Jesus Messiah

There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5)

It should be breathtaking to us that our God is not only ours but everybody’s — everybody in the whole world.

There is no other God. Just one.

He made everything and everyone. He is in control of every moment, and everyone is accountable to him, no matter their location or story or background or influences.

One God

The Bible is consistent throughout that there is just one God. The central confession of God’s old-covenant people, the nation of Israel, was that “the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Elsewhere the apostle Paul reminds us that “God is one” in Romans 3:30 and Galatians 3:20 and that there is “one God” in Ephesians 4:6 and 1 Corinthians 8:6.

James 2:19 also tells us that “God is one,” but there’s something else to say about this verse. While it’s important to believe that there is only one God — not two or three or thousand — it’s not enough simply to believe this truth. James says that even the demons believe this. Believing that there is only one God is important — a great first step — but there is more.

One Mediator

A “meditator” is a special person who helps bring together people who are in a disagreement. Or aids in bringing peace to two countries that are at war. Or assists in restoring people who have hard feelings toward each other.

In our case, Jesus being our mediator means that he is the one who stepped in between us and God, at God’s initiative, to bring restoration and reconciliation.

But remember, Jesus isn’t some outside mediator. He himself is one of the three persons of the Godhead. One God, three persons. In Jesus, God took action to reconcile us sinners to himself. In Jesus, God himself, who knew no sin, became sin, that in him we might become his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Only One

So Jesus is our mediator, and just as there is only one God, so also there is only one mediator. Jesus is the one way that God has appointed for us to be reconciled to him.

In talking about there being “only one” way to God, through Jesus, let’s be careful not to cease being amazed that there is in fact a way. We don’t deserve a way. In our sin and rebellion against God, what we deserve is no way, no chance, no how.

But God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. God was eager and willing to make a way, a single way, in sending his Son as one of us, to take our unrighteousness and be our righteousness, that those who believe in Jesus might be reconciled to God.

One Man

This is what is so wonderful about the phrase “the man Christ Jesus.” Yes, Jesus is God — don’t miss that. He’s one of the three persons of the one God. Plenty of biblical texts make it plain that he is fully God. But also don’t miss that he is fully human. Paul says he’s “the man.”

Jesus became fully like us, except for sin, so that he might save us fully by living perfectly to his Father’s glory, dying in our place the death that we deserved to die that we might live, and rising again in victory over Satan, sin, and death.

Because Jesus is both fully God and fully man he is able to restore us humans to his divine Father forever. Jesus is the person in whom God and humanity come together. This is the one about whom we sing, “Name above all names, Blessed redeemer, Emmanuel.” He is Lord of all, and all our hope is in him.