July 16

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, — 1 Tim 2:5 BSB

That Christ is God is the very foundation of our salvation. It is his eternal Godhead that gives power, efficacy, and worth to everything he did and suffered for his chosen people. If he were not God—God and man united in one glorious Person—what hope would there be for our guilty souls? Could his blood atone for our sins without the power of Deity behind it? Could his righteousness justify us unless his divinity imparted merit and value to all that he did in his humanity? Could his loving heart sympathize with us and deliver us if he were not “God over all,” knowing every inner struggle and possessing all power, as well as all compassion, to help us?

We often find ourselves in situations where no one can help us, and we are powerless to help ourselves. We’re trapped in snares we cannot break, facing temptations we cannot overcome, dealing with troubles we cannot comfort ourselves through. We are like wandering sheep, unable to find our way back to the fold. We chase after idols and broken cisterns, incapable of returning to the fountain of living waters. How comforting it is, then, to know that there is a gracious Immanuel at the right hand of the Father—his heart full of love and his affections moved with compassion. He shed his precious blood that we might live, worked out a perfect righteousness, and is able to save completely all who come to God through him.