‍“There Is One Mediator”

‍If Jesus is the one mediator between God and man, why do Catholics pray to dead saints?

  Gary Hoge  ·  October 19, 2026

‍It’s true the Bible says, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). But have you ever looked at the context of that verse? It’s the conclusion of a passage that begins four verses earlier. Here’s the whole passage:

‍I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone–for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men–the testimony given in its proper time (1 Timothy 2:1-6).

‍It’s ironic that verse 5 is used to supposedly prove that the saints in Heaven can’t intercede for us because there’s only one mediator, when just four verses earlier Paul explicitly commands Christians to intercede for others. Clearly, Paul didn't think that the intercession of Christians was incompatible with Christ's unique role as mediator. He taught both in the same passage.

‍When we intercede for others, we are not competing with Christ’s unique mediation; our intercession depends upon it. Christ alone bridges the gap between God and humanity: he alone is the God-man who “gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:6). Our prayers for one another participate in Christ’s mediation; they do not replace or rival it.

‍Most Christians already recognize this in practice. Some Christians argue that we should pray only directly to God through Christ because he is the “one mediator,” yet when they become sick, they ask other Christians to pray for them. And rightly so. By doing that, they implicitly recognize that Christ’s unique mediation does not exclude the intercessory prayers of other members of his Body.

‍But you may be thinking that praying for another person is one thing, while praying to someone in Heaven is quite another. Isn't that a form of idolatry? The problem here is that in contemporary usage the word “pray” has come to mean “to address God or a god with adoration, confession, supplication, or thanksgiving.”¹

‍Obviously, to “pray” to a human, saint or otherwise, in that sense would be wrong. But the word “pray” has an older, now archaic meaning. It used to mean simply “ask,” whether the object of the request was God or a person. For example, in the King James translation of Acts 27:34, Paul says to some sailors, “Wherefore I pray you to take some meat.” In other words, “I ask you to eat some meat.” We find the word “pray” used this way elsewhere in the King James Bible:

‍Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, where the seer’s house is (1 Samuel 9:18).

‍And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of who speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? (Acts 8:34).

‍The phrase “praying to the saints” reflects this older usage: we are asking for their help and intercession, not offering them the worship due to God.

‍But can dead saints hear us and pray for us? Well, first of all, they’re not dead in the sense the objection assumes–they’re alive with Christ. Jesus himself reminded the Sadducees that God is “not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:32). And at the Transfiguration, Jesus conversed with Moses, who had died centuries earlier, and Elijah (Luke 9:30–31). Clearly, those who have departed this life have not ceased to exist or lost their ability to communicate.

‍Of course, showing that the saints are alive in Christ doesn't by itself prove that they can hear our requests. But the book of Revelation gives us another important piece of the picture. There we are given a glimpse of Heaven, and one thing we see is 24 elders standing before the throne of God. “Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Revelation 5:8).

‍A little later, John describes another scene:

‍Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. (Revelation 8:3–4)

‍In both passages, we see heavenly beings presenting the prayers of God's people before his throne. Far from excluding heavenly participation in our prayers, Scripture explicitly depicts it. And if those in Heaven can participate in presenting our prayers to God, the idea that they can also intercede for us isn’t unreasonable.

‍Like all Christians, Catholics believe in intercessory prayer. They ask their friends to pray for them, just as Protestants do. But a Catholic’s prayer chain is a bit longer than most Protestants’ because it includes those believers who are in Heaven. We are all part of the Body of Christ, and from God’s perspective that Body is not separated by death.

‍The Bible tells us that “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16), and it describes the believers in Heaven as “the spirits of the righteous made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23). If the prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective, whose prayers should we desire more than those of “the righteous made perfect”?

‍Early Christian writers likewise affirmed that the saints in Heaven pray for Christians on earth:

‍But not the high priest [Christ] alone prays for those who pray sincerely, but also the angels . . . as also the souls of the saints who have already fallen asleep. (Origen).²

‍Let us remember one another in concord and unanimity. Let us on both sides [of death] always pray for one another. Let us relieve burdens and afflictions by mutual love, that if any one of us, by the swiftness of divine condescension, shall go hence the first, our love may continue in the presence of the Lord, and our prayers for our brethren and sisters not cease in the presence of the Father’s mercy. (Cyprian of Carthage).³

‍Hebrews describes Christians on earth as already joined in worship with “the heavenly Jerusalem,” “thousands upon thousands of angels,” and “the spirits of the righteous made perfect” (Hebrews 12:22–23). Death has not severed those believers from the Body of Christ.

‍None of this diminishes Christ’s unique role as the “one mediator between God and men.” The saints do not stand between us and Christ; they stand with us in Christ. Their intercession, like ours, depends entirely upon his mediation. Asking them to pray for us no more competes with Christ’s mediation than asking a Christian friend on earth to pray for us.

‍__________

^‍1 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pray

^‍2 Origen, On Prayer, 11 (c. A.D. 233). https://www.ccel.org/ccel/origen/prayer.vii.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com

^‍3 Cyprian of Carthage, Letter 56 (60), 5 (c. A.D. 252). https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050656.htm?utm_source=chatgpt.com