JESUS CHRIST, OUR ONLY MEDIATOR AND REDEEMER  

I Timothy 2.5   “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men,  the man Christ Jesus.”  

When Paul wrote, and Timothy first read, verse five, they did, and we should now, understand that the word “Mediator” has a very full and rich meaning.  In light of God’s dealings with the nation Israel in the Old Testament, and because the Lord Jesus, the God-Man, has now, in the fullness of times, in God the Father’s perfect time, come in the flesh, we must realize that what God taught His People then through the three offices of Prophet, Priest and King, have now been accomplished and have come to complete fulfillment in the Person and Work of the Son of God, our dear Saviour Jesus Christ.

As Prophets, Priests and Kings were each anointed with oil, signifying that their time of service had begun, and that God had given approval of their work, so the Lord Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit of God, so that He might do the work given to Him to do.  At His baptism, when he came out of the water, the heavens being split, the Holy Spirit descended and lighted upon Him.  And the Father said from heaven, This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well-pleased.  Isaiah had long before prophesied of him, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor.  You see, the word Christ means “anointed one”.  The Spirit of God was upon the Lord Jesus without measure, the Bible says.  And so, filled with the Spirit of God, He came preaching the Gospel;  through the eternal Spirit, He offered Himself without blemish and without spot unto God as a sacrifice for our sins;  in the Person of the convicting, enlightening, regenerating, abiding Holy Spirit of God, in due time, He saves us, brings us to life in God, and rules our minds.

I.   A Prophet of God was sent from God to speak His words to the People. This is a mediatorial role.  God rarely spoke to the people directly, as He had at Mount Sinai. If they were to know God’s Truth, they had to hear it from the Prophets.  The Prophets, you know, often called for repentance.  When the people sinned and broke God’s covenant, the prophets, in God’s Name, called them back to Him, saying “Thus saith the Lord.”  Moses was a great man of God and a prophet to the people.  Yet Moses said, “One day, God shall raise up from among your brethren, a Prophet like me.  Him shall you hear.”  Jesus, of Whom the Father said, “This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased, hear ye him,” is none other than that great Prophet from God of whom Moses spoke.  [John 1.1, 14, 18:  Jesus Christ is the Incarnate Logos, or Message of God.]  He came preaching the Gospel, teaching much truth (often through parables), calling for changed lives and righteousness far greater than possessed by the most outwardly religious people of His day, and telling people that they could come to Him, the Way, the Truth, and the Life to find eternal life and to know Truth and to know the way back to God, and that they could exchange burdens with Him, to find rest for their souls.  If you wish to know love, you must come to Christ (Ro 5.8).  If you would know truth, you must get it from Jesus Christ, Who is the Truth.  Remember Pontius Pilate and his philosophical question, What is truth?  If you wish to walk on the Way to God, you must be IN Christ Jesus, Who IS the Way to God.  If you would live forever, you can only have this life through the dear Son of God.  See Jesus Christ for Who God says He is, and yourself for who God says you are.  He is the eternal Son of God and only Savior of your soul.  You are a sinner Who is in need of the righteousness of Jesus Christ if you would be right before God.  For Jesus Christ lived the Perfect Life, and only His perfect righteousness imputed to you can make you acceptable to God.  Only thereafter following in His footsteps (i.e., a Christ-like life) can enable you to live pleasingly before Him.  Jesus Christ Himself, our only and great Prophet from God, is calling you.  Hear Him.  

II.  Throughout the Old Testament, Priests were anointed with oil and approved by God for a special task.  It was their duty to stand as a mediator between God and the People, so that there would be a way for sinful men to approach God.  Because our Holy God hates sin with a holy hatred, no corrupt, sinful man may enter into His Presence or into fellowship with Him.  Adam and Eve fell from their sweet communion and peace with their Creator.  They knew they were naked, and they were banished from the Garden of God.  But God mercifully interposed with a covering.  And even as He justly pronounced His curse upon Mankind, He also made a promise of a Deliverer Who would crush the Serpent’s head.  The majority of the rest of the Old Testament record concerns, of course, the nation of Israel.   The People of Israel had many sins.  They often violated the covenant God had made with them at Mt. Sinai.  They often disobeyed His commandments.  Not only was God’s heart grieved at this, God’s wrath was kindled against them.  It was at such times that someone would be needed to stand in between sinful and rebellious men and the holy God whom they had offended.  That Someone was God’s anointed priest.  The priests were appointed from among the people of Israel.  They were therefore able to pray sympathetically on behalf of the people.  When a man felt within his bosom the guilt of his sins, he was to bring a sacrificial animal to the priests.  When, in the presence of the priest, and with his hands upon the head of the animal, he had confessed his sins, the priest would place the animal upon an altar.  There he would slay the animal with a knife.  He would capture its blood in a bowl and sprinkle the blood all about the altar.  Then he pour the remainder of the blood out at the base of the altar.  The laying on of hands on the head of the innocent animal signified the transfer of the man’s sin and guilt and shame before God to the sacrificial animal.  The violent death and the blood-shedding symbolized the wrath of God against sinners for their sins. It was a very messy business, but commanded and typical (pictorial). The death of the victim stood for wages of sin, DEATH, which was deserved by the man who had brought the sacrifice to the priest.  Now all of the OT sacrifices were part of temporary and provisional system. As great and important as this work of the priest was, no priest in the OT, and no animal sacrifice in the OT, was able to actually take away a man’s sins.  All these merely pointed forward in time, until God should send His Only Son to be the True Sacrifice for Sins.  Jesus, because He is the infinite Son of God, could have suffered the infinite and holy wrath of God against our sins.  Because He became the Perfect Man, He was qualified and He was able to suffer and die in our place, bearing our sin and guilt.  Unlike the millions of animals that were repeatedly slain in Old Testament times, which could not actually bear away any man’s sin, and whose blood could not remove his guilt nor the wrath of God, the blood of Jesus Christ, which He shed in one act of sacrifice, is powerful to cleanse the heart, mind, and conscience of all who come to God through faith in Him.  Jesus died in our place.  His blood cleanses us completely.  He bore and has removed our sins, and we have been credited with His righteousness, when we believed in Him.  Jesus puts His blessing on us now, from His throne of grace.   Praise God!  Jesus rose from the dead!  Because He lives, and is now exalted to the Father’s right hand, and sits on His throne of Grace, He is able to help us.  We may pray to Him, our sympathetic high priest, concerning our problems, and know that He cares.  Was He not Incarnate for us?  Did He not suffer and die for us?  He shall not abandon us, nor refuse to listen to our heart’s cry now.  He knows.  He cares.  You have a problem? He has been there, and knows all about it.  He, better than even the priests of old, is able to put His blessing on you.  You need Jesus Christ as your High Priest, to bring you back to God, and so that you may be acceptable in His sight even when you pray to Him in weakness.  You may have, up until now, not realized that you were born in sin and under the wrath and curse of God.  Flee to Jesus Christ for refuge and seek the mercy of God which Christ offers to you.  Find there that He offers to you Himself!  Perhaps you may have attempted to conceal from others or even from yourself that you are not right with God.  Repent of this.  Confess and agree with God that you need a Saviour, and that Jesus Christ is the Only Saviour Given.  Come to Jesus Christ today.   Find, day by day, that through the blood of Jesus Christ, by faith in His blood, you may continually enjoy peace with God, the forgiveness and the cleansing of your sins.

III. Every little child who knows his Bible knows that the Old Testament is full of stories about prophets, priests, and . . . kings!  God sent Prophets to the people to tell them His will.  He gave Priests so that the people might have a way back to Him.  He gave some men as His anointed kings to rule over the people.  This perspective, of understanding the significance of the mediatorial offices, is very helpful in understanding the Gospel.   Now, Solomon was the greatest of the Kings of Israel.  He ruled over the greatest territory.  He collected tribute from all the surrounding nations.  His armies protected the people from their enemies.  He was a very wise ruler and judge.  His glory as a king was great.  His wealth, his building projects, his fame, his knowledge, his abilities, all made him very great.  So great, in fact, that the queen of Sheba came from a very great distance to see his kingdom and marveled greatly at it all.  “The half had not been told me!” she said.  Well, I am here to tell you that the kings of Israel in the Old Testament times were only a dim shadow of the glorious Son of God our King!  A greater than Solomon is here!  It is Jesus!  He was anointed by the Spirit of God!  He came teaching that the Kingdom was at hand, and that He Himself was the King!  When Jesus came, though, it is as though men did not receive Him as King, nor submit to Him as they should have.  But Jesus did a great act which secured subjects for Himself:  He died on the cross.  His foes, Judas, the traitor, and Satan himself, must have thought that conspiring to have our Saviour crucified was their victory and His defeat.  But, in the plan of God, and through the power of the resurrection of His body from the tomb, Jesus got the victory He had come to gain.  By the cross, He actually smashed sin’s power over us, and defeated the devil once and for all.  By His resurrection, He secured the eternal life which we believers already enjoy now and will possess forever, and entered into His exaltation.  In His victorious exaltation at the right Hand of God, Jesus is now on His throne of glory.  This glory is Christ’s reward for His obedience to His Father’s will.  Hebrews 12.2.  He is the most important Person in all of universal history!  All ruling authority is HIS!  Matthew 28.18!  It is from there on His throne that He has sent His Holy Spirit to convict (and so, subdue) our rebellious hearts, enlighten our minds, and cause us to see that we must bow the knee before the Son of God.  He has translated us into His kingdom, and out of the kingdom of darkness we had been in all our lives.  His love have now triumphed over us.  As a good King should do, He protects us, defends us, defeats our every foe, including sin, fear, and DEATH.  He rules our minds.  He commands us.  The Ten Commandments. . .The Sermon on the Mount. . .The Law of Love.  By His Word, and by His Holy Spirit, He rules as King over all w do, know, and are.  Submit to the universal sovereignty of Jesus Christ.  He loves us.  As Lord of the Church which He purchased with His own blood, He commands us to take our place in the assembly of the saints.  He is someday coming again.  When he does, all the nations shall bow the knee and confess Him as Lord.  There is an awful day of Judgment coming.  But we are not waiting until He comes again to so bow and confess.   Jesus Christ is our Lord now.  Is He your Lord, today?  Or are you still doing your own will, and what is right in your own eyes, without regard to what God says is right, and what is His will?  God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.   God is calling on you to believe the Gospel, which is His message to you about His Son and His Salvation.  Surrender to Jesus Christ now, before it is too late, and before you must face Him in judgment.  Child of God, love Him and obey all His words.  Be His disciple.  May God bless you, through the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son.  Learn to see Christ as the One sent by God the Father to be our Prophet, Priest, and King.  

Pastors, preach these things!  Christians, keep these things in your minds much.  Believe them.  Make them a part of your Bible study and your prayer life.  Fathers, hold these before the eyes of your wives and children.  Mothers, teach these things to your little ones.  Bring them to Jesus, our Mediator and Redeemer.