One Mediator - June 23 Readings: 1 Timothy 2:1-3:13

Today's Reading

Context

In this passage, you see evidence of a growing structure in the early church. The church at Pentecost had little organization, but that grew over time. In these two chapters, Paul instructs Timothy on key elements of the church's life. The supremacy of Christ, the relationships of men and women, and the character-based leadership of the church are all discussed.

By this point there seem to have been two offices developed in the church - elders (according to Acts 20:28 and other passages, the words pastor, elder, and overseer are interchangeable) and deacons.

Devotional - One Mediator 

It is an awesome thing to stand on the ancient steps of the Temple in Jerusalem, one of the few places where the original stones that Jesus walked on are still in place. There, you can imagine people for hundreds of years walking up those stairs into the Temple courtyard to offer sacrifices day after day, week after week, year after year.  Hebrews 10 tells us that those sacrifices revealed the fundamental flaw in the system - they could remind people of their sin and their need for salvation but could not provide a permanent solution for them. They could not truly wash away sin, but they were a foreshadowing of the sacrifice that God would send one day to deal with sins for real and forever.

At the perfect time, God sent Jesus into this world as his permanent, "once for all" solution to our sin problem. 1 Timothy 2:5-6 says,

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

There is only one God - the Creator and ruler of the world, the one against whom we have sinned and from whom we are separated. Our sins build a wall between us and God and prevent us from experiencing the life he intended for us. But there is a mediator, One who stood between God and man, who gave himself for us and for our sins, to make peace with God and to make us fit to dwell in God's presence forever. He was the only truly unblemished sacrifice ever, perfect, sinless holy. One sacrifice paid the entire price for all the sins of all those who believe in Christ. Once and for all the way was opened for us.

Every day of my life I will be grateful that the God against whom I sinned, the God who had every right to send me to eternal hell, instead sent his Son as the mediator to reconcile me to God by giving his own life as a sacrifice for mine. Because of his sacrifice, no other sacrifice is needed - ever.

Thank you Lord for sending your Son as my mediator, who paid my ransom that I might live. 

Think and Pray

Thank God today that he sent one mediator who in his once-for-all sacrifice paid eternally for your sins.