One Mediator, One Ransom, One Apostolic Message (1 Timothy 2:5-7)

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Paul has been emphasising God’s relationship with ‘all’. We ought to pray for all (2:1), God desires all to be saved (2:4), Christ gave Himself as a ransom for all (2:6), and this message is to be proclaimed to all (2:7).

  1. There is one Mediator.
    • 2:5; Job 9:32-33; Heb.7:26.
      1. The Gnostic, Valentinus, said there were thirty Aeons between God and us.
      2. Roman Catholics pray to saints and angels, and Mary.
      3. Judaism and Islam profess one God but with no formal mediator.
      4. Rev. Tim Costello, the Victorian Baptist minister who is sometimes mistaken for an evangelical, was asked on radio by Phillip Adams whether he believed that Christ is the only way to God. He replied ‘No.’ The Bible says ‘Yes, there is only one mediator’ – Acts 4:12.
  2. There is one ransom.
    • 2:6; Matt.20:28. The idea is not just ‘release’ but ‘release upon payment of a price’.
  3. There is one apostolic message.
    • 2:6-7; see Ps.2:8. Paul speaks of himself in three ways:
      1. a preacher. More literally, he is a herald.
      2. an apostle, an eyewitness, directly commissioned by Christ.
      3. a teacher.
    • Paul assures us that he is not lying. Friedrich Nietzsche called Paul ‘that hate-obsessed false-coiner’. Paul is of faith and truth.