SERMON V.
ONE GOD AND ONE MEDIATOR.
“For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.”—1 Tim. ii. 5.
The apostle Paul urges the propriety, and importance of praying for all men, in the several conditions and relations of life, from a consideration of God’s merciful intentions toward all men, as exhibited in the sufficiency of the gospel provision for their salvation. But if any are saved, it must be through the medium which God has ordained, and in the manner which God has prescribed. Therefore the apostle adds: “For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.” “There is one God,” to whom sinners have to be reconciled; “and one Mediator,” through whom that reconciliation is to be effected. We have a nearly parallel passage in another epistle: “To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” The unity of God, and the mediation of Christ, are the two great topics of the text, to which we solicit your attention.
I. “For there is one God.” Two infinite beings cannot co-exist, unless they are one in essence and in operation. The God of Israel pervades the universe of matter, and fills the immensity of space. There is no room for another God, possessing the same ubiquity. “There is one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” In him alone, all things live, move, and have their being.
This doctrine is stamped on all the works of nature. They all exhibit unity of design, and must have been contrived by the same infinite wisdom, and executed by the same infinite power. The hand which created and arranged them is constantly seen in their preservation. The Maker of all things continues to uphold all things by the word of his power. The great Architect still presides over the immense fabric which he has reared. The universe, from age to age, is governed by the same unvarying laws. All things remain as they were from the beginning. The earth, the air, and the sea, sustain the same mutual relations, and answer the same important ends; and the sun, the moon, and the stars, shine on for ever. The same order and regularity everywhere prevail, as when the chorus of the morning stars welcomed the new creation into being. Nature proclaims aloud: “There is one God.”
The same doctrine is impressed upon the Bible. It is not only the book of God, but evidently the book of “one God.” It is a series of Divine Revelations, reaching from Eden to Calvary, and from Calvary onward to the end of the world. It is a golden chain, passing through all time, and uniting the two eternities; and all its links are similar, and depend upon each other. Its several parts are perfectly harmonious, proving them to have emanated from the same infinite mind. Everywhere we find the same character of God and of man; the same description of the law and of sin; the same way of pardon, and holiness, and immortal life. The same Eternal Spirit, that inspired the Historian of Creation, speaks in the Apocalypse of St. John, and in all the intervenient books of the Bible. It was the same Sun of Righteousness, that rose in Eden, and set on Calvary; and thence rose again the third day, to set no more for ever.
“The world by wisdom knew not God.” The heathen lost the doctrine of the unity of God; not because it was difficult to preserve, but because they did not love the character of God, “did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” The pride of the carnal mind led them to turn away from the light of heaven, to walk amid sparks of their own kindling. They boasted of their wisdom; they boasted of their philosophy. And what gained they by the exchange? The most absurd and stupid notions of the Great First Cause; almost total ignorance of his attributes. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools; and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made with hands, like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.” Shame to philosophic Greece and Rome!
No nation, having once lost the doctrine of the unity of God, ever regained it by the light of nature. If the light of nature is sufficient to preserve it in possession, it is not sufficient to restore it lost. It is restored only by the gospel. The gospel has restored it in India, in Otaheite, and other heathen lands. It has done more; it has revealed to the savage the only way of salvation; it has “brought life and immortality to light.”
“Fly abroad, thou mighty gospel!
Win and conquer! never cease!”
Lift up thy voice with strength, and proclaim to Greece and Rome, and to all the ends of the earth, as well as to the cities of Judah, that the Son of Mary is the God of Israel, “God manifest in the flesh,” “God blessed forever!” “The man Christ Jesus” is “the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;” “in whom also we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”