If Christ is your Lawgiver, who is your Mediator?
By R. F. Cottrell
THOSE who are unwilling to obey the fourth commandment of God, are often heard exclaiming, “Christ is my lawgiver.” With them sin is the transgression of the law of Christ, and the commandments of God are the commandments of Jesus. An Apostle says, There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. James iv, 12. Who is that one lawgiver? Do you say it is Jesus? Who then is your mediator? Paul says, There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 2 Tim. ii, 5. A mediator or intercessor is one that acts between two parties—the offended and the offender—to effect a reconciliation.—Jesus, our mediator, died to answer the just demands of his Father’s violated law. Can man be reconciled to God by this sacrifice, and not return to the keeping of that law? If he can, then all are reconciled—all are saved. Another Apostle declares, that, “Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John iii, 4. Does he mean the law of Christ? Let us inquire a little further of the same Apostle. Chap. ii, 1. “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate (with whom?—With Jesus? No, no; but) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” It is clear then that those who acknowledge no lawgiver but Christ, have no advocate; and it is to be feared, that those who have no advocate will be lost. Dear reader, you who desire salvation, think on these things. Mill Grove, Feb. 23d, 1853.