MEDIATOR, MEDIATION
MEDIATOR, MEDIAT\ON 31¢
on the mediatorial work of Christ to His death. The Resurrection is also for our benefit; our Lord was both ‘delivered for our trespasses’ and ‘raised for our justification’ (Ro 435). In His risen life He is ‘ the first-fruits of them that are asleep’ (1 Co 15”). Lastly, His intercession, now carried on in heaven, is an important part of His work as Mediator (Ro 85). In St. Paul’s later Epistles the more advanced Christology necessarily affects the doctrine of mediation. In Colossians we seem to have a Christian alternatiye to the Jewish doctrine of the mediation of angels in the administration of the universe, and perhaps to Philo’s specific teaching concerning the Logos as the mediator of creation, for there we read concerning Christ that ‘in him were all things created’ (Gol 116), and the mediator of providential government, for ‘in him all things consist’ (v.17). Referring to his teaching on the death of Christ who had ‘made peace through the blood of his cross,’ St. Paul enlarges the application of it to a future ‘recon- ciliation of all things. . . whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens’ (v.”), thus repre- senting Christ as the great mediator and peace- maker for the whole universe.
1 P closely follows the Pauline teaching. Christ redeems us with His ‘ blood as of a lamb without blemish’ (1), this reference to the lamb making the shedding of the blood evidently sacrificial. Similarly St. Peter writes of His bearing our sins in His body upon the tree (2%), and suffering ‘ for sins once, the righteous for (ὑπέρ, on behalf of) the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God’ (318). The only addition to the Pauline thought is the greater stress laid on the sufferings of Christ— while St. Paul usually confines our attention to His death. The idea of bringing us to God sug- gests reconciliation, and Christ, through His suffer- ings, coming as the Mediator who effects this reconciliation. In one mysterious passage the source of which, or subject alluded to, cannot be traced, St. Peter enlarges the idea of the mediation of Christ in an entirely new direction, assigning part of its operation to the state of the dead; for such is the simplest and most generally accepted interpretation of the statement that ‘he went and preached unto the spirits in prison’ (3! *°), That this was only a brief episode, confined to the time between the death and the resurrection of Christ, is suggested by other passages in the Epistle in- dicating that He was raised from the de (15), and that He passed into the heavens, there to exercise exalted powers of government (953).
c. Epistle to the Hebrews.—The main topic of Hebrews is to exhibit the mediatorial status and functions of Jesus Christ in contrast with the various forms of mediation recognized in Judaism. The Epistle opens with a contrast of the unity and exalted character of the new revelation in a Son with the broken and varied nature of the OT revela- tion by means of prophets. Christ there appears as the agent of creation, the sustainer of all things, who has also made purification for sins (1'*), Then, taking up the contents of this revelation, it pro- ceeds to work out the contrast in several regions. First, we have the mediation of angels in giving the law ; the writer contrasts the higher status of the Son, who is honoured with ‘Divine titles, though addressed by God as another person to whom is committed the government of His king- dom (1*-2"*), Here Jesus is named ‘the Apostle and High Priest of our confession,’ in contrast with Moses, who was only a servant in God’s house, while Christ is both the Builder of the house and the Son set over it (3'*). The idea of our Lord’s High-priesthood thus introduced is enlarged. He has passed into the heavens, and therefore we are encouraged to draw near with boldness to the
throne of grace (415. This leads on to specific teaching concerning our Lord’s priestly office. Two
eneral considerations arise—the priesthood is of
ivine appointment ; ret it requires human sym- pathies on the part of the priest. Both of these conditions are fulfilled in Christ’s priesthood. In taking the two together we see that His office is related both to God and to man, so that He stands in the intermediate position of a priestly mediator (51:10), A reference to Melchizedek in Ps 110 leads to a comparison of the Messianic priesthood ‘ after the order of Melchizedek,’ with the priesthood of Aaron to the advantage of the former, since Abraham, the ancestor of Levi,'did homage to Mel- chizedek, and since the priest of the Melchizedek order is declared by the Psalmist to be perpetual. After alluding to the sacrifices—a subject to be developed later—the writer returns to the idea of Sonship as the crowning proof of the superiority of Christ as a priest (ch. 7). Then he passes to a fresh consideration. It must be admitted that Christ is not a priest under the law, and therefore not in accordance with the OT covenant. But a new covenant is introduced—that predicted by Jeremiah, concerning the law written in the heart. It is under this covenant that Christ’s priesthood is exercised. It is through Him that the covenant itself is brought into effect. Here we come to another instance of the use of the word ‘ mediator’ in the NT: Christ is described as the ‘ Mediator’ of this new and better covenant, ‘that is, the Agent by whom it is established’ (Bruce, Hebrews,