THE MEDIATOR
LIBERTY AND LOVE #128
It was in the person of Jesus of Nazareth that God became man. "For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5). That is the difference between Christianity and other religions: God became man. There are three truths about the person of Christ that we should always remember.
REVELATION: JESUS IS GOD
John wrote: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” (John 1:18). God was declared and “made known” (NIV) by the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “declared” is the word from which we get our word “exegesis,” meaning “to bring into visibility that which is.” When Jesus came into the world, it was the “mystery of godliness” (1 Tim. 3:16) because he was “God with us” (Matt. 1:21-23). Jesus is the great I AM, the eternal God, the Creator of both heaven and earth! And because he is God, we will face him in judgment, and our destiny is in his hands.
IDENTIFICATION: JESUS IS MAN
Paul says there is “one God,” and one “Mediator” between God and man. Who is this Mediator? "The man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5). As God in the flesh, Jesus revealed God to man. But, as man, he fully identified with the human family in his life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. He is as human as we are.
When we talk about God becoming man, there are profound secrets here. God the Father sent God the Son into the world. This is the mystery of all mysteries. Paul the apostle was as spiritually mature a man as any, and yet to him, it was a “great mystery” (1 Tim. 3:16). Part of the mystery seems to lie in the fact that, although Jesus gave up his equality with the Father (Phil 2:1-10), he did not give up any of his God-nature. Nowhere will you find the Bible referring to Jesus Christ as less God than God the Father.
And yet, he was no less human than we are. The Bible does not present him as a “super man” or robot or any thing less or more than a real flesh and blood man. The conclusion then is staggering: he was fully God and fully man at the same time. What a wonderful mystery! Understand it, who can? Be thankful for it, we should.
SALVATION: JESUS IS THE GOD-MAN.
The one who was one hundred percent God and one hundred percent man is the only one qualified to be the “one Mediator between God and men” (1 Tim. 2:5). By becoming a man, God saved us! As God, Jesus has brought God to us. As man, he has brought us to God. We are therefore “accepted in the Beloved”—in Christ (Eph. 1:6).
Remember these things about Christ, and share them with others.
Dewayne Dunaway
