- Pastor John Conover
Job's Mediator is Your Mediator Too
Suffering shows believers why we need a mediator; why Jesus must be our mediator. Job's response to God and his friends included his desire for a middleman, advocate, attorney, and umpire between him and God. "For God is not a man, as I am, that I might answer Him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbitrator between us who might lay his hand on us both. Let Him take His rod (of punishment) away from me, and let not dread of Him terrify me. Then I would speak without terror of Him, but (for now) it is not so with me." Job 9:32-35
Job 9 reveals a few of the reasons why we need Jesus to be our "interceder" NOW in this life, not just for later when we stand before God. 1 Tim. 2:5, one of the four references to our mediator in the N.T., says that "there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." Why can't we approach God on our own in order to negotiate a deal to make us right with Him?
Our wisdom and strength is too weak to oppose God & win (vs. 19-20).
Our self-righteousness/evaluation is not enough (vs. 2, 21-22; 1 Cor. 5:21 tells us that we need His righteousness applied to us.)
Our lives are short/time is flying by; so hire Jesus today (vs. 23-26).
Our self-help-positive-thinking does not fix our inner reality (vs. 27-30).
Our sinful state is not corrected by our works (vs. 28-30; Psalm 1:5-6).
If you have "hired" Jesus as your lawyer by trusting in Christ alone for your salvation, trust Him & talk to Him about your daily duties, decisions, difficulties, disasters, and discouragements. He does not charge by the hour since His services are free. In fact, He is the only attorney who pays His clients' court costs.