The Representative Man

Show picture of Land Rover

A number of years ago in Mozambique, one of our co-workers, Jill, was involved in a bad crash with a bus. They were working on the road, and there was a spot where the road had been torn up and there was nothing but dust there. As she came through this cloud of dust, she found a bus coming right at her. And they crashed head on. The Land Rover she was driving was spun around and rolled. Miraculously, She walked away from it. She had some cuts and scrapes and a banged up face but no broken bones.

Justice works differently there in Mozambique and the procedure required them to appear at the police station the next day and give their story. When they finally found the right office, they discovered that the bus driver had already been there and given his side of the story, which Jill said was not at all what happened. And the police showed them the sketch that they had made of the accident scene and how they thought the accident could have happened. Again, Jill said, “No that’s not what happened and it couldn’t have possibly happened that way!”

In the end, the case went to court and Dave and Jill had to hire a lawyer to represent them. In the beginning, this lawyer seemed like a nice a quite capable guy who was going to work for them. But the way it turned out was that he didn’t show up for court dates, didn’t communicate with them and really was in the back pocket of the judge.

The short story (and this went for a long time) is that the judgement went against Dave and Jill. But then the whole thing just kind of disappeared, and as far as I know they never had to pay anything to anybody.

The Representative

Jill needed a representative,

One who would join her cause

one who would plead her case

One who would work on her absolute best interests.

Perhaps you have been in a similar situation where you needed a lawyer in a court of law.

Or you had a conflict with someone and you needed another person to intervene on your behalf.

Reminder

We are trying to answer the question, “Where is the Power?” When I first asked that question, I suggested that the answer lies in understanding covenants and importantly, The Covenant that God has made with us

We took a quick look at the Covenants of old times and aspects that were always present in the making of covenants

We talked about a problem that we had…being apart from God and being in the world of the living dead. Being in bondage, separated from God. That was our reality

But then we talked about the hesed of God: His everlasting covenant love

Do you remember that when we talked about covenants, one very important aspect of a covenant was that a representative made the covenant on behalf of the people.

We looked at examples such as Joshua making a covenant with the people of Gibeon

Essentially, it was the people of Israel making a covenant with the Gibeonites through their representative, Joshua

But the reality also is that we have been represented against our will by one man, Adam

Throughout the Bible, we see many examples of this idea of representatives at work:

says that by one man, Adam, all have sinned

Moses making intercession for the people

The priests making intercession for the people

The kings interceding for the people

And God honoring His covenant through the representative

Today we want to talk about the Representative Man

When we were born, we had a serious problem: that is, beyond any choice of our own, at our birth we already had a representative. And unfortunately he was the wrong kind of representative, kind of like the one that our friend, Jill, had.

Adam.

(ESV)

Death in Adam, Life in Christ

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

Paul says, “Look, all of us are in the same boat because our representative, Adam, sinned. Sin came into this world through one man, death came through sin, and death spread to all men, because all men have sinned. Even if your sinning was not as bad as that of Adam, death still reigned over you.”

In fact, because of the sin of our representative, Adam, we believe that we all are born into sin

The psalmist seemed to believe this when he said, that I was conceived in sin

Paul says in that we were by nature “children of wrath”. What brings the wrath of God? sin! So, by nature, we must be sinners.

A few weeks ago we talked about the fact that because we were born into sin, we were, by no choice of our own, slaves of sin. The Bible says that we were dead in our sins. And because of that, outside of Christ we spend our time trying to look like we are alive, when in reality, we are spiritually dead, apart from the covenant love, the steadfast love, of our Creator.

A lot of times you may hear people in our society saying things like “Well, I believe that we are all good at heart”. Or at a funeral “He was a good man”.

WRONG! Outside of Christ, apart from God, there is no one good, no one righteous

Even Jesus said this. Do you remember when the rich young ruler ran up to him and asked him about inheriting eternal life? How did he address him? “Good teacher...”

What did Jesus say to him? I can almost see him doing this with a twinkle in his eye. “Why do you call me good? There is none good but God”.

Basically he is saying, “If you are calling me good, you must be admitting that I am who I say I am”.

So here in a nutshell is the desperate problem that mankind has:

We are represented by a man who has broken covenant with Almighty God who is full of steadfast, covenant love. And because Adam is our representative, we are all implicated. We are all guilty.

And the only way that this covenant can be mended is for a perfect man to represent the human race. To undo what Adam did and mend the covenant

But as Paul says, “There is none righteous; no, not one”

Remember the hesed of God? The steadfast love, the mercy, the covenant love of God? That’s where this comes in.

God looked down and saw the human race; mankind helpless, dead, enslaved, pitiful, unable to fulfill the covenant of righteous, perfect God

God in His hesed , because HE IS HESED, put His plan into action. The plan which was made before creation, before the foundation of the world, from eternity past.

He took the fulfillment of His covenant with mankind all on his shoulders.

The mystery of the Trinity would take on the miracle of the incarnation. Jesus, the Son, one with God would come to earth, be born as a baby, take on human flesh, become fully human, without ceasing to be fully God.

This is the Gospel

The Gospel is that God provided a way of reconciliation that no one would ever dream of. He would take on the burden of fulfilling His covenant of love.

The Bible uses two words to describe the role of Jesus

Jesus our Mediator

Jesus came and became the mediator of the New Covenant

Mediator: Means to go between.

When two sides have a conflict, they call in a negotiator or a mediator, one who can bridge the gap between the two sides, one who can reconcile and bring together the two sides.

Because Jesus is God and possesses the full nature and all the attributes of God, he can represent God perfectly to mankind.

Because Jesus was fully man and experienced all the weaknesses and temptations that mankind experiences, ( but without sin) he understands our weaknesses. And because He understands what it is to be human, He can represent mankind perfectly before God.

(ESV)

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

(ESV)

17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Because Jesus understood what it was like to be human and because he understood what it was like to be God, he could act as a mediator.

1 Timothy 2:5 ESV

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

1 John 2:1 ESV

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Hebrews 9:15 ESV

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

Jesus our Intercessor

Jesus our Intercessor

Closely related to mediator

One who intercedes is acting as a go-between to obtain something for someone which they are not able to obtain themselves.

When you intercede for someone in prayer, you are acting between that person and God in order to obtain something that they seem unable to obtain.

In our case, we needed something that we could not obtain. Reconciliation with God

(ESV)

God’s Everlasting Love

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Jesus is our Representative

Our Mediator

Our Intercessor

What Did Need in order to qualify Him to be our representative?

Infinite Value: If there was to be our representative, he had to have infinitely more value than anything else that had been offered because He would have to represent all of mankind

Up until that time, there was never a sacrifice like that. Never was a sacrifice found that could cover the sins of the whole world

the writer says that Christ’s sacrifice was worth much more than the sacrifice made by priests using bulls and goats. Because

it was made once

It was made for all men

He had to be our relative

Remember the covenants were made through qualified representatives—family members or tribe members

But God is not human. He is Spirit. So in order to be our relative, he had to come in our form. In a body.

(ESV)

10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying,

“I will tell of your name to my brothers;

in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”

13 And again,

“I will put my trust in him.”

And again,

“Behold, I and the children God has given me.”

14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

In order to represent us, Jesus had to be a human, but uninfected by the virus of sin that infected mankind all the way from Adam

He had to know what it was like to be in the womb

To be born

To experience exhaustion, thirst, hunger, greed, temptation of pride (His temptaion in the wilderness)

To know the exhaustion of ministry, laying down to sleep in a fishing boat during a storm

The embarrassment of being rejected, mocked

He had to know the pain and agony of being whipped and beaten

And even to know the horror of being forsaken by His Father because of the sin upon Him.

We are so used to living apart from the Father that we rarely notice it.

But for Jesus, this was new and terrible.

He literally became sin

(ESV)

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And He had to endure all of this without sin.

He lived a perfect and sinless life, enduring everything that humans experience and prepared to lay down his life

He laid it down

John 10:17–18 ESV

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

John 14:

There have been centuries of enmity between Jews and Christians because the Christians say that the Jews “murdered” Jesus. NO! The Jews didn’t murder Jesus. He laid down his life.

When He was on the cross, the KJV says that he “yeilded up the ghost”. He gave it up. It wasn’t taken from Him.

Why is this important? Because if His life was taken from Him, it would be just a premature death. Just another man dying. But if he gave His life or laid it down it would be a sacrifice and it would be fulfilling the requirements of the covenant.

And on the cross, He cried “It is finished!” [Greek: teleō]

The accomplishment of a task. The conscious completion of the work that He was sent to do.

And so the New Covenant was sealed.

Rather it is a covenant between God and Jesus Christ.

When Jesus stood with Pilate before the mob clamoring for his blood, Pilate said (in our English translations) “Behold the man”.

In Latin, the phrase is simply “Ecce Homo”

Latin does not have the definite article “the”. So a literal translation would read, “Behold man”

In front of the mob stood all of mankind, represented by Jesus.

In case all of this has confused you somewhat, here it is in a nutshell

Adam was our representative—we had no choice in that

The result—we were dead and helpless, apart from God

God saw our condition

Because of His hesed He put into action the plan that was in place from eternity past.

He took on His shoulders the fulfillment of the covenant

He came to earth as fully God and fully man and fulfilled the covenant as our representative.