You Need a Mediator: Jesus // Veracity Fount

Editors’ note:

TGC Africa creates faithful Christian content to strengthen African believers. Through this process ministry friendships develop with like-minded churches and parachurch organisations across Africa. We long to amplify the presence of gospel centered ministries in their home countries, pointing local Christians to trustworthy, edifying resources available on their doorstep.

Used with permission, this series of Word_Bite videos were created by Veracity Fount, a parachurch organisation operating in the city of Kampala, Uganda. In these short video clips Joseph Byamukama answers a few common Christian questions from both a biblical and historical Christian standpoint. To find out more about Veracity Fount please visit their website or drop in at their offices and library at Plot 2, Musuubire Henry Close, Bukoto Kampala, Uganda.

In this short video, Joseph Byamukama from Veracity Fount tackles the topic of mediation between God and man. Many Africans believe that God is too great for us to approach him. So there is need for other gods, witchdoctors, or ancestors to mediate on our behalf. They bridge the divide between God and man. Traditional African religions are often built around this understanding of both ourselves and the Supreme Being, or God. Various mediators are required for humans to have any kind of relationship with the Supreme Being. The implications of this teaching, indeed how many Africans experience it too, is that God is far, far away from us.

The God who is here, the God who is near, does not need bridges or intermediary gods.

But the Bible teaches something very different, and much more comforting. As Joseph puts it, “The God who is here, the God who is near, does not need bridges or intermediary gods.” Better still, this God pursues us even when we are sinful or are disinterested. It’s not a case of us searching after him but him seeking us out, in love. “The biblical story is a God who pursues us in our sin.”

Yes, We Need a Mediator

The biblical story is a God who pursues us in our sin.

In the person of Jesus Christ, God himself draws near to us. The mediator between God and man is God the Son. “He is here. He is with you.” Almost every culture or people that believes in a god of some kind has seen the need for mediators, other beings to intercede on behalf of mankind. This is a correct instinct. But the wonder of the story told in the Bible is that it is God himself to reaches out to us, stepping into that gap, to bring us back to God. Jesus is all we need. Praise God!