- CHAPTER 11: Jesus, Mediator of the New Will

DID YOU KNOW THAT GOD has written a completely new will? And remembered you in it? This will has been in effect ever since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It promises an eternal inheritance through God’s unbounded love and faithfulness.
Although it was a transaction that took place two millenniums ago, many people remain unaware that God has included them in His will. The letter to the Hebrews supplies us with the full details. Jesus Christ is Mediator of this new will. His death enabled sinful mankind to be pardoned and to receive an eternal inheritance. Here is what the writer to the Hebrew Christians has to say about it:
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.
In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it.… In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.… Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:15-16, Hebrews 9:22, Hebrews 9:24-28)
This Scripture encompasses so much instruction and so much meaning that we should stand back and view it from a better perspective. It is necessary sometimes to do that with great paintings. We can stand so close to the canvas that we note only the many little details, seeing them out of proportion and perhaps missing entirely the true beauty and meaning of the painting. I suggest we stand back from these verses and gaze in wondering faith as we contemplate God’s grand design.
Blood and life are mysteriously related
One thing that I notice immediately is the mysterious relationship between blood and life. God had instructed Israel about this link. “`The life of a creature is in the blood,’“ God said, “`and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life’“ (Leviticus 17:11). This instruction concerning blood and the atonement was at the very heart of Israel’s religion and her relationship with God. The blood was considered mysterious and sacred. Israelites were never to ingest blood.
The second thing I note is the relationship between sin and death. As human beings, we do not know all there is to know about death. There are religious groups who claim to believe in the annihilation of the human soul and the end of all existence.(Annihilation means to withdraw something from existence.) In the scriptural account of creation God made something out of nothing. But there is no instance in Scripture where God reverses the process of creation and calls an existing thing back into nothingness. Nor is there the concept of annihilation in nature. It is hard, then, to understand why some people want to introduce annihilation into the kingdom of God.
Matter can be—and regularly is—changed. But matter cannot be annihilated. If I strike a wooden match and let it burn to ashes, I can pinch the remaining ash into a smudge on my fingers, but I have not annihilated the elements that were in that match. They merely changed form. Part of the match went up in smoke. Part of it turned to ash. The part that became gaseous continues to possess invisible form in the atmosphere.
Only a change of residence
The living soul within each of us can never be subject to annihilation. There is only a change of residence at the time of death. The soul will change its location, but it will never cease to be. That is the crux of the Bible teaching on the worth and infinite nature of the God-breathed human soul.
Consider this human situation—one many of us have witnessed at one time or another. A mother lovingly holds a tiny baby in her arms, a baby who is alive, cooing, alert, healthy. Then tragedy! Raging disease strikes down that same baby. The mother holds the infant form in her arms, but she is sobbing in grief. Death has robbed her of the object of her affection.
A brief service of loving memory will follow. In the tiny casket, the lifeless baby looks like a still, white angel.
What has happened?
Annihilation?
No! But there has been a change of form and existence—for the parents, a shocking change. The soul within that baby, the active mind, the intelligence, the cooing and laughter—all appear to have passed away. The lifeless body will be laid tenderly in the earth, where it finally will return to dust. But that living, individual soul will not be annihilated. Never! The soul has changed its place of existence, but it has not ceased to be.
Death has two forms
I am amazed by the number of people who do not seem to know that the Bible speaks of two forms of death. We believe the Bible when it says physical death is the reality facing every person born into the world. But there is also a very evident condition among us described as spiritual death. We trace it back to the Garden of Eden and the warning of God to our first parents: “`You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die’“ (Genesis 2:16-17).Adam and Eve did not heed the warning; they ate of the forbidden fruit. And on the day that they transgressed the law of God in disobedience and self-will, they died spiritually.
Death is not annihilation. Death is not cessation of existence. Death is a changed relationship in a different form of existence.
When Satan, a creation of God, rebelled in pride and disobedience, he was saying, “I will arise and put my throne above the throne of God!” And right there Satan died. But he did not cease to be. God expelled him from heaven and from fellowship with Himself. He cast him down to earth. And after all these centuries, Satan is still around. He was not annihilated, and his eternal judgment is still to come.
Men and women try to ignore the fact of spiritual death. The
Scriptures do not. Paul has a classic one-sentence commentary on the subject. He says the woman “who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives” (1 Timothy 5:6). She was not dead physically, but spiritually she was cut off from God. Her form of existence was such that she was not related to, but separated from, God.
The apostle also warns us that death is one of sin’s fearful consequences. Sin came into the world and brought death with it. The soul that sins will die. So the Bible declares.
Sin ends at death
Another thing we see in the Hebrews Scripture earlier quoted is that God has a very simple way of dealing with sin. God terminates sin in death! I lived in Chicago when the notorious killer gangster, John Dillinger, was being hunted. The police printed pictures of Dillinger with warnings about his violence with guns. Always he was shown with a cynical, sarcastic smile on his face. But the final picture indicated that he had stopped sinning. He was lying on his back, toes up. He was covered with a sheet. Dillinger was dead.
Sin ends at death. When a person dies, he or she will sin no more. That is God’s way of ending sin. He lets death terminate it.
God’s Word makes it clear that the life touched and tainted with sin is a forfeited life. The soul that sins shall die. The wonder that we will never fully understand is that God wanted to save our forfeited lives. So He allowed the blood of the divine Savior to be offered on our behalf. Notice that there must be a blood atonement because blood and life have a vital, mysterious relationship.
The blood of Jesus Christ is of infinite value. The pouring out of blood indicates the termination of life. Because the blood of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, the Lamb of God, was poured out, our acts of sin may be pardoned.
We need to give this spiritual truth all the reverence and contemplation it deserves. Do we talk too loosely about the price of our redemption? I confess that I cringe just a little when I hear someone speak about Christ paying our debt—buying us back. Sometimes we make it sound like nothing more than a business deal. But I do not like to think of God redeeming us in the way we might redeem a cow or a horse at some livestock show. In God’s plan for redeeming us there is something higher and holier, more sweet and beautiful.
In the Old Testament, the sacrifices and offerings and the poured-out blood of animals were efficacious in ceremonial symbolism. But the death of Jesus Christ was efficacious actually and eternally. (“Efficacious is a word theologians like to use; it simply means that it works. It is effective. You can count on it.) When Jesus poured out His blood on Calvary, He guaranteed eternal redemption to all who would put their trust in Him.
The blood and the life are one. When the blood was poured out, when Jesus Christ the eternal Son died, His death became vicarious. (Vicarious is another word that needs a brief explanation. A vicarious act is one performed on behalf of someone else. When Jesus died at Calvary, it was a vicarious death. Jesus died on behalf of us all, the innocent One for the guilty many.)
The atoning, vicarious death of Jesus Christ for sinful humanity is at the very foundation of the Christian faith. For those who think they can find a better way than God’s way, it is not a popular teaching. But there is no other way. Jesus is the only way.
If you are a believing, trusting, joyful Christian, never let anyone rob you of this assurance and consolation. Allow no one to edit or change this basic truth—trying to make it more acceptable to philosophy or literature or art or religion. Let this wonderful truth stand tall in its beauty and effectiveness Christ died, and in the giving of His life, He died vicariously!
God’s holiness and justice are satisfied
In Christ’s atoning death the holiness and justice of God have been satisfied. God no longer holds anything against us, for we have come to Him in faith. We have pleaded as our merit only the vicarious, efficacious death of our Savior and Lord. And as we have believed, we have found the power of death broken.
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews assures us that Jesus has become the mediator—the executor—of the new covenant, the new testament in God’s grace and mercy. The word mediator comes from the verb “to mediate.” A mediator is one who stands between two parties or two factions needing to be reconciled.
The Bible lets us know how far sinful mankind is from a holy God. Sin has dug a vast separating gulf. Christ has become the Mediator. By the giving of Himself in death, He stands between God and sinners. He shows us that by His death He has made effective God’s testament, God’s will.
That contract into which God has entered guarantees reconciliation. We are reconciled to God! God’s gracious new will—His contract—guarantees pardon. We may be restored into the household of God by faith.
Death made the will effective
Let me share with you another observation simple in concept but profound in this context of our divine inheritance. As long as the Lord Jesus lived, God’s new covenant and will for us could not become effective. It became immediately effective the instant Christ died. The death of the Testator brought immediate pardon, forgiveness, cleansing, fellowship and the promise of eternal life. Such is the bountiful and enduring legacy that has come by faith to the believing children of God as a result of Jesus’ Calvary death. I want to conclude by pointing out something that will sound strange to any mortal human being. No man ever died to make his will valid and then came back to earth as the executor of his will. No one. Some other person always acts as executor and administrator of the estate that has been left.
But what no mortal has done, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, has achieved. He has accomplished this kind of enduring administration and divine beneficence. Jesus died to activate the terms of the will to all its beneficiaries; Jesus rose in victory from the grave to administer the will.
Is that not beautiful? Jesus did not turn God’s will over to someone else to administer. He Himself became the Administrator. Many times He declared, “I will be back. I will rise again on the third day!” He came back from the dead. He rose on the third day .He lives to carry out for His people all the terms of His will.
We must continue to trust this Living One who is now our great High Priest in the heavens. There is not a single argument in liberal theology strong enough to pry us from our faith. We have a living hope in this world, and that living hope is equally valid for the world to come.
Oh, yes. I should tell you exactly who are named in God’s new will.
The answer is Christ’s answer and invitation. Whosoever! “Whoever wishes, let him take the free gift.” Amen.