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5–7. FURTHER REASONS FOR THE DOCTRINE THAT ALL MEN COME WITHIN THE SCOPE OF GOD’S SAVING PURPOSE
These are threefold, (i.) the Unity of God, (ii.) the Incarnation, and (iii.) the Atonement of Christ. To take them in order:
(i.) 5. εἶς γὰρ θεός, for God is one. This is connected immediately with 1Ti 2:4, and only indirectly with 1Ti 2:1. The Unity of God was indeed the centre of the Hebrew religion, but the inference here derived from it was not self-evident to the mind of the Jew. To him Jehovah was the God of the chosen people, and the exclusion of Gentiles from His grace and bounty did not present itself as strange or inconsistent with the character of the Supreme. But when it is analysed the conception of the Unity of God is seen to carry with it the truth that the Supreme stands in the same ultimate relation to all His creatures, and that His Divine purposes of love and mercy must embrace all mankind. So St Paul explains in Rom 3:30 that God is the God of Gentile as well as Jew, εἴπερ εἶς ὁ θεός, ὄς δικαιώσει περιτομὴν ἐκ πίστεως καὶ ἀκροβυστίαν διὰ τῆς πίστεως; cp. also Rom 10:12.
(ii.) There is also one mediator between God and men, Himself man, Christ Jesus. As there is only one God, so there is only one Way to God: “No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (Joh 14:6). Christ is the only Mediator (the mediation of saints or angels is quite unscriptural), and He has, in becoming man, taken up all human nature into Himself. In Him all men are summed up, and so He is the representative, not of this or that man only, but of all mankind. Thus, again, all men in Him “shall be made alive”; the saving graces of the Risen Lord are placed within the reach of all. This is clearly brought out in the words ἄνθρωπος Χρ. Ἰη. at the end of the clause. Christ is not a man, but man in the widest sense.
The title μεσίτης must not be overlooked. In Gal 3:19 it is used of Moses (as in the Assumptio Moysis, i. 14, iii. 12, and in Philo, Vit. Mos. iii. 19); but frequently in Hebrews of our Lord. In the latter Epistle it is always found in conjunction with διαθήκη. In the present case it is used more simply than in either of the other Epp. where it occurs, and indicates that as there is only one mediator or go-between between God and man, so the way of mediation must be alike open to all. This is brought out forcibly by the addition of the word ἄνθρωπος (without the article) at the end, which involves in itself, as has been shewn, the universal bounty of the Incarnation. It is possible that there was here present to St Paul’s mind the contrast between Moses the μεσίτης for the Jews only, and the Mediator of a new covenant (Heb 9:15), whose mediation was for all mankind, Jew and Gentile alike.
(iii.) 6. The third doctrinal reason for the salvability of all men, is the universal purpose of the Atonement: ὁ δοὺς ἑαυτὸν ἀντίλυτρον ὑπὲρ πάντων. Jesus Christ gave Himself a ransom on behalf of all, and hence we may conclude that it is God’s will that all should be saved. The phraseology requires careful attention. ὁ δοὺς ἑαυτόν, He gave Himself, not merely His Death. Cp. Gal 1:4; Gal 2:20; Eph 5:2; Tit 2:14, &c., and δοῦναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ λύτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν (Mat 20:28 ║ Mar 10:45). ἀντίλυτρον is a word occurring only here, though the full meaning of it is contained in the passage last cited from the Gospels; the doctrinal bearing of the preposition is by no means to be lost sight of. The usual language of the N.T. is, that Christ died ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, i.e. on our behalf; but at Mat 20:28 the prep. ἀντί is used. Here we have the compound ἀντίλυτρον preceding ὑπὲρ πάντων, which suggests that both the elements represented by ἀντί instead of, and ὑπέρ on behalf of, must enter into any Scriptural theory of the Atonement. Cp. 4Ma 6:29.
τὸ μαρτύριον καιροῖς ἰδίοις. The testimony in its own seasons. These words are parenthetical, and in apposition to all that has gone before. τὸ μαρτύριον is equivalent to τὸ μαρτυρούμενον, the thing which is testified to, the purport of the Church’s witness. The great subject of the testimony to be borne by the Church from age to age is the Universality of Redemption through the One Mediator. The antecedent is not merely ὁ δοῦς … πάντων, but the whole of 1Ti 2:4-6. This witness was not of a character which could have been borne by the Jewish Church; it was reserved for the dispensation of the Gospel, καιροῖς ἰδίοις.
The formula καιροῖς ἱδίοις occurs twice again in the Pastoral Epistles, at 1Ti 6:15 and Tit 1:3, in the former of which passages the reference of ἰδίοις is clearly defined by the context to God, the subject of the sentence in each case. Here (as at Tit 1:3) it is simply in due seasons as in Gal 6:9, καιρῷ γὰρ ἰδίῳ κ.τ.λ., and the outlook is to the future of the Church.