MEDIATORSHIP
[p. 274] MEDIATORSHIP
We have to distinguish between what underlies mediatorship and the application of it. In the well-known passage in the book of Job we have the desire for such, for a mediator, “a daysman”, Job 9:33 who could lay his hand upon God and upon man. The sense of the need for it was there, and in some degree an apprehension of the Person who alone could be that. And John in writing his gospel and first epistle emphasises that: “No one has seen God at any time”. Then he says, “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. John presents to us the One capable as the only-begotten Son, who could lay His hand upon God.
In Moses we have the thought indicated as to its application, and he is marked off from all other men in that he was to behold “the form of Jehovah”. Numbers 12:8 But when we come to our Lord Jesus Christ, it is not only that He beheld the form of God, but He was in it. We read, “subsisting in the form of God”, and then “taking his place in the likeness of men”. Philippians 2:6,7 Hence the thought underlying the formal application of mediatorship involves the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ and His incarnation, and, in the Person of our Lord being involved and then His incarnation, the thought underlying mediatorship must be eternal. We shall never see God according to what He is in His essential being; we see Him only in Christ become man, who is “the expression of his substance”, Hebrews 1:3. Man as man could never have to say to God, but God in His infinite goodness and love has had to say to man in the Person of One who was a divine Person who became man.
[p. 275] Mediatorship could not be limited to the formal application of it. In Timothy it cannot be limited to that. Scripture deals with it and presents it as a provisional service. It is a provisional service, but what underlies it is eternal, for the Lord remains man for ever. The Mediator gave Himself a ransom for all. That was the great immediate necessity. His sacrificial death underlies everything. It was needed so that on the one hand God should be fully brought to men, and on the other hand, that men should be brought to God. But the mediatorial position of Christ continues. In it He is “the true God and eternal life”. 1 John 5:20 All the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily and will ever dwell there. We get the expression, “dwelling in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen, nor is able to see; to whom be honour and eternal might”. 1 Timothy 6:16 Thus we cannot see God without a mediator, otherwise we would assume that we can have to say to Him in some other way than in Christ, which is not so.
In 1 Corinthians 15 the Lord delivers up the kingdom; but it only speaks of the kingdom there. If it said that He delivered up His humanity and retired into the form of God, then you might have had a discontinuance of the Mediator, but it does not say so. So long as the Lord remains man, He must be Mediator, and we are dependent on that. If we think of what the eternal state of things will be, we must admit that it depends upon One who is within our range. “No one has seen God”, as it says; He dwells in light unapproachable, but then the Lord says, “He that has seen me has seen the Father”. John 14:9 Well, that remains. God remains God, unknowable save in the measure in which He is prepared to make Himself known. We need to be impressed with infinity as in God, and that in His essential being He is unknowable; but He is declared in His beloved Son as become man; in Him all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily.
[p. 276] John takes up mediatorship, for the thing is more in John’s gospel than anywhere — that is, the thing itself, what underlies mediatorial service or ministry. He begins with the fact that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”, John 1:1 and then he says, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father)” John 1:14; that is, He came within their range. As remaining in the Deity, He did not come within their range, He dwelt in light unapproachable. Relatively in His dealings with men He dwelt in thick darkness. Not that God was in the dark; far from it, but in relation to men; there was no light in the holiest. But now we have contemplated His glory as the glory of an only one with a father, that is, one in that relation, one in the relation that is intelligible to every one to be contemplated.
And then it says, “No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. That is mediatorial service; the only-begotten Son in manhood, as John presents it — in that condition. Now contemplating the eternal state of things — for John takes us to eternity really — what shall be then is essentially what we get in chapter 20. Everything will depend for us then on the humanity of the Lord, ever as now. Paul, having all men in view, emphasises the manhood of Christ, but John says, “the only-begotten Son”. But that is the Man, the Man in sonship, the Son in incarnation. John 1: 18 is not revelation, it is declaration; it is a service rendered by One who is capable. Not only is His Person emphasised, but where He is. In this connection there are two words John uses, the one is ‘bosom’, and the other is ‘breast’. In the original the idea of ‘bosom’ would suggest that He came into it. The word really implies it is a place of receptiveness.
[p. 277] The two words occur in chapter 13. The first is, “Now there was at table one of his disciples in the bosom of Jesus”. It would appear that the reclining refers to the position at the table and that he had a place — a received place with the Lord. He had come into that; that is to say, he came into it by his lovableness. But then it goes on to say, “he, leaning on the breast of Jesus”. John 13:23,25 The breast is a solid thing, something that you can lean on; you can trust it, but the bosom suggests receptiveness, and that is the word used in John 1:18. It is the place that He is in, and that He came into, in a sense; He came into it as man.
Of course He was ever loved of the Father, but allowance has to be made for His excellences in manhood; these are also in view in this passage. It could not refer exclusively to what He was as in the form of God; it would be going beyond Scripture to apply ‘only-begotten’ to Him then. It is a very strong presentation of the perfection of the humanity of Christ, what the Son was here. He was delightful to God; He came into that place as growing up in it here, but sonship was there all the time. So that in that place, as it were, a receptive place, He renders the service of declaring God. Proverbs 8 — the nursling of His love — would go with it. It brings out the great underlying thought of mediatorial service; that whilst He was there, manhood was in view in its perfection for the divine appreciation. The bosom is that which indicates it; it is a receptive idea, and in that position He declares God. It is to be noted it is not the word ‘revealed’, but the word ‘declared’. The declaration involves an accompanying proof, that is, the thing is so set out that it is undeniable. The word revealed is not the same, nor does it say that He is declared to anyone here. It is a question of the general effect of the service; it is the general effect of the mediatorial service, “hath declared him”. There is a remarkable blending of the deity of the Person with the humanity of the Person. If you look at Him in His deity, it is not a question of His coming into anything, but of what He was. But if you think of Him being in the bosom, He is essentially attractive and lovable; in that position the mediatorial service is rendered and hence wonderfully enhanced, so that it should be received. The declaration comes out in such a Person and position as that. “The only-begotten Son” points to Him in manhood: “This day have I begotten thee” Psalm 2:7; it is not scriptural to say He was begotten in eternity. To think so is a mistaken theology, but “the only-begotten Son” is a remarkable blending of the deity and the humanity of Christ, in John’s inimitable way of blending them, “the only-begotten Son” carries with it His deity, nevertheless, as He comes into that position, it indicates His personal qualities as man. The expression, “only-begotten Son” does not express the question of time, but the thought of His being truly beloved, the One peculiarly and specially dear; it refers to Him as in manhood, as already said. All that follows in the gospel is necessarily based on this, because it is a question of declaration; that is to say, what that One was personally, and having come into this place of perfection, what the declaration would be in Him. It was God brought out by tangible evidence, so that it could be taken account of. The bosom being connected with the Father and not with God makes it a question of the relationship intensifying the thought of affection. Declaring Him refers back to God, so the declaration involves the bringing to light of the true God as part of the mediatorial activities. God’s side is first presented. That is the first great feature of mediatorial service, before man is brought in. The resurrection of the dead presents the proof that He was Son of God.
The Mediator is a question of what God is. “There is one God, the Father”. 1 Corinthians 8:6 If we do not see what God is, then we shall be defective as to the question of mediatorship. If we take in that “God is a Spirit”, John 4:24 as John says, then we shall see the necessity for the Mediator, that is, One who can bring God in and demonstrate what He is. It dispels the darkness of heathenism and Judaism — that here are tangible evidences of what God is, not viewed in the official place, but in the place of affection. It brings in the declaration in its true setting and enhances it, that it is made in such a One, and One in such a place as the bosom of the Father. The declaration is enhanced by the position He is in, not only by His Person, but the position He is in and how He acted there. It is a question of His excellence here as Man. Larger questions in what we speak of as the provisional side of mediatorship are raised and settled, but the eternal existing state between God and man will subsist for ever in the revelation of God in a Man. It appeals to one’s heart to contemplate what our place and enjoyment will be eternally. It all hinges on that Man, hence the importance of the emphasis laid on the peculiar uniqueness of the Man Himself.
The word ‘tabernacle’ in Revelation 21 — “the tabernacle of God is with men” — is introduced as evidence of the continuance of the mediatorial idea. You see God is there, but He is there tabernacle-wise. An examination of Exodus and the other typical books enables us to understand what is meant, and so John says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) amongst us”; that is, God was there, but He was there mediatorially. The word is not used in John, but the thing is there; he writes to give the idea of the thing itself. You could not understand God save in the sense that He was there in Christ. God Himself was there, not merely His attributes.
There will be grades of nearness to God in the eternal state of things. Families will be graded and [p. 280] that must depend on mediatorial service. It is a question of the position each family occupies in relation to God, and how much ability each has to appreciate God in Christ. It is always that. It helps greatly in understanding John to see that he is leading up to eternity, and so the idea of a tabernacle comes in. He begins with it and ends with it. “The tabernacle of God” in Revelation 21 is undoubtedly the assembly, that which was formed after Christ. The word ‘men’ is abstract there; it is not any specific class of men, but men as such. The tabernacle has its own place, not indeed that the assembly is not composed of men, for it is, but men are viewed as a race there, not as nations. The men would be those who are brought into blessing outside the assembly. God has been dealing with men from the very outset, and I have no doubt that every epoch in which special testimony has been presented will bring in a certain class. Take the era from Adam to Noah; there can be no doubt that the formation there is a class by itself. The tabernacle is a mediatorial idea and it shows the wonderful formation that is in the assembly to bring it in in such relation with Christ that it is “the tabernacle of God”; so the assembly, in that way, carries on the mediatorial principle. It shows the greatness of the formation at the present time. In John’s epistle we get, “No man hath seen God at any time”, 1 John 4:12 then it goes on to speak of God dwelling in us. That is the thing that will be in the assembly, hence its mediatorial place both millennially and eternally.
The assembly has part thus in the mediatorial service. “The tabernacle of God is with men”; there is a vessel in which God dwells, and in which He is available to men; men, according to their formation, according to their ability, will enjoy God as known in that vessel, Christ’s body. Primarily John gives us the thought of mediatorship in the only-begotten [p. 281] Son and we contemplate Him in that light. But then we become relatively mediatorial, that is to say, the assembly is relatively in a mediatorial position. It is today, and it will be in the millennium, and will be in the eternal state of things. It is not that we could say that the assembly is the mediator. Certainly not; far from it. But it is another thing to see that the assembly is brought into accord with that position and service, and as the tabernacle of old had a mediatorial position, so the assembly has. The last verse of Ephesians 3, “to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”, is a passage that confirms the thought very distinctly. Glory to God in the assembly in Christ Jesus. The links there are unmistakable. It is, “To him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”, that is, eternity.
What God is as Father to us is involved in the declaration. It might be inquired, Who is declared? “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared”. Now, the word ‘him’ is not there; it does not say ‘him’. So that evidently the declaration is of both, that is, of God and the Father, and so in the delivering up of the kingdom it is to Him who is God and Father, so that the knowledge of the Father that we have is dependent upon the mediatorial service of the Son. We have come to know the Father in our place as sons, but it is through Him. It is mediatorial; it must be. I can have nothing save as it has come out in Him within my range. Everything is now knowable, and that because it is in a Man, One come into manhood.
The application of mediatorship in Scripture is generally to time, because the great burden of Scripture is how things are effected in time, and we have One who is officially in that place to effect things in time. But then the question arises, What goes on? That is the point. The thing that is thus seen officially [p. 282] goes on — that is, the thing itself. “Am I so long a time with you, and thou hast not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen the Father”. John 14:9 Well, that does not end; that is a mediatorial thought. Headship and lordship run together. We have headship now. The great burden of Scripture is what is effected now. There will not be any need for the lordship of Christ in eternity, because everything is subjected, but His mediatorial service does not end with His lordship. It is God made known in a Man, and that never ceases.
Headship in eternity gives the idea of sustaining everything. If we take the present world, He upholds all things by the word of His power, because it involves His intelligence, His mind, His wisdom. How can it be done? In the little knowledge one has of science, one realises that there is nothing final in what man knows from all his research, whereas, “By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by the word of God”. Hebrews 11:3 The word is a question of the mind of God. But not only have they been framed, but they are upheld by the word of His power. There must be wonderful intelligence, beyond anything we can apprehend as finite men, in the upholding of the thing. Men say this affects that, and this influences that, but the believer says it is the “word of his power”; that is to say, there is intelligence and wisdom in it. Now when we come to spiritual things, when physical things shall have passed away and we have new heavens and new earth, the headship of Christ will come out, and wonderful wisdom will come out in the way things are held. But the assembly will understand more than any family. We shall be near to the Lord; John’s writings emphasise that. Those who form the assembly know the things of God. There is a peculiar portion and peculiar place of nearness given to the assembly which no other family will have. Revelation 21 is written that we may understand [p. 283] what a wonderful place the tabernacle of God will have. “I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it”, John 17:26. The “will declare” comes out in chapter 20. The word is not ‘declare’ there, it is “I will make known”. It is more limited in John 17, “The name of the Father” is made known to the disciples, and then “I will make it known” involves the message through Mary, that His Father was their Father. John 20 is the assembly, or rather it is the persons who form it. It is a most interesting position in John 20. It is not the collective thought, it is the persons — His brethren. “My Father and your Father ... my God and your God” John 20:17; that is to say, the God that He has not only declared, but that He has made known. It is more intimate. What is declared is public and demonstrated by certain accompanying evidences, but when you come to making known it would be something more personal and intimate; hence in John 17 He promises to go further, and says, “and will make it known”, and He did make it known in the message through Mary.
Job wanted a mediator, an umpire, one who could lay his hand upon God and upon him. It is one of the finest expressions you get in the book of Job, and both these thoughts run on. The kingdom is given up, but I do not think the idea of mediator is given up. That is to say, there is One who can eternally lay His hand upon God and upon man, and man being a creature, it is necessary.
Then another thing comes out, and that is the question of formation, how much ability I have; that is what will come out in the gradations; Ephesians touches on that. It has eternity in view, so it says, “I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named”. Ephesians 3:15 - 19 There you have a clear indication of different families, and it is a question of power, “That he may give you according to the riches of [p. 284] his glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”. It is a question of ability, and the question of ability will come out when it is a question of how much I am able to take in.
Revelation 20 shows that every one who believes is included in the resurrection; not one is left out. The Holy Spirit emphasises that not one that you might think is left out; they are brought in on the same platform in the resurrection, but the question of ability comes in. How much can I take in? That would depend on my family and formation.
John 20 is not a question of saints assembled at all, nor of our being in the body, but of the persons, and persons in a certain position. It bears on Ephesians, the great place the assembly will have because of the great persons of whom it is formed. “According to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man ... in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend ... and to know the love of the Christ”. That is one thing, and then “that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”; you are in eternity; you are just filled. No one can take in eternity, but it is your little part in it.
As to the mediatorial system it was necessitated by the state in which men were on account of sin. First, in order that, God being known, they should be delivered from the power of Satan, prefigured by Israel’s deliverance from Egypt; and then that they should draw near to God, as indicated in the book of Leviticus. Mediatorship is seen officially in Moses, the need for it being accentuated by human circumstances [p. 285] occasioned by sin, but in principle it had appeared before in the types. Adam was representative of God, a figure of Him that was to come. Abraham also was representative of God in a parental way; Isaac, Jacob and Joseph conveyed the mediatorial thought in various ways. There was an unfolding of God in persons who were more or less like Him and who were also men; they were between God and men.
But the divine thought was definitely and formally set out in Moses, through whom a mediatorial system was inaugurated. This finds its antitype in Christ, particularly as seen in the epistle to the Hebrews. Through it deliverance for men is effected, also approach to God through Christ as Priest. These things are secured notwithstanding the presence of sin in the world; but when this comes to an end, the mediatorial system as it is shall not be needed (see 1 Corinthians 15:24 - 28). But the Son remains man, being “subject unto him that put all things under him”, and so is ever in a mediatorial position. The tabernacle of God will also be with men, and so the mediatorial system in some sense remains.