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Introduction
Over the last several months we have been journeying through the biblical story of how God is restoring humanity and all of creation to its original design.
We began at the beginning, in Genesis. We saw how God created all things good, but humanity rebelled against God. They didn’t trust him completely.
God then called Abraham to be the founder of a new nation that would be the vessel of God’s restoration plan. The nation that would become known as Israel was meant to show how to live in God’s holy presence as his holy people.
But, once again, humanity failed to trust God completely. Before they could even come close to living as God’s people in the land promised to them, they rebelled and wanted to return to their old lives as slaves in Egypt.
They wanted to return to what was familiar, even though it meant a life of oppression. This is the story of humanity. We are being called by God to the promised land and yet we constantly turn back to our old oppressive ways.
We have now come to the New Testament book of Hebrews, where we are learning that God has not given up on humanity. His plan to restore all things to their original design has culminated in Jesus of Nazareth. We have learned in Hebrews that he is the royal priest who intercedes for us as we continue to struggle in our trust in, and obedience to, God.
Jesus bridges the gap between heaven and earth, a gap that is temporary and will be completely removed upon the return of Christ. Heaven and earth are being joined. God’s glorious presence is no longer a shadow, but is fully real in the person of Jesus.
This is how creation started and it is how it will end. It was always meant to be this way. Unhindered presence of God on earth among his image-bearers. But, we, his image-bearers, have been corrupted. We have come to look more like the creation than the creator.
This is why we need a mediator. We need the presence of God to be back in the image-bearer. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, has restored the possibility of humans once again perfectly reflecting the image of God. His role as a mediator reassures us of our connection to God.
After Jesus died and resurrected, he ascended into heaven in bodily form. He is a fully human person sitting at the right hand of God, ministering in his presence on our behalf.
Today, we will look at what this ministry means. What does it mean for Jesus to minister on our behalf, to be our mediator? And how do we live as image-bearers of God in this renewed covenant with God through Jesus?
Mediator of the New Covenant
The mediation of Jesus helps us draw near to God. He represents us and God in our relationship to one another.
Other mediators in Scripture have included angels, Moses, prophets, and priests.
On May 12, in the Pentateuch series, I spoke about the story of Jacob’s dream at Bethel. In that message, I connected that story very briefly with something Jesus said about himself.
Let’s look at these two passages. Genesis 28:10-18.
Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
In John 1:47-51 we see that Jesus is the stairway to heaven in Jacob’s dream.
When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
This is the sort of mediation Jesus provides. It is through Jesus that heaven and earth meet. Previously, this happened through various individuals such as Abraham, Jacob, and Moses, until the existence of the tabernacle and the temple when priests did the work of mediation.
Through their ministry, heaven and earth would collide in the Most Holy Place and radiate in the form of fire and smoke out among the Israelites.
God’s presence among them through the tabernacle was a temporary copy of the real thing in heaven. It was a shadow of the original and was meant to point God’s people what is truly real in the heavenly realm.
The tabernacle was a temporary structure that represented what is being fulfilled now through Jesus being our heavenly mediator, our royal priest, who makes it possible for us to experience God in our everyday life.
The new covenant through Jesus is superior because it is not dependant on a particular place and on imperfect priests acting on our behalf.
The new covenant, as described in Hebrews 8:8-12, which is a quote from Jeremiah 31, establishes a relationship with God that is based on the eternal sacrifice of Jesus who not only intercedes for us in heaven, but also lives within us by his Holy Spirit.
Jesus is the final and eternal mediator. His representation of God to us and us to God is perfect.
How do we live in this covenant?
To begin with, we need to understand a central element of covenant, which is the law. Both the old and the new covenants reference the idea of a law.
What is the law? In Jeremiah 31:33, the word for law is torah, which means direction, teaching, or instruction. It is not about legal requirements but about wisdom for living as God’s people.
Romans 8:1-4 is helpful for understanding what is meant by having God’s law on our hearts as opposed to having a list of rules to follow.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
In the flesh, the law is misunderstood as nothing more than a list of demands. Because the list of demands is so heavy and difficult to obey, the law becomes an instrument of sin. Every time a law is broken, sin is present.
However, in the Spirit, the law is experienced as promise and calling. It is guidance that leads people toward righteousness and ultimately to true life as God’s image-bearers.
In Deuteronomy 30, toward the end of Moses’ final message to the Israelites before his death, he summarized the covenant that God was entering into with them as they take possession of the Promised Land.
He tells them that when they fail to keep their end of the covenant, which will inevitably happen, that they should repent and return to the Lord and obey him with all their heart and with all their soul.
Verses 11-14 say, Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
And then verses 19-20 – This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The point is that those who are righteous are marked not by being perfectly obedient to every law, but by desiring the life that only God can give.
Those who desire God’s life will be shaped by his life-giving instruction found all throughout the Bible. Not as an oppressive set of rules and regulations, but as wisdom for how bear the image of God well.
This is what it means to have God’s law written on our hearts. It is not just a matter of intellectual understanding. It transforms our desires and actions.
Knowing God is not just being able to describe him. It is the reorienting of your desires. And, it’s not just about knowing right from wrong. Knowing God produces within you a desire for the same things he desires. It’s about a new way of being human–the Jesus-shaped, cross-and-resurrection, Spirit-led way. It’s about practicing, in the present, the tunes we will sing in God’s new world.1
If you have not experienced this change in your desires, consider the song will sing in closing as your prayer. Sing this as your way of asking God to transform your heart so that you will experience the benefits of having Jesus Christ as your mediator.
1Tom Wright, Simply Christian (HarperCollins, 2006), 222.
Hebrews Series Bibliography
Allen, David L. Hebrews. The New American Commentary. Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group, 2010.
Bruce, F. F. The Epistle to the Hebrews. Rev. ed. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990.
Guthrie, George. Hebrews. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998.
Lane, William L. Hebrews 1-8, vol. 47A, Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Inc., 1991.
New International Version Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016.
Wright, Tom. Hebrews for Everyone. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004.