Friday, December 8, 2006
One God, One Way (1 Tim. 2:5-6)
"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." (1 Tim. 2:5-6)
After urging Timothy to pray for all people because God desires all to be saved, Paul writes one of the most beautiful sections in all of Scripture that truly encapsulates the Gospel. He states:
1) There is one God - Make no mistake about it, there is only one God and that is the God of the Bible. Paul does not leave this up to debate.
2) There is one way to God - This one God, YHWH to the Jews, has provided one way to come to Him, and that is through His son, Jesus Christ. Why? Because Jesus Christ paid God the ransom, the fee, for mankind's sin, so that his Wrath (the penalty for sin) would not be poured out on us. Instead, it was poured out on His Son. This happened at the proper time, or the fullness of time - a time in which God, in his sovereignty and wisdom, chose.
The world oftentimes chides Christians for being closed-minded and bigoted because we claim that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. If we are really intellectually and reasonably honest with what we believe, we will stick by our claim that Jesus in the only way. This, indeed, was the purpose of Paul's letter to Timothy.
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