I understand your point. My disagreement would be in Timothy scripture, it states
Christ is the only mediator between man and God. With you asking Saints to be your mediator to God seems as a
biblical conflict.
Mediator of a covenant.
We have to see the context, and remember that the audience is Jewish.
The word mediator is used four times in the New Testament. This is where it helps to have a good concordance, or use an online concordance.
*
For there is one God.
There is also one mediator between God and the human race,
Christ Jesus, himself human,
who gave himself as ransom for all.
(1 Timothy 2:5-6)
Now he has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as he is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 8:6)
For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant: since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. (Hebrews 9:15)
…and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquent than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:24)*
Paul speaks of Christ being the only mediator between God and the human race, and being the mediator of a new covenant.
Hit the pause button here…
Always remember that the Jews were covenant people. Whenever we hear the word Jew, we should immediately think “Covenant.” To the Jews, the covenant with God was everything. The Jews were God’s chosen people, the only nation with whom God chose to enter into a covenant. Covenants create family bonds. This was the whole idenity of the Jewish people from the time of Moses to the time of Jesus. Moses was mediator of the first covenant. Moses spoke to God directly, recieving information about what the covenant entailed, its responsibilities and obligations, its reward (blessing and life) and penalties (curse and death). The people would not approach God directly, but had Moses do so.
Now as all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blast of the shofar and the mountain smoking, they became afraid and trembled.So they took up a position farther away and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we shall die.” Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid, for God has come only to test you and put the fear of him upon you so you do not sin.” So the people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the dark cloud where God was. (Exodus 20:18-21)
Only Moses spoke to God, and Moses brought the details of God’s covenant to the people, the people ratified it, and Moses went back to God and sealed the covenant with blood.
When Moses came to the people and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all answered with one voice, “We will do everything that the LORD has told us.” Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and, rising early in the morning, he built at the foot of the mountain an altar and twelve sacred stones for the
twelve tribes of Israel. Then, having sent young men of the Israelites to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice young bulls as communion offerings to the LORD, Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls; the other half he splashed on the altar. Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered, all that the LORD has said, we will hear and do.” Then he took the blood and splashed it on the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.” (Exodus 24:3-8)*
The words in red are key. Moses is the mediator of the covenant between God and the Jews. Moses speaks directly to God and directly to man, and goes between them, communicating back and forth with regards to the covenant - its responsibilities and obligations, blessings and curses, life and death. Moses seals the covenant with blood splashed on the people and on the book. Moses goes up to the mountain and speaks with God.
Release the pause button now…
The word
mediator was written by Paul, a Jew, a scholar of the Jewish scriptures, an expert in all things related to the covenant, and a person who lived under the Old Covenant of Moses. Paul is writing to Jews who understood the covenant, and who would have seen Jesus, as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, would have seen Jesus as the New Moses. Paul was explaining Jesus in terms of Moses and the Old Covenant, and explaining how Christ is the New Moses. Christ and Moses are both mediators of
a covenant:
- Moses communicated with both God and man. Christ was both God and man, so Christ could communicate with both God and man.
- Moses sealed the old covenant with blood. Christ sealed the new covenant with his own blood.
- Moses went up on the mountain to talk to God. Christ went up on the mountain and ascended to Heaven to be with God.
That’s all Paul is saying, that Christ is the only mediator between God and Man because christ alone is both God and Man, and what Christ mediates is the new covenant, just like Moses mediated the old covenant.
Christ is the one mediator ***of a covenant *** between God and man.
Paul’s use of the phrase “one mediator between God and man” has to be taken in terms of the covenant. Remember that paul is writing to Jews, covenant people. We have to always keep the audience and context in mind.
-Tim-
