The special value of the Epistle to the Hebrews is that it presents to us the mediatorial work of
Christ as a work of Divine worship. Without worship, Christianitj- would be merely a philo- sophy. And the author satisfies one of the deepest needs of the human .soul when he teaches us the relation between Christ and His people in the life of intercession, a life which is for the Christian one of faith and confidence bj- virtue of all that Jesus did and does. The author also teaches us something of the philosophy of religion. St. Paul's view of Judaism is wholly true, but it is not the whole truth. And this Epistle, with its peculiar digoiit}- and calm, and a devotion to Christ not less real than that of the Apostle of the Gentiles, gives us a fresh insight into the Divine wisdom which made Judaism ' a sacred school of the knowledge of God for the world.'
5. The Johannine writings. — (a) The Apocalypse. — Whether the Apocaljpse be the work of John the Presbj'ter, or, as the present writer believes, the work of John the Apostle, its doctrine of the mediatorial work of Christ is of high importance. The book is full of the exaltation of Jesus. He is the Messiah, the unique Son of God (1'^ 3^ 14^), the Divine Word (ig^^). He is the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root and offspring of David (5^ 22i«). He is the Lord's Messiah (ipS). By His resurrection He has become Eiiler of the kings of the earth, many royal diadems are on His head, and He is King of kings and Lord of lords (P 19^- 17'^ 19'^). He has all authority, an authority given Him by God (3-^). His terrible might is suggested by the description of His feet, His voice, His eyes, and the sound *'om His mouth (1"^). With God He .shares the throne ^1 '■ 'yen {9-'>^-^). with Him He receives ascriptions of prai. >. H'jm the angels and the redeemed (5'^ 7^"). He comes .seated on a white cloud, like the figure in Daniel's vision (14'-'). He is the Morning Star who brings in the day of grace (22^^). The coming of Christ is the coming of God, and when the coming is accom- plished God is called He ' who is and who Avas,' and no longer ' the coming one ' (1^- * 4*, cf. IV~ 16^). He holds the keys of death and Hades (!'*), He is ' the first and the last, and the living One,' ' the Alpha and the Omega' (P'-i^ 22i3).
From the beginning to the end the lx)ok contains deep appreciations of the mediatorial work ettected by Christ's death, (i. ) It is a great demonstration of the love of Jesus (1'). (ii.) It is a death which implies that a redeeming icork ivas then accom- plished, andthat the Christian enjoys a liberty which was icon by that death ; ' He loosed us from our sins by his blood ; and he made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and Father' (1^-*). And in S*^'" the Lamb is praised in the words, ' Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe and tongue.' The Lamb is ' standing, as though it had been slain ' ; it is not dead, but has the virtue of its death in it. (iii.) The abiding power of the death of Christ is shown in tiiis, that it is the source of morcd purity and of moral riitory under persecution. Even the virgins who follow the Lamb reach heaven onlj- because Christ 'purchased' them (14^-''), And the martj-rs slain by persecuting pagan liome over- came the dragon ' because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the Avord of their testimonj' ' (12"). The blood of the Lamb therefore did .some- thing in the past, for it released mankind from sin by the ransom paid to God. And it does some- thing now, for it enables us to live and witness as Christ lived and witnessed. The mediatorial power of the blood of Christ is therefore a power without which the Christian life can be neither begun nor continued.
(b) The Prologue of St. John's Gospel contains an assertion which is of essential imj)ortance for all subsequent Christian theology. The Divine
158
MEDIATOR
MEDIATOR
Aoyos, the Word -svho ' was God,' became flesh, and was incarnate as Jesus. This ^^'ord is both the expression of God and God expressed. The origin of tlie title is to be sought mainly in the OT and in Palestinian tradition. But St. John's use of it was probably partly determined by its common occurrence in Greek philosophy, and more especi- ally in the writings of the Alexandrian Jewish philosopher Pliilo. His doctrine of the \6yos is more moral and less metaphysical than that of Philo, more Jewish and less Greek. Philo's domi- nant idea is that of the Divine Reason, St. John's is that of the Divine Word, the manifestation of the Divine will. The Jewish Targums use the phrase Memra or Word for God as manifested in His action on the world, and in Wis 18'^ the almighty Word of God is described as leaping down from heaven to smite the Egyptians. The term as used by St. John denotes inherence in God, as a thought or conception inheres in the mind— mediatorship between God and the universe of a kind which implies that God Himself comes into toucli with the universe — and it requires as its complement the other title 'only-begotten Son.' In Philo the Aoyos remains a vague cosmic force, in St. John it is a definite Divine Person who becomes ]Man. See, further, art. Logos.