“The Only Redeemer of God’s Elect”

(1 Timothy 2:5-6)

I. Introduction.
A. Last week, we were introduced to the Covenant of Grace.
1. God had ordained that Adam would break the Covenant of Works.
a. Adam would choose of his own free will to disobey.
b. This would bring about the fall of all men into sin.

2. But God had not planned that everyone would perish.

a. He chose from all eternity to have mercy on some.
b. He chose to send a Savior for them.
c. This Savior would do all they were supposed to do and die for them.
d. In doing so, He would guarantee their salvation.

B. Tonight, we will look at who this Savior is.

1. There is only one: the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. He is the eternal Son of God who became man – a true and complete man – but who
did not stop being God.
3. And He will continue to be both God and man forever.

II. Sermon.
A. First, let’s consider that there is only one Mediator, one Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus” (v. 5).
1. Jesus is a mediator.
a. A mediator is one who intercedes, who stands between two opposing parties to
bring them together.
b. Adam’s sin was the rebellion of the human race against God.
c. As a result, we all came into this world as rebels against God.
d. Because we were rebels, God was at war with us.
e. But Jesus came to bring His chosen people to God, as we saw this morning,
through His blood and righteousness: He paid for our sins and He obeyed the
Law in our place.
f. This is how He brings us to God.
g. And now in heaven, He continues as a mediator by keeping us in the grace of God
by pleading His merits on our behalf.

2. But notice that He is the only mediator.

a. He is the only One whose mediation God will accept.
b. He no longer accepts the typological mediation of priests.
c. He no longer accepts the substitutionary sacrifice of animals.
d. He will not accept any other mediator: not Mohammed, not Mary, not the angels,
only Christ.
e. He is the only way to be reconciled with God: “For there is one God, and one
mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (v. 5).

B. Who is this Mediator? So that we don’t mistake who He is, God tells us: the man
Christ Jesus.
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1. But is the name enough?
a. Just because we call someone or something Christ, does that make Him the Christ
of God?
b. The Mormons have a Christ, the JWs, the Muslims.
c. Is their Christ, the Christ of God?
d. Let’s compare them with the biblical Christ:

2. He is the eternal Son of God.

a. God has existed forever as three persons, but only as one God.
b. These persons are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
c. Each is personal, but each is a separate person.
d. The Redeemer of God’s elect is the eternal Son.
e. He is the One who is fully God. Paul writes regarding the Jews, “Whose are the
fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God
blessed forever. Amen” (Rom. 9:5). The NKJV translates this correctly, where it
says, He “is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.”
f. He is the One eternally begotten of the Father.
g. Paul writes, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son,
born of a woman, born under the Law” (Gal. 4:4).
h. He is the eternal Word, the One who was in the beginning with God, the One who
is God (John 1:1).

3. He is One who became man: For there is one God, and one mediator also between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (v. 5).
a. He took to Himself a true body: not just the appearance of a body.
(i) As we saw this morning, He came in the likeness of sinful flesh.
(ii) He came as a seed of Abraham: as I just read, “from whom is the Christ
according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:5).
(iii) He appeared as one of us, but without sin.
(iv) The author to the Hebrews writes, “For we do not have a high priest who
cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all
things as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).

b. He also took a reasonable soul.

(i) He is fully man.
(ii) A man has a soul, a human soul.
(iii) The Son of God has not had a human soul from all eternity, so He took this
as well when He became a man, the same soul He committed to the Father
(Luke 23:46).
(iv) This doesn’t mean that He took to Himself a human person.
(v) Christ is only one person, and that person is divine.
(vi) It is in that person that His two natures are united: the hypostatic union.
(vii) But His natures are not united, at least in the sense that they are combined or
confused: they remain separate.

3. He becomes a man, without ceasing to be God.

a. Remember, there are those who believe that He gave up His godhood.
b. They believe that the Son of God emptied Himself of His divine attributes and
became only a man.
c. But if He did that, He would cease to be God.
d. That would also mean that God could change, which He can’t.
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e. No, the Son of God did not give up anything.
f. He took something: a human nature.
g. John writes, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His
glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John
1:14).
h. But He became flesh without ceasing to be God. Paul writes, “For in Him all the
fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Col. 2:9).

4. And He will continue to be both God and man forever.

a. This union was not only for a limited time.
b. Some believe that He was God, became man, then became God again, without
continuing as man.
c. But He is, has always been, and always will be God.
d. In time, He took to Himself a true body and a reasonable soul, when the Holy
Spirit conceived Him in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
e. But once this union between God and man was created, it would hold forever.
f. Paul writes that Jesus is the One “who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the
testimony given at the proper time” (1 Tim. 2:6).
(i) He gave His life as a ransom for our souls.
(ii) He laid down His life for all of God’s elect: i.e., for those from every nation,
tongue and kindred.
(iii) It was through His humanity that He saved us.
(iv) The author to the Hebrews writes, “Since then the children share in flesh and
blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He
might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and
might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their
lives. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the
descendant of Abraham” (2:14-16), i.e., the spiritual descendants of Abraham.
(iv) And it is through His continuing to be a man that He continues to keep us
saved.
(v) Since salvation is forever, that union will last forever.

5. This is the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Redeemer of God’s elect. This is the only
One who can save.

III. Application: Is this the One you’re trusting in this evening?

A. The Christ of the cults cannot save you.
1. The Mormon Jesus is a man who became a god, but not the one God.
2. The Jehovah’s Witness Jesus is an angel who became a man.
3. The Muslim Jesus is a prophet, who was and remains a man.
4. The Jesus of liberalism is a man whose history has been embellished by the church.
5. None of these is the true Christ.
6. Even a Christ of your own imagination cannot save you. He must be this Christ.

B. There is only One: the One who is both God and man.
1. Make sure you’re trusting in this One.
2. He is the only true Messiah.
3. He is the only One God will accept.
4. Jesus says, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved,” and “I
am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me”
(John 10:9; 14:6). Amen.