-Knowing the Truth begins right here, coming to know THIS truth, the great Shama (which means “hear”) of Judaism - Hear O Israel! The Lord God is One! (Deuteronomy 6.4-5, Mark 12.29-30) He is God and there is no other (Deuteronomy 4.35). He is the one and only God. There can be but one Infinite. This is the self-evident Truth which would arm all humanity against any idol, all lesser and competing devotions, counterfeit and contrary forms of teaching and religion. And to be sure, this one God, He is Jehovah, infinite and eternal in all His perfections, the one almighty and all-powerful Creator and Father of all, thrice-holy and wholly other. Truly better, is it not, to have one Fountain than a thousand cisterns, broken cisterns which will hold no water? And yet we opt for the latter. The fundamental error of humanity is to reject the one God, to exchange His glory for that of something/anything lesser, to allow that there are gods many, and to give my heart, first place in my heart to something(s) other than. To put something other than and less than in HIS place in our hearts and lives. Anthropos, plural - all men do this - all of mankind, all of humanity (cf Romans 3.23). Hear. One God. For all.
-Thus the need for a Mediator, for in this inglorious exchange enmity came in. Estrangement. Relationship broken. Gone. Someone needs to broker a peace, a reconciliation. And here again, there is only one. One Mediator. One way back - through Jesus. There are no other mediators any more than there are any other gods. The word is mesités, meaning an arbitrator, or umpire. Someone in the middle who will be a go-between between two parties (cf Galatians 3.20). One Mediator - Jesus. He alone is the Way back, the Truth which leads to Life eternal (John 14.6). And this Truth is a bear. Seriously, the world can hardly bear it. It chafes at it so. So exclusive. So intolerant. So absolute. The spirit of non-absolutism which pervades the ethos of our age, which controls our modern psyche, absolutely gags on this notion that there is only one way. Absolutely! No! Absolutes!, they insist. Self-defeatingly. But this truth remains - there are no other ways back. Not one. Just one. Jesus. The Man. Hedaman. Paul refers to Him here as the Man Christ Jesus. Is this some kind of arian hiccup? Paul denying the deity of Christ like some kind of heretic? I think Paul would emphatically declare, may it never be! Failure to mention something does not therefore equate to the denial of something. Paul here has merely chosen to emphasize the humanity of the Son of God, Who because He was fully human can fully sympathize with the weaknesses of humanity (Hebrews 4.15). Mine - AND yours. We all can relate to Him, we all can come freely to Him (cf Matthew 11.28). Jesus becomes the perfect go-between. And the next verse details exactly how He did it...
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