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5 Mediators in the Bible Who Foreshadowed Christ
No Other Way
Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus himself says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Peter says, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). This exclusive claim is important in our day, as it has always been. It is more important because the religious pluralism of the Western world wants to think otherwise. It wants to believe that there are many ways. But it is disastrous to build one’s life on a lie. One must build on Jesus, who is not only “the way” but “the truth” (John 14:6).
Another way of making the point is to say that Jesus is the only mediator:
There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Tim. 2:5)
What is a mediator? Very broadly, a mediator is a person, event, object, or structure that serves to bring divine authority, power, and presence to another person or a recipient. Jesus is the one mediator, the only mediator, because the alienation due to sin is so severe. Only the work of Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross can reconcile us to God.
Mediator
Vern S. Poythress
This study explores the mediatorial people, events, and objects that God used throughout the Old Testament to communicate his word and his power, and explains how these symbols foretell the one perfect mediator, Jesus Christ.
But wait. Aren’t there mediatorial figures in the Old Testament? For example, the priests serve to mediate between the holy presence of God in heaven and the sinful contamination of human beings on earth. How can this be consistent with the claim in 1 Timothy 2:5 that Jesus is the “one mediator”?
It is consistent because the Old Testament priests received their ability from God through Christ. The priests anticipated and foreshadowed Christ and his work. Hebrews 7–10 explains in detail that the Old Testament priests foreshadowed Christ, who is the great eternal high priest: “Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest [Jesus], one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb. 8:1). The Old Testament priests could offer forgiveness not because of themselves, but because they pointed to Christ who was to come. A shadow is completely dependent on the human figure of whom it is a shadow. Likewise, the Old Testament priests were completely dependent on the fact that they had depicted beforehand, in symbolic form (a “shadow”), what Christ would do.
But the priests are not the only mediatorial figures in the Old Testament. There are others. We can observe not only human mediators but also other channels that God sets up and uses. Let us consider five striking cases.
1. Noah (Genesis 6)
Noah is a mediatorial figure. Genesis 6:9 says that “Noah was a righteous man.” That does not mean that he never sinned at all (Rom. 3:23). But he was righteous in comparison with the sinful corruption of the whole society around him (Gen. 6:5). His righteousness, though imperfect, was the means through which his family was saved. Noah’s righteousness was counted for the salvation of his family. And now, in the time of fulfillment, Christ has his spiritual family, namely the church. We are sons and daughters of God. Christ, our final Noah, saves us from final destruction at the Second Coming.
2. The Passover Lamb (Exodus 12)
The Passover Lamb is a mediatorial figure. At the time of the Passover, in Exodus 12, Moses instructed the people to kill a lamb, a lamb for each household. The death of the lamb was displayed on the house by putting its blood on the doorposts (Ex. 12:7, 13). The death of the lamb was the basis for sparing the people of Israel from the death of the firstborn in the tenth plague. The lamb served to mediate life to a people who otherwise would die. The lamb foreshadows Christ, who by his death delivers us from death: “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7).
Christ, by cleansing us from sin and overcoming the power of sin, has restored those who believe in him.
3. The ark of the covenant (Joshua 3)
The ark of the covenant normally resided within the tabernacle, which symbolizes God’s presence with his people (Ex. 25:8). According to Joshua 3, the ark paused in the middle of the Jordan River while the people of Israel passed over into the promised land (Josh. 3:17). Like the waters of the Red Sea, the waters of the Jordan symbolize the threat of death. The presence of the ark was a factor that caused the waters to open. The people could go through the waters of death to the status of life on the other side. It is life in the promised land, which symbolizes eternal life in God’s promised new heaven and new earth. God provides eternal life for his people by having Christ cut off the power of death (Heb. 2:14–15). The ark, in its function, symbolizes the mediatorial work of Christ.
4. The Word of God (Genesis 1:28–30)
Most of the Bible is focused on how Christ mediates life to us by overcoming sin. But there is a kind of mediation even before sin came into the world in Genesis 3. God spoke to human beings in Genesis 1:28–30 and Genesis 2:16–17. The word of God brought God’s authority, control, and presence to Adam, who heard. God’s Word served a mediatorial function in being a channel from God to Adam.
Behind the particular words of instruction in Genesis 1–2 stands the eternal Word, the Word described in John 1:–3: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him.” John 1:14 later indicates that this Word, the second person of the Trinity, took on human nature. We know him now as the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. Christ was already the mediator of the power and presence of God when God created the world: “there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Cor. 8:6).
5. Humanity (Genesis 1:28)
Finally, consider the role that God established for mankind in Genesis 1:28. God exercises universal dominion, as is evident from his work of creation in Genesis 1 (see Ps. 103:19). God also gives to human beings a subordinate dominion. He says, “. . . fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion. . . “ (Gen. 1:28). Human beings are to exercise their derivative dominion according to God’s law, in God’s way, and with God’s power at work in them. So there is a sense in which they exercise a mediatorial role in relation to the animals and plants and nonliving things. It is our privilege not only to work in serving God but to be agents of bringing his power, wisdom, and care to bear on those under our care. This privilege has been marred by sin, but Christ, by cleansing us from sin and overcoming the power of sin, has restored those who believe in him. We can serve him by exercising dominion according to his plan.
Vern S. Poythress is the author of Mediator: A Biblical Theology.
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