6.01. Christ's Mediatorial Offices
Christ’s Mediatorial Offices
Soteriology (sōtērias logos)1[Note: 1. σωτηρίας λόγος = a word/discourse about salvation] treats the work of the God-man and its application to individuals by the Holy Spirit. When we pass from the complex constitution of Christ’s person to the work which he wrought for man’s redemption, we find him represented in Scripture as a mediator: “There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). In this passage, the term man denotes the entire theanthropic person Jesus Christ, not the human nature. The human nature is not the mediator. Man, here, designates the God-man under a human title and is like the title “Son of Man” or “last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45) or “second man” (15:47). Again, the God-man is described in Scripture as being appointed and consecrated to the work of human redemption by God the Father as the representative of the Trinity. Hence the incarnate Word is also denominated the Messiah, the Anointed One (Daniel 9:25; Psalms 2:2; Psalms 45:7).
Speaking generally, Messiah is the Old Testament term for the Redeemer, and Mediator is the New Testament term. The word Christ which translates Messiah is generally a proper name in the New Testament, not an official title. Sometimes, however, the God-man is denominated Jesus “the Christ” or “that Christ” (Matthew 16:20; Luke 9:20; John 1:25; John 6:29). The Christian church prefers the New Testament designation mediator to the Old Testament designation Messiah. Westminster Larger Catechism Q. 36 denominates Christ “the only mediator of the covenant of grace.”
Some Characteristics of Christ as Mediator Several characteristics of Christ as the mediator must be carefully noted in order to avoid misconception. The mediator between God and man cannot be God only or man only. This is taught in Galatians 3:20 : “A mediator is not of one, but God is one.” A mediator supposes two parties between whom he intervenes; but God is only one party. Consequently, the mediator between God and man must be related to both and the equal of either. He cannot be simply God, who is only one of the parties and has only one nature. Therefore the eternal Word must take man’s nature into union with himself, if he would be a mediator between God and man. As a trinitarian person merely, he is not qualified to mediate between them. The same truth is taught in the following: “For if one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?” (1 Samuel 2:25); “there is not any daysman between us, to lay his hand upon us both” (Job 9:33); and “therefore when he [the mediator] comes into the world, he says, A body have you prepared for me” (Hebrews 10:5).
Second, the office of a mediator between God and man is one of condescension and humiliation:
1. Because it involves the assumption of a human nature by a divine person. This is taught in Php 2:5; Php 2:8 : “Let this [lowly] mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant.” To unite the finite with the infinite is to humble the infinite. Incarnate deity is a step down from unincarnate deity. The latter is wholly unconditioned; the former is conditioned by the inferior nature which it has assumed.
2. Because to be a mediator between God and man implies a condition of dependence. When the second person in the Trinity agrees to take the place of a mediator between the Trinity and rebellious man, he agrees to be commissioned and sent upon a lowly errand. He consents to take a secondary place. A king who volunteers to become an ambassador to his own subjects condescends and humbles himself. The office of a commissioner sent to offer terms to rebels is inferior to that of the king. This is taught in many passages of Scripture: “All things are given me of my Father” (Matthew 11:27); “all power is given to me in heaven and in earth” (28:18); “you has given unto him power over all flesh” (John 17:2); “it pleased the Father that in him all fullness should dwell” (Colossians 1:19); “the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants” (Revelation 1:1); “he became obedient unto death” (Php 2:8); the Son of God “was made under the law” (Galatians 4:4); “he put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things” (Ephesians 1:22-23). This class of texts is cited by Socinus to disprove the doctrine of Christ’s original deity. But it has reference to Christ in his capacity and office of mediator, which is an assumed not an original office. These texts do not describe the Logos prior to his incarnation, but subsequent to it. When Christ speaks of his preexistent and eternal place in the Trinity, he does not employ such phraseology. He says, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30); “glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was” (17:5); “before Abraham was I am” (8:58); “my Father works hitherto, and I work” (5:17); “the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Luke 6:5); “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25); “I am the living bread which came down from heaven” (6:51); “whoso eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (6:54). But when Christ refers to his incarnate and mediatorial position, he says, “My Father is greater than I” (14:28); “say of him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, you blaspheme: because I said, I am the Son of God?” (10:36); “I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me” (6:38); “I have finished the work which you gave me to do” (17:4); “then shall the Son be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). Accordingly, Westminster Confession 8.3, speaking of Christ’s office of mediator, says that “this office he took not unto himself, but was thereunto called by his Father; who put all power and judgment into his hand and gave him commandment to execute the same.”
3. Because the office of mediator is temporary. It begins to be exercised in time, and a time will come when it will cease to be exercised. This is taught in 1 Corinthians 15:24; 1 Corinthians 15:28 : “Then comes the end [of the economy of redemption], when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that did put all things under him, that [the triune] God may be all in all.” As there was once a time when there was no mediatorial work of salvation going on, so there will be a time when there will be none. The Logos was not actually and historically a mediator until he assumed human nature. It is true that in the Old Testament church the second trinitarian person discharged the office of a mediator by anticipation, and men were saved by his mediatorial work; but it was in view of his future advent and future performance of that work. Types and symbols stood in the place of the incarnate Word. Not however until the miraculous conception was there actually a God-man; and not until then was there an actual historical mediator. And although there will now always be a God-man, yet there will not always be a mediatorial work going on. The God-man will one day cease to redeem sinners. St. Paul is explicit in saying that a day will come when Christ will deliver up and return his mediatorial commission to the Father, from whom as the representative of the Trinity he received it. There will then “remain no more [available] sacrifice for sin” (Hebrews 10:26); and there will be no longer an access to a holy God for sinful men through Christ’s blood. Hence it is said: “Now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation”; “today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts”; “he limits a certain day, saying, Today if you will hear his voice” (3:13, 15, 18; 4:1, 7).2[Note: 2. WS: See also Christ’s parables of the foolish virgins (Matthew 25:1-46) and the wedding garment (Matthew 22:1-46). Cf. Witsius, Apostles’ Creed, diss. 10.42-44; 26.76.] But a function that begins in time and ends in time, when discharged by a divine person, is evidently one of condescension and secondary nature. The second person of the Trinity as a Creator holds no position of condescension and humiliation and performs no function that is secondary and temporary in its nature. He is a Creator by reason of his absolute and eternal deity and is so from everlasting to everlasting. There never was a time when he was not a Creator, and there never will be a time when he will cease to be a Creator. He never was commissioned to the office of Creator; he never assumed this office; and he will never lay it down. It belongs to him by virtue of his divinity. Creation is a primary, not a secondary function. But the second person as mediator assumes an office and takes a position which is not necessarily implied in his deity. He might be God the Son without being God the mediator; but he could not be God the Son without being God the Creator.
4. Because the office of mediator is one of reward. The condescension and humiliation of the Logos in assuming a finite nature and executing a commission is to be recompensed. It is a self-sacrifice that merits a return from the person who commissioned and sent the mediator upon this service. This is taught in Php 2:5-11 : “Christ Jesus took upon him the form of a servant; wherefore God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” This is not a reward for that which the Logos was and did as unincarnate and as the second person of the Trinity, but of what he was and did as the incarnate Logos and as the commissioned mediator between God and man. A divine person, as such, cannot be either exalted or rewarded. This phraseology of St. Paul refers not to the eternal and preexistent state and position of Jesus Christ, but to his postexistent state and condition. It does not relate to the “form of God” which he had originally and from all eternity, but to the “form of a servant” which he assumed in time and which he retains forever. The same truth is taught in Hebrews 2:9 : “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels [i.e., was made a man; v. 7.], for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor”; and in Revelation 3:21 : “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne.”
5. Because the Son of God enters into a covenant with the Father to take a mediatorial office and position. But if he were originally in a subordinate position, he could not covenant or agree to become subordinate. (See supplement 6.1.1.)
Jesus Christ is represented in Scripture as the mediator of a covenant: “Jesus the mediator of the new covenant” (Hebrews 12:24); “he is the mediator of a better covenant” (8:6); “the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant” (Malachi 3:1); “this cup is the new covenant (diathēkē)3[Note: 3. διαθήκη] in my blood” (Luke 22:20; cf. Matthew 14:24; Matthew 26:28). Accordingly, the creeds so represent him: “The only mediator of the covenant of grace is the Lord Jesus Christ” (Westminster Larger Catechism 36). A difference in the scriptural representations has given rise to a distinction between the covenant of grace and the covenant of redemption. The covenant of grace is made between the Father and the elect. This is taught in those passages which speak of Christ as the mediator of the covenant: “For this cause, he is the mediator of the new covenant” (Hebrews 9:15); “he is the mediator of a better covenant” (8:6). This implies that the promises of the covenant are made by God the Father to his people and that Christ stands between the two parties. The same is taught in Galatians 3:16 : “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He says not, And to seeds, as of many [seeds]; but as to one [seed], And to your seed, which is Christ.” The contracting parties here are the Father and the elect “seed.” This also has its type in the Sinaitic theocratic covenant between Jehovah and the Hebrews as a chosen nation, of which national covenant Moses was the mediator: “The law was ordained by angels in the hands of a mediator” (3:19). The following passages mention the covenant of God the Father with the elect church: “Fear not, O Israel, for I have redeemed you: you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you” (Isaiah 43:1-6); “this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: My spirit that is upon you and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth nor out of the mouth of your seed, says the Lord, from henceforth and forever”4[Note: 4. WS: “Israel, as well as the Messiah, and in due dependence on him, was to be the light of the Gentiles, the Redeemer of apostate nations” (Alexander onIsaiah 59:21). In Isaiah, the “servant of the Lord” is sometimes national (i.e., the church) and sometimes personal (i.e., the Messiah). This is the key to the interpretation.] (59:21). The covenant of redemption is made between the Father and the Son. The contracting parties here are the first and second persons of the Trinity; the first of whom promises a kingdom, a glory, and a reward, upon condition that the second performs a work of atonement and redemption.5[Note: 5. WS: Christ is the mediator of the covenant of redemption as well as of grace; for though no one mediates between the Father and the incarnate Son, yet as the elect are one with him in the former covenant as well as the latter, he is a mediator in respect to them in the former case as well as in the latter. All the benefits that come to the church from the covenant between the Father and the Son are mediated to it through the Son.] The following are passages in which it is spoken of: “Behold my servant whom I uphold. He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. I the Lord have called you and will hold your hand and will keep you and will give you for a light of the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes” (Isaiah 42:1-6); “I appoint (diatithemai)6[Note: 6. διατίθεμαι] unto you a kingdom, as my father has appointed unto me” (Luke 22:29); “when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed” (Isaiah 53:10-12); “I will give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation unto the ends of the earth” (49:6); “my covenant will I not break; once have I sworn, that I will not lie unto David; his seed shall endure forever” (Psalms 89:34-36); “ask of me, and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession” (2:8).
Though this distinction is favored by the scriptural statements, it does not follow that there are two separate and independent covenants antithetic to the covenant of works. The covenant of grace and that of redemption are two modes or phases of the one evangelical covenant of mercy. The distinction is only a secondary or subdistinction. For when, as in Isaiah 43:1-6, the elect are spoken of as the party with whom God the Father makes a covenant, they are viewed as in Christ and one with him. The covenant is not made with them as alone and apart from Christ. This is taught in Galatians 3:16 : “To Abraham and his seed were the promises made”; but this seed “is Christ.” The elect are here (as also in 1 Corinthians 12:12) called “Christ,” because of the union between Christ and the elect. And in like manner, when Christ, as in Isaiah 42:1-6, is spoken of as the party with whom the Father covenants, the elect are to be viewed as in him. As united and one with him, his atoning suffering is looked upon as their atoning suffering: “I am crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20); his resurrection involves their resurrection: “Grown together in the likeness of his resurrection” (Romans 6:5); his exaltation brings their exaltation: “You shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28); “we shall judge angels” (1 Corinthians 6:3). The covenant of redemption is not made with Christ in isolation and apart from his people. It is with the head and the members: “He gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23). The following statement, then, comprises the facts. There are only two general covenants-the legal and the evangelical: “These are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai which genders to bondage” (Galatians 4:24). The first in order is the legal covenant of works, founded upon the attribute of justice. Its promise is “do this and you shall live.” This covenant failed upon the part of man in the fall of Adam. The second is the evangelical covenant, founded upon the attribute of mercy. Its promise is twofold: (a) To the mediator: “Make your soul an offering for sin, and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession” (Isaiah 53:10; Psalms 2:8); and (b) to the elect: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you” (Isaiah 43:1-2); “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, and your house” (Acts 16:31). The evangelical covenant, as opposite to the legal covenant, may therefore be called (a) the covenant of redemption when Christ and his offices are the principal thing in view and (b) the covenant of grace when the elect and their faith and obedience are the principal thing under consideration.
Respecting the validity of the distinction, there is some difference of opinion, though the weight of authority is in favor of it. Turretin (12.2.12) adopts it; also Witsius (Covenants 2.2.1) and Hodge (Theology 2.358). Fisher (On the Catechism Q. 20 §57) asserts that the Westminster “standards make no distinction between a covenant of redemption and a covenant of grace.” The phrase covenant of redemption is not found in them. In Westminster Larger Catechism Q. 31 it is said that “the covenant of grace was made with Christ and in him with all the elect.” This would be the covenant of redemption. In Westminster Confession 7.3 it is stated that “the Lord was pleased to make a second covenant, commonly called the covenant of grace, wherein he freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him that they may be saved and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto life his Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.” Here the covenant is made with the elect. The phraseology in Westminster Shorter Catechism Q. 20 is somewhat ambiguous: “God, having elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.” Whether the “covenant” mentioned is made with the elect or with the mediator is not to be indisputably determined from the wording of the statement. The evangelical covenant, as the opposite of the legal covenant, is essentially one and the same under the old dispensation and the new. The difference is only in the mode of administration. In the old dispensation, comprising the patriarchal and Jewish churches, it was administered through animal sacrifices and visible types and symbols; in the new dispensation, by the advent and sacrifice of Christ. The old administration was ceremonial and national; the new is spiritual and universal. This difference is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 3:14 : “Moses put a veil [of types and ceremonies] over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished; but their minds were blinded; for until this day, remains the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is taken away in Christ.” In Hebrews 8:6-13 the “first covenant” is the covenant of grace made “with their fathers when God took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,” administered by types and symbols; and the “second covenant” is the covenant of grace under the administration of Christ personally, who is “the mediator of a better covenant.” Hebrews 9:15 speaks of the “new covenant” in distinction from the “first covenant” (which had “ordinances of divine service and an earthly sanctuary”) and of the “redemption of transgressions under the first covenant.” This shows that the “first covenant” was a gracious one.7[Note: 7. WS: The difference between these two phases of one and the same evangelical covenant is marked in the Authorized Version of the New Testament by the translation of diathēkē (διαθήκη). It is generally rendered “covenant” when it refers to the administration of mercyin the old dispensation and “testament” when it refers to the administration of mercy in the new. But the only passage in which it can with any plausibility mean “testament” isHebrews 9:16-17; and in this “covenant” might be used in accordance with the following rendering: “For where a covenant is, the death of the covenantor (tou diathemenou, τοῦ διαθεμένου) of necessity is implied (anankē pheresthai, ἀνάγκη φέρεσθαι). For a covenant is valid [only] over dead victims (nekrois, νεκροῖς); since it is never of force while the covenantor (ho diathemenos, ὁ διαθέμενος) lives. Wherefore, neither the first covenant was instituted without blood [i.e., without a vicarious victim].” The clause death of the covenantor is natural from the Hebrew point of view. In the biblical conception, the covenantor is identified with his substituted offering. The death of the offering is equivalent, before the divine tribunal, to the death of the offerer. The covenantor is reckoned to have died when his vicarious victim dies. Such a phrase as the death of the covenantor would not have seemed strange in the least to the Hebrews, to whom the epistle was addressed.]
Threefold Office
Christ the God-man, as the mediator of the evangelical covenant, discharges three offices: those of prophet, priest, and king: “Our mediator was called Christ, because he was anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure; and so set apart and fully furnished with all authority and ability, to execute the offices of prophet, priest, and king of his church, in the estate both of his humiliation and exaltation” (Westminster Larger Catechism 42). His prophetic office is taught in the following: “The Lord your God will raise up unto you a prophet from among you, of your brethren, like unto me” (Deuteronomy 18:15; Deuteronomy 18:18; Acts 3:22); “the spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings” (Isaiah 16:1; Luke 4:18). His priestly office is taught in the following: “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:5-6); “we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens” (Hebrews 4:14-15). His kingly office is taught in the following: “He shall be called the prince of peace” (Isaiah 9:6-7); “I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Psalms 2:6).
These offices were each and all of them executed by the mediator before, as well as after his advent (Westminster Confession 7.5; 8.6). This is proved by the following: “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8); “the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head” (Genesis 3:15); “to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past” (Romans 3:25); “he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:15; Galatians 3:8; Galatians 3:14; Galatians 3:16-18 compared with Genesis 17:7; Genesis 22:18); “we believe that through the grace of Christ we shall be saved even as they [the fathers]” (Acts 15:11); “to him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins” (10:43); “for the law [Jewish dispensation] having a shadow of good things to come” (Hebrews 10:1-10); the Jewish ordinances “are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ” (Colossians 2:17; Isaiah 53:1-12); “I the Lord have called you and will give you for a light of the Gentiles” (Isaiah 42:6); “unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them” (Hebrews 4:2).
Faith in the mediator was the unmeritorious but indispensable condition of salvation8[Note: 8. WS: On the use of the term condition applied to the covenant of grace, see Witsius, Apostles’ Creed, diss. 1 n. 44.] before the advent as well as after it: “The just [i.e., the justified] shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4, quoted by St. Paul in Romans 1:17); “blessed are all they that put their trust in him” (Psalms 2:12); “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness” (Romans 4:3); “David says, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (4:8); “these all died in faith” (Hebrews 11:13); Enoch “pleased God” by his faith” (11:5); “the Old Testament is not contrary to the New: for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only mediator between God and Man” (Thirty-nine Articles 7). Says Calvin (on Galatians 4:1-7):
We learn from this passage that the fathers under the Old Testament had the same hope of the inheritance which we have at the present day, because they were partakers of the same adoption. Notwithstanding their outward servitude, their consciences were still free. Though bearing the yoke of the [ceremonial] law upon their shoulders, they nevertheless with a free spirit worshiped God. More particularly, having been instructed concerning the free pardon of sin, their consciences were delivered from the tyranny of sin and death. They held the same doctrine, were joined with us in the true unity of faith, placed reliance on one mediator, called on God as their Father, and were led by the same Spirit. Hence it appears that the difference between us and these ancient fathers lies not in substance, but in accidents or circumstantials. The Old Testament believer had both the penitent consciousness of sin and the remission of sin. The account of the religious experience of Abraham, Moses, David, and Isaiah discloses a contrite spirit before the absolute holiness of God. The Old Testament saint cast himself upon divine mercy (Psalms 32:1-11; Psalms 32:51; Psalms 103:2-3). And this mercy he expected through the promised “seed of the woman,” the Messiah, and through an atonement typified by the levitical sacrifices. The forgiveness of sin was both promised and received under the old dispensation.
Christ’s Prophetic Office The prophetic office of Christ is thus described in Westminster Larger Catechism Q. 43: “Christ executes the office of a prophet in revealing to the church, in all ages, by his Spirit and word, the whole will of God in all things concerning edification and salvation.” The prophetic function of Christ is not confined to the prediction of future events. The idea is wider than that of mere vaticination, though it includes this. Christ, as “that prophet that should come into the world” (John 6:14; John 1:21; Luke 24:19), is the source and teacher of truth-and particularly of that truth which relates to human redemption. This is implied in the names that are given to him in Scripture. He is called counselor (Isaiah 9:6), witness (55:4), interpreter (Job 33:23), apostle (Hebrews 3:1), word (John 1:1), truth (14:6), and wisdom (Proverbs 8:1-36). In the Logos doctrine of St. John, all the previous statements respecting the prophetic or teaching function of the mediator are summed up and more fully unfolded: He is “the light of men” (1:4), the “light of the world” (9:5), the “true light which coming into the world lights every man” (1:9), “the light to lighten the Gentiles” (Luke 2:32; Isaiah 60:3), “the Word dwelling among us full of truth” (John 1:14), and the “Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). Hence the voice from heaven to mankind: “This is my beloved Son, hear him” (Matthew 17:5). The great characteristic of Christ as a prophet is his consciousness of infallibility: “He spoke as one having authority and not as the scribes” (Mark 1:22); “but I say unto you” (Matthew 5:34). Merely human prophets, like Isaiah (see Isaiah 6:1-13), are abashed in the presence of deity when receiving communications from him. Christ never shows the least trace of such a feeling: “No man knows the Father but the Son, and no one knows the Son but the Father” (Matthew 11:27). This implies coequality with the Father in the knowledge of the mystery of the Trinity. Christ speaks out of the fullness of his own immediate intuition. He never says, “The word of the Lord came unto me.” From the omniscience of his own divine nature he draws all his teachings, as a prophet: him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). He is the source to others of prophetic knowledge: He “opened the understanding of his disciples that they might understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). The Old Testament prophets “prophesied of the grace that should come, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow” (1 Peter 1:10-11).
Christ executes the office of prophet personally and directly. This he did (a) in all the theophanies of the Old Testament: The appearances of Jehovah to individuals before the flood, to the patriarchs and Moses after the flood, to the prophets of Israel and Judah, were a discharge of the prophetic function of the mediator. These were all harbingers and adumbrations of his incarnation. And he also did this (b) in his incarnation itself: This was as direct and personal teaching as is possible. The second person of the Trinity when incarnate upon earth spoke as never man spoke and spoke face to face to man. And his teaching was not confined to his words, though most of his instruction was so conveyed. The works of Christ as well as his words, and especially his miraculous works, taught man: “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works” (John 10:37-38). His disciples describe him as “a prophet mighty in deed and word before the people” (Luke 24:19). This prophetic office continues to be discharged personally by the incarnate Word, in his state of exaltation. In the description of the heavenly world, the “Lamb” is said to be “the light thereof” (Revelation 21:23).
Christ executes the office of prophet mediately (a) through the Holy Spirit. All the truth that was conveyed previous to the advent through the inspired prophets of the Old Testament and subsequent to it through the apostles of the New Testament comes to man in the discharge of the prophetic function of the mediator. Hence it is said (1 Peter 1:10-12) that it was “the Spirit of Christ” that was in the prophets “who prophesied of the grace that should come” and who “testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ.” By this same Holy Spirit, Christ “preached unto those that were disobedient in the days of Noah” and who are now and forevermore “in prison” for their disobedience (1 Peter 3:19-20; see p. 841). Christ as prophet is thus the source of all revelation, unwritten and written. The truths of natural religion come to man through him. He is the “light of men” in the sense that what “may be known of God” is an unwritten and internal revelation to them (Romans 1:19). And he is the “light of the world” in the sense that all that higher and more perfect knowledge respecting God and human salvation which constitutes the written word has him for its author: “The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him” (John 1:18). Christ also executes the office of prophet mediately (b) through the instrumentality of the Christian ministry and church. Christ, in the first place, commissioned his apostles as inspired agents both to teach and to preach the gospel. Their writings are the infallible documents by which the church is to be instructed and guided: “Go and teach all nations” (Matthew 28:19-20); “the Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth; he shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and show it unto you” (John 15:13-14). Again, second, Christ provided for successors to the apostles considered as preachers and ministers of the word, and through this ministry he instrumentally executes his prophetic office. The supernatural gifts of inspiration and miracles which the apostles possessed were not continued to their ministerial successors, because they were no longer necessary. All the doctrines of Christianity had been revealed to the apostles and had been delivered to the church in a written form. There was no further need of an infallible inspiration. And the credentials and authority given to the first preachers of Christianity in miraculous acts did not need continual repetition from age to age. One age of miracles well authenticated is sufficient to establish the divine origin of the gospel. In a human court, an indefinite series of witnesses is not required. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses” the facts are established. The case once decided is not reopened. With the exception, therefore, of the two supernatural gifts of inspiration and miracles, the ministry who took up the work of preaching the word had the same preparation for the work that the apostles had. They were like them regenerated, sanctified, and enlightened by the Holy Spirit. This is taught in Ephesians 4:11-12 : Having “ascended far above all heavens” and being seated upon the mediatorial throne, the mediator “gave some to be apostles and some to be prophets and some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers: for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Accordingly, the preaching of the gospel by his ministers is called Christ’s preaching: “Then the deputy Sergius Paulus, when he saw what was done to Elymas the sorcerer, believed, being astonished at the doctrine [teaching] of the Lord [through Paul]” (Acts 13:12). In 1 Corinthians 1:6 and Revelation 1:2 the preaching of the gospel is denominated “the testimony of Christ.” In 2 Corinthians 5:20 Paul represents himself and his colaborers as ambassadors for Christ and beseeches men in Christ’s stead to be reconciled to God. In 1 Peter 3:19 and Ephesians 2:17 the preaching of Noah and the apostles is called Christ’s preaching.
Again, the mass of the church, as well as the Christian ministry, are represented as an agency by which the mediator executes his prophetic office. After the death of Stephen, all the church “excepting the apostles” were scattered by persecution and “went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). The church is represented as “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,” to “show forth the praises of him who has called it out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). The Holy Spirit dwelling in the church, in all the fullness of his graces and gifts, enriches it with wisdom and knowledge, so that it is capable both by word and example of proclaiming Christ crucified to the sinful world of which it is said to be the light (Matthew 5:14-16). The superiority of the church to the secular world, in regard to the comprehension of religious truth and of everything relating to the eternal destiny of mankind, is boldly and strongly asserted by St. Paul: “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect [saints enlightened]; even the hidden wisdom of God which none of the princes of this world knew. The natural man cannot know the things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned. He that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man” (1 Corinthians 2:6-15). The Christian mind is qualified to be a critic of secular knowledge; but the secular mind is not qualified to be a critic of Christianity. Christ crucified is foolishness to the Greek; yet this foolishness of God is wiser than men (1:23, 25).
Christ’s Priestly Office The priestly office of Christ is thus defined in Westminster Larger Catechism Q. 44: “Christ executes the office of a priest, in his once offering himself a sacrifice without spot to God, to be a reconciliation for the sins of his people; and in making continual intercession for them.” The function of a priest is described in Hebrews 5:1 : “Every high priest is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.”9[Note: 9. WS: Cf. “Priest” in Kitto’s Encyclopedia; Lowman, Hebrew Ritual; Outram, On Sacrifice; Kurtz, Mosaic Sacrifices; Cave, On Sacrifice; Blunt, Coincidences, 14-22.] The priest is a mediator in religion, as an ambassador is one in politics. He is appointed to officiate between God and man in religious matters. And since the fact of sin is a cardinal fact in the case of man, the function of a mediating priest for man must be mainly expiatory and reconciling. Since “every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, it is of necessity that Jesus Christ have somewhat to offer” (8:3).
Accordingly, we find the expiatory priest in existence long before the Mosaic institute. Noah, at the cessation of the deluge, nearly a thousand years before the exodus of the Israelites, officiated as the priest of his household: “Noah built an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And Jehovah smelled a sweet savor” (Genesis 8:20). This implies that the system of sacrifices was then in existence. There was an altar and a victim. The distinction between clean and unclean beasts and birds was made, a distinction which has its principal significance in reference to a piacular offering. Not any and everything may be offered as an atonement, but only that which is specified.
Still more than this, there is evidence in the first chapters of Genesis that atoning sacrifices and an officiating priest to offer them were instituted immediately after the apostasy and in connection with the promise of a mediator. It was a common Jewish opinion that Adam was the first human priest. The correctness of this opinion is favored by the following considerations. The permission to eat vegetable food is given to Adam in Genesis 1:29, but nothing is said of animal food. The permission to eat both vegetable and animal food is given to Noah in 9:3. Yet animals were slain by Adam; for “the Lord God made coats of skins and clothed both Adam and Eve” (3:21). It is a natural explanation of this fact to suppose that animals had been killed and offered in sacrifice by Adam. For even if it be assumed that animal food was permitted to Adam, the narrative respecting the coats of skins implies that more animals were slain than would be required for the food of Adam and Eve. Again, in 4:3-4 both Cain and Abel are represented as offering sacrifices; the former, the bloodless eucharistic offering of the fruit of the ground; the latter, the bloody expiatory offering of the firstlings of the flock. They are described as “bringing” their offering (4:3-4) to a locality which is described as the “face of the Lord” and the “presence of the Lord” (4:14, 16). This looks like a sacred place appointed for the offering of sacrifice and a sacred person to officiate, namely, Adam the head and priest of his family, as Noah was of his. The words of God to Cain (4:7) teach that a piacular offering for sin had been appointed: “If you do not well, sin [a sin offering] lies at the door.” Subsequently, the lamb or goat was to be brought “to the door of the tabernacle.” Again, the prohibition in 9:4, 16 to eat blood, given to Noah, is the same that is afterward given to the Israelites in Leviticus 17:10; Leviticus 17:12; and the reason assigned when the command is laid upon the Israelites is that the blood is the life of the flesh and is to be poured upon the altar “to make atonement for your souls.” From this it follows with great probability that the statute as given to Moses was only a reenactment of the statute as given to Noah and given for the same reason, namely, that the blood of animals must be used only for piacular purposes. Even under the levitical law, the use of animal food was considerably restricted. The blood and fat were interdicted in all cases. The sin offering and trespass offering were to be eaten only by the priests; and the more solemn sin offerings could not be eaten even by them. The burnt offerings, the most numerous of all, were wholly consumed.
Similar proofs of the institution of an expiatory sacrifice and an officiating priest are found in the history of Abraham and the other patriarchs. On first entering Canaan, Abram “built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 12:7-8). When he returned from his victory over the kings, he is congratulated and blessed by Melchizedek the Canaanite king of Salem, who is called “the priest of the most high God” (14:18-19). Isaac builds an altar (26:25). Jacob offers sacrifice (31:54). The indications of a priest and a sacrifice are plain in the Book of Job. It was the “continual” custom of this patriarch, who probably lived between the deluge and Abraham, as the head of his family to “offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all” (Job 1:5). The Septuagint rendering of 12:19 is “he leads priests [Authorized Version: princes] away spoiled.” In 33:23-24 the idea of one who furnishes a ransom is presented. The rite of sacrifice under the Old Testament taught that God is both just and merciful: just, in that his law requires death for sin; merciful, in that he permits and provides a vicarious death for sin. In this way it deepened fear and inspired hope-fear of divine holiness and hope in divine mercy. The priestly office of the mediator, unlike his prophetic, is not administered mediately but directly. The priests of the old dispensation, both patriarchal and Mosaic, were types of Christ, not his agents or delegates. The human priests “were many, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death”; but the divine high priest is one and alone, “because he continues ever and has an unchangeable priesthood” (Hebrews 7:23-24). And because he constantly discharges his priestly office, he does not delegate it to others. This unique and solitary character of Christ’s priesthood is taught in the comparison of him to Melchizedek in Hebrews 7:1-28. The king of Salem was the only one of his class. He was “without father, without mother, without descent (agenealogētos),10[Note: 0 10. ἀγενεαλόγητος] having neither beginning of days nor end of life.” That is, he was not one of a line of priests having predecessors and successors. In this respect he was like the Son of God, who was also alone and solitary in his priesthood. The Romish theory of an ecclesiastical priesthood acting, since Christ’s ascension, as the delegates and agents of the great high priest has no support in Scripture. Had Christ intended to discharge his sacerdotal office through a class of persons in his church, he would have appointed and commissioned such a class and provided for its continuation. He did this in regard to his prophetic office. He appointed “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints and the work of the ministry” (Ephesians 4:11-12). But he did not appoint any to be priests to “offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Hebrews 5:1). On the contrary, he abolished the earthly priesthood when he formally assumed his own priestly office. The substance having appeared, the shadow disappeared. The antitype makes the type useless (9:23-26). The earthly sacrifice was done away, and the earthly priest with it. The two parts of Christ’s priestly work are atonement and intercession. (a) Atonement: “How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience” (Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 9:28); Christ “was once offered to bear the sins of many”; “the lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29); “a merciful and faithful high priest to make reconciliation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17); “a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28); “my blood is shed for you” (Luke 22:19); “he made him to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21); “Christ was made a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13); “Christ suffered for our sins the just for the unjust” (1 Peter 3:18); “he is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2); “he made his soul an offering for sin” (Isaiah 53:10); “he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us” (Romans 8:32); “by him we have received the atonement” (5:11); “Christ died for us; scarcely for a righteous man will one die” (5:6-7); “Christ has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). (b) Intercession: “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1); “wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25); “I pray for them which you have given me; neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word” (John 17:9; John 17:20). The intercession of Christ is intimately connected with his atoning work. Westminster Confession 8.8, after saying that Christ “effectually applies and communicates redemption to those for whom he has purchased it,” adds that “he makes intercession for them” (cf. Westminster Larger Catechism Q. 44). This is in accordance with the Scriptures. The Apostle John asserts that “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:1-2) and adduces as the ground of his success as an advocate two facts: that he is “Jesus Christ the righteous” and is “the propitiation for our sins.” The Apostle Paul in Romans 8:34 states that Christ is “at the right hand of God making intercession for us” and mentions as the reason why he is fitted for this work the fact that he “died and is risen again.” In Hebrews 4:14-16 believers are encouraged to “come boldly unto the throne of grace” because they “have a great high priest who is passed into the heavens and is touched with the feeling of their infirmities.” Again, in 7:24-25 Christians are assured that because Christ has an “unchangeable priesthood, he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.” In 9:7-12 the writer reminds the reader that the Jewish “high priest went alone once every year into the second tabernacle, not without blood, which he offered for himself and the errors of the people”; and then he states that Christ, “a high priest of good things to come, by his own blood entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
Still further proof of the close connection of Christ’s intercessory work with his atoning work is found in that class of texts which represent the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit as being procured by Christ’s intercession. These teach that that plenary effusion of the Holy Spirit which is the characteristic of the Christian economy is owing to the return of the mediator to the Father and his session upon the mediatorial throne: “I indeed baptize with water; he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 3:11); “Jesus spoke this of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39); “it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart I will send him unto you” (16:7). In 14:16-26 and 15:26 Christ assures his disciples that after he has left them and returned to the Father “where he was before,” he “will pray the Father, and he will give them another Comforter, that he may abide with them, even the Spirit of truth”; and furthermore that he will himself “send the Comforter unto them from the Father.” In accordance with these statements of Christ, we find Peter referring the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost to the mediatorial agency and intercession of Christ: “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the gift of the Holy Spirit, he has shed forth this which you now see and hear” (Acts 2:33). And the whole Book of Acts contains frequent allusions and references to the person and work of the Holy Spirit, in a manner and to a degree which are not seen in the four gospels, showing that immediately after the ascension of Christ a more powerful agency and influence of the third trinitarian person began to be experienced in the church. This descent and gift of gracious operation and influence was directly connected with Christ’s presence and intercession in heaven. And this intercession rested for its ground and reason of success upon that atoning work which he had performed upon earth. The same connection between Christ’s atonement and Christ’s intercession is noticed in the epistles. Christ was “made a curse for us that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:13-14). The Holy Spirit is “shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5-6). When Christ “ascended up on high, he received gifts for men” (Ephesians 4:8). The intercession of Christ relates (a) to the application of his own atonement to the individual and (b) to the bestowment of the Holy Spirit as enlightening and sanctifying the believer (cf. Smith, Theology, 481-90).
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6.1.1 (see p. 678). Witsius (Apostles’ Creed, diss. 10.42-44) thus explains Christ’s divesting himself of the mediatorial commission and kingdom, as taught in 1 Corinthians 15:24-28. “It is certain (1) that the divine, essential, and natural kingdom of Christ [as the second person of the Trinity] is eternal. (2) That the humanity of Christ will always remain personally united with the divinity and will on that account enjoy a glory very far surpassing the glory of all creatures. (3) Christ will always be the head, that is, by far the most noble member of the church and as such will be recognized, adored, and praised by the church. (4) The mediatorial kingdom itself will be eternal as to its glorious effects, as well in the head as in the members. Some of these effects are in Christ, the effulgence of divine majesty shining most brightly in his person as God-man; in the elect, complete liberty, the subjugation of all their enemies, the entire abolition of sin, and unutterable joy arising from intimate communion with God. In these respects the kingdom of Christ is eternal, and Paul is so far from opposing these sentiments that, on the contrary, he teaches them at great length.
“But after the day of the last judgment the exercise of Christ’s kingly office and the form of his mediatorial kingdom will be widely different from what they now are. (1) The economic government of this kingdom, as now exercised by an ecclesiastical ministry and by civil authority as conducive to the protection of the church, will then cease, ‘when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.’ (2) After the last judgment Christ will render an account to God the Father of his whole mediatorial office, as perfectly accomplished in what relates not only to the purchase, but also to the full application of salvation to the whole church; presenting to him a truly glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. To this may be referred the expression he shall deliver up the kingdom, that is, the church, in her perfect state, ‘to God, even the Father.’ (3) This account having been rendered, the Godhead itself without the intervention of a mediator (for which there seems no more occasion, sin being removed) will hold communion immediately with the redeemed, in almost the same manner in which it holds fellowship with the angels; with this difference, however, that the redeemed will through eternity acknowledge themselves indebted to the merits of Christ for this immediate communication of the deity. This is what is intended by the expression that God may be all in all. (4) There, also, Christ, no longer discharging any part of the mediatorial office, will, with regard to his human nature, be subject unto God, as one of the brethren, possessing manifold and most excellent glory, without any diminution of the glory which he now enjoys. This seems to be intimated by these words: ‘And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him.’ (5) Thus far there ‘shall be an end’ of the mediatorial kingdom, the exercise of which supposes some imperfection in the church. It is an end of such a nature as brings all things to a state of complete and endless perfection.”
Owen (Person of Christ, chap. 19) says on his subject: “For the discharge of this mediatorial work Christ has a sovereign power over all things in heaven and earth committed unto him. Herein he does and must reign. And so absolutely is it vested in him that upon the ceasing of the exercise of it he himself is said to be subject unto God. It is true that the Lord Christ, in his human nature, is always less than or inferior to God, even the Father. In this sense he is in subjection unto him now in heaven. But yet he has an actual exercise [as mediator] of divine power, wherein he is absolute and supreme. When this [mediatorial and redeeming power] ceases he shall be subject unto the Father in that [human] nature, and only so. Wherefore when this work [of mediation between God and sinners] is perfectly fulfilled and ended, then shall all the mediatory actings of Christ cease forevermore. For God will then have completely finished the whole design of his wisdom and grace [in redemption]. Then will God ‘be all in all.’ ”
Edward Irving (Christ’s Kingly Office) remarks to the same effect: “To give up this superinduced power [of mediator between God and sinful men] and return into the condition of his primeval equality, into the condition of the Son begotten from all eternity, this is what I understand St. Paul to mean when he says, ‘Then shall the Son also be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all’; that is, the earth shall no longer be under mediatorial regiment, but under the same direct regiment of God in which the unfallen worlds are. And God-not God and a mediator, but God in his [tri]personalities and offices-shall be all in all.”