Jesus is both God and man, so He stands for you before God.
1 Timothy 2:5-6 (NIV)
5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.
Easily memorize this verse with this catchy song:
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 19: The Two Natures of Christ
We believe that by being thus conceived
the person of the Son has been inseparably united
and joined together
with human nature,
in such a way that there are not two Sons of God,
nor two persons,
but two natures united in a single person,
with each nature retaining its own distinct properties.
Thus his divine nature has always remained uncreated,
without beginning of days or end of life,
filling heaven and earth.
His human nature has not lost its properties
but continues to have those of a creature—
it has a beginning of days;
it is of a finite nature
and retains all that belongs to a real body.
And even though he,
by his resurrection,
gave it immortality,
that nonetheless did not change
the reality of his human nature;
for our salvation and resurrection
depend also on the reality of his body.
But these two natures
are so united together in one person
that they are not even separated by his death.
So then,
what he committed to his Father when he died
was a real human spirit which left his body.
But meanwhile his divine nature remained
united with his human nature
even when he was lying in the grave;
and his deity never ceased to be in him,
just as it was in him when he was a little child,
though for a while it did not show itself as such.
These are the reasons why we confess him
to be true God and true man—
true God in order to conquer death
by his power,
and true man that he might die for us
in the weakness of his flesh.
Summary
In this letter to Timothy, Paul speaks to several key theological concepts. The first of these from today’s passage is the oneness of God. Both Old and New Testaments attest to there being only one God. This also feeds our understanding of the Trinity, that there is but one God, who is seen in the three persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Paul also speaks to Jesus’ role as mediator between God and mankind. The Son came into the world not only to bring about reconciliation but also to be our mediator with God.
Dig Deeper
A mediator is someone who stands in the middle. They are the go-between when two or more parties are in a dispute and seeking reconciliation. Mankind needs a mediator because our relationship with God is broken. This is the result of our sinful rebellion against the law of God. There is only one person who is perfectly situated to be this mediator, Jesus Christ.
Jesus is uniquely suited to be the mediator between God and mankind because he is fully human and fully God. In today’s reading from the Belgic Confession, Article 19 rightly points out that these two natures of Christ are united even in his death.
The Son has always been divine, and then a human nature was added at the incarnation. However, during his death on the cross, Jesus did not lose nor shed his human nature.
When Jesus rose from the grave on the third day, this included his humanity. And still today, Jesus maintains both his divine and human nature. Having ascended to heaven, he continues to be a mediator with God on our behalf.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our triune God, who is one;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God that your relationship to Him has been restored through the one mediator, who is Christ Jesus;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Ephesians 2
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