The Mediator, God and Man

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 TIMOTHY 2:5

Everything in the first book of the Institutes leads to a closed door. God is glorious, the world is His theatre, and we are without excuse; but we are sinners, our wills are in bondage, and the law only condemns us. How can such creatures come near such a God? Calvin’s answer, in the second book, is a Person. The knowledge of God the Creator is not enough; we must know Him as Redeemer, and He is known as Redeemer only in Christ the Mediator (Institutes 2.6.1).

God manifest in the flesh

Calvin preached on the great text of 1 Timothy 3:16, and his sermon The Mystery of Godliness is in the Ochorus library. It is one of the finest things he wrote on the person of Christ.

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. 1 TIMOTHY 3:16

He begins in astonishment. That God should become man, he says, so far surpasses our understanding that when we are told of it we are astonished. Who is the Lord of glory, that He should humble Himself so far as to be joined to us, take the form of a servant, and even suffer the curse that was due to us? The living God, the well-spring of life, the everlasting glory, has not only come near our misery, but been joined to it and made one with it, in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why must the Mediator be God? Because, as Calvin argues in the sermon and in Institutes 2.12, no mere creature could bear the weight of our salvation. Only God could conquer death, overcome sin and give life. We could not trust in Christ at all unless He were God, since Scripture curses the one who trusts in man.

And why must He be man? Because it was in our nature that sin was committed, and in our nature it had to be answered. Only a man could obey in our place and die in our place. And only as a man could He become our brother, so that we can come to God familiarly in His name. In the sermon Calvin draws both truths together in a single sentence: “Let us so distinguish the two natures which are in him, that we may know that the Son of God is our brother.”

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. HEBREWS 2:14

Two natures, one person

Calvin was deeply concerned to keep the old doctrine of the church about Christ: that He is one person in two natures, truly God and truly man, without confusion and without division. In the sermon he uses a homely picture. We have two eyes, each with its own office; but when we look steadily at something, our two sights are joined and become one. So there are two different natures in Christ, and yet He is one.

He also warns that the mystery must be approached humbly. “Pride hath always been the mother of heresies,” he says. When we hear the word mystery, we should learn to keep our minds in check, and at the same time to climb up beyond ourselves and reverence a majesty that passes understanding.

Prophet, priest and king

In Institutes 2.15 Calvin gave the church one of its most lasting ways of describing the work of Christ. He is our prophet, our priest and our king. These three offices had been given in the Old Testament to different people, each anointed for the task. In Christ, the Anointed One, they are all fulfilled together.

As prophet, Christ is the final and perfect teacher of the Father’s will. All the prophets pointed to Him; in Him God has spoken His last word. We must not look for any wisdom beyond His.

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. HEBREWS 1:1–2

As king, He rules His church and His people, not with outward pomp but by His Word and Spirit. His kingdom is spiritual, Calvin says, and its benefits reach to eternal life. Because He reigns, we can endure every hardship of this life with patience, knowing that our King will never leave us defenceless and will bring us through to the end.

As priest, He reconciles us to God by His sacrifice and intercedes for us still. This is the heart of the matter.

The price of our peace

In Institutes 2.16 Calvin sets out Christ’s work as priest with great tenderness. We were enemies of God, under His just wrath. And yet — Calvin insists — God did not begin to love us because Christ died; He sent Christ because He already loved us. The cross does not change God’s heart. It reveals it, and it deals with the barrier of our guilt that stood between us and His love.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ROMANS 5:8

Christ, Calvin says, took our place. He stood before the judge as a criminal, was condemned though innocent, and bore the curse that belonged to us, so that we might be set free. He was, as Calvin puts it in The Mystery of Godliness, as it were accursed of God the Father when He offered Himself a sacrifice, that through Him we might be blessed.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. GALATIANS 3:13

Calvin also gave a distinctive reading of the phrase in the Creed, he descended into hell. He understood it to mean that Christ suffered in His soul the dreadful torments of a condemned and forsaken man — the agony of Gethsemane and the cry from the cross (Institutes 2.16.10). Not every reader has followed him in taking the words of the Creed this way, and it is fair to say that this is his own interpretation. But the truth behind it is profound: Christ did not only die the death of the body. He endured in His soul the separation from God that our sin deserved.

Brother and Lord

The warmest note in Calvin’s teaching about Christ is that we may come to Him as a brother without ever ceasing to worship Him as God. In The Mystery of Godliness he says that we may come to Him as our brother, and at the same time worship Him as the everlasting God by whom we were made and are preserved. Both belong together. A Christ who was only God would be too far away to reach. A Christ who was only man could not save us.

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. HEBREWS 4:14

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Read 1 Timothy 3:16 slowly several times, and let yourself be astonished that God was manifest in the flesh.

2. Ask which of Christ’s three offices you most neglect: do you listen to Him as prophet, trust Him as priest, obey Him as king?

3. Remember that God did not begin to love you because Christ died; Christ died because God loved you. Let that settle any fear that God is reluctant.

4. Pray this week in Christ’s name deliberately, remembering that you come to the Father as a brother or sister of the Son.

5. Where you have tried to understand the mystery of Christ proudly, ask for humility, and worship where you cannot comprehend.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man, You humbled Yourself to be joined to us in our flesh, and to bear the curse that was ours.

Be my prophet, and teach me; be my priest, and cleanse me; be my king, and rule me.

Let me never forget that You are my brother, nor ever cease to worship You as my God.

I bow before a mystery I cannot fathom, and I thank You for a love I did not deserve. Amen.