TRIUMPHS OF TRUTH: CHRIST - MEDIATOR 4...

[ed. This is the eleventh 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 10 THE MEDIATOR CONTINUED.
Christ is set forth in the scriptures as sustaining the office of a mediator in his manhood, or human nature; as mentioned above, it is said I Tim. 2:5, “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Here mark it well, the one mediator is the man Christ Jesus; the man was his human nature; then the man has existed ever since there was a mediator between God and men.Will any Christian in this enlightened age of the world, or rather in this auspicious day of the Church, when the gospel, replete with this heaven-born truth in its resplendence has repulsed the fogs and clouds of anti-Christian fascination and Popish fast idosity; I repeat it, will any Christian now say, that from Adam, to the taxing at Bethlehem, there was no mediator between God and men; which must have been the case, if the man Christ Jesus did not then exist. 

I would fain flatter myself that no Baptist will risk such an assertion as this; for I am sure they would not know, how Abraham, David, Noah, Enoch, and Elijah, with all the rest of the patriarchs and saints were saved, without a mediator in being, between them and God. If there were no mediator between the old saints and God, nay, if the mediator did not then exist, how was the promise that was made to Abraham ordained in the hand of a mediator; according to Gal. 3:19? Surely the mediator did then exist, for I cannot think that the promise was ordained in the hand of a mediator, when there was no mediator in existence for many generations subsequent to the time of this ordination. The apostle says, Gal. 3:20, “Now a mediator is not a mediator of one; but God is one.” 

Then it cannot be said in truth that the mediator pre-existed in his divine nature, but not in his human nature; for a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one, and the mediator is between that one God and men, and exists in both natures; and as both God and man he is performing the works proper to each nature; as man he performs in the room of men what men could not perform, and becomes responsible for men, and stands in this state of responsibility as their mediator between them and God, and in the man thus standing, God is accessible, and revealed as reconciled to men; the divine nature supports and fortifies the man, while the human nature acts for man the part of a kinsman in the work of mediation. 

The man performs on the part of men the full discharge of that obligation under which they were insolvent. The God is reconciled with men, and in the man appears in a way of mercy and peace, and sends forth the word of reconciliation. As the mediator was between God and men, and so was not of one, so he existed in both the nature of God and man, performing in each nature what was proper to itself, yet always, in all the acts of his human nature, he was in subordination to, and acted by the direction of the divine will. So we see that without the existence of both natures, there was no mediator between God and men; but the mediator did exist when the promise was made to Abraham, therefore the man Christ Jesus did exist at least eighteen hundred years before his birth of Mary. 

In the performance of his mediatorial offices; in which he as man officiated, he obtained the excellent ministry or full distribution of the blessings of the promise which had long before been ordained in his hand. Heb. 8:6, “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant [or testament] which was established upon better promises.” These promises are those that were ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator, who upon the fulfillment of his mediatorial engagements, obtained a more full and copious ministration of the blessings promised and ordained in his hand. Under the law these blessings were shadowed forth by the land of Canaan and their temporal blessings; and the work of the mediator in whose hand these blessings and promises were ordained, shadowed forth by all the sacrifices under the ceremonial ministration; but when the mediator comes forward with his hand filled with the promise which had long before been ordained in it, performs the work in which he had long before engaged, discharges the bond which he had long stood surety for, and opens the new testament of his grace [to the heirs of the promise] ordained in his hand; a more glorious ministry is obtained, and a greater glory is revealed, upon the discharge of the bond, than had been displayed before; hence the apostle says, II Cor. 3:7-9, “But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.” 

The ministration of righteousness, or of the Spirit, is the gospel of peace or word of reconciliation; the glad tidings of salvation, obtained by the mediator, in whose hand the promise of it was long ago ordained, and now, upon the fulfillment of the work in which he had engaged in behalf of men, he obtains this more excellent ministry, or more glorious ministration, in which he appears as the mediator who has canceled our bond, obtained our discharge, atoned for our crimes, put away our sin, bore our griefs, carried our sorrows, obtained our victory, conquered our enemies, revealed to us a reconciled God, and opening and applying to us the blessings ordained in his hand. See Heb. 9:15, “And for this cause [the cause of his fulfilling his engagements] he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” 

The promise of eternal inheritance is that promise which was ordained in the hand of a mediator, and now upon the mediator’s performing the work of redemption by his death, which was the means of the promise being fully developed to the people, and by accomplishing this mean he obtains this more excellent ministry, and those for whom he officiated, in obtaining this ministry, through him as their mediator, obtain the promise of eternal inheritance, and are called to possess it. This promise was long before the birth of Mary herself, but not before the existence of the mediator, for this promise was ordained in his hand as mediator. If the mediator was “the man Christ Jesus,” then it was in the hand of the man Christ Jesus that this promise was ordained. 

So he must have had an existence at that time. If this promise be the same with those great and precious promises, which were given to us, or for us, in Christ before the world began; then the man Christ Jesus must have existed before all worlds.