God the Son has always been the Mediator. How do we know that? Paul says so in Galatians 3:19: “and [the Law] was put in place through angels by a mediator.”  Paul addresses the problem right away. A “mediator” implies two parties but God is one. There are three persons of the Trinity and there have always been,  Paul implies this in 1 Corinthians 10:4, “and that rock was Christ.” Before he was incarnate, God the Son was with his people, saving his people, Mediating for his people.

If you are an adult you know about mediators. It is not uncommon now, when one signs a contract, to agree to “binding arbitration” or to “mediation” either in lieu of going to court or before going to court. A mediator, then, is one who “who attempts to make people involved in a conflict come to an agreement” it is a “a go-between.” In its definition, the Oxford Dictionary of English gives this example, “the government appointed a mediator to assist in finding a resolution to the dispute.” Scripture has a doctrine of the Mediator.

The One Mediator

The Apostle Paul says,

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth (1 Tim 2:5–7; ESV).

Jesus, God the Son incarnate, true God and true man but one person, is the “one mediator” between God and humans. He is also our Savior. He obeyed in place of all his elect. All his actively suffering obedience is credited to all who believe. Paul characterizes his message in these terms, as one appointed to announce Jesus as the the Mediator.

Jesus is the one who represents his people to God and who represents God to his people. God the Son has always been the Mediator. How do we know that? Paul says so in Galatians 3:19: “and [the Law] was put in place through angels by a mediator.”  Paul addresses the problem right away. A “mediator” implies two parties but God is one. There are three persons of the Trinity and there have always been,  Paul implies this in 1 Corinthians 10:4, “and that rock was Christ.” Before he was incarnate, God the Son was with his people, saving his people, Mediating for his people. Paul uses the title ‘Christ” (anointed), which belongs properly to the Son after the incarnation, so that we will understand clearly that God the Son was always with us.

All this is just another way of saying what Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 ; ESV). To say that no one comes to the Father apart from Jesus is to say that he is the Mediator. He has always been. “And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen” (John 5:37). John wrote, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made him known” (John 1:18). Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9).

The Old Covenant And the New

The pastor who wrote to a Christian congregation that we being tempted to go back to Moses and to the types and shadows, says:

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant (Heb 9:15; ESV).

The reason that the pastor of this Jewish Christian congregation calls Jesus the Mediator of the “New Covenant” In particular, is not because this is the first appearance of the covenant of grace but because he is juxtaposing, contrasting the New Covenant with the Old, Mosaic Covenant.

Who was the mediator of the Old Covenant? It was Moses. This is a theme that the pastor has been sounding from the beginning of his sermon-epistle. He wrote:

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope (Heb 3:1–6).

Read More