Someone once mentioned that there was an important detail missing from the story about Jesus’ birth. As we enter this holiday season, the giving of gifts is very important, and the wrapping of gifts is a critical issue — at least for some.Well, the story of Jesus’ birth does not mention the wrapping of the gifts that the wise men gave. So it has been suggested that the gifts were not wrapped because they were “wise” men and they knew that the wrapping paper would just be thrown away. But secondly, it is suggested, that the reason the gifts were not wrapped was simply because they were men. As we all know most men are not the best “gift wrappers.” Just check under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning!However, the best gift — God’s gift was wrapped! The baby Jesus was wrapped in “swaddling” clothes and laid in a manger trough.While this is meant to have some humor, the real intent is to consider that precious gift from God. Let’s look at the gift that Jesus was our mediator.The apostle Paul declares that: “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time” (I Timothy 2:5-6).A mediator is a person that gets in the middle. A mediator intervenes between two parties – either to resolve a conflict or to help one party to obtain a something, product or service, from someone else.The question may be, “Why do we need a mediator?” The Old Testament prophesied that there would be A “New Covenant” that was going to be better than the Old Covenant that He’d made with Israel back in the days of Moses (Jeremiah 31:31-34). So Hebrews 9:15 tells us that Jesus was the Mediator of the New Covenant. Now in this promise God said that we would have a personal relationship with Him — He would be our God, and we would be His people. But also the promise said that He would remember our sins NO MORE.Now a Mediator is called in to settle disputes when there is some kind of rift between two parties. What caused this separation or chasm between us and God? Well, it’s called sin.Paul told the Roman Christians that everyone has sinned (Rom. 3:23) and so every person is ...
