Reference: Mediator
American
One who stands between two parties or persons as the organ of communication or the agent of reconciliation. So far as man is sensible of his own guilt and of the holiness and justice of God, he shrinks from any direct communication with a being he has so much reason to fear. Hence the disposition more or less prevalent in all ages and in all parts of the world, to interpose between the soul and its judge some person or thing most adapted to propitiate his favor - as a priestly order, an upright and devout man, or the smoke of sacrifices and the sweet savor of incense, Job 9:33. The Israelites evinced this feeling at the Mount Sinai, De 5:23-31; and God was pleased to constitute Moses a mediator between himself and them, to receive and transmit the law on the one had, and their vows of obedience on the other. In this capacity he acted on various other occasions, Ex 32:30-32; Nu 14; Ps 106:23; and was thus an agent and a type of Christ, Ga 3:19. The Messiah has been in all ages the only true Mediator between God and man; and without Him, God is inaccessible and a consuming fire, Joh 14:6; Ac 4:12. As the Angel of the covenant, Christ was the channel of all communications between heaven and earth in Old Testament days; and as the Mediator of the new covenant, he does all that is needful to provide for a perfect reconciliation between God and man. He consults the honor of God by appearing as our Advocate with the blood of atonement; and through his sympathizing love and the agency of the Holy Spirit, he disposes and enables us to return to God. The believing penitent is "accepted in the Beloved" - his person, his praises, and his prayers; and through the same Mediator alone he receives pardon, grace, and eternal life. In this high office Christ stands alone, because he alone is both God and man, 1Ti 2:5. To join Mary and the saints to him in his mediatorship, as the antichristian church of Rome does, implies that he is unable to accomplish his own peculiar work, Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24.
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And it shall be from the morrow, and Moses will say to the people, Ye sinned a great sin: and now I will go up to Jehovah; perhaps I shall expiate for your sin. And Moses will turn back to Jehovah, and say, Ah, now, this people sinned a great sin, and they will make to them golden gods. read more. And now if thou wilt, lift up their sin; and if not, wipe me off from thy book which thou didst write.
And it will be as ye are hearing the voice from the midst of the darkness (and the mount burnt with fire), and. ye will come near to me all the heads of your tribes, and your old men; And ye will say, Jehovah our God caused us to see his glory and his greatness, and his voice we heard from the midst of the fire: this day we saw that God will speak to man and he lived. read more. And now wherefore shall we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we added to hear the voice of Jehovah our God further, and we died. For who of all flesh that heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire like us, and shall live? Come thou near and hear all that Jehovah our God shall say; and thou shalt speak to us all that Jehovah our God will speak to thee: and we heard and we did And Jehovah will hear the voice of your words in your speaking to me; and Jehovah will say to me, I heard the voice of the words of this people that they spake to thee: they did well all that they spake. Who will give, and were this heart in them, for them to fear me and to watch all my commands all the days, so that it shall be well to them and to their sons forever. Go say to them, Turn back for yourselves to your tents. And thou, stand thou here with me and I will speak to thee all the commands and the laws and the judgments which thou shalt teach them: and they did it in the land I gave to them to possess it
And he will say to destroy them unless Moses his chosen stood in the breaking before him to turn away his wrath from destroying.
Jesus says to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father, except by me.
And salvation is in no other: for neither is another name given under heaven among men, in which we must be saved.
What then the law? It was added on account of transgressions, (till the seed come to whom it was promised;) appointed by angels in the hand of a mediator.
For one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
And now he has attained a more distinguished office, in how much also he is mediator of a better covenant, which was legislated upon better promises.
And for this he is mediator of a new covenant, that death having been, for redemption of the transgressions for the first covenant, the called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Easton
one who intervenes between two persons who are at variance, with a view to reconcile them. This word is not found in the Old Testament; but the idea it expresses is found in Job 9:33, in the word "daysman" (q.v.), marg., "umpire."
This word is used in the New Testament to denote simply an internuncius, an ambassador, one who acts as a medium of communication between two contracting parties. In this sense Moses is called a mediator in Ga 3:19.
Christ is the one and only mediator between God and man (1Ti 2:5; Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24). He makes reconciliation between God and man by his all-perfect atoning sacrifice. Such a mediator must be at once divine and human, divine, that his obedience and his sufferings might possess infinite worth, and that he might possess infinite wisdom and knowlege and power to direct all things in the kingdoms of providence and grace which are committed to his hands (Mt 28:18; Joh 5:22,25-26,27); and human, that in his work he might represent man, and be capable of rendering obedience to the law and satisfying the claims of justice (Heb 2:17-18; 4:15-16), and that in his glorified humanity he might be the head of a glorified Church (Ro 8:29).
This office involves the three functions of prophet, priest, and king, all of which are discharged by Christ both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation. These functions are so inherent in the one office that the quality appertaining to each gives character to every mediatorial act. They are never separated in the exercise of the office of mediator.
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And Jesus, having come near, spake to them, saying, All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth:
For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son:
Truly, truly, I say to you, That the hour comes, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they hearing shall live. For as the Father has life in himself, so also gave he to the Son to have life in himself; read more. And gave him authority also to do judgment, because he is the Son of man.
For whom he before knew, he also before determined of the form of the image of his Son, for him to be first born in many brethren.
What then the law? It was added on account of transgressions, (till the seed come to whom it was promised;) appointed by angels in the hand of a mediator.
For one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
Wherefore in all things it was necessary to be made like to the brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful chief priest in things towards God, in order to propitiate for the sin of the people. For in that he himself has suffered, having been tempted, he is able to help the tempted.
For we have not a chief priest unable to suffer with our weaknesses; but tried in all things as a resemblance, without sin. We should therefore go with freedom of speech to the throne of grace, that we receive mercy, and find grace for timely assistance.
And now he has attained a more distinguished office, in how much also he is mediator of a better covenant, which was legislated upon better promises.
And for this he is mediator of a new covenant, that death having been, for redemption of the transgressions for the first covenant, the called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Fausets
Six times in New Testament (Ga 3:19-20; Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24; also the verb, Heb 6:17, Greek "mediated," emesiteusen, "by an oath," "interposed as mediator between Himself and us with an oath"; Jesus is the embodiment of God's mediating oath: Ps 110:4). One coming between two parties to remove their differences. The "daysman" (Job 9:33) who "lays his hand upon both" the litigants, in token of his power to adjudicate between them; mokiach, from yakach, "to manifest or reprove"; there is no umpire to whose authoritative decision both God and I are equally amenable. We Christians know of such a Mediator on a level with both, the God-man Christ Jesus (1Ti 2:5). In Ga 3:20 the argument is, the law had angels and Moses (De 5:5) as its mediators; now "a mediator" in its essential idea (ho mesitees, the article is generic) must be of two parties, and cannot be "of one" only; "but God is one," not two.
As His own representative He gives the blessing directly, without mediator such as the law had, first by promise to Abraham, then to Christ by actual fulfillment. The conclusion understood is, therefore a mediator cannot pertain to God; the law, with its mediator, therefore cannot be God's normal way of dealing. He acts singly and directly; He would bring man into immediate communion, and not have man separated from Him by a mediator as Israel was by Moses and the legal priesthood (Ex 19:12-24; Heb 12:19-24).
It is no objection to this explanation that the gospel too has a Mediator, for Jesus is not a mediator separating the two parties as Moses did, but at once God having "in Him dwelling all the fullness of the Godhead," and man representing the universal manhood (1Co 8:6; 15:22,28,45,47,24; 2Co 5:19; Col 2:14); even this mediatorial office shall cease, when its purpose of reconciling all things to God shall have been accomplished, and God's ONENESS as "all in all" shall be manifested (Zec 14:9). In 1Ti 2:4-5, Paul proves that "God will have all men to be saved and (for that purpose) to come to the knowledge of the truth," because "there is one God" common to all (Isa 45:22; Ac 17:26).
Ro 3:29, "there is one Mediator also between God and man (all mankind whom He mediates for potentially), the man (rather 'man' generically) Christ Jesus," at once appointed by God and sympathizing with the sinner, while untainted by and hating sin. Such a combination could only come from infinite wisdom and love (Hebrews 1; 2; Heb 4:15; Eph 1:8); a Mediator whose mediation could only be effected by His propitiatory sacrifice, as 1Ti 2:5-6 adds, "who gave Himself a vicarious ransom (antilutron) for all." Not only the Father gave Him (Joh 3:16), but He voluntarily gave Himself for us (Php 2:5-8; Joh 10:15,17-18). This is what imparts in the Father's eyes such a value to it (Ps 40:6-8; Heb 10:5). (See PROPITIATION; RANSOM; ATONEMENT; RECONCILIATION.)
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And set bounds to the people round about, saying, Watch for yourselves to go up into the mount, and to touch upon its extremity: every one touching upon the mount, dying, shall die. No hand shall touch upon it, for being stoned, he shall be stoned, or being shot, shall be shot; whether quadruped or man, it shall not live: in protracting the shouting, they shall go up upon the mount read more. And Moses will come down from the mount to the people, and he will consecrate the people; and they will wash their garments. And he will say to the people, Be prepared; for three days ye shall not come near to a woman. And it shall be in the third day, it being in the morning, and there shall be voices, and lightnings, and a heavy cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceedingly strong; and all the people in the camp will tremble. And Moses will bring forth the people to the meeting of God out of the camp; and they will stand in the lower parts of the mount And mount Sinai smoked all of it, because that Jehovah came down upon it in fire: and its smoke will go up as the smoke of the furnace, and all the mountain will tremble exceedingly. And the voice of the trumpet will be going and strengthening exceedingly, Moses will speak and God will answer him by a voice. And Jehovah will come down upon mount Sinai to the head of the mount: and Jehovah will call for Moses to the head of the mount and Moses will go up. And Jehovah will say to Moses, Go down: protest to the people lest they shall break in to Jehovah to see, and a multitude fall from them. And also the priests drawing near to Jehovah, shall be consecrated, lest Jehovah shall break forth upon them. And Moses will say to Jehovah, The people shall not be able to come up to mount Sinai, for thou didst protest to us, saying, Set bounds to the mountain, and consecrate it And Jehovah will say to him, Go; come down, and come up, thou and Aaron with thee: and the priests and the people shall not break in to come up to Jehovah lest he shall break forth upon them.
(I stood between Jehovah and between you in that time to announce to you the word of Jehovah: for ye were afraid on account of the fire and ye went not up into the mount,) saying,
Sacrifice and a gift thou didst not delight in; the ears thou didst pierce to me: burnt-offering and sin thou didst not ask. Then I said, Behold, I came: in the volume of the book it was written concerning me. read more. To do thine acceptance, O my God, I delighted; and thy law in the midst of my bowels.
Jehovah sware and he will not lament, Thou a priest forever according to the manner of Melchizedeck.
Look to me all ye ends of the earth and be saved, for I am God, and none else.
And Jehovah was for king over all the earth: in that day Jehovah shall be one, and his name one.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that every one believing in him perish not, but have eternal life.
As the Father knows me, I also know the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Therefore does my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command received I of my Father.
And he made of one blood every nation of men to dwell upon all the face of the earth, having limited the times before arranged, and the bounds of their habitation;
Or only the God of the Jews? and not also of the nations? Yes, also of the nations:
But to us one God, the Father, of whom all things, and we for him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom all things, and we by him.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Then the end, when he should deliver up the kingdom to God, and the Father; when he should leave unemployed every beginning and every authority and power.
And when all things be subjected to him, then also shall the Son himself be subjected to him having made all things subject to him, that God might be all things in all.
So also has been written, The first man Adam was born into a living soul; and the last Adam into a spirit making alive.
The first man of earth, made of earth: the second man the Lord from heaven.
What then the law? It was added on account of transgressions, (till the seed come to whom it was promised;) appointed by angels in the hand of a mediator. And a mediator is not of one, and God is one.
For let this be in mind among you, which also in Christ Jesus; Who, being in the form of God, thought not robbery to be equal to God read more. But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, born in the likeness of men: And found in fashion as man, he humbled himself, being obedient until death, and the death of the cross.
Having wiped out the handwriting against us in enactments, which was opposed to us, and he has taken it from the midst, having nailed it to his cross
Who wills all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
For one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
For one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Having given himself a ransom for all, a testimony in his own time.
For we have not a chief priest unable to suffer with our weaknesses; but tried in all things as a resemblance, without sin.
In which God, willing more abundantly to show to the heirs of the promise the firmness of his counsel, he intervened by an oath:
And now he has attained a more distinguished office, in how much also he is mediator of a better covenant, which was legislated upon better promises.
And for this he is mediator of a new covenant, that death having been, for redemption of the transgressions for the first covenant, the called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Wherefore coming into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offering then wouldest not, but a body hast thou adjusted to me:
And to the sound of the trumpet, and the voice of words; which they, having heard, implored that the word be not put before them: (For they did not bear that being assigned, And if a beast should touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or shall be pierced with a missile weapon: read more. And so dreadful was that being made to appear, Moses said, I am terrified and trembling:) But ye have come to mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, To the assembly of people, and church of the firstborn, transcribed in the heavens, and to God the Judge of all, and. to the spirits of the just perfected, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, speaking better things than Abel.
Morish
Middle man, one who can stand between two and have intercourse with both. Such was Moses: he conveyed to the people the words of Jehovah, and carried to Jehovah the replies of the people. Again and again he pleaded their cause. The very fact of a mediator acting between two, is used by the apostle to show that God's acting with Abraham was on a different principle. "A mediator is not of one, but God is one," and He made to Abraham personally an unconditional promise. Ga 3:19-20. The Lord Jesus is the Mediator
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What then the law? It was added on account of transgressions, (till the seed come to whom it was promised;) appointed by angels in the hand of a mediator. And a mediator is not of one, and God is one.
For one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
And now he has attained a more distinguished office, in how much also he is mediator of a better covenant, which was legislated upon better promises.
And for this he is mediator of a new covenant, that death having been, for redemption of the transgressions for the first covenant, the called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Watsons
MEDIATOR, one who stands in a middle office or capacity between two differing parties, and has a power of transacting every thing between them, and of reconciling them to each other. Hence a mediator between God and man is one whose office properly is to mediate and transact affairs between them relating to the favour of almighty God, and the duty and happiness of man. No sooner had Adam transgressed the law of God in paradise, and become a sinful creature, than the Almighty was pleased in mercy to appoint a Mediator or Redeemer, who, in due time, should be born into the world, to make an atonement both for his transgression, and for all the sins of men. This is what is justly thought to be implied in the promise, that "the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head;" that is, that there should some time or other be born, of the posterity of Eve, a Redeemer, who, by making satisfaction for the sins of men, and reconciling them to the mercy of almighty God, should by that means bruise the head of that old serpent, the devil, who had beguiled our first parents into sin, and destroy his empire and dominion among men. Thus it became a necessary part of Adam's religion after the fall, as well as that of his posterity after him, to worship God through hope in this Mediator. To keep up the remembrance of it God was pleased, at this time, to appoint sacrifices of expiation or atonement for sin, to be observed through all succeeding generations, till the Redeemer himself should come, who was to make the true and only proper satisfaction and atonement.
The particular manner in which Christ interposed in the redemption of the world, or his office as Mediator between God and man, is thus represented to us in the Scripture. He is the light of the world, Joh 1; 8:12; the revealer of the will of God in the most eminent sense. He is a propitiatory sacrifice, Ro 3:25; 5:11; 1Co 5:7; Eph 5:2; 1Jo 2:2; Mt 26:28; Joh 1:29,36; and, as because of his peculiar offering, of a merit transcending all others, he is styled our High Priest. He was also described beforehand in the Old Testament, under the same character of a priest, and an expiatory victim, Isa 53; Da 9:24; Ps 110:4. And whereas it is objected, that all this is merely by way of allusion to the sacrifices of the Mosaic law, the Apostle on the contrary affirms, that "the law was a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things," Heb 10:1; and that the "priests that offer gifts according to the law, serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount," Heb 8:4-5; that is, the Levitical priesthood was a shadow of the priesthood of Christ; in like manner as the tabernacle made by Moses was according to that showed him in the mount. The priesthood of Christ, and the tabernacle in the mount, were the originals; of the former of which, the Levitical priesthood was a type; and of the latter, the tabernacle made by Moses was a copy. The doctrine of this epistle, then, plainly is, that the legal sacrifices were allusions to the great atonement to be made by the blood of Christ; and not that it was an allusion to those. Nor can any thing be more express or determinate than the following passage: "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin. Wherefore when he [Christ] cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering," that is, of bulls and of goats, "thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. Lo, I come to do thy will, O God! By which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all," Heb 10:4-5,7,9-10. And to add one passage more of the like kind: "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin;" that is, without bearing sin, as he did at his first coming, by being an offering for it; without having our iniquities again laid upon him; without being any more a sin-offering:
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And Joshua son of Nun will send out of Shittim two men spying silently, saying, Go see the land and Jericho. And they will go, and will come to the house of a woman, a harlot, and her name Rahab; and they will lie there. And it will be said to the king of Jericho, Behold, men came here this night from the sons of Israel to search out the land.
And it will be said to the king of Jericho, Behold, men came here this night from the sons of Israel to search out the land.
Jehovah sware and he will not lament, Thou a priest forever according to the manner of Melchizedeck.
Seventy seventy were divided upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to close the transgression, and to seal up sins, and to expiate iniquity, and to bring in eternal justice, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the holy of holies.
As the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his soul a ransom for many.
For this is my blood, that of the new covenant, having been poured out for many, for the remission of sins.
In the morrow John sees Jesus coming to him, and says, Behold the Lamb of God, be taking away the sin of the world.
The Father loves the Son, and he has given all things into his hand.
For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son: That all should honour the Son, as they honour the Father. He honouring not the Son, honours not the Father having sent him.
Whom God had set before a propitiatory by faith in his blood, for a manifestation of his justice by passing over of sins before existing, in the sufferance of God;
For if, being enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, reconciled, we shall be saved in his life. And not only, but also boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received reconciliation.
For as God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their faults; and having set in us the word of reconciliation.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been a curse for us: for it has been written, Cursed every one hanging upon a tree:
And that he might reconcile anew both in one body to God by the cross, having slain the eninity in it:
And walk ye in love, as also Christ loved us, and gave himself for us a gift and sacrifice to God for a smell of sweet odor.
And found in fashion as man, he humbled himself, being obedient until death, and the death of the cross. Wherefore God has also exceedingly exalted him, and favored him as a gift with a name above every name: read more. That in the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of the heavenlies, and of terrestrial things, and things under earth
For it became him, for whom all things, and by whom all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the chief of their salvation by sufferings.
Since therefore the young children participated in flesh and blood, he also likewise participated with them; that by death he might leave unemployed him having the strength of death, that is, the devil;
And being perfected, he became to all them lending a willing ear to him the origin of eternal salvation
Wherefore he is able to save entirely those coming to God by him, always living to supplicate for them.
For if truly he were upon earth, he would not be a priest, there being priests bringing in gifts according to the law; Who serve the pattern and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was given an intimation of the divine will, being about to complete the tent: for, See, says he, thou make all things according to the type shewed thee in the mount.
So Christ, once offered to have borne the sins of many, of the second time, without sin, shall be seen to them expecting him for salvation.
For the law having a shadow of good things about to be, not the same image of the things, with these sacrifices which they bring in yearly in continuance never can render perfect them coming thereto.
For the blood of bulls and he-goats cannot take away sins. Wherefore coming into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offering then wouldest not, but a body hast thou adjusted to me:
Then said I, Behold, I am here (in the head of the book it was written of me,) O God, to do thy will.
Then he said, Behold, I am here to do, O God, thy will. He takes away the first, that he might set up the second. In which will we are consecrated by the bringing in of the body of Jesus Christ once.
But with precious blood, as of a lamb blameless and spotless, of Christ:
For Christ also once suffered for sins, the just one for the unjust, that he might bring us near to God, truly put to death in the flesh, and made alive by the Spirit:
And also were there false prophets among the people, as also among you shall be false teachers, who shall privately bring in doctrines of perdition, and denying the master having purchased them, having brought upon themselves swift destruction.
And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open its seals: for thou wert slain, and didst purchase us to God by thy blood from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation;
There are they who were not contaminated by women; for they are virgins. These are they following the Lamb wherever he should lead. These were purchased from men, first fruits to God and the Lamb.