"Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation." (Habakkuk 3:17-18)
REDEMPTION BY PRICE "Ye are not your own: for ye are bought with a price." (1　Corinthians 6:19-20) If this means anything it must mean that a price was paid for us; instead of our being forever captives under bondage and death, a ransom has been found, according to that ancient saying, "Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom." There was a substitutionary sacrifice presented on the behalf of His people by Jesus Christ Who thus redeemed His chosen from their lost estate. This was a matter of fact, and an efficacious action, actually ransoming those who were redeemed. We do not believe in a cloudy, phantom-like atonement, which did something or nothing, and was a mere exhibition without results. We believe that Jesus did actually redeem His people by a ransom, which ransom was His suffering and death in their stead, by which the justice of God was satisfied and His law was honored. No truth is so eminently consolatory to souls burdened with sin as the great fact that Jesus Christ bare the sins of many and carried away on His own shoulders the transgressions of His people. Let others believe or disbelieve, I nail my colors to the cross where Jesus my Lord paid His blood as a price for me. –C. H. Spurgeon
ONE MEDIATOR "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." (1 Timothy 2:5) "A mediator is one who intervenes between two, either in order to make or restore peace and friendship, or form a compact, or for ratifying a covenant" (Strong’s Concordance). Mary is not a mediator; she needed a mediator, and she rejoiced in God her Savior (Luke 1:47). Dead saints are not mediators for they too were sinful and needed someone to represent them to God. According to the scriptures, there is a single Mediator, and He is "the man Christ Jesus." This glorious God-Man stands between a holy God and His fallen people. "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear" (Isaiah 59:2). From old eternity, Christ set Himself to the business of bringing the offended Father and His beloved, but erring children back together. Sinners have broken God’s law, and His justice is stirred to vengeance against their sins. Christ stood between us and God in His substitutionary death, making reconciliation to God for our transgressions. By His death and resurrection He brought us nigh unto God, making peace by the blood of His cross. Upon the basis of His life laid down, He has been exalted to the right hand of the Father where He intercedes for us as Advocate. He sees to it that all the blessings of the covenant of grace are applied to us. By His Spirit, He makes us to believe Him, rejoice in Him and in His work as Redeemer; and He presents us to the Father, washed in His blood and robed in the garment of His own righteousness. He is the only channel of communication and activity between the Lord and sinners. As it is only through Christ that God’s mercies flow unceasingly down to us, so it is only through Christ that our prayers rise up to God. "By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name" (Hebrews 13:15). –Pastor Jim Byrd
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