For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all” (1Ti 2:5-6 KJV).
One God
How narrow-minded, one might say. How limiting! How dogmatic! How is it possible that such a declaration could be made? God Himself declares His own singularity: “I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God” (Isa 44:6 KJV). He is the God who created your soul, the oxygen you breathe, the sun and moon and all the things that make this little planet we call earth liveable. Oh, and by the way, He made the stars also. He is just. He is holy. He is love. And He also requires payment for sin, the very sin you have in your heart and in your mind, and have committed with your hands and your lips and in your thoughts. Because of your sins, there is a division between yourself and the one God. Each of us was created in the image of God, but sin changed us. Because of it we rebel against the one and only God; we disobey Him. Often we love the things He hates, and we hate the things He loves. And because of that, because of our sins and because we are sinners, there is a great divide between us and the one God. “But your iniquities have separated you from your God” (59:2 NKJV).
One Mediator
That’s where the one Mediator comes in. He comes between us and God and looks for a way to make things right. He brings the two sides back together. This Mediator is a lot like us. He was a man who got thirsty, tired, who cried when a friend died, who felt compassion, who loved others. He relates to us because He had the same experiences on this earth, except for one eternal defining difference: He had no sin and could not sin. “He himself has shared fully in all our experience of temptation, except that he never sinned” (Heb 4:15 JBP). And because He had no sin, because He was God in the flesh, He was the one and only perfectly qualified Mediator to bring us back to God. In case there is any doubt, the one Mediator is the man Christ Jesus, the holy, harmless, undefiled Son of God.
One Payment
The way in which this unique and singular Mediator can bring us back to God is not by negotiating terms of reconciliation between an offended God and the sinner. He did so by paying the ransom price. He didn’t pay it by giving all the riches that He had either; He gave Himself as a ransom. It was a one-time payment for all time. He took our sins upon Himself on the cross of Calvary and paid the price in full. And now, because of the one payment by the one Mediator, we, as poor sinners, can be brought into an eternal relationship with the one God. He Himself declared it: “It is finished!” (Joh 19:30). And now you can enter into the goodness of it for yourself. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Act 16:31).
