JULY 28TH, 1931

JULY 28TH, 1931

MY DEAR BROTHER, — You may be sure that any desire on your part to maintain the full personal glory of the Lord Jesus Christ finds sympathy and appreciation in my heart. If you can suggest anything that will enhance His personal or mediatorial glory before my soul I will gladly be your debtor.

But I think that further consideration of the Scripture you refer to (Hebrews 7: 3) will make it very clear to you that the subject of that Scripture is the present priesthood of Christ the Son. It is the Son, begotten in time according to Psalm 2, now perfected through suffering, and sitting at God’s right hand according to Psalm 110, who is saluted of God as High Priest according to the order of Melchisedec. It is as entered within the veil that He is “become for ever a high priest according to the order of Melchisedec”. Melchisedec was “assimilated to the Son of God” as being a priest in his own personal right, and deriving nothing from his ancestors, so that it is not even mentioned that he had any, neither is it said that he had any “end of life”. His assimilation to the Son of God is in priestly office — “assimilated to the Son of God, abides a priest continually”. Jesus “because of his continuing for ever, has the priesthood unchangeable”. He is constituted High Priest as the “Son perfected for ever”. To apply Hebrews 7: 3 to the past eternity is to confuse priesthood (which is clearly taken up by Christ the Son in manhood) with what pertains to eternal Deity. He was God, the eternal I am, previous to incarnation, but He has become Priest as having become higher than the heavens as the exalted Man. It is His present office which the whole Scripture (Hebrews 5 - Hebrews 8) has in view.

1 John 4: 9, and kindred passages, speak of our Lord ^[p. 201] Jesus Christ as He is now known mediatorially as the sent or given One, as coming down from heaven to do the will of the One who sent Him. In this mediatorial position He has declared God, His glory has been contemplated as that of an only-begotten with a father, and He has become the Object of faith and love. There is no subordination of one divine Person to another in essential Deity; as to that sphere the creed is surely right in saying “the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal”. But in the economy of revelation one Person in absolute Deity has been pleased to take a place in manhood, and to become known to us as the given One, the sent One. He has been found here as Man in the relationship of Son to the Father who sent Him. As in that position and relationship He was the Obedient One; He could say “My Father is greater than I”. But the mediatorial glory that attaches to Him as thus sent and given could only attach to One who was, and is, personally God over all. His mediatorial glory is wondrous in our eyes because we never forget His greater and personal glory as in essential Deity. But the title Son is ever attached to Him in Scripture in relation to His mediatorial glory. This is simply a question of fact as to what is written. If any Scripture could be adduced which attaches the title Son to Him as in absolute Deity, and with no reference to His mediatorial glory, it would settle the matter at once. But I must confess that, after considering this subject carefully and prayerfully for 30 years, I have not been able to find one.

I have found that in praying over this, and pondering the Scriptures, the infinite greatness of Christ and His inscrutable glory as in eternal Deity — as God and in the form of God — have been magnified before my heart. And His mediatorial glory as made known throughout Scripture has opened out before me in greater fulness than ever. I know whom to thank for this, and I desire the deepened apprehension of it for myself and all saints. But for this there must be an inward man strengthened with power by the Father’s Spirit.

Yours affectionately in the Lord,

July 28th, 1931.