For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2.5
This Scripture combines the basic theological positions
of the Old and New Testaments. When
Moses reiterated the Old Covenant with the Israelite people as they were about
to go into the promised land, He began by saying, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our
God, the LORD is one.” There is only one
God. The religion of the Bible is a
fiercely monotheistic religion. The
pagans believed in many gods who ruled limited portions of creation. Each god was in competition with the other
gods trying to expand their areas of influence.
Some pagans believed a sort of mixture of polytheism and monotheism, believing
there were many gods but one god who ruled over all the others. But
Jehovah is not one god among many others or even the chief god over many
others; He is the one and only God ruling ALL things according to the counsel
of His own will. He takes ALL the rights
and privileges of deity to Himself and absolutely refuses to share them with
others. There is no other God but
Jehovah.
The New Testament focuses on the Man, Christ Jesus,
as the one and only Mediator between the one God and men. Jesus is
the Christ, God’s one and only prophet, priest and king, mediating God’s truth,
God’s way of reconciliation, and God’s authority. There is no other mediator but Him. The New Testament presents a fiercely
exclusive religion: It does not exclude any man, but it excludes all saviors,
all mediators, all ways to God, except one, the Lord Jesus. In a
day of unbridled tolerance, the New Testament is unapologetically intolerant of
all religions other than the one it sets forth.
The New Testament does not advocate the use of human force to compel the
worship of God through Jesus Christ, but it boldly declares that God will, at a
time of His own choosing, compel all men to acknowledge Him as God and Jesus
Christ as His exalted Son.
The Father has set forth His Son as the only way to
a peaceful relationship with Him. He set
Jesus forth as His only Son by sending angels to announce His birth, setting a
star in the heavens to declare His nativity and raising Him from the dead, as
it were, Christ’s second nativity. The
Father set forth Jesus as the one and only sacrifice of atonement in blood and the
only fit object of faith. Furthermore,
God has set forth His Son as Lord over all creation by exalting Him to His
right hand as a “Prince and a Savior.” God has revealed that He is so intent on
Christ being recognized as His only Son and the only way of favor with God,
that every knee will be compelled to bow and every tongue compelled to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.
The Lord Jesus, Himself, declared that He is the
only way to God. While many in modern Christendom
think of Jesus as too sweet and considerate to be forceful and adamant about
anything, Christ set Himself forth as THE way, THE truth, and THE life, adding
that NO ONE comes to the Father except through Him. He boldly and unapologetically declared that,
since he would be lifted up (that is, crucified) He would draw men from all
walks of life to Himself - not just Jews, not just men, not just high-ranking
men, but all sorts of men. He is open to
all kinds of people for salvation, but only because He considered Himself to be
the only Savior and insisted that He is Lord over every man and woman.
The apostles went out to declare this same truth. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter summed up his
gospel message with the declaration that God had made (that is, set forth)
Jesus to be Lord and Christ. Paul sets
forth Christ as the wisdom and power of God, and teaches that God has made
Christ to be our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Peter
wrote that, through Him, we believe in God and that, through Him we are
justified from all things from which we could not be justified in the Law of
Moses. The Scriptures record that Peter
learned that “Jesus is Lord of all.” By “all”
Peter meant, “not just Jews, but Gentiles also.” The writer of Hebrews wrote that Jesus is
able to completely save those who come to God by Him.
There is one God and one Mediator, says our
Scripture. But there is also another “one”
implied in our text: There is only one
kind of human. It is in the sinful
nature of man to try to distinguish himself from others and consider that
distinction to be a cause of God’s favor and salvation. The Jews did this, thinking that their superior
morality was the reason for God’s favor resting on their nation. Men try to distinguish themselves by their
works, religious affiliations, gender, social status, race, national identity
and civilized society. But here is only
one God, so all men are, alike, under obligation to Him; there is only one
Mediator, so all men must come to the One God through that One Mediator. Every
singularity of the gospel is an irritation to man, but it especially galls him that,
according to the teaching of the Bible, there is absolutely no difference among
men as it relates to their relationship to God. Paul put it this way” There is no difference, for all sinned and
fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
How humiliating this truth is to those who trust in
themselves. How shocking it must have
been for Jews to hear that they must be saved the same way as the
Gentiles. How insulting to the sophisticated
and civilized Roman to learn that he is on the same plane as the
barbarian. How offensive to the master
that he is not higher in God’s sight than the slave in his household.
But there is only one God and only one Way to Him. All who would come to God must come to God
through Jesus, the Christ, or bear the consequences of appearing before God in their
sin.
Note: This
essay is based on the overall teaching of the Scriptures. However, there are many Scriptures loosely
quoted or alluded to. If you wish to see
the Scriptures from which I draw my conclusions, they are as follows, in the
order they are referenced in the essay:
Deuteronomy 6.4; several verses in Isaiah 45; Isaiah 42.8, 48.11; John
20.31; Acts 5.42, 9.22, 1.7, 17.31;
Luke 2.8 ff.; Matthew 2.1,2; Romans 1.4, 3.25; Acts
5.31; Philippians 2.9 ff.; John 14.6, 12.32; Acts 2.36; 1 Corinthians 1.18-30, 1 Peter 1.21; Acts 13.39; 10.34-36; Hebrews 7.25; Romans 3.22-24; Acts 15.9-11; Galatians 3.28; Colossians 3.11
