OUR MEDIATOR by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, December 23, 1884

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 61, No. 51

OUR MEDIATOR.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

The work of Christ as the Saviour of men runs back to the fall of man in Eden. Thus, John says that he is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Rev. 13 : 8. It was a settled fact as soon as man fell that Christ would die to redeem the race. From that time forward he has carried upon his heart and mind the burden of a lost world. In the form of an angel he visited the patriarchs and prophets to instruct them in the work of God. See Acts 7 : 37, 38. Paul says that he was with the Israelites in the wilderness. 1 Cor. 10 : 1-4. Peter says that it was Christ who spoke through the old prophets. 1 Pet. 1 : 9, 10. He is said to be the foundation on which the prophets of the old dispensation and the apostles of the new were built. Eph. 2 : 20-22.

Christ is the head of the church (Col. 1 : 18), while the church is his body, and each child of God is a member of that body. 1 Cor. 12 : 26, 27. As the head sympathizes with all the body, with the least member of the body, so Christ feels all the sorrow and suffering of each Christian on earth. He suffers with them. Thus the prophet says, “In all their affliction he was afflicted.” Isa. 63 : 9. The Christian need not think he is left alone in his temptations and trials. No, the dear Saviour sees them all, feels them all, and his great heart yearns over them. Paul says that Jesus loves the church as a husband loves his own wife.

“For,” says he, “we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” Eph. 5 : 25, 30. What a close relation, then, exists between Christ and his church. How it ought to encourage us when we are tried. Every true child of God is very precious in the eyes of the Saviour. He says that it were better for a man to be drowned in the sea than to offend the humblest one of those who love Jesus. Matt. 18 : 6. His love toward them is expressed in the most tender way and by the most forcible illustrations. He says that as a mother cannot forget her little babe—cannot fail to have compassion on it—so the Lord cannot forget his people, but rather loves them as that mother loves her own dear child. Isa. 49 : 15. Does the Lord mean what he says, and repeats, too, so many times? Can we not believe him and trust in his goodness to us?

Christ gave his life for his people. John 10 : 15. He bought them with his own blood. Acts 20 : 28. Then he ascended to the right hand of God, there to make intercession for all who come unto God by him. 1 Tim. 2 : 5. If we sin, he is our advocate with the Father. 1 John 2 : 1. The high priest in the Mosaic dispensation bore upon his heart the names of all the people when he went in to officiate before God. Ex. 28 : 29, 30. So Christ in heaven now bears on his great divine heart all his children on earth. He mentions each one by name before the Father (Rev. 3 : 5), and intercedes for them with groanings which cannot be uttered. Rom. 8 : 26, 27.

Just what Jesus was while upon earth, just the same he is now in heaven, the same tender-hearted, compassionate, pitying, loving Saviour. His work of suffering for man did not cease when he went to heaven. His heart feels for them as it did while upon-earth. He talks about them with the angels; he prays to his Father for them; he sends angels to aid them; he is deeply interested in every plan on earth to carry out his work and bring souls to him. How deeply and how anxiously every true minister feels for the good of his flock. But Christ, the great Shepherd, with his divine heart of love, feels a thousand times more for them. May these thoughts lead us to love him and serve him more earnestly. D. M. CANRIGHT.