January 23
Job 15:1-18:21
As we read Job’s desperate pleas for an audience with God and for his desire for someone, anyone to stand in the gap for him to help plead his case it is heart-wrenching. But through his agony, we should never take for granted how impossible our situation would be if it were not for our Advocate, our Mediator, Jesus Christ. Sin is repugnant to God, and whether we like to admit it or not, the one thing that we are all good at is sinning. This separation could not be bridged by any of us, since none of us are good enough, none of us are able to follow God’s laws perfectly. That is why we read in Romans 3:10-12, “ As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” So, understand what that looks like, if not for Jesus. When we one day come before God, our Judge, on our own merits, wrapped in our own goodness, the verdict for all of us would be guilty as charged. But we read in 1 Timothy 2:15, “ For, There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus.” So, now if you have repented of your sins (that doesn’t mean that we cease to sin), and have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, in essence when you stand before God, now you have a defense attorney representing you, Jesus Christ. Even though we are full of guilt, they have been paid for by our Defense Attorney, and when the gavel comes down and the sentence is read, the verdict is “not guilty”.
Notice Job’s words as his friends continue to condemn him in Job 16:21, “ I need someone to mediate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends.” Previously he echoed the same comment in Job 9:32-35, “ “God is not a mortal like me, so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial. If only there were a mediator between us, someone who could bring us together. The mediator could make God stop beating me, and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment. Then I could speak to him without fear, but I cannot do that in my own strength.” Some time after Job lived, the law was handed to the people through Moses. Though God was present in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, then the temple, no one was permitted to mediate between God and man, except the High Priest. And he was only permitted behind the veil once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).
But that was then. All that changed when Jesus died for our sins. We read in Matthew 27:51, “ Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split (NKJV).” The veil that separated us from God was opened so that we, sinners that we are now gave direct access to the Father through the Son. We read in Hebrews 9:15, “ That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.” May we never take for granted what Jesus has offered to us. As Paul said in Romans 7:24-25 (NKJV), “ O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!...”. Thank you, Lord Jesus!!!
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: