In the early 1950s, my father was president of his local UAW union. I learned about the brother and sisterhood of union members before I even knew about the brother and sisterhood of Christian believers. All union officers back then were volunteers who continued to work in the plant every day and only received expense money from the union. I witnessed my father meeting with fellow workers in our home and weeping with them over their grievances. It was before OSHA and Federal safety laws or employer medical insurance and retirement plans, so safety and benefits were even more important during contract negotiations back then than wages. It was during those negotiations that I learned the importance of a mediator. When the union and management were still far apart, they would agree to bring in a third party to hear both arguments and come up with a compromise both sides would agree to accept. That process was called binding arbitration.
Since the fall of Adam and Eve, there has been a chasm dividing mankind from God. In the wilderness, Moses became a mediator between God and His chosen people when they were too afraid to approach Him themselves. (Exodus 20:19) Job prayed for a mediator to bring him and God together. (Job 9:33-34) God worked things out with Job, but centuries later He answered Job’s prayer with a mediator in the form of His Son. “There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity – the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5)
A mediator between God and man has a different job than someone bringing an employer and workers together. God is perfect, omnipotent, omnipresent and unmovable; so the task isn’t bringing the two sides together, but bringing mankind back to God like the Prodigal son of which Jesus spoke. That chasm between God and man as a result of our sin can only be spanned by Jesus, who is 100% man and 100% God. The symbolism of the curtain in the temple separating man from God being torn from top to bottom upon His death on the cross makes it quite clear that Jesus has bridged the gap and made it possible for us to enter boldly into the very presence of God because his shed blood covers our sins and cleanses us of them. The only thing remaining is for us is accept the work of the Mediator and enter into the same loving, binding relationship with God that Adam once enjoyed.