TRIUMPHS OF TRUTH: CHRIST - MEDIATOR 12...

[ed. This is the nineteenth of the 27-part-series from a pamphlet by Elder Wilson Thompson titled, The Triumphs of Truth. Or The Scripture A Sure Guide To Zion's Pilgrims.]

CHAPTER 19 THE MEDIATOR CONTINUED. 
Objection: Is what you have written on this subject calculated to exalt the Saviour, to humble the Christian, to establish and strengthen our hope, and expand our views of the riches of sovereign grace through the adorable mediator? 

Answer: Yes, it not only exalts the divinity of Christ from that of a second person in the trinity, who as a divine person was begotten or derived of the Father by eternal generation, to that of the unbegotten, underived Jehovah, “the God of the whole earth,” yea, “the EVERLASTING FATHER” he shall be called, as well as the “MIGHTY GOD.” Thus the divine Immanuel is exalted in our views, and we may adore him as the God of grace and glory; who was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. But it also exalts the human nature of Christ, from a nonexistence to a glorious mediator; the medium of operation in creation, providence, and grace; the heir of all things, the first born of every creature, the way to the Father, yea, the primitive depository, in whom grace was given for us before the world was, and in whom God chose his people, and in whom they have redemption. 

These two whole and distinct natures being in one mediator, who is, therefore, exclusively God and completely man, to answer as man, and for man, all that could be required of him as surety for his people; and as God to smile upon and approbate his people in the mediatorial obedience of this mediator, and justify them through the redemption which he, by means of death hath obtained. While we read the cheering promises, while we feel the pardoning grace, while we rejoice in the electing love of God, and remember these promises, this grace, and this love, was all settled on us, or given to us in Christ before the world was; we believe, and believing we rejoice in this glorious, this soul comforting, this heart-melting, and this zeal-inspiring truth, that there is, and from before all worlds has been an existing mediator between God and men, in whom God was choosing his people, blessing them with all spiritual blessings, and in whom their standing is secured in grace, and they made acceptable in the beloved. 

This mediator, in both natures, divine and human, or as God and man, is all our hope for heaven, and all the name by which we can be saved. O that we may be found in him. God was from eternity, in all the essential attributes of his nature. The divinity of the adorable Jesus was immutable, and essentially possessed all these attributes, and was therefore the eternal, independent, self-existent immutable Jehovah; was never begotten by any kind of generation; never set up, never brought forth, never changing his situation, nor his mode of being, or suspending his glory, nor praying for himself or for others; but all this is true of the mediator, therefore he must have existed as man, or in the nature of man, before all worlds; for before the world he was brought forth, set up, appointed heir of all things, received his people and their grace as a gift, was with God, and rejoicing before him, was the object of the Father’s love, the first born of every creature, the beginning of the creation of God. He was in the bosom of the Father, and had a glory with him before the world was. But in the fullness of time he laid aside that glory, and humbled himself, and took on him the form of a servant. He that was rich became poor. He who had possessed and enjoyed in full inheritance or consummation, a glory with the Father before the world was, comes into this world to suffer, bleed, and die. Now he prays as man, saying, “And now O Father glorify me with thine ownself, with the glory, that I had with thee before the world was.” 

You must believe, that as man Christ was here praying, as man he prays for a glory which he had with the Father before the world was, but if as man he had no existence before the world was, then as man he prays for that which he had never enjoyed, or to enjoy a glory in non-existence which he had before the world was. But the mediator, the man Christ Jesus was brought forth, set up, ordained, and enjoyed a glory with the Father before the world was, and was rich in the enjoyment of that glory, and when here on earth suffering and fulfilling in his flesh the labour of a servant to his God, and in behalf of his brethren; he, on his own account, prays for no greater, no additional glory, but the same which he had with the Father before the world was; not the glory of nonexistence, but an existence in the same glory which he had enjoyed and which was his primordial glory as mediator; and this was a glory to which he would advance his people; as he says, “The glory which thou gavest me, have I given them, that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me; that they may be perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will, that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me.” 

Now we plainly see that Jesus is not here praying as a divine person, nor is he praying for a glory as a divine person, or in other words we see plainly that this glory was not the glory of the Deity, which is essential to Christ, but this is a given glory, and it was a glory given to him as man, which was enjoyed by him before the world began, [John 17:5.] This glory Christ had enjoyed before the world began, therefore he surely did exist before the world, but he laid aside this glory and came into this world to suffer shame, pain, dishonor, and contempt, in order to raise his church, his brethren, to the enjoyment of that same glory which God had given him, which he had possessed before the world was; thus “he that was rich, for your sakes became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” 

Now we see, in the light of this subject, according to the word of truth, a glorious mediator existing in both natures; in his divine nature he is the “Mighty God, the Everlasting Father;” in his human nature he is the brightness of the shining of the glory of God to his church; in him as God-man we behold every divine perfection in all their communicable glory displayed and revealed to us in the nature of man; thus in the mediator, the man is the image and glory of God, or the brightness of his glory revealed in translucent radiance to the church. In the man, the God in his bright glories was revealed to saints of old; and in the God, the man was [by gift] gloriously arrayed with all the brightness of the glory of God, and the perfection of the man. This is the redeemer, the mediator, prepared to suffer and to reign; to act for both God and men, being in one person both God and man. In the mediator we behold our nature in the bosom of the Father, and in the fullness of time we see him appearing here on earth, suffering, serving, teaching, praying, weeping, fainting, bleeding, dying. 

Anon, we see him rising, ascending, interceding, and repossessing the same glory which he had with the Father before the world was. God appeared to the saints of old in the man; so he appeared to John in the Isle of Patmos in the man; and the appearing of the man in the former case is as strong a proof of the existence of the man, as his appearing in the man in the latter case, is of the present existence of the man. If the man could appear in all the glory and majesty in which he did appear to the old saints and prophets, and yet not then be in existence, I know not why he might not appear to the disciples and apostles after his passion, and yet never have risen from the dead, for if his being seen by saints under old testament dispensation, does not prove that he then existed, I see no argument in his appearing to the disciples or apostles, after his passion, to prove his resurrection from the dead; for if God did appear in the man, before Christ as man existed, I see no reason why he might not appear in the man after his death, and yet the man never have risen from the dead. 

Therefore; if the man Christ Jesus, the mediator did, [after his passion] appear to his witnesses, the apostles, as a decisive argument of his living again after his death, I think his appearing to his witnesses, the prophets, is equally decisive in proving that he lived before he was born of Mary.