THE ONLY ONE MEDIATOR

(summary of Pr Caio Vasconcelos’ sermon)

THE ONLY ONE MEDIATOR

10/26/25 – Morning worship at Agape Missional Christian Church, SP, BR

 “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because your evil behavior.  But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.  If you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.  Colossians 1: 21-23

Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and mankind

What if two nations are at war and need a mediator to negotiate? We’ll assume that the mediator is not from either of the nations.  This position requires a impartial person to act as a mediator in the war.

When we look at this illustration, we can understand Martin Luther’s crisis of faith. He realized that the Catholic Roman Church was acting as mediator between God and people as well between  heaven and hell, by selling indulgences.

The Church elevated the pope and the saints to the status of mediators of forgiveness of sins. It also established purgatory as a place where sinners were purified until they were ready to be with God.

Let's discuss this mediation.

Three Truths:

BEFORE – We were apart and enemies of God

NOW – We were reconciled with God

THEREFORE - We remain rooted.

 

1 – BEFORE – WE WERE APART AND ENEMIES OF GOD

GOD IS JUST AND GOD IS HOLY

The problem with to sin is not only about make mistake but to offend the God holiness.

Isaiah 6 view showing us the breaf sensation about who God

“ Woe to me! I am ruined!”

In other words,  Isaiah saw the Lord and fell like he was going to die.

We can not manipulate God, his holiness is the base of all his character.  God is holy and this holiness aparts him from sin. The holiness attribute of God apart him from all created things.

We are sinners and because of this we are aparted of God, the sin has affected our lives in all aspects, and it made us enemies of God.

With our lives affected we think like sinners, but because our thinking way has been corrupted, we don’t be able to think like the mind of God, so we sin without be  aware about our sins, like to idolize our job, our family, our partners, our possessions.

God is not manipulable, God is holy and God is just—so as God who is just, He cannot ignore sin and must deal with it.

2 – NOW - We were reconciled with God

Sin affects not only our way of thinking, but also our relationship with God. Sin causes us to reject God's plans. However, He has reconciled us. Reconciliation comes from God, not from us. It is fixed in history and cannot be changed. What was humanly impossible became possible because of God's mercy.

How could reconciliation be possible if God is just? Through the body of Jesus Christ.

This responds to the heresies of the Church of Colossae regarding mystical promises, legalistic practices, ascetic rituals, and Gnostic knowledge.

The affirmation that reconciliation was accomplished through the body of Christ is a combat against Gnostic knowledge that understood matter as evil.

Jesus is fully God and fully human, and reconciliation between God and humanity, the two natures of Jesus, becomes possible.

When two parties are enemies, a mediator capable of establishing peace between them is necessary.

Through his death, Jesus established the resurrection; through his blood shed on the cross, Jesus established peace (Col 1:20b).

When we are without hope, we look to the cross and can say: peace has come, because He is one of us.

At the same time, God, looking at his son on the cross, giving himself up for our sins, was able to affirm: their sins are forgiven because He is one of us.

Only then will we be presented as saints before God, without guilt and free from all accusation!

Our God is Immanuel—God with us..

3 - THEREFORE – WE’LL REMAIN GROUNDED.

What verse 23 is saying is that this is not a condition, but a rhetorical presupposition. Paul is showing us the truth that first there was enmity between God and men, and then that same God is reconciling us through the perfect mediation of Jesus to present us holy, blameless, and free from all accusations.

Paul's message to the Colossians, which extends to us, is this: Stand firm, don't stop, because the more you stand firm, the harder it will be to stray from the hope of the gospel you have heard.

 

-Answer:

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

 who gave himself as a ransom for all. This has been testified to at the proper time. 1 Timothy 2:5,6

HOPE, COURAGE, AND COMFORT

 

We don’t serve a distant God. Despite our failures, He is the one who calls us to reconciliation! 

No matter what our situation is, today we can look to the cross, to confess Jesus, and once and for all have peace with God!

Amen.

Pr Caio Cesar Vasconcelos is an active gospel Minister at the local community and one of the pastor's group of the Missional Agape Christian Church.