Understanding the gospel through law and ADR
The laws
which we live by every day are based on the principles laid down by God. Man
may change and introduce different laws from time to time that are not of God,
but on a whole, the moral laws in place across the world such as do not steal,
do not murder, do not defraud, are all based upon God and God’s law. (The picture shows the US
Supreme Court building which has the Ten Commandments etched into the stone). We all live accountable to the local laws
where we live, however we are all also accountable to God’s law which is much
more sovereign and unchanging than any earthly legal system.
As our laws
are based on God’s law, it is sometimes easier to understand the Gospel and
exactly what the Lord Jesus has done on our behalf through law. For example; we
hear that Jesus died upon the cross for our sin, however this fact is rather
vague and sometimes hard to comprehend. How can somebody dying on a cross take
away sin? By looking at it from a legal viewpoint, it becomes clearer; when
Jesus was hanging upon the cross a legal transaction was taking place right
there. Jesus was paying the punishment that we deserve for our sin in His life’s
blood. He substituted Himself in our place to take the punishment that we deserve. He was able to do this because, unlike all of us, He had not broken any
of God’s laws therefore He was sufficient to pay for the crimes which we have
committed and He was able to raise again after three days because the wages of sin is death
(Romans 6:23) and as He had no sin, it could have no effect over Him.
It is the
same as if you are standing trial in court and found guilty of crimes and
ordered to pay £100,000. You don’t have that sort of money therefore you will
bear the punishment of the law that you deserve. All of a sudden a man enters the court
room and agrees to pay the £100,000 on your behalf. As the fine is paid, you
are free to go and the wrath of the law passes over you and instead it falls on
the man who has agreed to pay your fine (the wrath of the law costs him £100,000). The man was able
to pay your fine because He had the money, unlike you. He was sufficient to pay
the price for your crimes. This is exactly what Jesus did for us. He paid the fine which we cannot pay on our behalf.
Already we
are beginning to understand the Gospel through the law.
ADR
ADR means
Alternative Dispute Resolution. It is a practice that is becoming more and more
popular across the legal world. It allows two parties who would otherwise be
going to court to work out their differences and reach an out of court
settlement, therefore allowing them to come to an agreement and avoid the hefty costs of litigation. One of the most popular forms of ADR is mediation – which allows
for disgruntled parties to come to a voluntary agreement with each other.
Through
mediation we can better understand the Gospel of Christ. Jesus is described as
a mediator.
1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”
These verses (and many others) are clear that Jesus is the mediator between us and God. But what exactly does that mean?
Again, by looking at it from a legal viewpoint we are better able to understand. Mediation is a process were two disgruntled parties who have often fallen out with each other are brought together by a common mediator. The mediator is an independent person hired by the court to attempt to reconcile the parties. During mediation the two parties are often separated in what is known as break out rooms (separate rooms) whilst the mediator goes back and forth between the two rooms to try and iron out the differences and bring the parties together.
By applying this we can better understand the gospel: man and God are separated by our sin, for God is so perfect it is impossible for Him to be in the presence of sin. For God so loved the world that He sent His son, Jesus Christ, to earth to die for us. The Lord Jesus became man and became the mediator between us and God the Father. He went from heaven to earth and mediated with God the father on our behalf so that we could settle our differences and problems with Him. Through Jesus, the mediator, we are able to approach God and come into His holy presence.
However, it should be noted that mediation is not always successful. Often the parties involved fail to come to an agreement with one another and remain separate. Relationships may even become more sour than what they were before.
Here again we can see the gospel through this aspect of the law on ADR. God has given us freewill therefore whether we chose to accept His son the mediator and whether we chose to enter a relationship with Him is up to us. Christ is our mediator, however we must accept the terms upon which God offers; that is we are all sinners and cannot have anything to do with God in our current state. We must accept that we are sinful and put our trust in Christ Jesus who came and died on our behalf, paying for the punishment we deserve in his life's blood upon the cross. By putting our trust in Christ, the mediator, who acts as the Holy middle-man between us and God the Father, we can be reconciled with God and become one with Him, as he originally intended.
We can easily over complicate the gospel or we can pass it off as being fairy tale. But by looking at it from a logical point of view such as through the law we are better able to understand the gospel and what God has done for us through Christ Jesus. The gospel is more straightforward than we think if we just take some time to actually think about it and use our common sense.
1 Corinthians 2:14 "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
John 14:6 "Jesus said, I am the way; the truth; and the life, nobody comes to the Father except through Me."
-BACChristian
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