Job's Lament
The central truth of all truth concerns the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a man on earth, and He is a man now at the right hand of the Majesty on High, having been raised again from the dead by the glory of the Father. But He is also God, eternal in being and omnipotent in power. He was God before He took up manhood, and what He was, He is, and forever shall be.
How Can Man Be Right With God?
The Deity of Jesus is of utmost importance in relation to men being brought to God in righteousness. Thousands of years ago, Job cried out, “How should man be just with God?” (Job 9:2). We find Job testing one by one the suggestions that arose in regard to his earnest question, and finally, apparently hopeless of finding an answer, he breaks out in that soul-stirring lament, “He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both” (Job 9:32,33).
Do you understand where Job stood, and do you relate to his feelings? He said in effect: “I know that I have sinned against God, and if He were a man as I am, I could understand His displeasure. I could estimate the extent of my offense, and I could go to Him and make restitution for the wrong that I have done, and be at peace with Him. But He is not a man as I am, and I do not know where to begin the argument. I cannot measure the demands of His justice. I have no ground upon which to stand before Him. He is almighty, holy and just, and I am weak, sinful and guilty. His very holiness is a terror to me; it makes me afraid.”
Who Is Qualified to Mediate?
Job could only have hope if a daysman, or mediator, appeared who was fully qualified to take up the case. Carefully note the qualifications that the mediator must possess: He must stand between God and the sinner, and by so doing declare His willingness to take up the case. He must also be able to put His hand upon both—I beg of you not to miss the importance of that. I might come to you and lay my hand upon your shoulder and talk with you, for we are equals, but I could not lay my hand upon God! When David was transporting the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, it is recorded that Uzzah put forth his hand to steady it. The moment his presumptuous fingers touched that throne of God, he fell to the earth a corpse (2 Samuel 6:1-7).
Learn from that solemn incident that no man could put his hand upon God, or upon the throne of God, and live. And yet the mediator for whom Job cried in his despair must be able to put His hand upon God. He must be God’s equal, for none less could intervene, or be of use to Job or to us. But He must also put His hand upon men; He must be one of us. He must be God and man.
Jesus Is The Mediator
The New Testament is the book of the Mediator. In its first chapter we read, “Thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins…. Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:21,23). The prophetic Scriptures had foretold His coming: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2). That word was fulfilled when Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
Being God, He knew according to God’s perfect knowledge to what extent God’s glory was jeopardized by man’s sin. He knew what the demands of the eternal throne were in regard to the violation of its just decrees. He knew how completely man’s self-will had made him the slave of Satan and how great was the gulf that separated him from God. He knew the penalty that had to be paid, the conflict that had to be waged, the work that had to be done. He became man to stand in our place before God, to take the bill of our terrible indebtedness and meet it to the full, so that God Himself could write “Settled” across the account. This involved for Him the sorrows of Calvary; and there, as the holy Substitute for men, He “gave Himself a ransom for all.” The sacrifice that He made has met all the claims of the throne, and He is now the “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
Is Jesus YOUR Mediator?
What a Savior is Jesus! How worthy is He of our fullest praise! He stooped to us that He might put His hand upon us, and He has done it tenderly and graciously, so that we are not afraid. He has put one hand upon us and the other is placed upon the throne of God, and He is the one mediator. With the one hand He has offered the fullest satisfaction to the righteous claims of God and with the other He has bestowed fullness of grace upon us. He brings us to God and gives us a place in His presence without fear, and in everlasting peace, a peace established upon the infallible and immovable foundation of divine righteousness, secured for us by a divine person for the eternal glory of God.
Have you, like Job, recognized the hopelessness of approaching God without a mediator? Now is the time to turn from your way to God’s way; put your trust in Jesus Christ today. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).
—Adapted from “The Deity of Jesus” by J. T. Mawson
Does the salvation of a sinner rest on what a sinner can do? On what Christ will do? No! It rests on what Christ has done. —W.T.P.W.