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The Mediation of Christ

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 14, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 11.

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The Mediation of Christ

By W. W. P.

The One Mediator

As central in the moral world, which is itself central in the material, the moral law holds the central place in the universal system. It is the law of laws. Characterized by the unbiased and unswerving uprightness, straightness, or equity of its dictates, it is known as the law of righteousness. Righteousness is simply rightness. In its ultimate analysis this law of rightness is love, the purest, highest, and most comprehensive of all principles. Its exclusions and inclusions embrace the entire realm of morality. Love worketh no ill. Love worketh all good. No more comprehensive moral principle can therefore exist. As applicable to all moral beings whatsoever, no higher nor greater moral law than the law of love can be conceived. Universal justice and benevolence are included in its range, and eternal harmony in its results. Upon its fulfilment depends the union or unity of the moral universe. No sacrifice therefore of this principle can pass unchecked in a universe which deserves the name. Order and unity must prevail, or the system perish.—Dr. H. Grattan Guinness.
“And one of the scribes . . . asked him, What commandment is the first of all? Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. The second is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12: 28-31.
Complete harmony with the will of God as expressed in his law is an indispensable condition of eternal life in the kingdom of God. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matt. 7: 21. “The world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” 1 John 2: 17.
WHEN man was created in the image of God (Gen. 1: 27), the divine thought for him was the very essence of his life and being; or in other words, the law of moral perfection, the law of love, was implanted in his inmost nature, and the law of his physical being was written in his members. Thus was man in very deed “the image and glory of God.” 1 Cor. 11: 7.
The relation which man sustained to God, his creator, and to God’s created works, has been clearly and authoritatively set forth thus:— “Thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor. Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, Yea, and the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.” Ps. 8: 5-8.
This dominion which man held over both the animate and the inanimate creation, was not arbitrarily bestowed upon him, but became his by virtue of the relation which he himself sustained to God, the creator, in whose image he was created, and whose law of love was the very life of his life. Man was king of this world, not by appointment or election, but by creation. All other beings and things were subordinate to man; all other laws were subordinate to the moral law, the law of man’s being; the relations of all other beings and things to each other and to the rest of creation were subordinate to man’s relation to God as expressed in the law of love, a law operative in the plane of moral being only. Hence man’s dominion was preserved, and order in the world was sustained, by man’s perfect harmony with the will of God for him, since the will of God for all the rest of creation was ministered through man, who was in this sense priest as well as king.
Creation had its origin in the will of God. “Thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they were, and were created.” Rev. 4: 11. This active will of God found expression through the eternal Son, whose delight it was to do his Father’s will. “So strict is the substantial oneness of the Son with the Father that the Son is the word of the Father,—the Logos, the thought, the reason, the wisdom, of the Father,—and so the means wherethrough the inner will and purpose of the Godhead has passed outward into realization. The Father has ever worked through the person of the Son. The Son is the one mediator, acting from and for the divine nature toward all else that is.” The Son, the eternal personal wisdom of God, thus speaks of his mediation between the Father and all that is:— “The Lord possessed me, the beginning of his way, Before his works of old. I was anointed from everlasting, From the first, from the beginnings of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth,
When there were no fountains abounding with water, Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills, was I brought forth. While as yet he had not made the earth, Or the fields, Or the first clods of the world. When he prepared the heavens I was there; When he set a canopy over the face of the deep: When he established the skies above: When the fountains of the deep waxed strong: When he gave to the sea its bounds, That the waters should not pass their border; When he appointed the foundations of the earth; Then I was by him, I the builder; And I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in his habitable earth; And my delights were with the sons of men.” Prov. 8: 22-31, Medd’s Translation.
The great truth that it was through the mediation of his eternal Son that God wrought in the original creation, when all things were brought into being, becomes the pillar and ground of the central principle of the gospel—the mediatorial principle. This is clearly revealed in the following scriptures:—
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made.” “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world knew him not.” “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.” John 1: 1-3, 10, 14.
“To us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him.” 1 Cor. 8: 6.
“In him [the Son] were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him; and he is before all things, and in him all things consist [that is, hold together]. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell; and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.” Col. 1: 16-20.
“God having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds; who being the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” “Now in the things which we are saying the chief point is this: We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.” “Now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.” “He, because he abideth forever, hath his priesthood unchangeable. Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Heb. 1: 1-3; 8: 1, 2, 6; 7: 24, 25.
The teaching of these scriptures should be carefully noted, and may be briefly summarized thus:— 1. It was through the mediation of the eternal Son, the Logos or Word, that all things were brought into being. 2. In and through the Son all things were created, not only upon earth, but also in the heavens. 3. In and through the same eternal Son all created things are sustained and kept in order. 4. The same eternal Word, or Son, through whose mediation all things were created, became flesh, in order that through his mediation for sin man might become reconciled to God. 5. The head of the original creation thus became the head of the new creation, and the mediator in the one became the mediator in the other. 6. The one through whom God made the worlds is the one through whom purification for sins was made. 7. The one through whom God made the worlds and through whom purification was made for sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high as high priest, the minister of the sanctuary in the heavens. 8. He who was the mediator in the original creative work, is now the mediator of the new, or better, covenant. 9. Those who come to God through this mediator will obtain full and complete salvation from sin.
It is thus evident that the gospel provision for mediation in behalf of man after sin had entered into the world, did not require the introduction of a new principle into the divine administration, but simply a new application of a principle already in operation. “The restriction of the thought of mediatorship and sacrifice to the gracious intervention of the eternal Son on behalf of fallen and sinful man, has narrowed and thrown out of proportion our thought of the dignity and glory of the Son, and of the grandeur of his work. Sin, of course, brings another element into worship and sacrifice. Sin creates a gulf between the creature and God; and only a mediator, a priest, can bring the creature back to God even when it wills to be brought, or can make atonement and satisfaction on its behalf for the injury and wrong done to the majesty of the supreme Lawgiver by an act of disobedience. There is a new need, that of expiation; and there is a greater, and to us a more evident need of a mediator.”
“But the standing truth, that from the first instant of creation there has been a mediator between the Father and creation, one through whom, necessarily, creation came into being, renders it easier for us to apprehend alike the necessity, and (such is the love of God) the probability, of an atoning mediator who should undo the mischief of sin; and, this being so, the impossibility that it can be any other than the uncreated mediator, through whom and for whom were all things made, the eternal Son.”
It is the active working of the will and power of God, mediated through the eternal Son, which directs the planets in their courses, and preserves order throughout the universe; and this fact is made the basis of an appeal for confidence in the working of that same power, which is mediated through the same eternal Son, to guide and to uphold those who are just as unable to keep themselves as is any mass of inert matter. All this is plainly revealed:—
“Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these, that bringeth out their host by number; he calleth them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and for that he is strong in power, not one is lacking. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from Jehovah, and the justice due me is passed away from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? The everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength.” Isa. 40: 26-29.
The material universe does not hold together and maintain that constant order in all its parts by virtue of any merely initial or inherent power, or as the result of the working of impersonal laws; but there is continually being displayed that same active will through which all things were brought into being, and this will is mediated by the eternal Son, “who being the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power,” is always and ever the only mediator for the Father. As the things that are made are thus perfectly obedient to the will of their Creator, it is declared of them that they render worship to him:— “Thou art Jehovah, even thou alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are thereon, the seas
and all that is in them, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshipeth thee.” Neh. 9: 6.
It is because of this perfect obedience to the will or law of God, this unhindered revelation of his power and wisdom, that God is glorified in the inanimate creation. Thus we read:— “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, And night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language; Their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world.” Ps. 19: 1-4.
Just so it is the purpose of God that man, created in his image, shall glorify and worship him by perfect obedience to the divine will, and therefore in the last proclamation of the everlasting gospel before the consummation of all things, the heavenly message is put into this setting:— “Fear God, and give him glory; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made the heaven and the earth and the sea and fountains of waters.” Rev. 14: 7.
But God has by creation endowed man with a mind, and has granted to him freedom of will which he himself respects, so that it must be by man’s own consent that the will or law of God is revealed in his life. Consequently, it must be in his mind and heart that the will or law of God is written, and this is accomplished through the mediation of the same eternal Son, the mediator between his Father and all that is, who took the flesh in order that “he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people,” and who is now “the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.” And these are the promises:— “I will put my laws into their mind, And on their heart also will I write them: And I will be to them a God, And they shall be to me a people.” Heb. 8: 10.
When through faith in the promise of God and through the acceptance of the atoning mediation of Christ, the eternal Son, this work has been wrought in the heart of man, and the incorrigibly wicked have been destroyed, then man will be just as obedient to the will of God as is the inanimate creation, complete order will be restored throughout all creation, and the whole universe of God will render one constant and eternal tribute of praise and glory to “him that sitteth on the throne, and shall worship him that liveth forever and ever.” W. W. P.