Monday, March 24, 2008

Getting Back To Timothy (again); Christ the Mediator


Paul in this next section of 1 Timothy 2 after exhorting us to pray for our fellow man and even those in authority over us now tells us who it is that allows us to be able to pray to our Father in heaven. Nothing separates us more from our Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox brothers and sisters (excepting of course JBFA) than the idea that we who have been born-again in Christ now have been given the ability to speak directly to God the Father through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. This should be earth-shattering information for us. Stop and think about this for a second.......


We who have been alienated from the Father because of our complicity in Adam's sin now have been given the right by our residence in the bosom of Christ to speak DIRECTLY to the Father through his Son. Read verses 5 and 6 and think on this:
For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.

3 comments:

Droll Flood said...

Benjamin, you said:
"Nothing separates us more from our Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox brothers and sisters (excepting of course JBFA)..."

-What do you think of the following quote in relation to what you just said concerning the people in the RCC and EOC?

"...we also, according to the command of Christ and of the apostle Paul, admonish all who know themselves to be defiled with following gross sins to abstain from the table of the Lord, and declare to them that they have no part in the kingdom of Christ: such as, all idolators; all who invoke deceased saints, angels, or other creatures; all who show honor to images; all who resort to or confide in sorcery, fortune-telling, charms, or other forms of superstition; all despisers of God, of His Word, and of the holy sacraments; all blasphemers;..."
-Form For The Celebration Of The Lord's Supper, -Psalter Hymnal, p.92

Benjamin P. Glaser said...

That is also a good example of what separates us from the RC's and Eastern Orthodox. Their views on the Sacraments are very similar and complimentary to their understanding of Christ's work as mediator.

Droll Flood said...

The reason why I brought up the point was that you called them BROTHERS.
Ought we relegate justification by faith alone to an essentially irrelevant status? That and the above mentioned folly/ manifestation of unbelief?