“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2: 5 KJV).
According to Scripture Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man. There is no other mediator that God recognizes and that man should acknowledge. Only Jesus Christ can appear before God the Father as mediator on man’s behalf.
Some have been wrongly taught that Mary, the mother of Jesus, and other departed saints can intercede and mediate for them before God. But none of these long-departed saints have heard a single prayer from anyone nor acted a single time on behalf of another on earth. The apostle Paul, along with many others, did so much for the salvation of souls while they were on earth, but they haven’t done anything for a single soul since they have departed. Solomon said concerning the dead, “Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 9: 6). Why waste one’s time praying to someone who first of all cannot hear their prayer and secondly cannot do anything about the problems they’re going through on earth? We cannot communicate with the departed dead.
For thousands of the devotees to these patron-saints to gain a hearing at one and the same instant, while separated from one another by great distances, would necessitate in these patron saints the attributes of omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence which belong to God alone.
A mediator in general is “one whose function is to bring together persons who disagree with each other, with the purpose of effecting a reconciliation by removing the grounds of hostility. In religious usage, it means one who represents God to men and men to God. He acts on behalf of both, bringing to God the evidence of man’s penitence, and brings to man the assurance of God’s forgiving grace.”
Jesus Christ is the only one mentioned in Scripture as a heavenly go-between—“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14: 6). God the Father is in Heaven, and no one goes to Heaven to be with the Father without going through Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is called “the mediator of a better covenant” (Heb. 8: 6) and of a “new covenant” (9: 15, 12: 24). Christ is both the priest and the sacrifice. His offering of Himself effected a reconciliation and renewal of fellowship between God and man. Jesus met the requirement of the sacrifice being “without blemish” (Lev. 22: 20; Heb. 4: 15; 9: 14) since He was the sinless Son of God (Heb. 2: 9-18, 4: 15, 7: 26-28). Jesus’ self-offering was “once” for all (7: 27), and the “one sacrifice for sins for ever” (10: 11-14). This is why salvation is by faith and not by our works. This is why the Christian prays “in the name” of Jesus Christ (John 14: 13). This is why forgiveness is sought “for Christ’s sake” (John 1: 12).
Jesus died to activate the terms of the new covenant to all its beneficiaries, and then rose in victory over the grave to administer the covenant—“By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament” (Heb. 7: 22).
There is only one mediator, and that is Jesus Christ. We can only meet God and be reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ alone, who is “The Door” to Heaven (John 10: 7, 9).
Holiness
Holiness: what can it be?
And is Christ’s holiness for me?
Dear blood-washed child of the living God,
This is the way the Redeemed must trod;
Sanctified, and set free to be
As Jesus Christ, our Surety.
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Holiness: a wonderful thing,
Surrendering all to Jesus my King.
Dying to self, my soul takes its flight
To new heights of glory, beauty, and light.
All is in Christ; my heart is at rest.
Christ is my all; I’m happy and blest.
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Holiness: just what does it mean,
To be virtuous, pure, and clean?
To love this One Whom I’ve never seen;
Walk with Him and His friend be,
And always with Him to agree,
Bending my heart in harmony?
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Holiness: my greatest potential,
My high and noble credential.
There’s no greater calling or pursuit,
Than to manifest the Spirit’s fruit.
This is my Father’s calling and plan,
Since holiness through Christ came down to man.
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Holiness: God’s will wrought through me,
That others, through me, Christ’ beauty might see.
He takes me first as a piece of clay;
With loving devotion, He molds me each day;
God using His Word, Christ’s image to trace,
A vessel of honor, reflecting His grace.
