The Bible verses we read today are among the
most important verses in the Bible. As I thought about it, it’s
surprising we don’t hear them talked about more often. These verses
really should be right up there with John Three, Sixteen and the Twenty-third
Psalm as the most quoted verses in the Bible. The Apostle Paul, writing
to his young friend Timothy, sets out our most basic beliefs as
Christians. They are found right here,
in these few verses.
Let’s start with verse five. “There is one God.” That’s one of the most basic Christian
beliefs there is, that there is one God. Period. There are not a variety of gods. There are not different types of gods. There is not a Christian god and a Jewish god
and an Islamic god and a Hindu god. There is one God. Period.
I understand that this is not how everybody sees it.
There are plenty of people who believe that all religions are equal and equally
valid. There are plenty of people who believe that it does not matter
what you believe, as long as you are kind and treat people well. If you
believe that, well, your argument is not with me. Your argument is with the Apostle Paul. You can choose to believe him, or you can
choose not to. But I’m not going to tell you he did not say what he
said. Paul says there is one God. Period.
After establishing that there is one God, Paul says this,
“and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.” A
mediator, in this context, is a go-between.
Someone who can go to God on our behalf.
There’s only one mediator, and Jesus Christ is it. The only way
for humans to get to God is through faith in Jesus Christ. Again, period. That, too, is one of our most basic beliefs
as Christians. There are not several mediators. There is not Jesus Christ or Mohammed or
Buddha or anyone else. There is one
mediator between God and humans, and his name is Jesus Christ. Period.
And again, I understand that’s not how everybody sees
it. There are plenty of people who believe that there are lots of ways to
get to God. And again, if you believe that, your argument is not with
me. Your argument is with the Apostle
Paul. And again, you can choose to believe him, or you can choose not to,
but I’m not going to tell you he did not say what he said. Paul says
there is one mediator between God and mankind, and that one mediator is Christ
Jesus. Period.
There are also people who believe that, if Paul is right,
this is not very fair of God. Why would God limit us to only one
mediator? Why would God decide that the
only way we could get to God is through Jesus Christ? Why would God be so
limiting and so exclusionary? If God
loves us so much, why would God not provide us lots of ways to get to God,
rather than just one way?
The thing to remember about that is that God did not have
to provide any mediator at all. God did not have to give us a
go-between. God did not have to give us
a way to get to God. God did not owe it to us to do that. God could have just left us to deal with the
consequences of our sinful nature. The real question to ask is not why
God would limit our ways to get to God.
The real question is, why would God give us a way to get to God at all?
And Paul gives us the answer to
that, too. Look at verse four.
Paul writes that “God wants all people to be saved and to come to a
knowledge of the truth.”
It is because God wants us to
be saved that God gave us Jesus Christ as our mediator. The fact that God
wants us to be saved, that God wants so much for us to be saved that God did
provide a way for us to get to God, shows just how much God does love us.
Again, God was not obligated to give us the chance to be saved. Salvation is not something that we have
somehow earned. God gives us the chance
for salvation as a gift, and God gives us that gift because God loves us.
And Paul goes on to tell us how
this works. Paul says that Jesus “gave himself as a ransom for all
people.”
It is because of the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that he is able to be our
mediator. It is because Jesus accepted the punishment and paid the
penalty for our sins that he can be our go-between. We don’t have to be
punished for our sins because Jesus already accepted that punishment on our
behalf. We don’t have to pay the penalty
for our sins because Jesus already paid that penalty on our behalf.
That’s why Jesus can act as our
mediator. That’s why Jesus can be our go-between in a way that no one
else ever can. Jesus, by taking the punishment that should go to us, has
made it possible for our sins to be forgiven. And in fact, more than
forgiven, it’s like our sins never happened.
Our sins are washed away, wiped out. You and I are made holy and
perfect, even though we’re not, even though we’re not even close. We’re made holy and perfect through the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That’s why Jesus can act as our
mediator. And it’s why no one else can.
Because no one else did what Jesus did. No one else accepted the
punishment and paid the penalty for our sins.
No one else died for us. No one else was resurrected. Jesus is the only one who did that. And so Jesus is the only one who can be our
mediator. Jesus is the only one who can save us from the consequences of
our sins.
All of those things are basic
to our Christian faith. There is only one God. That one God wants us all to be saved,
because that one God loves us. And so, that one God sent the divine Son,
Jesus Christ, into the world to take the punishment that should have gone to
us. Because Jesus did that, he, and he alone, can be our mediator before
God, if we only accept him as our Savior.
For Christians, those things
are pretty much non-negotiable. We can disagree about a lot of things as
Christians, but not those things. A Christian who did not believe there
was one God and that Jesus Christ is the Savior would be like a farmer who did
not believe in growing crops or raising livestock. It’s simply a
contradiction in terms. It does not
work.
But there’s one other thing to
note here. We’ve mentioned it, but we did not fully discuss the
implications. It’s what Paul wrote in verse four. God “wants all people to be saved and to come
to a knowledge of the truth.”
God wants all people to be
saved. If you and I follow God, then we need to want all people to be
saved, too. And that puts a responsibility on us. If we want people to be saved, then we need
to do what we can to let people know what we know. We need to let them
know how they can be saved. We need to
let people know that there is one God, that the one God does love us, that the
one God sent the divine Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save us. And
that if they believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, they will be saved. If we want people to be saved, as God does,
then we need to do everything we can to spread that message to everyone we can.
Now, we need to be a little
careful about how we do that. We don’t want to be annoying or contentious
about it. After all, our goal here is
not to win an argument. Our goal is to spread God’s message of
salvation.
And in doing that, I can think
of no better example than that of Jesus himself. When Jesus was spreading
his message, how did he do it? He did
not get into arguments with people. Yes, he’d sometimes argue with the
Pharisees, but even then, he was usually just answering their questions.
They were the ones doing the arguing, trying to trick him or trap him in some
way.
But when Jesus was just talking
with ordinary people, he did not argue with them. He simply told them the
truth. He just said, “This is the way it
is.” And he allowed them to make up
their own minds. He allowed them to either accept the truth or reject it.
Jesus was sad when people
rejected the truth. But Jesus would not compromise the truth to get
people to accept it. Jesus did not change his message in the hope that
people might change their minds. Again, Jesus said, “This is the way it
is.” And he allowed people to either
accept the truth or reject it.
That’s our example. Let people know the truth of
God’s message of salvation. Then allow them to make up their own
minds. Don’t argue with them, but also
don’t compromise the truth to get them to accept it. The truth is the
truth. It’s up to everyone, including
us, to either accept it or reject it.
There is only one God. Period. There is only one mediator between God and
humans, and that’s Jesus Christ. Period.
Jesus Christ is the one and only Savior.
We can either accept that or reject it. But that’s the way it is.
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