“Mediate. — To interpose; to intercede.” — Webster. Then, a mediator is one who interposes or mediates between parties, one who stands in the middle between two. Mesites is the Greek. It is defined in Young’s Concordance, “middleman, mediator.” “A go-between, one who intervenes between two parties. It is applied to Moses as an interpreter or mere medium of communication between Jehovah and the Israelites (Gal. 3:19, 20). Jesus Christ is…‘the mediator of the new covenant’ (Heb. 12:24; 8:6), or ‘of the new testament’ (Heb. 9:15).”—Smith and Barnum.
The law “was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator” (Gal. 3:19). We have but to inquire, Who was the middleman at the giving of the law? Moses himself answers: “The Lord made a covenant with us in Horeb.…The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire, (I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to show you the word of the Lord)” (Deut. 5:2-7). Moses, then, filled the exact office of a mediator.
“Jesus Christ never claimed to be the mediator in the giving of the law on Sinai, but he acknowledged Moses as filling that office. Of the many instances we shall cite only a few. ‘Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?’ (John 7:19). ‘For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ’ (John 1:17). ‘For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death’ (Mark 7:10). In this last instance Jesus quotes one precept from the Decalog (see Exod. 20:12) and Deut. 5:16, and one from the judgments that God gave Israel through Moses immediately following the Ten Statutes (see Exod. 21:17). This proves that Moses was the mediator of the whole book of the law, Ten Commandments and all. And the same laws ascribed to Moses in Mark 7:10 are ascribed to God in Matt. 17:4, showing, as many other similar passages do, that the whole law system was the law of God, its author, and yet the law of Moses, its mediator, or medium of communication. There is therefore no distinction between the law of God and the law of Moses, as the Adventists teach.
“To say that John 1:17 relates only to the ceremonial part of the law is utterly ridiculous. It betrays a false creed that forces the mind out of the channels of good common sense. In the passage the covenants of the two great dispensations are referred to. ‘The law was given by Moses’—he was the mediator of that economy. ‘But grace and truth [the new testament] came by Jesus Christ,’ who is now the mediator of the same. It may seem strange that we should spend a moment to show a fact so obvious. But in the name of Jesus we must do the duty of a watchman, and warn the people against the dark pitfall of legalism.
“‘The law was until John’; that is, he was the first herald of the new dispensation. His preaching and baptism are denominated ‘the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’(Mark 1:1-4).
“Though there were precious promises of Christ mingled in the book of the law, and there is a perfect law found in the gospel, the two dispensations are separate and distinct. Their distinguishing characteristics are frequently compared, as ‘law’ and ‘gospel,’ or ‘law’ and ‘truth.’ Christ never said he was the mediator of the former system. But, saith he, ‘Did not Moses give you the law?’ Do you ask what law? The whole law covenant, of course. That he included the Decalog in the ‘law’ which he said Moses gave the Jews, is evident. For he adds, ‘None of you keep the law. Why go ye about to kill me?’ They purposed in their hearts to violate the law of Moses by killing him, which they also did, even that law which said, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’
“‘But,’ say our Sabbatarian friends, ‘There is but one mediator, the man Christ Jesus.’ Certainly there was but one under the law, and there is but one now. Moses and Christ did not both officiate in the same dispensation. Christ succeeded Moses, and the new testament superseded the old.
“Again they say, ‘A mediator is a savior and Moses could not save.’ The idea of a savior from sin is not in the word ‘mediator.’ But Moses was a deliverer of the Israelites out of bondage, which is even called a ‘redemption.’ Hence he was a glorious figure of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.
‘But,’ said the debater, ‘if Moses was the mediator between God and Israel, what did they do for a mediator after his death? Answer: His mediation consisted chiefly in giving them the law and leading them out of Egypt, and wherein the law system needed further mediation, Jesus said, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat’ (Matt. 23:2). Their business was to teach and enforce the law.
“One more prop we remove. ‘At least Moses was not a mediator in giving the Ten Commandments; for God spoke them aloud in the ears of all the people, and then wrote them himself on the tables of stone.’ To this let Moses answer. ‘I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to show you the word of the Lord: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount.’
“‘Moses gave you the law,’ i. e., ‘thou shalt not kill.’ Moses said, Honor thy father,’ etc., the fifth commandment.
“‘The law was ordained in the hands of a mediator.’ In whose hands were placed the tables of stone? And Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hands (Exod. 32:15). ‘And it came to pass, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of the testimony in Moses’ hand’ (Exod. 34:29).
“A few texts will establish the fact that ‘the law of Moses,’ also called ‘the law of God,’ is the entire law of that dispensation. In Neh. 8:1 we read that the people ‘spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel.’ It was brought. ‘So they read in the book, in the law of God.’ So the law of Moses and the law of God are the same book (vs. 8). And in Neh. 10:29, we are told the people entered ‘into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord, our Lord.’ Here the law-teacher is utterly confounded. The law of Moses and the law of God are one and the same. It is called ‘God’s law which was given by Moses,’ and the same one law includes ‘all the commandments of the Lord, our Lord.’
‘Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left; that ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them’ (Josh. 23:6, 7). The entire law system is called the ‘law of Moses,’ and in obeying it they were not even to mention the name of the gods of the heathen, neither swear by them, nor serve them. Here we see the law of Moses covered the first commandment.
‘And keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and hithersoever thou turnest thyself’ (1 Kings 2:3). These words utterly demolish the Adventist theory. ‘The charge of the Lord thy God,’ ‘his ways,’ ‘his statutes,’ ‘his testimonies,’ were all ‘written in the law of Moses.’ What, then, we should like to know, was left to constitute ‘the law of God,’ which the vain imaginations of Saturday-keepers distinguish from ‘the law of Moses,’ and which they say has survived the abolition? Were not the Ten Precepts God’s commandments? Then, they were ‘written in the law of Moses.’ Were they statutes? There they are written. ‘And his testimonies, were written in the law of Moses.’ What is meant by these? The Ten Commandments. Proof, read Exod. 25:16; 31:18; 32:15; 34:29; 40:20. Here are five clear statements that the testimonies were the ten laws on the tables of stone. To these may be added many passages which call the place of their deposit ‘the ark of the testimonies,’ all of which prove the same thing. How perfectly these scriptures sweep away the refuge of lies that the Ten Commandments are distinct, from the law of Moses, and remain still in force since the law of Moses is abolished!
‘Neither will I anymore remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers; so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses’ (2 Chron. 33:8). Can a man be honest before God and hold the Sabbatarian view after reading such scriptures? All that God commanded them, even ‘the whole law and the statutes are the ordinances,’ was given by the hand of Moses. This proves that Moses was the mediator spoken of in Gal. 3:11 and it also proves that there were not two laws, but one law. Every duty enjoined by Jehovah upon the nation was by the hand of Moses.
“‘Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: and madest known unto them thy holy sabbath and commandedest them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant’ (Neh. 9:13, 14). Here again all the laws, statutes, and commandments that God gave the people on Mount Sinai. including the Sabbath were given by the hand of Moses, and is Moses’ law as well as God’s law. This scripture proves that the Sabbath was there given by God, and not before; that Moses was mediator in its ministration; and that all the law forms one system.
“‘These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spake unto the children of Israel after they came forth out of Egypt’ (Deut. 4:45). ‘The testimonies,’ we have seen, were those upon the stone tables, and though God spoke them to all Israel, and Moses wrote them in the book, he is represented as having spoke them to the children of Israel, because he was the mediator of the whole law economy. The same are called ‘the commandments of the Lord our God, his testimonies, an his statutes’ in Deut. 6:17.
“So it is positively false that the law is divided into two laws. It is all the law of God, and all the law of Moses But why multiply texts? Surely the foregoing are sufficient to prove these things. And yet upon the contrary theory hangs the Adventist creed. They know very well that the New Testament, in the most positive terms, asserts the abrogation of the old covenant, called ‘the law’; and indeed they are forced to admit the fact. Therefore there is no possible chance to maintain their Saturday-keeping. But if that entire code passed away, what now remains? We answer, Just what the inspired apostle says remains. ‘The new testament,’ ‘the law of Christ.’—The Sabbath.
All chapters from The Sabbath and the Lord’s Day.
The Sabbath and the Lord’s Day. By H. M. Riggle, 1922. Life Assurance Ministries, Inc.
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