Question & Answer
Question: How can Jesus be God and the mediator to God?
Answer: That is an excellent question, and one that perplexes many people. Let’s start by reading the verses you are referring to in your question. 1 Timothy 2:5-6 says, “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”
Why is the Lord represented to us as the man Christ Jesus in this portion? Even though He is God, it was as the perfect man that He gave Himself a ransom for us. While it is true that there is only one God, the Lord has manifested Himself to us as a triune God. He is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. Although the word “Trinity” is not found in the Bible, its truth is certainly taught.
Jesus is God
We have a wonderful occasion in the New Testament where God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all manifested at one time. Let’s read Matthew 3:13-17, “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered Him. And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
So, here on the occasion of Jesus’ baptism, we have the Spirit coming upon Him and the voice of the Father speaking from Heaven. This is such a good portion to show the three persons of the Godhead. In reference to the Lord Jesus, we read in Colossians 2:9, “For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
Jesus is the Only Way to God
The Lord Jesus, God the Son, is our mediator to God the Father as we read in 1 John 2:1, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” In reference to our prayers, Christ is our mediator; in reference to our sins, Christ is our advocate in Heaven; in reference to our worship and praise, Christ is our High Priest as we read in Hebrews 4:15, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Here again, we are brought to understand that the Lord Jesus can empathize with us in our infirmities because He walked here as a man and knows what we are going through. For Christ to be a man, He did not cease being God, so He lived a life without sin. Even now, in Heaven, Christ still exists as the God-man. He is 100 percent man and 100 percent God.
To get a sense of the wonder of the incarnation of Christ, let’s read a couple of verses from John’s Gospel. John 1:1 tells us that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” We then read in John 1:14 that, “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” It’s obvious from these verses that the Word (Jesus) was God, and was made flesh and dwelt among us. This is speaking of Christ’s birth and living in the world. Those who knew Him could clearly see His glory as being the only begotten Son of God.
—Charles Carter, answersfromthebook.net