O, my fellow-sinners, I heartily congratulate your soul and my own for this blessed truth! Lord, help us to live upon it in our consciences from day to day: it is not a speculative, but an experimental truth: it enters into the very essence of our faith, is the very life of our hope, lies at the foundation of our peace, and is the source of every blessing and comfort. If we are not continually looking to this one Mediator, Jesus, we lose the peace of faith, the comfort of hope, the fellowship of love, become perplexed in our minds; and then we do not draw nigh to God with confidence, stand before him with boldness, nor cheerfully walk with him in love and holiness.
Consider, a mediator stands as a middle person, interposing between two parties at variance, to make peace and reconciliation: this Christ has perfectly done: he has for ever made peace by the blood of his cross. Colossians. 1:20. Sin was the cause of variance between God and us: but Christ hath "put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Heb. 9:28. Thus the work of reconciliation is finished in respect to God. But Jesus hath a work to do with us; for we are naturally alienated from God and enemies to him in our minds: this is manifest by our wicked ways: but, says the apostle, "you hath he now reconciled." Col. 1:21.
Is it so with you? Has Christ, by the persuasive eloquence of his tongue, the affecting oratory of his love, and the sweet power of his Spirit, conquered the rebellion of your will, subdued the stubborn pride of your heart, and gained your affections for God! Yes, say you: but I am such a miserable sinner, I fear God will not receive me; I have so much sin in me, I think he cannot be reconciled to me and at peace with me. Nay, but if Jesus had not been a Mediator for miserable sinners full of sin, Paul and all the apostles, and every saint now in glory would have been in endless torment: all the comfort of Christ's mediation is enjoyed by faith.
Christ lives to continue perfect reconciliation between God and us. O that is a most precious text: "For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Rom. 5:10. Look back to the atonement of Christ on the cross; lookup to the intercession of Christ at the right hand of a reconciled God; look forward and see heaven open to receive you, and the arms of a loving Father to embrace you.
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