MEDIATOR

This term can be defined in a broad way as one that acts between two parties, either to reconcile them, or between parties in which there is no hostility, with the purpose of reaching an agreement or pact. Obviously, the mediator must be in relationship with both parties.

In its biblical sense, the mediator is that person who intervenes between God and man, in order to communicate the mind of God to man, and in order to represent man to God by pleading his cause. All OT mediators are types who point to the one and only Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Since the Fall, man has been morally separated from God; the distance is infinite. This distance has been covered by Christ, as a revelation of God, in his incarnation, and reconciling man with God, through his atoning sacrifice on the cross.

(a) Mediation in the AT.
In the AT we find a rich expression of mediation in various types:
Noah (Gen. 8:20),

Abraham (Gen. 12:7, 8; 15:9-11),
Isaac (Gen. 26:24 ff.),

Jacob (Gen. 31:54; 33:20) acted as mediators for their families before God, also giving their families, at times, prophetic messages and proclamations from God.
Melchizedek, the priest-king of Salem, is presented to us as the type of the ideal theocratic king and true type of the priesthood of Jesus Christ (Ps. 110; cf. Heb. 7).

Moses became the first national mediator between God and Israel. His mission was to be the spokesman of the Lord before the people, and the representative of the people before God. Only he could approach God, and it was with him that the Lord spoke directly, face to face (cf. Ex. 33:11).

And he presented himself to God to communicate the words of the people to Him, as to a sovereign to whom only his appointed minister can have access (cf. Ex. 19: 8). His intercessory mediation is dramatically exemplified in the episode of the golden calf. God was ready to destroy the entire people of Israel, but Moses stood in the way, praying to God to show mercy in judgment (Ex. 32:12-14).

We have other examples of mediation in the Levitical priesthood, which had its greatest emphasis on its function of representing man before God (esp. Lev. 16), although the prophetic ministry (the representation of God before man) also occurred. , since the people could consult the high priest, who knew the will of God through the Urim and Thummim (Ex. 28:30; 1 Sam. 28:6; Ezra 2:63; Neh. 7:65).

Other mediators whose main function was to represent God before the people and make his will and purposes known were the prophets.

The advent of monarchy led from Jehovah’s direct reign over Israel to reign through the mediation of a king, responsible to Jehovah for the right government of his people (1 Sam. 8:4-9ff.). From then on the king is considered “Jehovah’s anointed.”

The theocratic king had its closest embodiment in David, the man after Jehovah’s own heart (cf. 1 Sam. 13:14), and from whose dynasty would emerge the One who would gather in Himself the office of Mediator of a New Covenant, last and definitive, in the triple aspect of Priest, Prophet and King.

As a Priest, prefigured by Melchizedek (Ps. 110); as a Prophet, pre-announced by Moses himself (Deut. 18:15); and as theocratic King, prefigured by David (conqueror) and Solomon (king of peace), and promised by God to David himself (cf. 1 Chr. 17:11-14, which evidently go beyond Solomon, and already contemplates the Messianic King; see also Jer. 30 and 31).

Another aspect of great importance in the figure of the Mediator is that of “Suffering Servant.” As Mediator, seeking to open the way to a just forgiveness from God, so that “he may be just, and he who justifies him who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26, see JUSTIFICATION), to work reconciliation (2 Cor. 18:21).

He accomplished this work by being “wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our sins; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we were healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his way; but the Lord laid upon him the sin of us all” (Isa. 53:56).

He was taking our place under the wrath of God against sin, having assumed human nature, except for sin, who could become “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

A capable Man, God made flesh, giving infinite satisfaction to God the Judge for all the sins of humanity. It is on the basis of this accomplished redemption that the mediatory activity of Christ in heaven takes place in the present.

(b) Mediation in the New Testament.

Through his incarnation (see INCARNATION), Christ came to reveal the Father to us (John 1:49). Through his words of love, through his acts of mercy and power, we can know the Father’s heart in an endearing and direct way. Through Christ, God the incarnate Son, we can truly know that the righteous God of Sinai is also LOVE (1 John 4:8).

Thus, the concept of mediation, which is developed through the pages of the Bible, from Job’s moan: “There is no arbitrator between us [God and Job] who will lay his hands on both of us” (Jb. 9: 33, cf. v. 32) and through all types and shadows, it reaches its maximum and definitive expression in Christ, God and true Man, the one who is not only a capable Redeemer based on his double nature, human and divine, but he is also a capable Mediator, based on the same reason.

This is why Paul emphasizes: “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 2:5). Indeed, it is about Jesus Christ as a true individual man who assumes our representation before God, in the same way that he is as a true eternal God (cf. Jn. 1: 1, etc.), who is revealed to us in the Incarnation. of him and his work of Redemption.

Christ thus comes to fulfill Job’s deep desire, putting, so to speak, on the shoulder of God and on the shoulder of each man, and bringing the man at enmity with God closer to a God who wanted to work and has worked reconciliation ( cf. Col. 1:20), reconciliation that he offers to all through the Gospel of His grace, with an endearing appeal in search of his enemies to offer them salvation, which reaches a most solemnly pathetic character, showing the infinite nature of love and of God’s compassion toward his lost and wandering creatures: “Therefore, we are ambassadors in the name of Christ, as if God were pleading through us; We beseech you in the name of Christ: Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 20).

(c) The uniqueness of Christ as Mediator.

A matter of great importance to consider is the biblical affirmation that Christ is the only mediator between God and men. The apostle Paul makes this very clear in his first letter to Timothy: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 2:5).

Christ himself had already affirmed it in different ways and under different figures of language: «I am the way, and the truth, and the life; No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6), “I am the door; He who enters through me will be saved” (John 10:9). «I am the good shepherd… » (John 10:14).

It is only through Christ, and Christ alone, that we can come to salvation, life, and communion with God, “and there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

For this reason, all doctrines that claim that man needs the mediation of others to reach God must be rejected. Neither institutions, nor men, nor saints, nor angels, nor Mary the mother of the Lord, to whom the Church of Rome attributes the title of “mediatrix of all Graces”, facing the clear truth that is presented to us in the Scriptures.

In fact, if we place any other mediator between us and God, or Mary to incline the heart of her Son in our favor, as the Church of Rome teaches, the plain statement of 1 Ti is contradicted. 2:5 that there is only one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ. (See MARY).

Intercession is a constant part of mediation. Christ, the mediator of the New Covenant, is in his heavenly ministry interceding for his own.