Jesus: God, Man, Mediator

By Harold Sadlier

March 1, 2025

“Then Job answered and said, I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand” (Job 9:1-3).

What Job is asking is, “How can I be saved? How can I be justified with God?” In verse three, Job says, “Though God asks me a thousand questions, I cannot answer Him one.” The remaining chapter involves Job showing how much greater God is than tiny, sinful man, leaving the question, “How can I be justified with God?”

Job’s friend Bildad answered Job’s question in Job 8:8-11

“For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers” (Job 8:8).

Bildad is saying, “Inquire, study out the former age (meaning our forefathers), then study out their fathers!

“(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow:) Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart? Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water?” (Job 8:9-11).

Bildad is saying, “Study out our forefathers because we don’t know anything. What our forefathers believed is what is true. We haven’t been here very long, so return to our forefathers and let THEM teach you. You, Job, are a rush. You are A weed! How can a rush grow without a swamp? You need the swamp (your forefathers) for you (the rush) to be justified before God.”

In short, Bildad’s appeal to Job is humanism and sophisticated reason. 

Job’s friend Zophar answered Job’s question in Job 11:13-14

“If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him; If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles. For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear” (Job 11:13-14).

What Zophar is saying is, “Job, what you need is religion. What you need is to do good. What you need is legalism and sterile ritualism. You need form and self-effort. What you need to do is prepare your heart. That is meditation.

What you need to do is stretch out your hands. That is ceremony. What you need to do is put away sin. That is reformation.

Meditation, ceremony, and reformation. Millions today “go to church”. They meditate, they perform ceremonies, they try to reform themselves, and then they leave with empty hearts. They have a form of godliness, but they do not have the power thereof!

The answers these two men gave as solutions to Job’s heart’s cry, “How can I be justified with God,” are the same methods that the Mennonite church gives its people today. We are Mennonites! We are of Menno Simons! We are of Jakob Hutter! We are of Jakob Ammann! We are of John Holdeman! We come from the Anabaptists!  We meditate! We perform ceremony! We reform ourselves. (Amendment of life).

But, here is what Job knew……

“If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment” (Job 9:30-32).

Job is saying, “There is nothing that I can do to justify myself before God. It doesn’t matter how much I abstain from sin; I’m still lost. It doesn’t matter how clean I cleanse myself, I’m done for. What do I do before God? Who am I before God?

God is not a man, and I am not God. I need a mediator!”

He was calling for Jesus! Jesus, the God man!

Illustration.

Suppose a beggar is called before a king. The beggar says, “The king is so far above me, I can’t answer one question of his one thousand questions. Who am I before a king?”

The beggar decides, “I’ll call another beggar to be my mediator before the king.”

The king says, “Who do you think I am to listen to another beggar? I’ll call on another king to mediate.

The beggar replies, “But who am I to still have a king that doesn’t understand me, a beggar, to mediate before you?”

What the beggar and the king both needed was someone who could lay their hands upon them both.

Jesus wept, he cried, he wearied, he bled, he died! Jesus, the God man. Born of a woman! Jesus was not God, dressed up as a man. He was the God-man!

Jesus was enough man to lay his hand upon Job. And Jesus was enough God to lay his hand upon God. Fully man!

Fully God!

As much God, as though he were not man at all. As much man, as though he were not God at all. With the timbers of a cross, he bridged the gap between sinful man and holy God!

A mediator must be totally just. A mediator must have both parties in mind. A mediator must be given absolute authority.

 

« Back to Articles