealed it to us. Again, the craft of the authors of the 5:48 catechism is revealed here. You'll remember that the catechism has told us that the law of God reveals to us our sin. Now it says the gospel reveals to us Jesus Christ. It's not the law that reveals 5:59 to us, Christ. It's the gospel. And it says that gospel is revealed all across the pages of Scripture from the very beginning, already in paradise, already in the marriage of man 6:12 and woman, as Paul reminds us in Ephesians 5. We have a picture of the gospel. And then in all of the ceremonies of the gospel, we have a picture of the gospel. 6:19 the law in those Old Testament eras, in the stories about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in all of those events, Jesus Christ is revealed to us as the Messiah. 6:29 In sometimes profound ways, the scapegoat, the lamb that is slain, the sacrifices, sometimes in very subtle ways, in remarkable ways, you think of the prophets and their words, concerning the coming Messiah. 6:42 But as Hebrews reminds us, ultimately, this revelation comes to fullest expression in Jesus Christ. 6:48 He's the one that reveals to us that he is the Messiah. 6:52 He's the Son of God, the Son of Man. 6:54 He is truly human, truly righteous, and true God, and in him alone is salvation. 6:59 So our confidence in knowing that this is the only hope of salvation, that Jesus is the name of that mediator, is rooted entirely in God's having made this known to us. 7:11 So we trust God. 7:12 The Lord’s Day 6 teaches us to trust God's Word, to trust God's Redeemer, and to trust him again. 7:19 our instinct, to trust him against our tendency to think we can ourselves redeem our lives. 7:26 We cannot find blessing in ourselves, but we can find it in Jesus Christ. 7:39 Thank you. 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