"A Man, Christ Jesus"

For there is one God and one mediator between God and humankind, a man, Christ Jesus, (Christ means 'anointed one')

“one mediator between God and humankind, a man.” This is one of the great and clear texts in the debate as to who Jesus really is. If Jesus were God, this would have been a wonderful place to say it. Instead, Jesus is clearly called “a person” using the Greek word anthrōpos, “person, human, man.” The lexicons state that it is “man” in contrast with animals, plants, angels, and of course, God. The Greek text reads that there is one mediator between God and “humankind,” or “people” (the noun is plural in Greek; anthrōpōn, ἀνθρώπων), and that mediator is “a person” or “a man” (the noun is singular; anthrōpos, ἄνθρωπος), Jesus Christ. Although Trinitarians say that the referent to Jesus as “a man” is only referring to his human nature, that is their theology adding things; the Scripture never says that.

Actually, Jesus cannot be God or a God-man in this verse. The whole point of a mediator between people and God is that “God” cannot be the mediator. The mediator in this verse is “between” God and the people. If the mediator is God, then he is not between God and the people. In this verse, the mediator is playing part of the role of the priest, one who stands between the people and God. In fact, Jesus is called our High Priest in the New Testament (e.g., Heb. 2:17; 3:1; 4:14, 15; 5:5, 10; 6:20; 9:11). Both as our mediator and as High Priest, Jesus cannot be God or a God-man. The priest is a person who stands between God and people, and we learn from 1 Timothy 2:5 that this is also what a mediator does, which is why the verse specifies that Jesus is “a man, Christ Jesus.” That is the simple truth of Scripture, that Jesus was a man, a flesh-and-blood human being.

If Jesus were a God-man, this would be one of the many places to say it, but Scripture never says it, ever. Instead, Jesus is stated to be a member of the human race, just as the Old Testament prophecies foretold he would be.

This verse is commonly translated in English Bibles as, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, THE man Christ Jesus,” but there is no definite article, no “the” in the Greek text before the word “man.” Adding the “the” before “man” could possibly distort the verse a little, as if it were saying that Jesus was “the man” in a slang way, as in the phrase, “You are the man!” William Mounce writes that the lack of the definite article (“the”) before the Greek word anthrōpos (man, human) is “emphasizing the quality of being human; i.e., it was as a human being that Christ gave himself for all humanity…ἄνθρωπος [anthrōpos] is anarthrous, designating not identity (“the Son of man”) but quality (i.e., that which makes a person human).”a

Mounce’s analysis of the grammar is correct: 1 Timothy 2:5 is pointing out that Jesus is “a man,” “a person,” a human being. Romans 5 shows that it was a person who sinned and got mankind into the mess it is in, and it was a person, Jesus, who got us out of that mess.

Another valuable thing taught by 1 Timothy 2:5 concerns the proper understanding of what happens to a person when they die, and thus, that today, the only mediator between people and God is Jesus. Although the traditional Christian teaching is that the soul (or “spirit”) of a person lives on after the body dies, the proper biblical teaching is that when a person dies they are dead in every way, body, soul, and spirit, and they are awaiting the resurrection. Sadly, the orthodox Christian teaching that dead people are actually alive in some form has led to a number of false teachings and practices in the Church. These false practices and beliefs include people trying to contact the dead, which is strictly forbidden by God (cf. Deut. 18:9-14), or of thinking that the dead have come to contact them (which would mean that dead believers would be deliberately disobeying God, which is an untenable belief).

However, another false doctrine that stems from the belief that dead people are not really dead but alive in heaven or “hell” is the doctrine held by some Christians that dead people are praying for the living and interceding for them before God. But 1 Timothy 2:5 makes it clear that there is only one mediator between God and humankind, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Neither the Mother Mary, nor any well-known “saint,” nor anyone else, is interceding for the living before the throne of God. Doctrines like that come from the false belief that when a person dies they are not really dead, but alive as a spirit.

Right now, the only human in heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is our mediator between us and God as 1 Timothy 2:5 says, and he is interceding for us (Rom. 8:34).

Also, the partial sentence in 1 Timothy 2:5 is only the first part of the sentence. The whole sentence is in 1 Timothy 2:5-7, and there is more important information about Jesus Christ in verse 6 (see commentary on 1 Tim. 2:6).

[For more on Jesus being a fully human man, see Appendix 6: “Jesus is the Son of God, Not God the Son.” For more on the difference between Holy Spirit and holy spirit, see Appendix 7: “What is the Holy Spirit?” For more on dead people being dead in every way, see Appendix 3: “The Dead are Dead.”]

From: 1 Timothy 2:5, REV Bible and Commentary

"God is not a human being that he would lie, nor the son of man, that he would change his mind."