In Hebrews 9:15 we learn from Paul that Jesus “is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that those called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—since a death has taken place that redeems them from violations under the first covenant.”
A mediator is one who stands in between and communicates between two people who are often estranged.
As such, Jesus is the mediator between God and humankind. Everything that God has revealed about God’s-self to humanity is through Jesus and therefore the access that we have to God is also through him.
Bonhoeffer once wrote, “[Christ] is the Mediator, not only between God and humankind, but between human and human, between us and reality.”
I recently read an article on mediation and laughed when the author (a lawyer who has mediated over 7000 cases) shared a personal reflection. She said that her 90 year old parents still mediate between her and her sisters! Just think, a trained lawyer and veteran mediator still needed the practical help of her parents to mediate conflict with her siblings.
We can consider mediation as third-party-peacemaking. Scripture speaks of mediation in a number of places But the most profound illustration of mediation is Jesus Himself. “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and human beings, Christ Jesus, himself human” (1 Timothy 2:5).
In the greek, mediator is best understood as someone who is a go-between, arbiter, agent of something good. In Rabbinic teaching there is a common saying that a mediator is “the one who is sent is like the one who sent him”
O God, you are my God, and I praise you for making access to you so freely available. I know that if left to my own power, I would have no strength or righteousness with which to approach you. Yet in your grace, you have provided a mediator for my approach to you. Jesus, I thank that you intercede and speak for me! Thank you, Jesus, for making this prayer known to the Father as I pray in your name. Amen.
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