Hebrews 9:15

Hebrews 9:15

The Mediator of a new Covenant

Moses was a great mediator for Israel. How many times did that poor man have to approach the Lord God and plead on behalf of the people? Their wilfulness, blind disobedience and lack of faith must have given him many restless nights! In relation to the Covenant promises of God, it was Moses’ job to see that the terms and conditions were actually fulfilled by the Israelites, and that the resulting deliverance came about. A heavy responsibility! 

Our Lord Jesus also bears a responsibility to ensure that we obtain all that has been promised under the New Covenant, namely an eternal inheritance. We cannot achieve this for ourselves, He is the mediator and He is the guarantor of the promises that God has made. Let there be no question that He means business! There was a dreadful penalty to be paid for His role in all of this, He must pay the ransom price and die our death for us. The penalty of death and the shedding of blood was, as we have seen, the only way that sins could be forgiven. In truth, we are all still under the Covenant with Moses because it is under this that we are found guilty of sin and breaking God’s Law. However, the consequences of breaking this Covenant have been removed, the threat of the Law no longer hangs over us. That first Covenant stipulated that sacrifices must be made and blood must be shed in order to cover the sins of the people. Jesus came to offer a one-off sacrifice for all people and so He fulfilled the Old Covenant and introduced a new one, a better one! We are free from the consequences of the Law!

Those of us who have been called by God have had our eyes opened and we can see what this all means; in addition, we have received His salvation by faith, and thus we believe that our inheritance in Christ is guaranteed and eternal. This is the Gospel! This is the message that completely changes the direction of human lives and opens us all up to a whole new panorama of possibilities. Our mediator has made it possible for us to be right with God; He has granted us an eternal relationship, He has removed our sins and lifted us out of the ordinary mass of humanity, and so we become those who are called to receive the promise. Our first grasp of the Gospel was so simple, however, as we progress in our journey of faith we begin to realise that it is one of the most profound and complex negotiations that has ever transpired, that is why we call it a Covenant. The entire Bible is devoted to it; it is the revelation of an incredibly intelligent Being! Our Father!  Hallelujah! 

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