

If Only…
Posted by Sandy in God's ways, Gospel Message, Reading through the Bible in a Year, tags: JobIn the midst of Job’s life, after he has lost his children, his possessions and his health, his friends come to comfort him. Somehow that conversation goes off course and they begin to accuse Job. Surely he wouldn’t be experiencing such tragedy unless he had sinned in some way. At one point, Job says:
2“Yes, I know this is all true in principle. But how can a person be declared innocent in the eyes of God? 3If someone wanted to take God to court, would it be possible to answer him even once in a thousand times? 4For God is so wise and so mighty. Who has ever challenged him successfully?
Job (9:2-4) (New Living Translation)
Job recognizes that no matter how blameless and upright he has lived his life, he is no match for the righteousness of God. He continues:
30Even if I were to wash myself with soap and cleanse my hands with lye to make them absolutely clean, 31you would plunge me into a muddy ditch, and I would be so filthy my own clothing would hate me.
32“God is not a mortal like me, so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial. 33If only there were a mediator who could bring us together, but there is none. 34The mediator could make God stop beating me, and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment.
Job 9:30-34
What a foreshadowing of Christ! “If only there were someone…a mediator who could bring us together…”
The Gospel message surely is “Good News.” There is someone. There is a mediator. That mediator is God’s Son, Jesus.
5For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave himself as a ransom for all men.
1 Timothy 2:5-6a
There is only one who can stand as the mediator between us and God. That one is the one who paid the ransom – the going exchange rate – that was required to make us righteous before God.
I love how the New Testament and the Old Testament are so intertwined. They are a single, cohesive message. God provided the mediator that we all need to be able to stand blameless before Him.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.