The Man Christ Jesus

-July 23, 2023-

Good morning, happy Lord’s Day,

“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

(1 Timothy 2:5-6).

When Jesus came down to be born into the world, He was the perfect God-Man. He wasn’t half God and half man, He was fully God and fully man. The theological term is the Incarnation, God becoming Man. God devised the plan of salvation long before Adam and Eve sinned. No angel could have died for sinners, nor could anyone else. Our Savior took on human flesh, yet without sin.

Jesus was uniquely qualified to be our substitute, the just dying for the unjust; the Judge taking our place, bearing our sin, guilt, shame, and punishment. He who was innocent died for the guilty. Hebrews says of Jesus our High Priest, “For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself” (Hebrews 7:26-27).

Jesus became our Mediator, between us and God, to bring us to God through His reconciliation. A mediator in the business world is someone who is independent, who listens to both sides, and helps bring the sides together. In our case with God, God had done nothing wrong; we needed the reconciliation, not Him. Paul refers to Jesus as, “the Man Christ Jesus.” He was not only our Mediator but He was our Savior. Pilate made the statement of Jesus in John 19:5, “…Behold the Man.”

Jesus not only paid our ransom, but He became our random. When a person is kidnapped and held for ransom, the kidnappers demand money from the family of the victim. Jesus paid our sin debt, bore our sin, and became sin for us in order to bring us to God. He gave His life for us. He paid it all. The hymn writer Elvina M. Hall wrote, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain—He washed it white as snow.”

May we never forget the price that was paid to save us from our sins, judgment, condemnation, death, and hell. He is the Man Christ Jesus, the Mediator of a better covenant. Have a blessed day remembering the Lord and hearing the Word of God. Stay safe and healthy.

Beholding the suffering Savior, and the risen and coming King,

Dean