there is one God and one mediator between God and Men the man Christ Jesus do Paul's words in 1 Timothy 25 indicate that there is a distinction between God and Jesus Christ is Jesus just a man on this episode Dr David K Bernard examines this verse in detail and explains what the Apostle Paul was saying welcome to Apostolic life in the 21st century a podcast dedicated to helping modern-day believers live out the teachings of the first century church this podcast is part of the Teaching Ministry of Dr David K Bernard Dr Bernard has dedicated his
life to studying the Bible and helping Believers apply its message to their daily lives in Apostolic life in the 21st century Dr Bernard answers your questions about what the Bible teaches and how those teachings apply to everyday life if you enjoy this podcast we encourage you to check out Dr David k Bernard's books Dr Bernard has written more than 30 books on biblical Theology and Christian Living and Leadership visit Pentecostal publishing.com and search David Bernard for a list of available titles enter promo code dk10 at checkout to save 10% on your order that's Pentecostal publishing.com
promo code D kb10 to save 10% at checkout thank you for joining us in 1 Timothy 2:5 Paul wrote for there is one God and one mediator between God and Men the man Christ Jesus now if we take that verse at face value it seems to indicate two points number one that there is a definite distinction between God and Jesus Christ and number two that Christ Jesus is a man and not God now if that interpretation were accurate it would obviously undermine both Oneness and trinitarian theology so how do we make sense of this verse
and what does it mean that Jesus is the mediator between God and Men this is a very important passage of scripture in fact if we can understand this I think we can have an accurate understanding of the doctrine of God in the New Testament so let's break it down the first part of 1 Timothy 2:5 says there is one God now that is the same teaching as the rest of the Bible the teaching established very strongly in the old test going back to Deuteronomy 6:4 here o Israel the Lord our God is one Lord he's
the Lord is one the New Testament doesn't contradict the Old Testament it's all Truth uh new revelation cannot contradict prior Revelation and so first Timothy is built on this Foundation there's only one God and and so whatever we understand the next part to mean it can't mean that there's a second God and I would argue uh it can't even mean there's a second person whatever you mean by person if you mean a by person uh someone with a distinct uh personality or will or character or body or or manifestation apart from the socalled first person
then you're still violating the concept of one God is taught throughout the Old Testament for example if you look at the book of Isaiah it doesn't merely say you know one in the sense of unity some people say well one God means um there could be multiple persons but they're in agreement or they're United or they cooperate well the if you read Isaiah that excludes this idea of a mere Unity of multiple persons because God says I'm alone I'm by myself there's none like me there's none before me there's none after me there's none beside
me I'm the first I'm the last and so you have terms that don't simply mean agreement or Unity but singularity or uniqueness or Oneness and so when the Bible says there's one God it means one in that sense that would exclude multiple persons much less multiple gods so whatever we understand the second half of First Timothy to mean it can't mean more than one God or even more than one Divine person as if persons could be in the godhead the godhead is not an abstract substance that persons can be in the godhead is personal God
is a personal being who who loves us who hates sin who Grieves over our failures and who rejoices when we repent so he's a personal God there is one God but then there is one mediator between God and Men the man Christ Jesus so the mediator a mediator is someone who reconciles two parties so what's going on here God is Holy he created us in Holiness but we fell into sin so by our sin we broke fellowship with God so this is the whole the message of all of scripture how can sinful humans be reconciled
to the holy God so that we can have fellowship with him again and fulfill his original purpose in creating Us and how can we inherit eternal life which he planned for us so God can't make himself sinful in order to have fellowship with us sinners we can't make ourselves holy in order to have fellowship with the holy God so it seems like there is this this unbridgeable Gap that we could never have fellowship with God but the beautiful message from Genesis to Revelation uh is that what we could not do God did for us so
God Came In the Flesh as a sinless human so Jesus Christ was both God and man at the same time he was not only a man he was absolutely as the scripture says a man he was human but Colossians 2:9 says in him dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily so bodily yes he was a man yes he was a human but he was the godhead which means the one God the totality of God the sum total of God's nature character and attributes not just an agent of God a junior God a second person
one of three but the fullness of God and to underscore even more all the fullness and you have many other passages 1 Timothy 3:16 the same book God was manifest In the Flesh uh Titus uh 213 we're looking for the appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ so we find many other passages John uh 20:28 Thomas confessed Jesus you are my Lord and my God so Jesus was was a true human but not only a true human he is both God and man at the same time so going back to 1 Timothy 2:5
here's how God has bridged the Gap God came in the flesh as a sinless human so Jesus is the only sinless human who's ever lived so as a sinless human he can have fellowship with God in fact God is in him God is in Christ so you might say the mediator is not a different person but think of mediator in the sense of meeting place in Jesus you have the spirit of God in a human identity United as one person so you actually have God and man reunited in the physical body and person of Jesus
Christ so then if we believe on Jesus Christ and we obey his gospel apply it to our lives we have fellowship with Jesus but by have Fellowship having fellowship with Jesus we have fellowship with God in Christ and so that's how he's the mediator that brings us back in in relationship to God so yes I do understand that when you say mediator that can imply well he must be a different person person from God but think of it in this sense uh he is both God and human so he's a mediator according to the flesh
uh and another scripture that will help put this in perspective it's not one person bring us back into relationship with some other person but 2 Corinthians 5:19 explains it to ITT that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself so Jesus is not a second person bringing us back to some different person but Jesus is God in extension God in expression he's the image of the invisible God Colossians 1:15 when you've seen Jesus you've seen the Father John 149 so God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself so Jesus is how God is
bringing back sinful humans into fellowship with himself not someone else now think of it this way let's suppose the alternative uh the doctr of the Trinity says that they're three Divine co-equal co-eternal consubstantial persons they're they're they have the same substance but they're different persons they're exactly equal in every way they're equal in Holiness they're equal in power Etc okay think about that if that were true then our problem as I've already stated we sinful humans are separated from our heavenly father our creator by our sin that would be the first person but under that
scheme the second person could not be the mediator why because he's equal to the first person he's just as holy as the first person we would have just as much as a gap between us and the second person as between us and the first person so the second person couldn't be the mediator we in fact would need a mediator to get back in fellow fellowship with the second person just as much so the point of that thought experiment is to show that's going the wrong track the mediator is not a second Divine person that doesn't
solve anything the mediator is a true human who's Like Us in every way except for sin and so then when you go back to the text it's very clear one mediator between God and Men the man Christ Jesus so already knowing that Jesus is God manif In the Flesh because you've already you see that in the whole new testament once you know that when it's when it says the man Christ Jesus it is emphasizing only looking at him according to the flesh not looking at the totality of who he is but just looking at his
Humanity in his Humanity he reconciles us to God in his Humanity he brings us back into God and so that's the beautiful truth that Jesus Christ is is both God and human at the same time that's the the miracle of the Incarnation and 1 Timothy 3:16 that I've already quoted says great is the mystery of godliness God was manifest In the Flesh there's no mystery about how many gods there are there's only one there's no mystery about the multiple persons in the godhead the Bible never one time says three persons or Trinity or gives us
any idea to believe that God can be reduced to a human person or multiple persons uh so but the mystery is how could the infinite God come in the form of fin finite human how could he the infinite God come into the unborn child in the womb to the baby in his mother's arms to the child being led by Joseph and Mary to the teenager to the young adult who died on the cross that that's boggles our mind but yet we know it's true because the Bible proclaims it true and this is in only when
we understand the Incarnation do we understand the the atonement because our savior had to be both God and man at the same time only God can forgive sin uh so Isaiah 45 for example says God's the only savior uh Mark chapter 2 the the Jews rightly question who can forgive sins but God only so only if Jesus is truly God does he have power and authority to forgive our sins but only if Jesus is truly human can he take our place can he be our kinsman redeemer can he take the penalty of our sins can
he be our substitute sacrifice can he shed blood for us can he die for us so in order to be our savior Jesus had to be both God and human at the same time and you see the humanity emphasized here in 1 Timothy 2:5 there's one God but the one God didn't save us just by being the one God the one God saved us because he made a Plan of Salvation he came in flesh as Jesus Christ the son of God when we say Jesus is the son of God we're emphasizing his true Humanity God
as he is Manifest In the Flesh as the Son of God he was able to die his Spirit didn't die his Divine mind didn't go unconscious but according to the flesh he laid down his human life and that's what 1 Timothy 2:5 is saying he laid down his life for us that we that he would provide the atonement for our sins and that we might be restored to Fellowship with God so it's a beautiful description of the Incarnation and the atonement which is the very basis of our Salvation thank you for listening to this episode
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