“Whose Your Mediator?” 1 Timothy 2:5
This is our final week in rediscovering the language of our Christian faith. We have examined the words and themes of, faith, Lordship of Christ, sin, the devil, grace, reconciliation, holiness, the Word of God, church, truth and tonight we will examine the theme of “mediator.”
Who exactly is a mediator? The role of mediator is popular in our society. For example, representatives of major sports figures use mediators to solve their contract disputes and mediators are used to solve neighbour’s disputes and broken marriages and so on and so on. Simply put, a mediator is one who brings two parties together who are out of communication and who may have become alienated, estranged or at war with each other. In most cases the mediator must have links with both sides so as to identify with and maintain the interests of both, and represent each to the other on a basis of goodwill. A mediator is one who brings estranged parties to an amicable agreement.
In the OT we have examples of mediators to mediate language differences. For example in Gen. 42:23 we read, “23 They did not realize that Joseph could understand them, since he was using an interpreter.” Moses was seen as mediator to negotiate terms of peace with a hostile party – the Pharaoh. Baker’s evangelical Dictionary for Biblical Theology notes, “ Mediation takes on a particularly important role, however, in light of humanity’s rebellion against the Creator. The situation of hostility that resulted from Adam’s fall could only be remedied through the mediation of a third party.” Mediation is needed because of sin. We read about the priesthood in the OT that served as mediators between God and his people not only when sin was an issue but also at times when offerings of gratitude were offered unto the Lord. We read about the role of kings who functioned as channels to make mediated the blessings of God to his people. Prophets often acted as mediators to communicate the urgency of God’s message to His people.
In NT theology the term “mediator” invariably implies that the estranged beings are God and man, and it is appropriated to Christ, the One Mediator. The apostle Paul in writing to his understudy Timothy who is in charge of the church at Ephesus writes, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Christ as embraced the threefold office of priest, king and prophet and become the one mediator between God and man.
Christ as our Mediator
The role of Christ as mediator in our passage today is seen in light of the command to make petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving on behalf of all people – kings, politicians, so that tranquillity and peace and godliness will be evident in our lives. God wants all people to be saved according to Paul’s instructions to Timothy. The question the text begs to ask us is “So who do we go to when we need to intercede on behalf of our world?” Paul’s answer – Christ of course! Paul says “there is one God,” reflecting the primary Jewish affirmation about God found in Deut. 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Not only is there one God but this one God is over all people. This one God who is over all the people of the earth has one mediator between Himself and humanity. God has provided the one mediator – Jesus Christ our Lord.
In the OT, as we have already mentioned, Moses was seen as the mediator between God and man as he mediated the law to God’s people. He was a type of “negotiator” one who establishes a relation, which would not otherwise exist. Paul now directs this role to the person of Christ as the “go-between God.” In the words of the writer to the Hebrews, “Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant”—Heb. 12:24.
This leads us to . . .
Why Christ?
Christ as our mediator represents God to man and man to God. He is the direct link between the spheres of divinity and humanity. His is our reconciler.
The covenant ushered in by Jesus was more glorious than the Mosaic covenant. The crucifixion of Jesus involved the shedding of his own blood. Hence Jesus’ death was superior to the sacrifice of the animal. Jesus’ death was once and for all according to Paul. Therefore, there is to be no more shedding of blood sacrifices. While Moses mediated a temporary covenant Jesus’ mediates an eternal one. (a new covenant as predicted by the prophets – see Jeremiah 31)
Why Christ? Thomas Torrance notes, “As both God of God and man of man Jesus Christ is the actual Mediator between God and man and man and God in all things, even in regard to space-time relations. He constitutes in Himself the rational and personal Medium in whom God meets man in his creaturely reality and brings man without, having to leave his creaturely reality, into communion with himself.”
To call Christ “mediator” is to speak a word not primarily about his divinity but about his humanity, a point inherent the language of 1 Timothy 2:5. Let us not forget that this verse is set within the context of worship and specifically prayer. Calling on Torrance once again, “With its actual fulfilment in the incarnate life and self-offering of the Son of God, Jesus Christ embodied in himself in a vicarious form the response of human beings to God, so that all their worship and prayer to God henceforth became grounded and centred in him. In short, Jesus Christ in his own self-oblation to the Father is our worship and prayer in an acutely personalized form, so that it is only through him and with him and in him that we may draw near to God.”
Jesus represents “God to man” and “man to God” that is why is the supreme mediator. It is Christ who intercedes continually for people as he sits and stands at God’s right hand.
The Benefits of Christ as Mediator
How do we benefit by Christ's mediation? Christ is more than an enlightening teacher and a bright example of holiness; He destroys sin and restores grace. Our salvation is not due exclusively to the Mediator's intercession for us in His heaven; Christ administers in heaven the fruits of His work on earth (Hebrews 7:25). Scripture compels us to regard the work of the Mediator as an efficient cause of our salvation: His merits and satisfaction, as being those of our representative, have obtained for us salvation from God. Because of what Christ did and is doing we can pray and worship through Him to the Father. Christ is a priest who is also the sacrifice for all of humanity.
If we consider prayer as another vital act of our response to God, we see that here too our approach to God is not immediate but is mediated by Christ in his “God-ward” movement as our mediator. As with Christian faith, Christian prayer should be theologically understood as having Christ himself as its ultimate subject—Christ, who gathers up our prayers into his own prayer and offers it to the Father, and who thereby acts as intercessor, standing “in for us to do for us what we try to do and fail.” Christ’s intercessory role in prayer can be directly linked to his office as the eternal high priest (Heb 6:20, 7:25-28, 8:1-6), whose ministry was prefigured by the intercessory prayer and sacrifice of Israel’s high priest.26 In turn, we might look to Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer” in John 17, for a general example of this ministry, where Christ sanctifies himself and in turn prays for his followers’ sanctification (17:17-19). (Dale Harris, Worship and the Mediation of Christ)
If Christian worship is to reflect the reality that all our acts of worship are mediated by Christ, it must replace an increasingly pervasive anthropocentrism with a profound Christocentrism. In our hymnody, corporate prayer, and other liturgical acts, we must consistently point to, declare and represent, not primarily our own subjective, immediate response to God, but above all the response to God that Christ enacts on our behalf. Hence, the highly subjective, ego-centric focus in so much of what we say, sing, pray and do, must be strictly subordinate to more declarative, Christ-focused, God-centred forms.
Jesus, the only mediator between God and humans, ministers both the things of “God to man” and “the things of man to God.” (Dale Harris)
The Role of the Christ our Mediator in Mission
Inter Varsity Online Commentary on this passage states, “Verse 5 makes two main points. First, God's desire to reach all with the gospel is a logical corollary of his unity: for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (v. 5). In pre-Christian times the Jews employed this "there is one God" formula, which echoes the thought of the Shema (Deut 6:4), to counteract the polytheistic claims of the pagan religions. Paul went a step further and drew on the oneness of God to demonstrate that all have access to God's salvation: the fact that there is one God of both Jews and Gentiles means salvation for the Gentiles too (Rom 3:29-30; Eph 4:4-6).
Second, the reference to the oneness of the mediator pins this universal access to the ministry of Christ. He as mediator stepped between God and sinful humankind to make possible a new relationship between the two parties. What he "mediated" was the new covenant (Jer 31:31-34; Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24). The final phrase, the man Christ Jesus, locates his mediating activity in his earthly ministry, which takes Paul on to the next stage of his logic.
But before we go on, what are the implications of Paul's logic? His main point is simply that the existence of only one God implies that the gift of salvation is extended to all. Therefore, the church's participation in the mission enterprise must involve earnest prayer for all people. Yet at the same time there is an exclusiveness implied by Paul's logic. Salvation is linked solely to the one mediator, Christ, and therefore to the gospel about him.”
Paul instructed Timothy with the following words, “1I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.”
It is not the rulers who are divine (whether it be the Pharaohs, the Greeks, or the Caesar’s of Rome), because there is only one God. Nor can any rulers, claim that they are the human embodiment of a divine being, because there is only one person who stands as a “mediator” between God and humans – Jesus himself. It is this view of God in Christ that prevents us from worshipping earthly rulers, and encourages us instead to pray to God on their behalf. So with Christ as our high priest and mediator we are called to pray for our earthly rulers not idolise them or work to overthrow them. (N.T. Wright)
Frank Thielman summarises that, “The idea of mediation in the Bible, then, is important both on the level of human relationships and on the level of humanity's relationship with God. It provides an excellent example of how God has stooped to our weakness and used language readily intelligible in any culture to describe his holiness, our sin, and his gracious provision of Christ as the "one mediator" of our salvation.”
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