-A mediator is not of one. A mediator is for two. When there are two parties involved in some kind of relationship or transaction, the mediator is the go-between, intervening between the two - in the middle. Our English word derives from the Latin ‘medius’, meaning middle. Similarly, the Greek noun here (mesités) comes from the Greek ‘mesos’, which also means middle. And you can have (and might need) a person in the middle of two estranged parties, acting as a go-between. The word is applied four times in the NT to Jesus, Who is the perfect go-between in this new relationship between God and man (cf 1Timothy 2.5, Hebrews 9.15). However, here Paul is making a different point.
-The law, as is the case with any typical covenant arrangement, required something of both parties, God and the nation Israel. Thus the need for a mediator (Moses). Whereas the promise was simply made by God, centuries before Moses. The promise He made to bless Abraham did not require anything of him, only belief. It was a one-sided deal, made by God, Who is one. This phrasing would surely resonate with the heart of any good Jew, as this was perhaps the core confession of Judaism. God is one. Not merely one of a plethora of competing options, a member of some pantheon of countless other deities dreamt up by the nations. There is no other - He alone is God. Hear o Israel, the Lord our God is one (Deuteronomy 6.4) - followed immediately by the great command (Deuteronomy 6.5), which together with the second which is like it encapsulate the entire law (Matthew 22.40). Nevertheless, God is one, and as it relates to His great promise, He needs no middle-man. His promise indeed rests not in the least on either a mediator or on the ability of man as the interested second party to keep up his end of the bargain. It depends only on God, Who is exceedingly able to bring it to pass and is exceptionally faithful forever and ever.
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