All Christ's acts and sufferings in the execution of his mediato- rial work were, therefore, the acts and sufferings of a divine person. It was the Lord of glory who was crucified ; it was the Son of God who poured out his soul unto death. That this is the doctrine of the Scriptures is plain, (1.) Because they attribute the efficacy and power of his acts, the truth and wisdom of his words, and the value of his sufferings to the fact that they were the acts, words, and sufferings of God manifested in the flesh. They are predicated of one and the same person who from the beginning was with God and was God, who created all things and for whom all things were made and by whom all things consist. (2.) If the mediatorial work of Christ belongs to his human nature exclusively, or, in other words, if He is our mediator only as man, then we have only a human Saviour, and all the glory, power, and sufficiency of the Gospel are departed. (3.) From the nature of the work. The re- demption of fallen men is a work for which only a divine person is competent. The prophetic office of Christ supposes that He pos- sessed "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;" his sacerdotal office required the dignity of the Son of God to render his work available ; and none but a divine person could exercise the dominion with which Christ as mediator is intrusted. Only the Eternal Son could deliver us from the bondage of Satan, and from the death of sin, or raise the dead, or give eternal life, or conquer all his and our enemies. We need a Saviour who was not only holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, but who also " is higher than the heavens."
§ 3. The Threefold Office of Christ.
It has long been customary with theologians to exhibit the medi- atorial work of Christ under the heads of his prophetic, sacerdotal, and kingly offices. To this division and classification it has been objected by some that these offices are not distinct, as it was the duty of the priests as well as of the prophets to teach ; by others, that the sacerdotal office of Christ was identical with the prophetic, that his redemption was effected by teaching. This method, how- ever, has not only the sanction of established usage and obvious convenience, but it is of substantive importance, and has a firm Scriptural basis. (1.) In the Old Testament the several offices were distinct. The prophet, as such, was not a priest ; and the king was neither priest nor prophet. Two of these offices were at times united in the same person under the theocracy, as Moses was both priest and prophet, and David prophet and king. Neverthe- less the offices were distinct. (2.) The Messiah, during the
460 PART m. Ch. IV. - MEDIATORIAL WORK OF CHRIST.
theocracy and in the use of language as then understood, was predicted as prophet, prlcst, and king. Moses, speaking of Christ, said, " The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me." It was abun- dantly taught that the coming deliverer was to discharge all the duties of a prophet as a revealer of the will of God. He was to be the great teacher of righteousness ; a light to lighten the Gentiles as well as the glory of his people Israel. No less clearly and fre- quently was it declared that He should be a priest. " Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedec." He was to be a priest upon his throne. (Zechariah vi. 13.) He was to bear the sins of the people, and make intercession for transgressors. His royal office is rendered so prominent in the Messianic prophecies that the Jews looked for Him only as a king. He was to reign over all nations. Of his kingdom there was to be no end. He was to be the Lord of lords and the King of kings. (3.) In the New Testament the Redeemer, in assuming the office of the promised Messiah, presented Him to the people as their prophet, priest, and king ; and those who received Him at all received Him in all these offices. He applied to Himself all the prophe- cies relating to the Messiah. He referred to Moses as predict- ing the Messiah as a prophet ; to David, as setting Him forth as a priest, and to Daniel's prophecies of the kingdom which He came to establish. The Apostles received Him as the teacher sent from God to reveal the plan of salvation and to unfold the future destiny of the Church. In the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said, " God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." In that Epistle the priest- hood of Christ is elaborately set forth, and its superiority in every respect to the priesthood of the old economy strenuously insisted upon. In like manner the New Testament is full of instruction concerning the grounds, the nature, the extent, and the duration of his kingdom. He is constantly designated as Lord, as our abso- lute proprietor and sovereign. Nothing, therefore, can be plainer than that as the Old Testament prophets predicted that the Mes- siah should be a prophet, priest, and king, so the New Testa- ment writers represent the Lord Jesus as sustaining all these offices. (4.) That this is not a merely figurative representation is plain from the fact that Christ exercised all the functions of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king. He was not simply so called, but the work which He actually performed included in perfection all that