"Christ our Mediator"

Our Lord Jesus has broken down the middle wall of partition. He has really reconciled those who stood apart. Christ has done this for so many that I should like you sitting in the gallery to say, “Why should not he do it for me?” Hung up in Christ’s private chamber there is a record of ten thousand quarrels between men and God that he has ended. Why should he not have my name among them? Why should he not end the quarrel between me and God? Why should he not reconcile me to the Father, so that the Father should give me the kiss of peace? He has never failed in a case yet. Some of the very worst cases have been submitted to his umpireship; but he has always succeeded. They know not in heaven of a single defeat of our Lord; and the gloomy shades of hell cannot reveal a single failure on the part of Christ, in the case of one poor, condemned, guilty soul, that came to him and said, “Make my peace with God.” He was never obliged to say, “I cannot do it.” There is no such instance. Come, my friend, if thou hast lived to be eighty, an enemy to God, thou mayest yet become his friend through this mediator! Come, my hearer, if thou be young and full of vigor, and if thy passions have led thee far away from purity, so that God may well quarrel with thee, thou mayest come at once, just as thou art, and Christ will make up the quarrel between thee and God! His pardoning blood can take away the guilt that angers God; and the water which flowed with the blood from his dear pierced side can take away the propensity to rebellion within thine own bosom. Surely I ought, by such words as these, to comfort some souls, and lead them to Jesus.

Reconciliation, wrought out by Christ, is absolutely perfect. It means eternal life. O my hearer, if Jesus reconciles thee to God now, thou wilt never quarrel with God again, nor God with thee. If the mediator takes away the ground of feud—thy sin and sinfulness—he will take it away for ever. He will cast your iniquities into the depths of the sea, blotting out your sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your transgressions. He will make such peace between you and God that he will love you for ever, and you will love him for ever; and nothing shall separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I have heard of some mend-all which so puts the pieces of broken plates together, that the articles are said to be stronger than they were before they were broken. I know not how that may be. This I know: the union between God and the sinner, reconciled by the blood of Jesus, is closer and stronger than the union between God and unfallen Adam. That was broken by a single stroke; but if Christ join thee to the Father by his own precious blood, he will keep thee there by the inflowing of his grace into thy soul; for who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?

One thing more I have to say. Remember, if you refuse the mediator whom God appoints, you do peremptorily refuse to be at peace with God. You could not have found a mediator; you cannot discover another now. There can be no other so every way suitable to come between us and God, as the Godman, Christ Jesus; bleeding on the cross to put away our sin, and risen from the dead to proclaim that we are justified. Now, if God takes out of his own bosom his own Son, and gives him up to die, that he may make peace with us, and we refuse him, we mean endless war with God. That is what it comes to. If you will not have Christ, you are baring your arm for an eternal conflict with the Almighty. You are putting on your helmet, and girding your sword, to fight with your Maker. You are rejecting peace when you reject Christ. I am sure that it is so. You are choosing war with the Lord of hosts. Well, sirs, if you will have it, you must have it; but I would implore you to repent at once of your insane choice.

HOW can you fight with God? Why should you fight with God? To battle with God is to battle against your own best interests, and to ruin your souls. Heaven, the only heaven that a creature can have, is to be at peace with his Creator. There is no peace unto the wicked. HOW can there be? The only hope that we can have is to be agreed with God. If he has made me, he has made me for a purpose. If I fulfill that purpose, I shall answer the end of my being, and I shall be happy. If I do not fulfill that purpose, I must be unhappy; and in choosing to be the foe of God, I have chosen my own eternal damnation. God help us to repent of such a choice; and may we now lay hold on Christ the mediator, and trust ourselves with him, that he may make peace between us and God; and to his name shall be glory for ever and ever! Amen.

- Charles H. Spurgeon
Taken from, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 36, no. 2180.