Title: Christ Our Mediator
Scripture: 1 Timothy 2:5-7
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
Well, as a general principle, we find that tragedy will lead people one of two places. It either leads us away from God or it will lead us toward Him. If many of you remember back during 9-11, when the 9-11 attacks happened, the churches were full, full of people seeking to understand the purposes of God, but also seeking to be reconciled to Him at a time when their mortality was apparent.
More recently, several media outlets have reported that, in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination, record numbers of young adults have attended church in the last week, many of them for the first time. There were even folks last week that I met that were in this service that had never been to church before. Last week was their first church service.
That's happening all over the country right now. But the question is, what is it about tragedy that drives a person to seek the Lord? I tend to think that it has to do with the notion that when everything is stripped away and you're faced with your own mortality, a person seeks refuge in the only One who has the power to save. Furthermore, it is an awareness of our own mortality that drives us to the question, what would happen to me if I die? How will God judge my life? It makes us ask important questions, because the stark reality is that every single person in the world who's ever lived apart from one, Jesus Christ, every single person is a sinner.
And in the end, we will not be found to be righteous when we stand before God on our own. And so the question then persists, how do I get right with God? In fact, that was Job's ordeal. Job struggled with the very same thing.
In the book of Job, we read that this man, he suffers terrible tragedy. He loses all of his wealth. He loses all of his children.
He loses his health. He loses virtually everything in the world that he held dear. And he's left searching for answers.
He spends the whole book of Job searching for answers. Why did this happen to me? What did I do wrong to anger God? Why do I deserve this? What is God's purpose in calamity? These nagging questions that Job is asking. And Scripture records in Job 9.2, he says, how can a man be made right before God? And then he says, if one wished to dispute with him, meaning in litigation or in court, he could not answer him one in a thousand times.
He goes on to say later on in Job 9, he says, now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good.
They slip by like reed boats, like an eagle that swoops on its prey. Though I say, I will forget my complaint. I will leave off my sad countenance and be tearful.
I am afraid of all my pains, and I know that you will not acquit me. I am accounted wicked. Why then should I toil in vain? If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, yet you would plunge me into the pit and my own clothes would abhor me.
For he is not a man as I am, that I may answer him, that we may go to court together. And then he asked this timeless question. There is no umpire between us who may lead his hand upon us both.
Let him remove his rod from me. Let not dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak and not fear him.
But I am not like that in myself. Essentially, Job is coming back to this issue here that if there is a contest, a legal contest between himself, a sinner, and God, perfectly righteous, he doesn't stand a chance. He can't cleanse himself from sin.
He can't argue his case. He can't stand up against God's justice. He's hopeless.
And he expresses the desire. He says, I wish there was an umpire between us that would lay his hand on both of us. If I could just find someone to act as a mediator between me and God, then maybe I would stand a chance.
Of course, we know at the conclusion of the story that God comes to Job directly, and He does restore him by His grace. But Job's desire here, the desire for this mediator, for an umpire, for an arbiter, it's an earnest desire for someone to stand in the gap, an advocate for us in the holy presence of Almighty God. And as the Bible later reveals, Job's desire for a mediator comes in the fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
And so, that's what I want to begin by talking about today. And so, if you would, turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 2. We're going to examine this question together, 1 Timothy chapter 2. When we read the Bible, we have to remember that we're not reading a church manual or a theological textbook that breaks everything down into neat categories. That isn't how the Bible is written.
It's a rich, diverse collection of narrative history and prophecy and poetry and letters and prayers that reflect the depth of human experience. In the case of 1 Timothy here, we're dealing with a letter from Paul to his young disciple written for his own benefit, but it's also for the benefit and edification and instruction of the church. There's much in here that is all about directions to the church.
But in this portion here in chapter 2, particularly verses 1 through 8, we are faced with a very specific exhortation. There is the exhortation from the apostle Paul to believers to pray. That's the focus of this section in chapter 2 is prayer.
But wrapped up in the command to pray are a series of statements that reflect a very robust theology pertaining to the will of God, the way of salvation, and the nature of atonement for sin. Again, all of this is seamlessly woven together, and yet it is our job to seek to understand and apply these truths to our lives. So, let's begin by going back and rereading this small section here.
1 Timothy 2 verses 1 through 8. This is the words of the apostle Paul to Timothy. He says, First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle, I am telling the truth, I'm not lying, as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension.
Now, if you were with us last week, we looked at verses 1 through 4, and we saw that the church has a desperate need of people to pray. There's a need for prayer, and Paul exhorts the church to pray. He says he's qualifying, he says that entreaties and prayers and petitions and thanksgivings be made, and he says, well, for who are we to offer these prayers to the Lord? He says, for all men.
In the Greek, it's panton, which is an all statement, and then anthropon, literally all peoples, all kinds of people. But then he focuses on specifically the importance of praying not just for all people, but he zeroes in for kings and all who are in authority. So, he commands the church to pray for kings, but by virtue of that, to pray for presidents, to pray for governors, to pray for leaders.
Anyone and all people who are in the position of authority over us need to be prayed for. And what is the purpose of praying for those who are in authority above us? He says in the second half of verse 2, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Of course, we understand when we look at the whole thing that the ultimate purpose is not simply so that we will just be able to live by ourselves and people will just leave us alone and we can live quietly in peace.
It's not simply so we could be recluses. Rather, it's so that we will be able to live out a godly life in public, and so that we can live out godliness and live out dignity. More specifically, when we tie in the truth of verse 4, that he brings in the idea that God has this desire for people to be saved here.
If we bring that notion in that we understand here from the passage, that our ultimate goal is to pray for people to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so the theme, the grand theme of verses 1 through 8 here is evangelistic prayer. These are not selfish prayers so that we can just be left alone.
This is evangelistic prayer. We're praying for all people to come to the knowledge of the truth. We're praying for our kings, our governors, our presidents, anybody who's in authority above us.
We pray for all people. And then he buttons it up in verse 8, therefore I want the men in every place, wherever you are guys, in every place to lift up holy hands without wrath and dissension and pray. And so again, we see God's saving desire in verse 4. And then we're going to see as we're going to go into our text this morning, there's not just God's saving desire, but there's also the agent of salvation that is Christ Jesus in verse 5. And then we're going to move into talking about the payment for salvation, which is the ransom given in verse 6. And so we're moving, we're following the flow of the argument here, and we're going to see that when you examine this entire paragraph, yes it's about prayer, he buttons it with prayer, it is all about evangelistic prayer, but the focal point, the linchpin of the entire thing is verse 5, Christ Jesus.
He is the hinge on which all of this turns. Everything is about Jesus here. And yet we also realize that embedded in verses 4 through 6 are some very challenging concepts.
There's some very challenging ideas that are worth exploring, and so we will cover that, but I want to begin first by talking about the truth of Christ's mediation in verse 5. Look again at verse 5 with me as we're continuing. Paul says, for there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Paul has already referred to God our Savior in verse 3, and now in verse 5 he asserts this fundamental truth about the nature of God.
He says that God is one. Now, this statement no doubt reflects the first line of the Jewish Shema in Deuteronomy 6.4. Every Jew in Israel would have known this and even to this day still knows this. Deuteronomy 6.4, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
This is over and against the polytheistic gods of pagan cults. We don't worship many gods. The Bible teaches that there is one God, and like Jewish believers in the Old Testament, we affirm monotheism.
We worship one God, and yet we also understand in a great mystery that the Scriptures also teach the triunity of God. We have this word trinity that we use, but the idea is that there is one God who exists eternally in three distinct persons. Well, how do we see that bared out? Well, the Bible clearly states that the Father is God, clearly states that the Son is God, and clearly states that the Spirit is God, and yet they're all one.
There's no division. There's no separation between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and we see this reflected even in the next phrase where Paul declares that there is also one mediator between God and men, namely the second person of the trinity, which is the man Christ Jesus. But let's talk about this word here, this word for mediator.
Paul uses the word in the Greek, it is mesetes, which is literally referring to someone who stands in the middle between two parties. It's an arbiter, it's a mediator, it's a go-between, and here he's specifically talking about a person who's going to stand in the middle between God and men, all humanity. Now, all throughout the course of history, many ideas have been floated as to who this could actually be, who could actually do this, who would be able to stand in the gap between God and humanity.
It's a timeless question. Throughout the course of Jewish history, there was a belief that people like Moses could stand in the gap between God and men, or maybe the high priest could stand in the gap. Some even believe that angels might be mediators for us.
Now, we certainly don't deny that those individual people, the high priests or the Moses, could have a ministry of mediation. Certainly, Moses functioned as a lesser mediator on some level, but Scripture is clear that all those other mediators fall short. In fact, that's a large part of the argument of the book of Hebrews.
If you read Hebrews, that's the crux of the beginning of the book, is that there is neither angels, nor priests, nor Moses could ever serve as our mediator between us and God. In fact, Hebrews 3.1 says that Jesus is the apostle and high priest of our confession, not Moses. Moses is not our high priest, he's not the apostle, he's not the ultimate prophet.
The ultimate prophet, priest, and king is Jesus. Furthermore, over and against the priesthood in Israel, Hebrews 8.6 says that Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant than the one offered by Moses. Chapter 9, verse 15 says he's the mediator of a new covenant, whereby through his death we could receive redemption and the promise of the eternal inheritance.
And so, once again, it's not Moses, it's not the priesthood, it's not angels, but even more theories than that fall short. It's not just the course of biblical history. In fact, one of the key issues that Protestantism has with Roman Catholicism is the belief in other mediators.
According to the catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, priests serve as mediators who are able to absolve the sins of people through penance. In fact, one of the titles given to the pope is the supreme pontiff. But what does the word pontiff mean? Well, it comes from the Latin word pontifex, which literally means bridge or bridge builder.
And so, as the pontifex maximus, he is seen as the ultimate bridge between heaven and earth. But even more problematic than that, even than that, is the view of Mary. Paragraph 969 of the Roman Catholic Church's catechism calls Mary our, quote, advocate, helper, benefactress, and mediatrix.
Of course, it goes on to say that she only amplifies the mediatorial work of Christ, but functionally she is treated by the majority of Roman Catholic worshippers as a link to heaven. That, quote, by her manifold intercession, she continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation, end quote. That's hugely problematic because that is utterly foreign to the doctrine of Scripture.
First Timothy 2.5 is very clear that there is only one mediator, one and only one. There is no co-mediator, no co-redeemer, no mediatrix. There is one mediator between God and man.
That's the man Christ Jesus. Furthermore, and Jesus explicitly says in John 14.6, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.
There's no other person who could even come close to mediating, the mediatorial role, the go-between, the arbiter between God and man, the only one bears that responsibility and ability is Christ. Furthermore, in Matthew 11.27, Jesus says, all things are handed over to Me by the Father, and He says, no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. What does that tell us? It tells us that the only one who's able to even get into the presence of God to know Him, to know what He desires, is the Son.
And the only one who can stand for us in front of the Father is the Son. He's the only link between heaven and earth, the only one who truly knows the Father, and the only one who's able to bring us to Him. Jesus is very clear.
He's the only one. Well, how is this possible? How is it possible that Jesus is able to stand in the gap between us and God? How is that possible? It is made possible by what is known by theologians as the hypostatic union, or the two natures of Christ. Let me just read to you what the Chalcedonian Creed, the early church creed, says about this.
That Jesus is the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, consubstantial of the same substance as God the Father, as regards His divinity, and the same consubstantial with us regarding His humanity, like us in all respects except for sin. In other words, Jesus is perfectly and truly human. That's why Paul calls Him the Christ Jesus.
He's able to act on our behalf for our needs before God, to be our representative, our new and better Adam. That's the whole argument behind the second half of Romans chapter 5, is that we need someone who's able to stand for us. It was supposed to be Adam, but he fell.
If we were to go and elect a representative for all humanity to go and stand before the Father and say, Lord, please accept our repentance. Please accept our faith. Who would we elect to go and do that? There's nobody.
I mean, if we could go back in time, we could say, Adam, you do it. Couldn't do it. So, who is the only one who is able to stand as our representative before God and not be incinerated? There's only one.
Jesus, because being God in human flesh, He is able to stand as human. But He's also, again, God in human flesh. Jesus is able to act on God's interest as well.
It's interesting that in the same passage in John 14, when Jesus says that He is the only way to the Father, it's interesting because one of the disciples, if you remember this, asks Him or says to Him, show us the Father and it is enough for us. They had no problem seeing Jesus as human because they could look Him right in the face, right? He looked human. Jesus didn't present Himself in any different way as any of us.
If Jesus dressed up in our clothes and walked in and sat down, you'd never know He was the God-man by external appearance. And so, they could see Him as human, but they say, show us the Father and it's enough. How does He respond? He says, He who has seen Me has seen the Father.
You want to see God? Look at Me. What does He mean by that? What is He talking about? He's referring to the essence of His own mediation. What He's saying is this.
You're able to converse with Me and talk to Me and ask questions of Me in My humanity, and in My humanity, I can bring you to the Father. But by My divinity, I'm able to bring the Father to you. In fact, because of our union, to Me, you see Me, it's just as if you're seeing the Father as well.
He is able to perfectly stand in the gap and represent both parties in perfection. Truly human, truly God. It's remarkable.
Again, because of the two natures of Christ, He's the only one who is able to serve as the mediator between God and man. But what did He do on behalf of both parties to accomplish salvation so that God would be pleased? Again, verse 4, God desires salvation for all people. How is Jesus able to accomplish this? Verse 6, look at verse 6. It says in verse 6 that He gave Himself, talking about Jesus now, He gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.
This word here, ransom, is key. The word ransom. Literally, in the Greek here, it's anti or anti-lutron.
It's the only place in the New Testament this word is used, but there are other versions of this word that appear elsewhere. The root is lutron, which is referring to a payment made to redeem the life of a slave. So, when you would go to the auction block, the slave auction block, and you wanted to buy a slave, there was a price on that slave, and you would pay that redemption price, and they would be released and turned over to you.
That's the concept that we're seeing here. That is literally what lutron is referring to. In other places, this word is translated redemption.
For example, in Romans 3-24, we are said to have been justified as a gift by God's grace through the redemption, through the price, the ransom that's been paid, and He says, which is in Christ Jesus. In other words, Jesus effectively buys us out of slavery to sin. He doesn't just go and make you savable.
He buys you. He ransoms you. He redeems you.
But how does He do this? How is He able to ransom and redeem us? Well, He says it is by giving of Himself on the cross. He offers up His life as a sacrifice to God. It's similar to the imperfect animal sacrifices in the Old Testament.
They would kill an animal, shed its blood, and the blood was the payment, even though we know that all of that sacrifice in the Old Testament did not accomplish anything. It only pointed to the ultimate reality that Jesus is able to offer up Himself as a perfect sacrifice. His blood is the only payment that can be made for sins.
And so, Jesus goes and gives up His own life. He dies and sheds His blood on the cross. Paul says He gave Himself as a ransom.
He Himself is the payment for our sins. But He did not suffer against His will. He purposefully offered Himself up to be killed.
Why? Because it was His own sacrifice that was acceptable and the payment was made. Well, who is this payment made to? Who is He buying us from? Well, the payment is made to the Father. The Father is the offended party.
Even though we're the ones that are sold into slavery to sin because of our sinful nature, the Father is the offended party. He's the one who is going to met out judgment against sinners. And so, Jesus pays this ransom to the Father to redeem us.
1 John 2. John says, if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father. An advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation. Literally, it is the atoning sacrifice that satisfies the wrath of God.
Jesus, by His death, stops the wrath of God and holds it back. He Himself is the propitiation for our sins and not only ours, but also for those of the whole world. The only way for sinners to be made right with God is to have the Savior and the Mediator, Jesus Christ, stand in our place, make an offering of payment to God for sin on our behalf, and satisfy Him and secure our salvation.
And that is exactly what Jesus has done. And yet, the verse leaves us here with a few questions. Namely, this big, huge question, for whom did Christ die? And who is included in the word all? Well, my friends, this opens up a 500-year-old debate.
It's actually older than that. Augustine fought this debate with Pelagius, but more recently, we've seen this debate in what is known as the debate between Calvinists and Arminians, or rather, sovereign election versus free will. Did God choose to save some and not others from eternity past, or did God grant all people the ability to choose to be saved and thereby receive salvation? Because here's the thing, if God sovereignly elects to save some, then Christ only needs to make atonement for those people.
But if all are able to come to Christ by faith, then the atonement is universal. It is for all, truly all. Now, to be clear, I want to set some ground rules here as we're talking about this.
No one denies that Christ's atonement is sufficient to save all people. His atonement is sufficient. Let me give you a for instance here.
If Jesus dies on the cross to pay for sin and 10 billion people come to saving faith in Him, He would not need to die again if another million came to faith. Make sense? So, His death on the cross is a one-time payment that is sufficient for all people anywhere who would believe in Him. It covers all the sins of believers.
And so, the death of Christ is sufficient for all people for all time. Again, no one argues about that. Calvinist or many, no one argues about that.
But the question is, for whom did Christ die? And some would say, well, that's easy. 1 Timothy 2, 6 says that He gave Himself as a ransom for all. Well, I'm afraid that's not that simple.
Well, why? Well, because we read that Christ gave Himself for all here, but then Jesus in Mark 10, 45 says that Jesus gave Himself as a ransom for many, not all, for many. Okay, well, that doesn't really help us solve the problem either because now we have all or we have many, which is it? But I think John chapter 10 actually does help us. So, let's go over to John 10.
I know we're getting theological here, but I can't always be nice to you. I have to bring you into deep things. And I, you know, over the years, I haven't really delved too deeply into this issue, frankly, because most of the texts that we've been in haven't plunged us into this.
But this is one of those places where the debate and the lack of clarity is apparent. We have to deal with it, and so I'm happy to deal with this. I think it's a good thing to talk about.
John 10 features Jesus' teaching on the Good Shepherd. So, John 10 is the Good Shepherd, and He likens Himself to be the Shepherd, and the believers are His sheep. It's very clear.
In the discourse, Jesus talks about His duties as the Shepherd, but ultimately He is talking about His responsibility as the Savior. And so, let's look at this together. John chapter 10, we're not going to be able to exposit all of it.
We're going to just talk about a few things that we see here. But John 10, we're going to pick it up in verse 14. Jesus is speaking to the disciples here.
He says, "'I am the Good Shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice, and they will become one flock with one Shepherd.
For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.
This commandment I received from My Father.'" A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words. Many of them were saying, he has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to him? Others were saying, these are not the sayings of one demon possessed.
A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he? At that time, the feast of the dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. And the Jews then gathered around Him and were saying to Him, how long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.
Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.
We'll stop right there. There's a few things to note here in this passage. First here is that Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep.
He says the exact same thing in verse 11, which we didn't read, but it's there. Verse 11, I am the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. But this is a notion here, this notion of laying down His life for others, that's referring to His substitutionary death on the cross.
In fact, we see both His death and His resurrection in verse 18. He says, no one has taken My life away from Me. I lay it down on My own initiative.
Then He says, I have the authority to lay it down and the authority to take it back up again. That's resurrection. And so it's very clear.
Jesus is clearly referring to the events of the cross, which is the salvation of sinners. Okay, do you see that? He's giving His life for His sheep. He's dying on the cross to pay for them.
And then we learn the identity of the sheep. Look again at verse 27. He says, My sheep, because He's been talking about His sheep the entire passage, My sheep hear My voice.
I know them. They follow Me. I give eternal life to them.
They will never perish, and no one can snatch them out of My hand. And so we have this concept here that believers are sheep here. The sheep hear His voice.
When they read the Bible, when they hear Him speaking, they hear Him. They hear His voice. They follow Him.
They know Him. They're known by Him, and they receive eternal life. All of these things are true of the sheep.
On the contrary, however, we have the non-believing Jews in the passage. Verse 20, we even have some that are accusing Him of being demon-possessed. They accuse Him of being insane.
Furthermore, despite telling them directly who He is in verse 25, He says that some of them refuse to believe. They will not believe even though He's demonstrated who He is. So they slander Him.
They do not regard Him. They dishonor Him. They don't believe in Him.
And He says that these are the reasons they don't believe. Verse 25, or 26, excuse me. He says, You do not believe because you are not of My sheep.
You're not My sheep. You don't know Me. You don't love Me.
You don't believe in Me. You don't belong to Me. That's the sense of it.
And so it becomes very clear there's a distinction here between believers who follow Him, those are His sheep, and unbelievers who hate and slander Him, which brings us to the last question here, okay, how does this solve our debacle here? How does it solve our tension, our question? For whom did Christ die? For everyone, for the world, or for only His sheep? Look at verse 11, verse 14, I lay down My life for the sheep. For the sheep. Or said another way in verse 28, I give eternal life to them.
Again, the sheep. Jesus does not die for the goats. He does not die for those who reject Him, who hate Him.
But then the question consists, or persists, I should say, how do we reconcile this? Because we've had three different iterations of this giving His life for somebody. Is He giving His life for all? Is He giving His life for many? Or is He giving His life for the sheep? Well, inherent in the entire issue here is something of a mysterious paradox. What is a paradox? A paradox is when you have two seemingly contradictory things that in and of themselves are both true.
How do we reconcile these things? And here lies the tension, believers. Here lies the tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. And both are taught in Scripture.
Because again, the Bible is very clear, very clear. And you have the those on the Calvinist position. And frankly, I'll just say this very openly, most Calvinists and most Arminians don't understand each other's positions.
Because people say things to me all the time that say, oh, you're a Calvinist because you teach this. And then someone else says, oh, you're an Arminian because you teach this. I just want to teach the Bible.
So wherever the Bible goes is where I go. And both things have elements of truthfulness in them. And yet, the Scripture is abundantly clear that God elects and predestines some for salvation.
You can't get away from that. You can't reason out of it. You can't step side of it.
John 15, 16, Jesus talking to the disciples, he says very clearly, you did not choose me, but I chose you. Ephesians 1, 4, and 5. God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us, not just to a good life or to good deeds as believers.
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself. You cannot get away from that. God chooses and elects believers for salvation through His divine sovereignty.
And yet, the Bible calls on all people everywhere to repent of their sins and put their trust in Jesus Christ and offers those gospel promises. Again, the most famous, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
Now, you can parse out the word world, and we could do that, and we will, but the big idea here is that all people everywhere are commanded to repent and believe. There is a human responsibility. You must repent and believe.
Charles Spurgeon famously said, if I could lift up a man's shirt and see the letter E on his chest and know he was the elect, I'd only preach to him. But because we can't do that, we assume that every person everywhere is the elect of God and we preach the gospel to all people. I don't know who is going to be saved.
Frankly, to me, it doesn't matter. The responsibility of evangelism, of evangelistic prayer, is for all people everywhere. There is no person beyond the ability of God's saving grace.
That person is never going to come to Christ. You don't know that. You don't know that.
And so we must treat all people, all people with the same evangelistic zeal. And we call all people to repent and trust in Jesus Christ. And yet, there is a mysterious paradox where God is sovereign in salvation and in election and predestination, and yet there is a human responsibility of all people everywhere to trust in Jesus Christ.
And so what do we do with 1 Timothy 2.6? Go back and look at it with me. What does it mean that Jesus Christ gave himself as a ransom for all? Well, I think the first thing we have to do is pay attention to the context of the passage. What is Paul doing with his language here in the passage? If you notice here, when you read it, when you listen to me read it out loud, you hear an emphasis, a repeated emphasis on the word all here.
Verse 1, that prayers should be made on behalf of all people. Verse 2, that we are to pray for all who are in authority over us. Verse 4, God's desire is for all people to be saved.
Verse 6, Christ Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all. Even notice in verse 8, Paul is stating that people, men in every place, and in other words, all places should be praying. And so we see this repeated emphasis on the word all.
But notice here that Paul is not stating every person individually, but rather he says all peoples, all anthropos, all peoples, all kinds of peoples. The purpose here in the context is to demolish artificial boundaries and distinctions. For example, we don't just pray for our own people, people in our camp.
That's easy to do, right? When you go to have your time with God to pray, who do you want to pray for? You want to pray for your friends, and your family, and your kids, and people that you love. But how often do you obey the Lord and pray for our enemies? How often do you do that? How often do you pray for your leaders, especially the ones you didn't vote for? Do you pray for all leaders everywhere? Do you pray for those who are in authority above you? Yeah, but they're taxing me like crazy. Pray for them.
It doesn't matter. So Paul, he's removing these distinctions here. So we don't just pray for our own people.
We don't even pray for our own social class, which is what was popular in Paul's day. We pray for all people, including leaders. Now there's another element to this.
The traditional belief in Judaism at the time was that it was only the Jews that were going to be saved. They were the only people of God in their view. But Paul spends many, many letters talking about how that distinction's gone.
Ephesians 2 blows it out of the water completely. And so it's not that we're only praying for God's chosen people as they would have understood it. Paul actually even alludes to this in verse 7 when he refers to himself as the teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Paul says, I'm not just here for Jews. I'm here for the Gentiles too. I'm here for all people.
And so for Christ's ransom, remember John 10 when he says to the Jews, I have other sheep who are not of this fold. I must bring them also. Jesus is asserting that He is the Savior and the shepherd of not just the sheep of the house of Israel, but He's here for all believers in every tongue, tribe, and nation, all the peoples of the world.
He is the mediator, the Savior, and the Redeemer. And then he notes, this is a testimony given at the proper time. This word testimony is, the root of it is the word martyr, which means witness or proof.
The ransom or the payment for sin was the testimony, the proof of God's saving grace, which came at the proper time. It didn't come too early. It didn't come too late.
As Galatians 4 says, when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. In short, this is the crux of the gospel. And then Paul adds in verse 7, for this, for this gospel here, I was appointed a preacher and an apostle.
He says, I'm telling the truth. I'm not lying. And as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
This word preacher in the Greek refers to a herald. It was Paul's joyful responsibility to stand up and shout this truth from the rooftops. All people everywhere can come to Christ.
There is no Jewish Messiah only, Jewish Savior only. It is the Savior of the world. And so Paul is the preacher, the herald of this truth.
And he says, he was appointed an apostle. He was sent with Christ's authority to proclaim this message. Of course, the book of Acts records that the Jews rejected Paul, which was it drove him to be the teacher of the Gentiles, to disciple them in faith and in truth.
And so it was his solemn charge, and he was compelled to travel to places like Philippi and Colossae and here in Ephesus, a place that was overrun with false worship to false deities. And again, Paul's message and our message is simply this. There is one God, one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.
That's what all of this is centered on. It all hangs on this truth that Christ is our God. He is our mediator, the one who stands in the gap.
He is the Savior. He's the one who redeems you and buys you back from slavery to sin and to death. And He is our King.
He's Lord. He's the sovereign over our lives. The question is, do you know Him? Do you know Jesus Christ as Savior, as Lord? And I'll tell you, if you don't, now is the perfect opportunity.
And I would even entreat you, if you hear His voice in your heart, if there's anything in you that's nagging at you to turn to Christ, do it. Don't resist. Don't wait.
Don't think I'm talking to someone else. If you hear His voice in your heart, do not harden your heart in rebellion. Don't do that.
Bow the knee. Admit your sins to Him. Lord, I've sinned.
I know I have. I have not lived perfectly at all, but I haven't even lived righteously. I've sinned against You.
I've sinned against other people. Lord, there's nothing I can do to wash myself clean of this sin. And so I'm coming to You.
I'm pleading for Your mercy. And I'm pleading for Your mercy based on what is offered to me in the Gospel, that Jesus Christ came and gave His life as a ransom for me. He paid for me.
And so I receive that freely. I accept the payment of sin on my behalf. And Jesus is my mediator.
He's the one I'm looking to because I can't come to You. I'm going to die if I see You, Lord. And so Christ is my mediator.
He is the righteous one. And I'm putting my trust in Him. And I confess my sins to You, O Lord.
And I believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. Forgive me, Lord. Save me, redeem me, and help me to walk.
And if you confess your sins, God is the one who is just. He's the one who's faithful. He will forgive you.
He will forgive you. Well, how do I know if I'm of the elect? It doesn't matter. Do you hear Him? My sheep hear my voice.
Do you hear Him? If you hear Him and you feel the conviction to do that, obey. Obey Him. Come to Christ.
Doesn't matter who you are, what you've done. All who come to Christ will be received and have forgiveness and have eternal life. He's promised it.
So don't delay. Don't deny. Believe on Him.
And you, my friend, will be saved. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You so much that You have given us a ransom, a payment for our sins in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
And Lord, there are great mysteries at work here. And Lord, even though the Scriptures are clear in their own truths as we read them, how we harmonize, how we bring these together, how we understand the majesty of Your thinking, I cannot fathom. Who could know the mind of the Lord? Who could become Your counselor? Nobody.
I don't know how You do this, but I know these things are true. Lord, we know that You are sovereign. You are in control over all things, everything, and yet You call us to come to You.
You entreat us. You extend Your heart to us. You have compassion on those who are pitiful and sad and broken.
You extend Your heart to those who are hurting and who need You. And You call us to come to You when we're weary and anxious, and You will be our salvation, and You will be our comfort and our strength. And so, Lord, we come to You not in our personal victories and not in strength, not in wholeness, not in pride, not in power, Lord.
We come to You broken. We come to You needy. We come to You damaged and dirty, O Lord.
And we have nothing to offer except our bloody hands that have committed our own transgressions, Lord. We have nothing except a desire and a need for You. And yet You, in grace and in compassion, You regenerate us.
You give us new life. You recreate us, and You adopt us as children. Lord, how wonderful are these promises.
How wonderful it is that You would save even one, and yet how many countless numbers of people have You redeemed. O Lord, You are wonderful. We thank You for the salvation that we have in Christ.
And Lord, help us to be bold and not to hide behind fear, not even to hide behind theology and say, oh, that is for someone else to do. Lord, help us to be zealous to reach out to all people anywhere, everywhere with this saving message of Jesus Christ. Let us be bold evangelists, because the time is now.
There are people all around this country who are desperate for truth. Lord, You have entrusted the church to be the pillar and fortress of truth. Lord, help us to shine Your light so that people might see our good works and glorify You who are in heaven.
Give us boldness, Lord. Give us confidence in Christ. But more than that, give us compassion for the lost.
We lift up their names, Lord, to You. We love them. We pray for our leaders and those who are in authority over us.
We pray for all people everywhere, that they might come to the knowledge and the salvation in Jesus Christ. We pray for all of these things in Jesus' name.