The Mediator of a new covenant continues Heb. 9:15 (94)
- “For this cause He is the Mediator of the new testament.” Here again there has been a controversy as to wheather this last word be rendered “covenant” or “testament,” that is, “will.” A “covenant” is an agreement or contract between two parties: the one promising to do certain things upon the fulfillment of certain conditions by the other; whereas a “testament” or “will” is where one bequeaths certain things as gifts. It needs to be noted that from Heb. 9:15 to the end of the chapter, the apostle argues from the nature of a will or “testament” among men, as he distinctly affirms in v. 16. He confirmed the Christian’s faith in the expectation of the benefits of this “covenant” or “testament.” There are “covenants” which have in them free grants or donations, which is of the nature of a “testament”; and there are “testaments” whose force is resolved into conditions and agreements—as when a man wills an estate to his wife on the stipulation that she remains a widow. The various “covenants” which God made with men, were merely declarations whereby He communicated good things unto them, which is the nature of a “testament”. Sometimes “covenant” was used to express a free promise, with an effectual donation and communication of the thing promised, which is the nature of a “testament” than of a “covenant.” Thus, that which was a “covenant,” has become to us a testament. The “covenant” was made by God with Christ. By His death, God has now bequeathed to us as a free gift: what was a legal stipulation between the Father and the Mediator, comes to us purely as a matter of grace. The truth is, that Christ is both the Mediator of the new covenant, and the Mediator of the new testament, looking at the same office from two different angles. God has so confirmed the promises in Christ (2Cor. 1:20), that at His death He made a legacy of them and bequeathed them to His people in a testamentary form. The Son of God is not only the Mediator of a new covenant, but also the Testator of His own gifts. The covenant between the Father and the Son is from everlasting, the “new testament” dates only from Calvary. For the redemption of the transgressions under the first testament.” God had appointed Christ to be the “Mediator,” namely, to deliver His people from all the bondage they were subject to as the result of their violations of His law, and that by the payment of a satisfactory price. This is His expiation of His people’s iniquities, and they were “debts,” and Christ’s death was a discharge of that debt. “The discharge of a debt is a buying it out. Thus, to redeem sins is no more harsh a phrase than to be ‘delivered for our offenses’ Rom. 4:25, or ‘who gave Himself for our sins’ Gal. 1:4, or to be ‘merciful to their unrighteousness,’ Heb. 8:12’ (William Gouge).
- “For the redemption of the transgressions under the first testament.” The efficacy of Christ’s death, is affirmed that it paid the price of remitting the sins of the Old Testament saints. The death of Christ was necessary not only if sinners of New Testament times should be fitted to serve the living God (v. 14), but also to meet the claims which God had against the Old Testament saints. The efficacy of Christ’s atonement was retrospective as well as prospective: cf. Rom. 3:25. The same thing is clearly implied in Heb. 9:26: had not the one offering of Christ—as the Lamb “foreordained before the foundation of the world” 1Pet. 1:19, 20—been of perpetual efficacy from the days of Abel onwards, then it had been necessary to repeat it constantly in order to redeem believers of each generation. It was God’s eternal purpose that Christ’s atonement, settled in the “everlasting covenant,” should be available to faith from the beginning. “Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins (cf. Galatians 3:8, Hebrews 4:2), and by Him all that believe—Old Testament saints as truly as the New Testament—are justified from all things” Acts 13:38, 39.” Pink Arthur W. Christ atoned for the sins of those who were to believe as much as for those who had, before He became incarnate, looked in faith to Him. In order to remove doubts, it is affirmed that Old Testament believers too were redeemed by Christ’s blood. The Levitical sacrifices could not remove moral guilt from those who lived under the Mosaic economy, Christ’s sacrifice had. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” 1John 1:7: it was just as efficacious in taking away the transgressions of believers before it was actually shed, as it is of cleansing believers today, twenty centuries after it was shed.
