Jesus, the Father, and Human Mediators
Who Stands Between Us and God?
“Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
— John 14:6 (CSB)
One of the most comforting things Jesus taught was that He came to bring people to the Father.
He did not speak about God as though He were far away and impossible to reach. Jesus taught ordinary people to pray, to trust, to ask, to seek, and to come to God with confidence. He spoke of God as Father and helped people understand that they were seen, known, and loved.
That is why His words in John are so important. Jesus did not say that people had to work their way through a complicated religious system before they could come to God. He said that He Himself was the way to the Father.
For Christians, that places Jesus at the center.
Jesus Taught People to Pray Directly to the Father
When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, He did not tell them they needed someone else to speak for them.
He said:
“Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy.”
— Matthew 6:9
A few verses earlier, Jesus had told them that when they prayed privately, they could go into a room, close the door, and pray to their Father in secret. He reminded them that the Father already knew what they needed before they even asked.
There is something wonderfully gentle in that picture. A person can be alone, frightened, confused, or unsure what to say, and still speak directly to God.
Jesus did not teach that prayer had to be impressive.
He taught people to trust the Father.
Jesus Invited People to Come to Him
Jesus also spoke very personally about the way people could come to God through Him.
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
— Matthew 11:28
And in John:
“The one who comes to me I will never cast out.”
— John 6:37
Those are simple invitations.
Jesus was not telling people to become religious experts first. He was not asking them to understand every doctrine before they could begin. He invited them to come.
The New Testament later expresses the same idea this way:
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus.”
— 1 Timothy 2:5
That does not mean Christians should never help one another. Quite the opposite. We are encouraged to pray for one another, teach one another, encourage one another, and carry one another's burdens.
But helping someone come closer to God is different from becoming necessary between that person and God.
How Did Religious Structures Develop?
As Christianity spread, churches became larger and more organized. Leaders were needed to teach, care for people, settle disputes, and protect communities from harmful teaching.
The New Testament itself describes elders, overseers, teachers, and other forms of leadership, so organization was not something that appeared out of nowhere.
Over time, however, those roles became more formal. Titles developed. Church structures grew. Different Christian traditions developed beliefs about clergy, sacraments, confession, and the authority of the church.
Many of these practices were meant to help people grow in faith and receive spiritual care.
That is worth remembering.
It would be unfair to assume that every later practice developed because someone wanted power or control. Many believers and leaders sincerely thought they were serving God and helping people follow Christ more faithfully.
At the same time, practices can sometimes change the way ordinary people experience faith, even when the original intention was good.
When Help Begins to Feel Like a Requirement
A pastor can help us understand Scripture.
A mature Christian can pray with us.
A church community can encourage us through grief, illness, confusion, or doubt.
Those things can be beautiful gifts.
But sometimes, over time, people can begin to feel that they cannot approach God without going through someone else first. A practice meant to help may begin to feel like a requirement.
That is where Jesus’ words are worth returning to.
He taught ordinary people to pray.
He told them the Father knew them.
He invited them to come to Him.
That does not make spiritual leaders unimportant. It simply reminds us what their role should be.
A good spiritual leader should help us trust God more deeply, not make us feel farther away from Him.
What About Priests?
The word priest can make this discussion especially sensitive.
In the Old Testament, priests had a very specific role within Israel's covenant and sacrificial system. They served at the sanctuary and carried responsibilities connected with sacrifice and worship.
The New Testament gives Jesus a unique priestly role.
Hebrews describes Him as the great High Priest who brings people into the presence of God.
“Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.”
— Hebrews 4:16
Early Christian churches also had leaders, elders, and overseers. Over time, some Christian traditions began using priestly language for ordained ministers.
That development has a long history, and different traditions understand it differently.
Rather than trying to settle all of those differences here, perhaps the most important thing is to keep Jesus in the center. Whatever title a human leader carries, the New Testament gives Jesus the central role of bringing people to the Father.
What About Confession?
Confession is another area where Christian traditions developed different practices.
Jesus taught people to ask the Father for forgiveness:
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
— Matthew 6:12
The New Testament also encourages believers to confess sins to one another and pray for one another.
Those two ideas do not have to compete.
Sometimes speaking honestly with a trusted believer can be healing. Another person can pray with us, help us face something we have done, and encourage us to make things right.
Different churches later developed formal ways of practicing confession, including confession to clergy.
The question for us is not whether every later practice is good or bad.
The gentler question is this: does the practice help a person turn toward God through Jesus, or does it make that person feel that God cannot be approached without another human being?
That is worth thinking about.
What About Asking Others to Pray for Us?
There is nothing wrong with asking someone else to pray.
The earliest Christians prayed together often, and the New Testament encourages believers to pray for one another.
Most of us know the comfort of hearing a friend say, “I am praying for you.”
But asking someone to pray with us is not the same as believing that God will not hear us unless another person speaks first.
Jesus taught His followers that the Father sees, knows, and hears them.
That simple truth should not be lost.
Did Later Churches Remove Jesus’ Teaching?
Historically, no.
There is no good evidence that church leaders removed Jesus’ words about coming to the Father through Him. John 14:6 remained in the Gospel. Jesus’ teaching about prayer to the Father remained. So did the New Testament statement that Christ is the one mediator between God and humanity.
The change, when it happened, was usually not in removing those verses.
It was more often in the way church life, theology, and religious practice developed around them.
That is an important difference.
It would be unfair to say that later Christians simply erased Jesus’ teaching.
But it is fair to ask whether layers of practice sometimes made His simple invitation harder to see.
Jesus Often Removed Barriers
When we read the Gospels, Jesus seems remarkably open to people who might have expected to be kept at a distance.
He spoke with a Samaritan woman by a well. He welcomed children. He ate with tax collectors. He listened to desperate parents. He allowed people who were sick, ashamed, or rejected to come close to Him.
That does not mean He approved of everything people did.
It means access to Him was not reserved for the religiously impressive.
Jesus often seemed more concerned with opening the way to God than with guarding religious status.
That is worth remembering whenever faith begins to feel too complicated.
The Church Can Help Without Standing in the Way
None of this means Christians should try to live their faith alone.
Jesus gathered disciples.
The earliest believers gathered in community.
They prayed together, shared meals, taught one another, cared for the poor, encouraged one another, and sometimes corrected one another.
Community can be a great gift.
Perhaps the healthiest picture is not of the church standing between a person and God, but of the church walking beside people as they follow Jesus.
A good teacher points toward Christ.
A good pastor helps people trust the Father.
A healthy church helps people pray, forgive, love, serve, and grow.
The goal should be to help people draw nearer to God, not make them feel dependent on human permission to do so.
Coming Back to the Simple Invitation
Christian history has given us beautiful traditions, deep scholarship, great works of worship, and many faithful teachers. It has also given us disagreements, divisions, and practices that can sometimes make faith feel heavier than it needs to be.
When that happens, it helps to return to Jesus.
He taught people to pray to the Father.
He told them that the Father knew what they needed.
He invited the weary to come to Him.
And He said:
“No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Other Christians can walk beside us, pray with us, teach us, encourage us, and help us understand.
But Jesus remains the way to the Father.
Perhaps that is the simplest place to stand.
In the next chapter, we will turn to another part of the Bible's human history and ask why trustworthy translations sometimes use different words—and what those differences can teach us about reading Scripture carefully.
