The particle “for” connects this statement with the preceding one as its reason. To what exactly does it refer with this force? It may be referred to what immediately precedes: to come to the knowledge of the truth.
The sense is this: God wills all to be saved through the knowledge of the truth. This is the truth that salvation is in the Lord Jesus, and only in Him, because there is no other path to salvation.
As there is one God, so there is also one mediator between God and men. In Adam, men fell away from God, in whom their life was. They fell away and sank into the realm of death.
Either they had to remain eternally in this death, or a path had to be opened for reunion with God. Without Him the power of death could not be cut off, and their life could not enter its true order.
Neither they themselves nor any other creature, even the highest, had the power to open and establish this path. Therefore the boundless love of God for mankind interceded for them.
The counsel of God ordained that the Only-begotten Son of God should become incarnate to deliver men from their extreme misery. He did not separate Himself from the bosom of the Father.
He did this so that, by dying in the flesh, He might destroy the power of death. By giving life to human nature in Himself through the resurrection, He became the living bond uniting men with God.
The Son of God came to earth, became incarnate, suffered, died on the Cross, rose again, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father.
He sits there in the human nature which, having been united in His Person with His Godhead, remains united with God the Father. With the Father He never ceased to be one.
Then those who believe in Him and are mystically joined to Him become one with Him. Through Him they are united with God, as He Himself testified when He said to the disciples: 'I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you' (Jn 14:20).
There is no other way to reunion with God, in which salvation consists. 'No one comes to the Father except through Me' (cf. Jn 14:6), says the Lord.
'Here the Apostle speaks as he does elsewhere: one God the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ' (cf. 1 Cor 8:6), says Chrysostom.
There is no other mediator, and there can be none. As God is one, so the mediator between God and men is one.
Do not seek another. If anyone should offer to show you one, do not follow him. Consequently, there is no other salvation than living union with the Lord Jesus.
This is the truth which God, who wills all to be saved, wills them to know. He wills them to know it, receive it, and through it obtain salvation.
Mediator, μεσιτης, does not mean one who merely speaks a word of intercession in defense. It means one who in very deed stands in the midst and joins those between whom He mediates.
He is the one who unites, 'having joined in Himself what was divided' (blessed Theodoret). He is a living unifier. Such is His essence.
When the Apostle says, 'one God' and 'one mediator,' he means only to show that there is no other salvation than in the Lord Jesus. As God is one, so the mediator between God and men is one.
Therefore all other questions that may arise here can be passed over without harm to the understanding of the Apostle's words.
Yet it is permissible to consider, in passing, that when it is said, 'there is one God,' this does not harm the truth that God is tri-hypostatic.
Rather, it shows that the Incarnation of one Person of the tri-hypostatic God produced no division in the one divine nature.
The incarnate Son did not stand outside God, as the word 'mediator' might suggest to such a thought. In the mediator between God and men there is God from God and man from man.
Having become such through the Incarnation, the Son did not stand outside the Father. He received, accomplished, and maintains the incarnate mediation without leaving the bosom of the Father.
This mediation, established for our salvation, did not divide God. God remains one even in it.
Likewise, when it is said, 'one mediator,' this does not harm the truth of the two natures in the mediator. Rather, it shows that the two natures in Him do not make two mediators.
Even with the two natures, He is one. As mediator, He is God from God and man from man. Yet there is one Person, the incarnate Son of God.
Oecumenius writes: 'Since the one who was to be mediator between God and man had to share in both, so as to be able to mediate between them, the Son of God, the pre-eternal Word, came to us on earth incarnate.
'Thus He was of two natures, Godhead and humanity. Yet after their union He is conceived and worshiped in one Hypostasis.'
Therefore, when it is then said, 'the man Christ Jesus,' this does not assert one nature in Him. It does not assert that He is only man and not also God.
It only shows how He became mediator. He became mediator through becoming man.
Thus blessed Theodoret says: 'The Apostle called Christ Jesus man because he had called Him mediator, and Christ became mediator by becoming man.'
For this reason the word 'man' may be understood as 'having become man.' The meaning is this: one mediator, the Son of God who became man, who is called Christ Jesus.
Our commentators chiefly direct their words here to clarifying the meaning of mediation. Blessed Theodoret writes: 'When someone intends to reconcile two persons disputing with one another, he stands between them.
'He holds one by the right hand and the other by the left, and so brings them into friendship. In the same way Christ united humanity with the divine nature and established an unshakable and inseparable peace.
'But if Christ, according to the teaching of Arius and Eunomius, does not share the essence of the Father, what kind of mediator is He?
'In that case He will be united with us, since according to His humanity He is consubstantial with us. But He will have no union with the Father, if, as they teach, He is separated from the divine nature.
'Yet the divine Apostle called Him mediator. Therefore He is united both with the Father according to the Godhead and with us according to the humanity.'
Chrysostom says: 'A mediator must share in both sides in relation to which he is mediator. It belongs to a mediator, possessing what belongs to each side, to bring them into mutual communion.
'If he has what belongs to one side but is separated from the other, then he is in no way a mediator.
'Therefore, if Christ Jesus does not share the nature of the Father, He is not a mediator, but is separated from Him.
'For this reason we acknowledge that, as He became a partaker of human nature because He came to men, so He is also a partaker of the divine nature because He came from God.
'Since two natures were united through Him, He had to be near to both natures.
'Just as a place occupying the middle between two regions touches each of them, so the one who joins two natures together must be a partaker of both natures.
'Therefore Christ Jesus, as He became man, was also God. If He had been only man, He would not have become mediator, because He had to converse with God in a divine manner.
'Likewise, if He had been only God, He would not have been mediator, because those for whom He serves as mediator would not have received Him.' Oecumenius says, 'would not have endured Him.' Better: He could not have represented their person.
'Who gave Himself as a ransom for all.' Ransom, αντιλυτρον, means a price paid for release. Mediation was not an easy matter.
It did not consist only in a word of intercession, but also in deed, and it required sacrifice. This followed from the condition of those for whom the mediator undertook intercession.
They had fallen away from God through sin and were under the wrath of God because of the guilt of sin. Because of sin they were subject to the tyranny of Satan, and through both to death.
God was pleased to be reconciled with those who had fallen away. Yet for the fallen to rise to the capacity for reconciliation, they had to be freed from all the bonds that held them in base slavery.
These were the bonds of God's angered righteousness, of sin, of the devil, and of death.
The mediator took it upon Himself to accomplish this. Without guilt, He bore what lay upon the guilty ones for whom He mediated.
Having become incarnate, He took upon Himself human nature, pure and sinless. In it He gave Himself over to death on the Cross, and thereby satisfied the righteousness of God.
The righteousness of God, being satisfied, opened the gates for mercy and grace to be poured out upon the guilty.
When they are received into mercy and sanctified by grace, they break the bonds of sin. Through this they also cast off the bonds of slavery to the devil.
Thus at last they become sons of the resurrection, over whom death has no power. By all this together the ransom is accomplished, and the mystery of mediation comes into force.
The root and beginning of all is this: the incarnate Son of God, as mediator, gave Himself up to death on the Cross. Therefore the Apostle includes the whole work of mediation in this one phrase: 'who gave Himself as a ransom.'
Blessed Theodoret writes: 'When all were under the dominion of death, Christ was not subject to death.
'As God, He had an immortal nature. As man, He had committed no sin, which causes death. But He gave Himself up to death as a kind of redemptive price, and freed all from slavery to death.'
Let us note here, among other things, whether this may also be why the Apostle said beforehand of the mediator that He is 'the man Christ Jesus.' He was about to say, 'who gave Himself as a ransom.'
In order to offer such a sacrifice, He had to have something to offer, namely humanity, and had to become man.
'It is necessary that this One also have something to offer' (Heb 8:3), the Apostle says elsewhere. What is this? Flesh and blood.
'Since the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
'And that He might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to bondage' (cf. Heb 2:14-15).
'A testimony in its own times.' These are supplementary words. It is difficult to determine what thought the Apostle had here.
Let us set these words in relation to what precedes. The Son of God, having become incarnate for mediation between God and men, gave Himself up to death for the redemption of all.
He gave Himself for all, not only for Jews, but also for Gentiles. This work of boundless love for mankind belongs to God the Father, who gave the Son, and to God the Son, who gave Himself.
It is a testimony. A testimony of what? That God wills all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, not only Jews, but also Gentiles.
Therefore you, the faithful, when you pray for unbelieving Gentiles, do what is pleasing to God. By this you assist the fulfillment of what God desires, namely the salvation of all, including Gentiles.
That this is the direct desire of God is clear from the mediation He established between Himself and men. It embraces all men.
It is also clear because the mediator, when He gave Himself up to death, gave Himself for the redemption of all men, without distinction or exception.
Chrysostom sees this sequence of thoughts in the Apostle: ''Who gave Himself as a ransom for all.' What then? Tell me, was it for Gentiles too? Yes.
'And although Christ died also for Gentiles, will you not agree to pray for them? Why then, you will say, did they not believe? Because they did not wish to.'
Above he said, 'because the whole world had not yet attained the truth.' 'On His part, however, everything has been done. His suffering bears witness to this,' he says.
That all, including Gentiles, should be saved was determined from eternity. Such is God's eternal will. Yet the testimony to this was given in its own time.
THEOSIS