1 Timothy 2:5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For there is one God One Creator of all, the Father of the spirits of all flesh, who is no respecter of persons; and one Mediator between God and men Appointed by God to make atonement for the sins of men by his death, and who, in consequence of that atonement, is authorized to intercede with God in behalf of sinners, and empowered to convey all his blessings to them. The man Christ Jesus Therefore all men are to apply to this Mediator. By declaring that the one Mediator is the man Jesus Christ, St. Paul intimated that his mediation was founded in the atonement which he made for our sins in the human nature. Wherefore Christ's intercession for us is quite different from our intercession for one another: he intercedes as having merited what he asks for us. Whereas we intercede for our brethren, merely as expressing our good-will toward them. We, depraved and guilty sinners, could not rejoice that there is a God, were there not a Mediator also; one who stands between God and men, to reconcile man to God, and to transact the whole affair of our salvation. This excludes all other mediators, as saints and angels, whom the Papists set up and idolatrously worship as such: just as the heathen of old set up many mediators to pacify their superior gods. Who gave himself a ransom for all Αντιλυτρον, such a ransom, the word signifies, wherein a like or equal is given, as an eye for an eye. The clause seems to be an allusion to Christ's words, (Matthew 20:28,) to give his life, λυτρον αντι, a ransom for many. Any price given for the redemption of a captive, was called by the Greeks λυτρον, a ransom; but when life was given for life, they used the word αντιλυτρον. Indeed, this ransom paid by Christ, from the dignity of his person, was more than equivalent to all mankind. To be testified in due time Το μαρτυριον καιροις ιδιοις, the testimony, that is, a thing to be testified, in his own seasons; namely, those chosen by his own wisdom. Whereunto I am ordained Appointed; a preacher Κηρυξ, a herald, to proclaim the grace of it all abroad; and an apostle To attest by miracles that great and essential doctrine of it, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. I speak the truth in Christ As thou, Timothy, well knowest; I lie not In pretending to such an extraordinary mission. A teacher of the Gentiles As if he had said, I was not only in general ordained to this ministry, but by peculiar destination was appointed to preach to the heathen and instruct them; in faith and verity That is, in the faith of the gospel, and in the whole system of truth which it comprehends. This same solemn asseveration the apostle used Romans 9:1. He introduces it here in confirmation of his being an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles in the true faith of the gospel, because some in Ephesus denied his apostleship, and especially because the Jews were so averse to his preaching the gospel among the Gentiles, charging his doing it either upon the want of a due regard to his own nation, or some view of avarice or ambition. On this passage Dr. Benson remarks, “What writer ever kept closer to his subject than this apostle? The more we understand him, the more we admire how much every sentence and every word tends to the main purpose of his writing.”