the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Mediator
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
or One who stands between two parties or persons as the organ of communication or the agent of reconciliation. So far as man is sensible of his own guilt and of the holiness and justice of God, he shrinks from any direct communication with a being he has so much reason to fear. Hence the disposition more or less prevalent in all ages and in all parts of the world, to interpose between the soul and its judge some person or thing most adapted to propitiate his favor as a priestly order, an upright and devout man, or the smoke of sacrifices and the sweet savor of incense, Job 9:33 . The Israelites evinced this feeling at the Mount Sinai, Deuteronomy 5:23-31; and God was pleased to constitute Moses a mediator between himself and them, to receive and transmit the law on the one had, and their vows of obedience on the other. In this capacity he acted on various other occasions, Exodus 32:30-32 Numbers 14:1-45 Psalm 106:23; and was thus an agent and a type of Christ, Galatians 3:19 . The Messiah has been in all ages the only true Mediator between God and man; and without Him, God is inaccessible and a consuming fire, John 14:6 Acts 4:12 . As the Angel of the covenant, Christ was the channel of all communications between heaven and earth in Old Testament days; and as the Mediator of the new covenant, he does all that is needful to provide for a perfect reconciliation between God and man. He consults the honor of God by appearing as our Advocate with the blood of atonement; and through his sympathizing love and the agency of the Holy Spirit, he disposes and enables us to return to God. The believing penitent is "accepted in the Beloved" -his person, his praises, and his prayers; and through the same Mediator alone he receives pardon, grace, and eternal life. In this high office Christ stands alone, because he alone is both God and man, 1 Timothy 2:5 . To join Mary and the saints to him in his mediatorship, as the antichristian church of Rome does, implies that he is unable to accomplish his own peculiar work, Hebrews 8:6 9:15 12:24 .
These files are public domain and are a derivative of the topics are from American Tract Society Bible Dictionary published in 1859.
Rand, W. W. Entry for 'Mediator'. American Tract Society Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ats/m/mediator.html. 1859.
