By Pastor Bob Gray Sr. | April 2018
I Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”
ONE MEDIATOR
There
is one God and there is one mediator the man Christ Jesus or the “God Man.”
How many God’s are there? One! How many mediators between God and man? One!
Who is that mediator? The man Christ Jesus according to the Scriptures and
if any clergyman claims he is one then there is one too many!
There is one God and there is one mediator not two, nor three and that
mediator is Jesus Christ. If man places Mary the mother of Jesus as a virgin
into the picture and claim that she is a mediator between God and man then
we must believe the Scripture, which clearly states that Jesus is the one
mediator!
The term, “…the man Christ Jesus;” is very important. The word
“mediator” is a critical word. To us a mediator is one who listens to
two sides of an issue presented by two adversaries. The mediator listens to
one side’s case and then the other person’s case before declaring a
decision.
However, that is not the word “mediator” that is used in these
Scriptures. This particular word is more akin to one who is doing the
mediating and is identified with both the parties at odds with each other.
This mediator has to be man and He has to be God. Thus this mediator is God
up in Heaven and also a man on earth.
THIS MEDIATOR HAS TO BE MAN AND HE HAS TO BE GOD
With God being in Heaven and man being on earth there is a natural
separation or alienation between the two. Sin has separated man from God!
The Scriptures say, “The soul that sinneth it shall die” and “The
wages of sin is death” and “Sin when it is finished bringeth forth
death.”
When man sinned it brought forth death and man was detached from God. Man
now finds himself at an impasse! We have God up in Heaven and we have man
down here on earth and somebody has to cause God and man to come back
together but that person cannot be just a referee or an umpire.
The person who is to be the ONE mediator must be man and He must be God.
Thus, the priest, preacher, Rabbi, Pope, etc., doe not qualify for none of
them are God. By the way it would be very difficult for the Virgin Mary to
be the mediator for she is not a man! Thus whoever causes man to return to
God must be man and He must be God!
THIS MEDIATOR HAS TO BE THE ONLY ONE THAT GOD WILL LISTEN
TOO
There is no one else that can influence God except the man Christ Jesus. He
is seated at the right hand of the Father. The place of power! The place of
influence! The place of authority! He is interceding for the saved! Not
Mary, or a priest, or a pastor, or a Pope, or a Rabbi, or a relative, or any
Christian can qualify to influence God like Jesus Christ!
The liberal says that Jesus came to show man how to live. He may have come
to show us how to live but unless we have a new nature we cannot begin to
live like He lived. There are those who tell us that Jesus came to show us
what God is like and certainly He did show us but that is not the main
reason He came.
Luke 19:10, “For the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
I Timothy 1:15, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
In order to seek the lost, or unsaved, He had to be
God so He could satisfy the demands of a Holy God. He had to be man so He
could be blameless, proven to be above sin, to know man, and to bear the
sins of man.
Our concept of Jesus’ part in our relationship with God is very limited. Our
thought is, “If you will not accept my Son then I won’t accept you!” That is
correct and nothing wrong with that statement but it is sort of a limited
opinion of what Jesus’ coming was really all about. There is far more to it
than that!
God cannot completely comprehend man because Jehovah God was never man. He
never was here on earth. He never felt the pain of man, the hurt, and the
struggles and likewise man is not God and God was not man. Thus, there had
to be someone as ONE mediator who could come as a God Man. If Jesus is not
deity He is not the ONE mediator.
THIS MEDIATOR MUST BE THE PAYMENT FOR THE SINS OF MANKIND
Man can live a virtuous life and a good moral life and God will not accept
that as payment for sin. I can join a church, go to a confessional booth,
turn over a new leaf, quit smoking, quit cursing, and quit all manner of
what we call sin and God will not accept that as payment for sin. God will
not accept what we have done. Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which
seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
A man can repent of what he is doing wrong or what man calls sin but until
he repents of what he is trusting in to pay for his sins he will not find
salvation. God will only accept what Jesus has done. He is the ONE mediator!
When man comes to God and bypasses Jesus in order to present what he has
done with good works, baptism, sacraments, or church membership God will not
accept those as payment for sin.
The Scripture is quite plan “For the wages of sin is death” not baptism, not
communion, good works, or church membership. God will accept what the ONE
mediator the man Christ Jesus has done in His death, burial, and
resurrection to balance the scales.
Titus 3:5, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the Holy Ghost;”
Thus, I must not approach God alone with my works, church membership,
baptism, or communion. I must be hid in Christ.
Colossians 3:3, “They have taken crafty counsel against the people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.”
II Corinthians 5:17, “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature.”
Romans 16:7, “Who also were in Christ before me.”
II Corinthians 12:2, “I knew a man in Christ…”
Galatians 1:22, “…which were in Christ…”
Acts 17:28, “For in him we live, and move and have our being.”
The most outstanding attribute about God is not His
mercy, it is not His love but it is His justice, His righteousness, and His
holiness. If God let one sinner go to Heaven without paying the penalty for
his sin God would not be God! His justice must be satisfied!
If man comes to God with his baptism God will not accept that as payment for
sins. The same is true with church membership, a good life, or any work done
by man. None of them can pay for sin. Man has two choices! He either dies
and spends an eternity in a devil’s Hell or he can accept what Jesus did on
Calvary to pay for his sins.
This is tough in light of “religious correctness” but it is still Scripture!
If man goes to this “lake of fire” mentioned in Scripture he could never
leave because there is no point where he can pay for sin. Only Jesus Christ
was the acceptable payment for man’s sin. Thus He could be resurrected from
the dead.
God is not accepting man He is accepting Jesus Christ who accepted man and
takes man with Him and in Him to the Father. The Father provided Jesus!
God’s great and exceptional heart of love provided Himself as the only
acceptable sacrifice for sin. It is not what you do, we do, the church does,
or the Pope does! It is what the mediator did!
God will not accept my faith! God will only accept Jesus Christ’s faith!
Whose faith? The faith of Jesus Christ!
Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
The very faith that I put into Christ God gave me
through Christ. Romans 12:3, “…according as God hath dealt to every man
the measure of faith.”
Every man that ends of in Hell will go to Hell with the same measure of
faith that everyone who ends up in Heaven has!
I was saved because the mediator accepts my faith and the Father accepted
the mediator’s faith. God the Father cannot accept anything that is
imperfect and my faith is imperfect. However, if I give my imperfect faith
to Christ the mediator, then God will accept the mediator’s perfect faith
and in so doing He accepts my faith because I am hid in Christ’s faith. WOW!
SOMEBODY SAY AMEN!
THIS MEDIATOR IS PERFECT
Jesus knows no sin! Jesus’ faith is perfect faith! So, to place my faith in
God the Father will not do! God cannot accept my faith, but He can accept
Jesus the mediator’s faith. There has to be someone who is like me and
someone who is like God the Father. There has to be someone who is man as if
He were not God and God as if He were not man. Jesus Christ is the person!
Jesus is the mediator between God and man!
That is why you do not trust the Father as your Saviour. You trust the Son
as your Saviour. The Scriptures do not say believe on the Father and you
will be saved. Why, because Jesus can accept the faith of man when God the
Father cannot because God the Father can only accept the faith of Jesus!
I place my imperfect faith into Jesus Christ. He turns my imperfect faith
into perfect faith because I am hid in Him. He then presents His faith to
the Father. Someone says, “I believe in God so I must be going to Heaven!”
If that is all a person believes in he cannot go to Heaven! Preacher, “I’ve
come to God!” Wait a minute if that is all you have done you will end up in
Hell because the sin penalty has not been paid!
There is no way to get to God the Father except through God the Son Who is
the ONLY mediator. Only He could be= virgin born and God incarnate. God is
accepting Jesus the mediator in man’s place only when man accepts Jesus the
mediator!
I accept Jesus, He accepts me, God accepts Jesus, and thus God accepts me
because I am hid in Jesus Christ. I was in a mysterious way crucified in
Christ on Calvary. I was hid in Him when He was buried in the tomb, dipped
His soul into Hell, and when He was raised from the dead after three days
and three nights.
“Father will you accept Bob Gray Sr.?” He replies, “No!” Jesus asks the
Father, “Will you accept me?” He replies, “Yes, of course!” Jesus asks me,
“Will you accept me as payment for your sins?” I reply at age eleven, “Yes!”
Jesus says to me, “Ok come on into Me and become hid in Me and we will go to
the Father together!” I may not have faith that God will do something for me
but I do have faith that God will do it for His Son Jesus Christ.
God the Father is up in Heaven! He is perfect, Holy, and the Almighty God! I
a sinner am down here on planet earth. I have two choices in that I can come
to God alone or I can come to Jesus and let Him go to the Father with being
hid in Him. God will not accept me because I have nothing that will please
Him. Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags…”
The Holy Spirit placed the seed of the Word of God in the womb of Mary and a
little baby boy was born. Physically He was a man while spiritually He was
God. He was God clothed in that human body. Consequently as a man I cannot
approach the Father but I can approach the ONE mediator who is both God and
man.
THE SAVED ARE HIDDEN IN THE MEDIATOR
If any man be IN Christ that man is one with Christ if he accepts and trusts
Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as payment for his sins. Man
then is hidden in Christ. Do not go to the Father by yourself! That is why
we close our prayers with “We ask this in Jesus’ name!”
The Scriptures say, “We are accepted IN the Beloved!” It does not say, “We
are accepted OUTSIDE of the Beloved!” Accepted OUTSIDE of the Beloved? No!
We are accepted IN the Beloved!
I may not have the faith to believe God will do it for me, but I do have
faith that God the Father will do it for His Son Jesus Christ. So, I bring
it to Jesus and Jesus takes it to the Father and that is why we pray, “For
Jesus’ sake amen!” The Scriptures say that no man can see God and live, but
you can in Christ go to God the Father and live-forever. If you come to God
alone He will turn you back!
God the Father cannot forgive me! As man I take my sins to Jesus and as man
He understands because He came as a baby and lived on planet earth for 33
homesick years. Jesus forgives me and God accepts Jesus and in so doing
receives me. Jesus and me go to the Father because I am HID IN Jesus Christ
the Son of God. WOW!
