The Mediatorial Reign of Christ
Zion's Advocate, Vol. 39, No. 8, August 1900.A Mediator is one who comes between parties who are at variance for the purpose of effecting a reconciliation. The necessity for a Mediator arises from the impossibility of a reconciliation being effected by the party or parties at variance. The success of any attempt at reconciliation depends upon the ability of the Mediator to bring it about. The work required to reconcile the parties depends upon the nature of the obstacles in the waythe trouble between them. We desire to apply these self-evident principles in this brief investigation of the Mediatorial reign of Christ.
The idea of salvation by a Mediator seems to have been prevalent even with the Pagans of ancient times, while the Jews called the Messiah the mediator or middle One. This idea must have been imbibed immediately after the fall of Adam, for God is said to have clothed the guilty pair with coats of skin, signifying that a beast had been slain. Abel's acceptable offering pointed forward to the offering of an accepted Mediator, while all the slain beasts prefigured the same.
Man, fallen from his state of purity, and driven from paradisaical Eden, was totally unable to restore himself to his former state, or to make satisfaction to the justice of his Creator. In his former state he was in perfect friendship with his Maker, but by sin he exposed himself to his hot displeasure, enfeebled his own powers, and filled his own heart with enmity against him. He was thus rendered so incapable of restoring himself that it was declared to be as impossible as it is for the leopard to change his spots or the Ethiopian his skin.
God, knowing such would be the ruined condition of a people chosen by him, made choice of a Mediator to represent them and reconcile them to his offended justice. In order to accomplish this work it was necessary that the said Mediator should be God and man in one person. It was necessary he should be man that he might be related to the ones whose Mediator he was to be; that sin might be punished, and satisfaction made for it, in the very nature that had sinned; that he might be able to render obedience to the law that man had violated; that he might be capable of suffering death by the shedding of his blood, for without shedding of blood there is no remission, and that he might be capable of sympathizing with man and representing him as a faithful High Priest. But it was also necessary that he should be God to give virtue to his obedience. If he were God and not man we should be filed with fear and dread in trying to approach him, and if he were man and not God we would not dare to worship him, as homage paid to a being less than God would be idolatry. As he is both God and man, he is adapted to our needs as poor sinful worms of the dust, and we can approach him through his own offering and intercession, and worship him as our adorable Redeemer.
Jesus is the only Mediator between God and men, for there is but one. I Tim. ii. 4. The final salvation of a sinner depends upon a full reconciliation being made. Reconciliation for sin must be made by the one Mediator. No priest or preacher has ever assisted in this reconciliation. No one has ever stood as an aid to Jesus in this work. "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life." Rom. v. 10. Christ reconciled us to God by his death by "bearing our sins in his own body on the tree." I Pet. ii. 24. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." II Cor. v. 19.
The reason that God did not impute their sins unto them was that Christ bore them in his death. Thus David and Paul both declare that man to blessed "whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered." Ps. xxxii. 1, 2, and Rom. iv. 7. Forgiveness of sins follows the covering of those sins. Sins are covered by Christ's suffering for them. There is no other covering for sins. Then all whose sins Christ covered are to be forgiven of their sins and are blesses indeed. "For this cause he is the Mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they that are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." Heb. ix. 15.
This Mediator of the new testament, or covenant of grace, accomplished the entire work of redemption of the sins of those whom he represented, his elect, that were under the first testament, or law covenant, in order that the promise of an eternal inheritance might be given them. After having thus obtained eternal redemption for them he entered into the Holy Place, to reign as their Mediator and effectual Intercessor.
This wonderful mediatorial scheme originated in the infinite wisdom of Jehovah, and displays his infinite goodness. The exaltation of Christ to this high station is the fulfillment of the wise design of his Father, and all connected with his reign as Mediator is but the outgrowth of the purpose of God. God has recognized and approved his Son's right to the Mediatorial throne, and the government of that Mediator is founded in inconceivable wisdom, to answer the wise purpose of its omnipotent founder. To say God does not know what will be the result of all this is to impeach the wisdom of one who is all-wise; and to say that any represented by him in his death on the cross and in his intercession in heaven will be finally lost is to impeach his power. Such is blasphemy, being a blow at the infinite perfection of the deity. We reason, therefore, that all given to Christ will come to him and that he will never cast them out (John vi. 37), that he gives eternal life to all of them (John xvii. 2) and that they shall never perish (John x. 28). He who undertakes to disprove our arguments, or dislodge us from our rock, will find himself engaged in an impossible task.
That omnipotent Creator, who has established a law of harmony by which the planets are guided in their course, has established a plan of redemption through a Mediator that is perfectly harmonious. It is not left to the uncertainty of man's corrupt will, neither is it suspended upon the obedience or disobedience of priest or preacher, but it was ordained in the hand of just one Mediator. Gal. iii. 19. Those who say that the condemned sinner must have another to stand with Christ as a medium or mediator between him and the law of God, contradict the plain teaching of God's word, and advocate a theory that attempts to rob Christ of the glory that belongs to him. Poor, deluded Catholics are taught to depend upon the priests to represent them, in connection with Christ, before the court of heaven. Other poor, deluded Arminians are taught to believe that a preacher is necessary to the salvation of condemned sinners. Both are delusions. Only one Mediator is needed, and the whole matter is in his hands. When any sinner is brought to believe in him and rejoice in his salvation we reason that it is because that sinner was ordained to eternal life. Acts xiii. 48. There is no uncertainty here, no discord in the affairs of the great spiritual realm over which Christ reigns as a Mediator. God is not disappointed, for no failure can occur, neither is he surprised, for no one comes to Christ except those drawn by him. John vi. 44. He sees the end from the beginning, and known unto him are all his works. At the end of the Mediatorial reign the Son will say, "Behold I and the children which God hath given me." Heb. ii. 13. The highest honors will thus be accorded the Mediator for the complete success of his work in carrying out the will of his Father.
J. R. D.
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