Yeshua, Our Redeemer- Mediator

I Timothy 2:5: For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Acts 4:12:  And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men[a] by which we must be saved.”

Acts 16:31: And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Of these, I think the ESV is not as accurate as it could be.   It makes it sound as if someone must believe in a set of facts & rely on Yeshua directly, as in intellectually assent to who He is & His person & work at one’s personal Vox Kephale in order to be justified.  

The preposition ἐπί in the text governs the accusative case object “the Lord Jesus,” & is, in my opinion, better translated as “on” rather than “in.”

Yeshua is the Redeemer-Mediator of the whole of the LORD’s covenant system.   Rather than point us to a body of doctrinal propositions that we must believe in order to be justified, the Scriptures are teaching us here that we are to believe on/upon (the foundation of) Yeshua’s person & work.  

Acts is a thoroughly Christian document, & the text reflects this here by combining Soteriology & Christology.   That said, the LORD Himself is the proper object of saving faith, & the gospel in Joel 2 is no different today than it was then.  

Remember, Paul frames the Gospel as to justification in terms of laying down our works righteousness (Romans 9:30 - 33).  Anybody’s theology can be amended.  Anybody can engage in moral reform. Only the regenerate can lay down his rooted works righteousness, & the reason that makes all of this possible is all of the foundational Mediatorial work that Yeshua accomplished upon which the Book of Hebrews expounds. 

O LORD, Hear our prayers!