For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus … (1 Timothy 2:5)

The Majestic, Glorious God (2 Peter 1:17) became the Man of Sorrows (Is 53:3), so that He would become the Mediator between God and man. That in brief captures the true plan of redemption. Religions of the world have concocted all sorts of “paths” to Nirvana, Enlightenment, at-oneness-with-the-Absolute, and intricate sets of rules and regulations for appeasing the deity (whomever or whatever that may be). The Bible cuts through the muck with the simplest, yet most profound truth. The apostle Paul personalized this when he wrote:

It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. (1 Tim 1:15)

A number of implications come to the fore upon closer examination. First, salvation must come from God, initiated by Him. We are sinners, and precisely so because we have not gone to God. “There is none righteous, not even one … there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside …” (Rom 3:10-12). If salvation is going to happen, it won’t begin with us. God must take the initiative—and He did!

Second, His way of saving us was by sending a mediator. In one sense the idea of a mediator was not new, for that was the core role of a priest. And virtually every religion of the world has its priests, those who go between mere humans and the ultimate object of their worship. But in the Bible’s message, the intermediary God accepts, as our verse today points out, is “the man Christ Jesus.” The book of Hebrews speaks to this extensively. The OT had its Levitical priesthood, men who temporarily mediated between man and God, but Jesus has replaced them all.

Now there is one and only one priest, one mediator between God and men. Any religious system that subscribes to human priests is a false religion, for it embraces false mediators. Believers in Christ can go directly to God through Jesus Christ. We do not need any other priest. In fact, to attempt to go to God through an earthly priest would be a huge affront to the Lord Jesus Christ and a denial of God’s written Word that never changes. We have been invited to directly “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace” (Heb 4:16).

Lord, I am humbled by the invitation and the privilege to enter directly into Your presence, the place of grace, without the need of a human priesthood.