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November 7 Daily Devotional

A Greater Mediator

Frans Bakker

Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin — ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. —Exodus 32:32

Bible Reading

Exodus 32:30–35

Devotional

Did Moses know what he asked for in his intercessory prayer for the people? Did he know what it was to be blotted out of the book of God? The lost in perdition know better what this is than Moses knew. Moses wanted to go beyond his strength, but divine support is necessary in order to carry that burden. Our sins are so terrible that God Himself must come from heaven to pay the debt. By the mediator of the old covenant and thus by the law, there remains only a Sinai of holiness surrounded with flashes of lightning.

Oh Moses, come down then from the mountain, for a greater Mediator has descended from heaven who will climb the hill for a people who have sinned so grievously! He is the suffering and dying Christ, the redeeming Surety, the greater than Moses. The curse was on Him and the blessing on His people. He died that His people might live. He was blotted out so that their names could be written in the book of everlasting love. The precious Surety made all things right that they had spoiled.

The inability of Moses cries for the Christ. Moses is, at the same time, a forerunner of Christ, for from his intercession it is clear that a Surety is necessary for man’s guilt. All the thousands of sacrificed animals could not please God. The Old Testament without the New Testament can bring no salvation. The mediator of the old covenant felt this when he wanted to offer himself. As the Old Testament precedes the New Testament, so also a time occurs in spiritual life when God’s Spirit makes room for the Child, Jesus. The work of Moses precedes the redemptive work of Jesus. For how can a person acknowledge the saving work of Jesus the Mediator if he has never first acknowledged the accusations of the law mediated by Moses? And without understanding the accusing function of the law there is no understanding of the redemptive work of Christ. Before the Surety can be of value to us, we must become a debtor under the law.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.

 

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