A brother recently asked me to write something on the above subject, so herewith I am suggesting a few thoughts for your consideration.

First we are to notice that in Christianity there is only ONE mediator between God and man. Satan has tried for more than a millennium to convince the unsuspecting that there is more than one mediator. He used a woman in the beginning of human history to bring about the fall of man, and he has sought to play on the sentimental feelings of masses of people. He infers that Mary the mother of Jesus has some power over her son. This doctrine has been propagated through the largest denominational Church in the World. They reason that we (being fallen sinners), cannot go directly to the Lord Jesus, so we must first go to Mary, and then she will intercede for us. They have even advanced her to Deity, making her a goddess, and call her the Mediatrix. Also they claim that she shares in the work of Christ’s redemption, calling her the co-redemptrix. Whereas the Scriptures are careful to assert that the glory of Mediator belongs to the Lord Jesus alone. The glorious title of Redeemer belongs to both the Father and the Son. In Revelation 5:9 the four and twenty Elders, and the four Living Creatures as they address the Lamb of God, in their song of worship, ascribe this glory to Him, the Lamb of God, who is the Son of God.

There is no other that can share the honour and greatness of the Only Mediator with Him. There is no other that can compare with our Lord Jesus Christ, this glory belongs to Him alone, because He alone became man. As we examine what the role of mediator between God and Man is, we will see why this is so. Man in the flesh, loves to set himself up, as if he has some power to be able to bring another closer to God. He loves to claim that some mystic power has been vouchsafed to him to enable him to do this. While it is true that we do have the privilege of praying for each other, yet that is vastly different to coming between another and God as mediator.

WHAT IS A MEDIATOR?

A mediator is one that comes between two opposing parties, and brings them together. In human affairs there are many quarrels, and as a result of this there are many mediators. But between God and men, there is only one Mediator, "The Man Christ Jesus".

When passing through the depth of his mid-night horror of an experience, Job longed for a mediator, a days-man. Job. 9:33. One that could come between himself and God, one that could lay his hand upon them both, and bring them together. This explains what a mediator does. But first the mediator must satisfy the demands of both parties. This is just what the Lord Jesus has done. In order to meet the requirements of the Holy God, the Mediator must first be a man, but a sinless man. It would be a useless exercise on the part of a sinner, to attempt to act as go-between for a Thrice Holy God, on the one hand, and lost sinful man on the other. The Lord Jesus alone could satisfy the requirements of the Holy God, but He became Man, and lived a sinless life so that He might be the One Mediator between God and Man.

Not only was He a sinless man, but He was also God manifest in flesh. I once heard a preacher say that, "With the right hand of His Deity, He laid hold on God; and with the left hand of His humanity, He laid hold on man. He then brought them both together in perfect righteousness". He satisfied fully the requirements of God, but also met the needs of lost sinful man. What a glorious Mediator He is!

Strong’s concordance gives the following as the meaning of the Greek word for ‘Mediator’.

One who intervenes between two, either in order to make or restore peace and friendship, or form a compact, or for ratifying a covenant. 2) a medium of communication, arbitrator .

This is exactly what the Lord Jesus has done for us. He because He became man, has intervened between God and man. He has restored the peace and friendship that sin had destroyed. He has ratified the covenant by fulfilling its demands on behalf of man. In so doing He has made a New Covenant, and has become the Mediator of that New, that Better Covenant.

All depended on His sinless character. If He had had an earthly father, He would have inherited the fallen sinful nature of Adam, as we have done. But because of the virgin birth, he had no earthly father. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary; thus God became His Heavenly Father. He was the "Only begotten of the Father". John 1:14. Some of the modern translations weaken this truth by mistranslating the word ‘begotten’. The fact that He was begotten had to do with His becoming our Mediator. Because He became man, He had all the faculties and emotions of a real man, (sin apart). He understood perfectly the feelings and the need of man. He lived in a body like ours, he experienced pain, weakness, was thirsty, hungry, weary, happy and sometimes sad, and even angry. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He can thus be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. This has to do more with His service as our Great High Priest. He thus ministers before God on our behalf as individuals. Whereas His service as our Mediator, is on behalf of men in general.

Thus it is, that because of His real manhood, He is suited to our needs, and because of His Deity and thus His sinless character, He fully meets and satisfies every requirement of the One true God. The Great Holy God! He is the One Mediator between the One True God, and men.

We need to notice that there is only One God. There are not three Gods, or three Crore and three, as the Hindus claim. (A Crore is ten million). This does not deny, or in any way weaken the doctrine of the Trinity. Because though God is ONE, yet He has been revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. "Three Persons, yet ONE God, and God all three".

This is the ONE God against whom we, (men,) have sinned. Though He created us for fellowship with Him, for His own pleasure and satisfaction, and for ours also, yet sin had brought in a vast distance between Him and men. We became enemies in our minds, and our wicked works, were against Him and grieved His great heart of love. He longed to have men in a close relationship with Himself, but being intrinsically holy, and being perfectly righteous, His righteousness demanded that before men could be reconciled to Himself the price of sin must be paid.

God could not pass the sinner by,

Justice demands that he should die;

But in the cross of Christ we see

How God can save, yet righteous be.

Because God is ONE, the mediator between God and man must also be one, and that ONE is our Lord Jesus Christ alone. There is no committee of mediators, who because of their number could bring pressure to bear upon God to relent, and to receive lost men. But this One Mediator met every demand of God, and every need of men.

But there is something more and it is oh so wonderful. He gave Himself a ransom for all. He took the guilty sinners’ place. He himself bare our sins in His own body on the tree. 1Pet. 2:24. That is He bore the guilt of our every individual sin, and the punishment that the righteousness of God demanded. Yet He did more than this, for not only did He bare our sins, (the individual acts), but He was made SIN; the very root from which all these acts sprang. 2Cor. 5:21.

Our passage says that He gave Himself a ransom for all. This verse banishes forever any idea of a "Limited Atonement". The ransom required by divine righteousness was very great indeed, but our Lord Jesus paid it in full. He gave Himself so that all that trust Him as their Savior, might be His forever. He could not give more than that; He gave Himself. But such was His love for you and me, He would not give less, He gave Himself. Blessed be His holy name!

When on the cross, He shed His precious blood, He purchased each one of His own to be His alone, for time and eternity. The following two verses of the hymn quoted above say:

The judgment fell on Jesus, head,

‘Twas in His blood sin’s debt was paid;

Stern justice can demand no more,

Now mercy can dispense her store.

The sinner who believes is free,

Can say, The Savior died for me;

Can point to the atoning blood

And say, This made my peace with God.

Thus these verses, (1Tim.2:5-6) bring before our souls, the Glory of the One Mediator, and the wonder of the work that He has done. The word of God from the lips of men, and the prayers of the redeemed may be used of God to touch and to change the hearts of another believer, but the Lord Jesus alone is the One Mediator. He suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. 1Pet. 3:18.

THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT.

The Old Covenant was only provisional, and was given because of transgressions, and was only given until the promised seed should come. (The Lord Jesus is that promised seed). It was ordained by angels, and entrusted into the hands of a mediator, and that mediator was Moses. That covenant was based on the obedience of those to whom it was given. Gal. 3:19. It was not a covenant between the One true God and an individual, but between God, and His people, the children of Israel. (Verse. 20). God kept His side of that old Covenant, but the people were not able to keep theirs, though they promised to do so. Exodus 19:8. They repeated this twice in chapter 24;3 & 7. The Ten Commandments were written on tables of stone, but the details were written in a book, which was then called the ‘Book of the Law’. That covenant was sealed with the blood of the Offerings. Moses sprinkled half of the blood on the altar, and the other half on the people.

It was based on the thrice-repeated promise of the people to obey the Law that God had given them. It failed, not because of any flaw in the Law itself, but because the people were not able to fulfill the promise that they had made, because of the weakness of the flesh. It was given to the people as a stern schoolmaster, to teach them the lessons of their own guilt, and to give the knowledge of sin. It was to make them realize the need of a better Mediator, it was to bring them to Christ.

This covenant was ineffective, and thus it became old, and was surpassed, and replaced with the New Covenant. This New Covenant was based on better promises, and it had a better Mediator. It was sealed with the precious blood of Christ. The terms of the New Covenant are set out for us in Jer. 31:31-34. The New Covenant was based on the promises of God, which stood forever upheld by the value of the precious blood of Christ. That precious blood fully met and satisfied every claim of Divine Righteousness. It was because of that precious blood shed on the cross at the place of the skull, (Golgotha), that God can now righteously say, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more".

Thus the New Covenant is not based on the ability or the obedience of men, but on the Ability of God, to keep His promises. The Mediator of this Covenant is not a poor failing creature man, but the One Mediator, the sinless Lord Jesus. He fulfilled the law and made it honourable. He glorified God in the very place of sin. He had given the Law, and He kept it perfectly, yet bore the curse that sinful men had brought upon themselves by breaking that Law. "The curse of Laws that He had made, unto the uttermost He paid". What a blessed Mediator is ours?

Now He freely and righteously imparts the full forgiveness of God to every person that will come to Him in repentance and faith. The commandments of His Law, are no longer written on Tables of Stone, but are written on the fleshy tables of the hearts of all that avail themselves of His mediation, and the sacrifice on which it is based. Thus the Law is no longer an outward arbitrary compulsion, but an inward constraint. His wondrous love constrains us to live for God’s glory, and for Him who gave Himself for us. 2Cor. 5:14-15.

Then let us now live for Him, that died for us, and who now lives for us! May He stir up the inner desire in each of us that truly belong to Him, to live for Him. Let us give to Him alone the Glory and honour that is rightly His, and reject the claims of any other who would seek to come between our souls and God.

Let us ever remember that He alone, is THE ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MAN!