“There is one God, one mediator also of God and men, Christ Jesus a man, who gave Himself a ransom for all, the testimony in its own times, to which I was appointed a preacher and apostle (I speak truth, I lie not), a teacher of Gentiles in faith and truth” (1 Tim. 2:5-7 WK).
The unity of God is the foundation truth of the Old Testament, as it was the central testimony for which the Jewish people were responsible, in a world where everywhere else was given over to idolatry. We must add that Jehovah, the God of Israel, was that one Jehovah, His proper name in relationship with His people on earth. “Ye are My witnesses, saith Jehovah, and My servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He; before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I, even I, am Jehovah; and beside Me there is no Saviour” (Isa. 43:10-1110Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 11I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour. (Isaiah 43:10‑11) JND).
But during the Jewish economy, God, though known to be one, was not known as He is. “He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.” He dwelt in the thick darkness, even where He surrounded Himself with a people for a possession, and a veil shrouded what display there was of the divine presence, so that the high priest approached but once a year, with clouds of incense and not without blood lest he die. It was only Jesus that made Him truly known, as we see (where it might least have been expected) by that act of incomparable grace in which He was fulfilling all righteousness when baptized of John in the Jordan. There, as the Holy Spirit descended on Him, the Father from heaven proclaimed Him to be His beloved Son. The Trinity stood revealed. It is in the persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit that God, the one God, is really known. Without Jesus this was impossible; when He takes the first step, the Trinity in unity shines out — love and light, wherein is no darkness at all. How infinite is our debt to the Word made flesh, who deigned to tabernacle with us, only-begotten Son who declared God and revealed the Father.
Thus, as we need, we have an adequate image of the invisible God, and this Jesus is mediator of God and men, though mediation, of course, goes farther than representation, for there are two parts in it, His manhood and His ransom, both of special moment if God is to be known and if sinful man is to be suitably blessed in the knowledge of God.
The mediator is a man, that God may be known of men. The Absolute is distinct from the relative by a gulf impassable to us. We creatures universally are relative. But if man cannot himself rise to God, and those of mankind who are, by grace, righteous would most of all repudiate and abhor so presumptuous a thought, God can and does in infinite love come down to man, to man in his guilt and misery with an endless judgment before him.
Bible Treasury, 15:90