'For there is one God, and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.'
1 Timothy 2:5 teaches us this core truth: that Christ mediates between the Holy God and fallen humanity. As sinful humans we cannot come to God by any works of our own: we rely solely on Jesus. By his life of perfect obedience, his death and resurrection, Christ has paved our way to the Father. In his own words, he truly is the way, the truth and the life.
Every good Christian knows this. It is the classic 'four points': 'God loves me, I have sinned, Jesus died for me, I must choose to live for him.' These are central to Christian faith and as evangelical Christians we are fantastic at teaching and remembering them. Christ mediates for us by bearing our sin on the cross and reconciling us to God the Father. We may call this 'reconciliatory mediation': mediation that allows us to come to God because of who Christ is and what he did.
Of course, there are other ways to talk of Jesus' mediation, namely in terms of his interceding for us (Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:34) and his role in mediating the revelation of God to us (Hebrews 1:3, Colossians 1:15). Yet even aside from these, there is another element to Christ's mediation that is so often overlooked. This is in terms of his ongoing reconciliatory mediation that continues to allow us to come to God.
This ongoing reconciliatory mediation is grounded in Christ's ascension after his death and resurrection. We are masters when it comes to Christ's death and resurrection, but we seem to forget that once resurrected, Jesus also ascended – and he remains ascended.
It is no bad thing to have a heavy focus on Jesus' death and resurrection. They are among the most glorious and fundamental truths of the Christian faith. The more we understand them, the more we are led to worship. And that is remarkable given that only minimal comprehension is necessary for unending adoration.
The fact of Christ crucified and resurrected is an astonishing demonstration of God's love for us and a lavish outpouring of his grace. This is true and awesome and we should celebrate it.
However there is a danger in this if we elevate the work of Christ at the expense of the person of Christ. We can focus so much on what Jesus once did for us that we forget who he still is for us. Gradually our focus shifts from worshipping God for who he is, to worshipping God for the blessings we get from him. When this happens our spiritual life can become stale as our relationship to God becomes transactional rather than personal.
If that happens, we need to relearn the language of Paul in Philippians 3 as he speaks of forsaking everything that he may know Christ and be found in him. We have to start to love Christ for who he is, as well as what he did.
As we do so, we will come to learn that not only did Christ mediate for us on the cross, but that he still does mediate for us. On the cross, Christ bore the punishment for our sin. In his resurrection, he became the first to enter new and eternal life. In his ascension, Christ took his rightful place at the right hand of the Father. Because of this, Jesus not only was our mediator, but he still is our mediator.
Our focus on the cross and empty tomb has left the business of Jesus' ascension largely neglected. Yet Jesus' ascension is just as powerful and important as his death and resurrection. Hebrews deals with this most vividly. In short, what the ascension means for us is that a. Jesus is still gloriously and tangibly alive, and b. he lives as the great high priest who truly meets our needs and leads us into the presence of God.
We cannot afford to keep this on the periphery of our faith. We must rediscover that salvation is not only by Christ but it is also in Christ. Because he lives, we may come to God in Christ. Jesus mediated for us on the cross; he still now mediates for us at the right hand of the Father. We received salvation by the work of Christ on the cross; we go on being saved by knowing Christ and positioning ourselves by faith in him.
This is vital. What Christ did combines with who Christ is. We were reconciled to God by Christ; now we continue to be reconciled to God in Christ. In this way we may come before the Father – in Jesus's righteousness. This is the same whether we have been Christian for 50 seconds or 50 years. We can never come to God of our own accord. It is always in Christ and by his righteousness. That is why it is so important that we remember Christ's ongoing mediation.
All too often we think that because we were saved by Christ, we may then enter the presence of God whenever we like. Forgetting that Jesus must and does remain our mediator, we can try to sneak into the presence of God through the back door on our own, without him.
It is no wonder that we soon begin to find our faith becomes stale. It is because when we do this, we no longer come through Jesus and his mediation. We no longer recognise him as our high priest, leading us into the sanctuary of God. If, on the contrary, we come to God by the Spirit in Christ, then we will truly be led into the Holy of Holies: the glorious and liberating presence of God. We will witness the sanctifying and healing power of God as we are increasingly formed into the image of his Son. We will be able to know the loving kindness of God our saviour and pray with boldness that God's kingdom come and that his will might be done.
It is imperative that we once again worship and recognise the person of Christ, as well as the work of Christ. Then we will fully begin to grasp the sheer grace of God. Then we will know the love, forgiveness and presence of God each and every day. We will see Christ as our continued mediator and, as the Scottish theologian James Torrance writes, we will by the Holy Spirit be lifted up in Christ into a life of communion with and participation in the very triune life of God.
That is the power of knowing Christ's continued mediation; salvation by Christ and salvation in Christ.
Archie Catchpole is a student at London School of Theology.
