5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. — 1 Timothy 2:5-6 (ESV)

Every time I read through The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe with my kids (which should always be read first in the series), I’m always captivated by the character of Edmund Pevensie.

When we meet him, Edmund is a selfish brat. He’s rude and arrogant, and thinks only of himself. However, while he’s an easy character to hate, Edmund is also an incredibly relatable character precisely because of his mistakes.

Early in the story, Edmund is tricked into betraying his siblings by the evil White Witch as she tempts both his vanity and his sweet tooth. Later, we learn that because of his treachery, Edmund has unwittingly forfeited his very life. Thankfully, the great lion Aslan comes to Edmund’s aid, standing between him and his fate, interceding and giving his life in exchange for Edmund’s.

It’s a beautiful picture of Christ’s sacrificial, mediatorial death on the cross, and it ought to cause us to deeply consider the reality to which it points. What does Jesus do for us as our mediator?

Our mediator pays for our sins

The scriptures tell us that the wages of sin is death. We owed God our lives, and our debt was one that we were wholly incapable of paying. Christ, the perfect sinless God-man, is the only person able to both pay the penalty for sin, dying on the cross as our substitute, and also free us from its effects, rising triumphantly from the grave, breaking sin’s hold over us once and for all.

Our mediator stands between us and death

On the cross, Christ substituted his life for ours, receiving in full the punishment that was due to us. He went out to meet our great enemies of Satan, sin, and death, and he gloriously triumphed over them on our behalf.

‍Our mediator restores us to fellowship with God

Charles Spurgeon once wrote: “A mediator is a middleman, a go-between; one who comes in between two parties who otherwise could not commune with each other.” The purpose of Christ’s work was ultimately to bring us back to God, restoring the relationship that was severed by sin. Now, we who were once enemies of God have been adopted into his family as beloved sons and daughters.

Friend, Jesus is our great mediator. On the cross, he stands in between us and God’s wrath, offering himself as the payment for our sins. He is the perfect mediator because he also gives himself as the perfect sacrifice. Free from sin, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, restoring us once for all to fellowship with God

Liturgy

Almighty God, in love you predestined us to adoption as sons. And it is as your beloved children that we come before you now. Not by our own merit but through the merits of Christ, Who gave himself as a ransom for all.

In Christ, the debt that we owed has been paid. Our sins are forgiven, and the chains which bound us have been loosed.

Christ, we praise you for your mighty deeds. You have triumphantly put down every enemy under your feet, And you have won a great victory over the powers of darkness. You have defeated our enemies, and we are free.

Father, thank you for the gift of Christ our mediator. That in him, we might have restored fellowship with God. We who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of the lamb.

O God, for the sake of Christ our mediator, hear our prayer!

Amen.