TRIUMPHS OF TRUTH: CHRIST - MEDIATOR 5...

[ed. This is the twelth 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 11 THE MEDIATOR CONTINUED.
I think all Christians must confess that all the blessings of grace and salvation, which we ever have, do now, or ever hereafter shall enjoy, flow to us through Christ as mediator; but if he as mediator had no existence until about 1824 years ago, how can we say with Paul, Eph. 1:3-4, “Blessed be the God andFather of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places [or things] in Christ; according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,” etc. 

If the man Christ Jesus be the mediator, and those blessings above mentioned be the blessings which we receive through him as mediator, then the man Christ Jesus must have existed when we were chosen in him, and blessed with all spiritual blessings in him, and as this choice was in him, [not out of him, or before he existed] he must have existed before the foundation of the world, for then was the choice made, and it was made in him, not in nonentity, or in a Christ who was in non-existence, but in him as our mediator, not only in a state of being, but in a state of activity as our mediator, in whom God chose his people whom be foreknew, and settled on them, in him, all the spiritual blessings in heavenly things [according to this choice] that they can ever enjoy; and he as their mediator, through whose mediatorial works and official acts, a distribution of those spiritual blessings is made to his people, according as they were chosen in him. 

The choice being before the foundation of the world, and the blessings being according to the choice, all before the foundation of the world, and all in the mediator, and the mediator being the man Christ Jesus the man must have existed ever since, and at the instant in which this choice was made, for it was made in him, and not in nonentity. No man that is not at open war with the scriptures, can deny that Christ was in existence, and exercising the offices of his mediatorial character, at least from the foundation of the world; and all evangelical Christians will agree, that the human nature of Christ was indispensable to his mediatorial character, for God aside from the human nature is nowhere called a mediator, but the mediator is between God and men. 

All the offices in which Christ as mediator officiates, bring to view the existence of his human nature, and without it there is no mediator between God and men. The offices of prophet, priest, and king, are sustained by Christ in his mediatorial nature and character; but his human nature is necessarily understood as existing in the discharge of each of these offices, and the exercise of them; we shall briefly notice each of these offices and the duties of them. 

First, of his priestly office as mediator. Psalm 110:44, “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Compare Heb. 5:6, As he saith also in another place, “thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” The oath above referred to was made to Christ as mediator, for the comfort of those for whom he stands as mediator, and particularly in his priestly office, according to Heb. 6: 17, “Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath.” David says,“the Lord hath sworn;” Paul says that oath was to confirm to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel; and by this oath Christ was made a priest, according to Heb. 7:21, “For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath, by him that said unto him, The Lord swore, and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” 

From the above texts together it appears incontrovertible, that the same oath which confirms to the heirs of promise the immutability ofGod’s counsel, makes Christ a priest; and if this counsel and the immutability of it, and the oath which confirms this immutability, be spiritual blessings, we were blessed with them according as we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world; but if this be denied, it must be acknowledged that this immutable counsel was the same that Paul calls the purpose which was given us in Christ before the world began. See II Tim. 1:9-10, “Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began; but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” 

If the immutable counsel mentioned in Hebrews and his purpose mentioned in Timothy, be the same thing, then it was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began, and it was given to us in him, making him our priest, and confirming to us, the heirs of the promise, the immutability of his purpose or counsel; according to the unchangeability of his priesthood, in which office he abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 

So Christ must have existed in his priestly office before the world began; for a manifestation of this purpose was made through that offering which he as a priest offered for us; and this shows that the purpose which was revealed through this offering was first given us in him as our priest, and the same oath that confirms the counsel, also made him our priest, who must have then been in existence, and as the purpose was given to us before the world, he as our priest existed before the world, for it was given to us in him; and in the fullness of time revealed to us by him. If the human nature of Christ were necessary to his priestly office, it must have existed ever since he was in that office, therefore from before the foundation of the world. Again, he was a priest after the order of Melchizedek. This Melchizedek was a priest the first we hear of him; and continues to be a priest the last we hear of him. He did not come into his office by descent from Levi, nor did his office descend to his posterity. 

The apostle uses this Melchizedek as a figure to illustrate the priestly office of Christ more clearly, than all the priests under the law. Some very acceptable writers have thought that this Melchizedek was Christ really; if that notion be correct, we are sure at once thatChrist as man, in his priestly office did exist, at the time that Abraham slaughtered the kings which had destroyed Sodom; but if Melchizedek was a figure of Christ in his priestly office, [which I think is the best sense of the text,] and if the figure does not surpass the substance, [instead of coming short of it] then the first we hear of Christ he was a priest; according to this figure, and being a priest after the order of Melchizedek, by an oath, he stands responsible for the tribes of God, or his people, for whom as a priest he had engaged, and being both priest and victim; he is as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 

It is said he is a lamb slain from the foundation of the world, because the very nature that was to be slain was then in real existence, and was appointed to the slaughter, and the purpose or counsel was settled irrecoverably by an oath, conforming its immutability and making Christ a priest, existing in the very nature which was to be actually slain; therefore regarded as if it had been slain, for the decree of God who will not repent had past upon it, under the solemnity of an oath; therefore it is said, Rev. 13:8, “And all that dwell upon the earth shall wonder after him [the Beast] whose names are not written in the Book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”