Vers. 5-7.-Reasonsfor this univr:rsality of prayer in the relation of all men to God and Christ. "For there is one God, one Mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus." The salvation of men cannot, therefore, be to us a matter of selfish indifference. I. THE l!El,ATIOl•i OF ALL MEN TO Gon. The unity of God is consistent with all differences of dispensation. " There is one providence belonging to the one God." The apostle tells the Romans that, "as God is one," he is the God of the Gentiles as well as the Jews (Rom. iii. 30). There is, indeed," one God and Father of all" (Eph. iv. 4, 5). The apostle also says," 'l'he mediator" (Moses) "is not of one "--one seed, i.e. including Jew and Gentile, for Moses bad nothing to do with the Gentile-" but Gc-.d is one," in relation to Jew and Gentile (Gal. iii. 20). In these passages the apostle sets forth the universality of the gospel offer. But in the text he infers the universality of the Divine good will from the provisions made for man's salvation. II. 'l'HE RELATION OF ALL MEN TO THE MEDIATOR. "One Mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus." 1. There is but one Mediator. The Gnostic mediation of angels is, therefore, excluded (Col. ii. 15, 18). Likewise the mediation of saints and angels, as held by the Church of Rome. This idea is dishonouring to the only Mediator. There is no Scripture for the distinction made between a media.tor of redemption (Christ) and mediators of intercession (saints and angels). 2. The Mediator waa man aa well as God. (1) He was truly ru[ln, in opposition to the Docetic notio11 that he did not possess a real human nature. (2) He was God as well as man in his Mediatorship, in opposition to the Rom[ln Catholic theory that he only mediated in his human nature. 'l'he design of this error is to make way for human mediators. It is said to be absurd to conceive of Christ as God mediating between sinners !l.Ild himself. (a) We answer that the Divine nature operated in Christ's priestly work as well as the human, for "he through the eternal Spirit" (his own Spirit) "offered himself to God" (Heb. ix. 14). (b) If he did not mediate in his Diviue nature as well as his human nature, he could not have been in [lny sense Mediator of the Old Testament saints, because their redemption was completed before he came in the flesh. 'l'he human nature is naturally emphasized hecnuse of the work of suffering and death which ill here ascribed to him. 3. The passage does not im1,ly that Christ was not God. He is else- where frequently called God and true God, but here there is a necessary reference to the catholic doctrine of a subordination of ollice. 4. The referf/11,ce to the 1n.edi.atorshil' ln-anga up tlu! idea of a oovenant between God and man. Christ ill the Head of hwwwity, 4-0 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. [OB. u. 1-11.
the new Man, the Lord from heaven, Able to restore the lo8t relationship between Goa. sn<l. man. 5. The m,diat,m,y agency i.1 'll1'1"ought through Chn~~t's 11Ujferings and thath. "Who ~ve himself a Ran!!Om for all." (1) This proves that all the blessings of re<l.emption come from the d011th of Christ, not merely from his Incarnation. (2) He voluntarily gavt> himself as the Victim, yet he is "God's unspeakable Gift." (3) His death was strictly substitutionary. Tht> words of the apostle resemble those of our I,ord himself-" he gave himself a Ransom for many" (Matt. xx. 28). He was thus the Substitute contemplated by the apostle as the Messiah who had obtained from the Father the heritage of all families and nations of the earth, not Jews alone, but Oen tiles. m. Tm!: TBUE PURPOSE OF THl!: GOSPEL MESSAGE. .. The testimony to be borne in its own timee." 1. Thus tM <Uath of Christ is the great message to be carried to all tile world. It is not his birth, or his example, or his truth, but, above all, what is the completion of them all-his death on Calvary. 2. It is to be preached in all ti'T1lllll till the second coming of the Lord. 3. The apost'le'11 own relatum to this testimony. "Whereunto I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I speak the truth, I lie not); a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth." Thus the universality of the remedial scheme is represented by the very mission of the apostle himself. He was "a herald" to proclaim the glad tidings here; "an apostle "-let men say what they will, he is an apostle, therefore the surpassing importance of his message--and "a teacher of the Gentiles "-to mark the world-embracing character of hill gospel-" in faith and truth," to signalize respectively the subjective and the objective elements in which hill apoatle- ship Wll8 to find its appropriate ephere.-T. C.