“For, There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time. And I have been chosen as a preacher and apostle to teach the Gentiles this message about faith and truth. I’m not exaggerating—just telling the truth.”
I went for a daddy-daughter walk last week. We grabbed a game called Beat the Parents, walked down to Dunkin Donuts, and spent an hour or so just having fun together. On the way home, my phone buzzed. While I didn’t answer it, it still distracted me. When I finally got my attention back onto my daughter, she was saying “…the one with the pink and the purple. What do you think?” I had two choices: I could pretend I’d had been listening and just generally agree, or I could admit I got distracted and ask her to repeat herself.
When a section of the Bible begins with the word “for” we find ourselves having to make a similar decision. Do we go back and see what the writer is talking about? Or do we just assume we’ll figure it out? In this case, the previous sentence was really important: God “wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.” Everyone means everyone. God wants every single person on earth to know that he loves them and forgives them and wants to lead their lives. God wants to rescue every single person out of whatever brokenness, sin, and pain they are in. That is what leads to Paul’s comment that there is only one God and one mediator. The idea is that God wants everyone to be rescued, and he offered a way for that rescue to happen: Jesus.
Here is your freedom for today: God sent Jesus to make a plan specifically to rescue you. That is what a mediator does – he makes a plan. Jesus serves as a mediator between us and God. He makes a plan for restoring the broken relationship between us. We are each offered that plan. We can accept his forgiveness or we can choose not to. The one option we are not given is to ask for a second plan. Jesus is God’s best and only offer. There is no need for alternatives – Jesus is enough.