WEDNESDAY April 17th
Romans 8:34
‘Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.’
I have returned to verse 34 as it is a great verse to remind us that there is only one who can stand in the presence of God on our behalf, and his name is Jesus.
In 1 Timothy 2:5 we read: ‘For there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and men’, Paul then continues to immediately tell us who this mediator is, it is ‘the man Christ Jesus’ and then continues to tell us how Jesus qualifies to be the mediator, ‘who gave himself as a ransom for all.’
A mediator is one who acts as an intermediary between two people or two parties of people, and the man Christ Jesus stands in the presence of God on our behalf as our mediator, as our intercessor. On the one hand we are sinners, on the other we have the holy God. In and of ourselves we cannot even begin to dream of standing in the presence of God, we can try to be as good as we can be, we can try to earn our way, but we will never succeed, but Jesus came and ‘gave himself as a ransom’, he stood in our place, he died in our place, he has done everything that needed to be done and after his resurrection and ascension, he was exalted to the highest place, and an aspect of his exaltation is that he has become the ONLY mediator between man and God.
It is important to note the many times when we are talking about Jesus that we use the word ‘only’.
He is as we see in John 3:16, God’s only Son, he is the only one who has been sent from God to become the propitiation for our sin, he is the only one of whom it is said is the way, the truth and the life, he is the only one who has conquered death, rising as he did victoriously on the third day. He is the only one who has ascended to the Father and the only one who has been given the name which is above every other name, he is the only one who is declared as Lord to the glory of God the Father, he is the only one who is standing in the presence of God as the mediator and great high priest, he is the only one who is going to come again.
This is Jesus our Saviour, and as such he is the only one whom men and women can come to for eternal salvation, it is only through him that we can come to the mercy seat, there is no saint that can help, there is no other individual, no other means, not even through Mary, the mother of Jesus, or some earthly priest, it is through Jesus only.
Hebrews 7:25 ‘Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.’