Part 6 (1/2)
In the execution of his undertaking, local and visible manifestations of his person and of his official prerogatives and acts were indispensable, in the relations he was to sustain as Lawgiver and Ruler, Prophet and Priest. His undertaking comprised a succession of acts and dispensations, and of corresponding changes in the manner of his agency, the nature of his manifestations, and the immediate objects of his administration. In these respects the progress of his work is indicated in the revelation he has made in the Holy Scriptures, in which his person and his acts appear, from stage to stage, in different aspects. He speaks of himself, and is spoken of by the inspired writers, sometimes with reference only to his Divine, and at other times with reference only to his human nature. On some occasions acts are ascribed to him which are proper to him only as Divine; and on other occasions such as could be affirmed of him only as human; as in one case, the act of creation, and in the other, the act of walking.
It is in this complex person that he is primarily the object of all our knowledge of the Deity as revealed in the Scriptures. He is the image, the visible manifestation of the invisible G.o.d, whom no man hath seen or can see. He in this person hath declared, manifested the Father; no less under the earliest, than under the present dispensation.
Accordingly, though distinguished by Moses in the beginning of his narrative by designations which specially relate to the Divine nature in his person, acts are ascribed to him which denote his complex official person; such as walking in the garden of Eden, and conversing face to face with Adam. As his official work is in Scripture referred to as one comprehensive undertaking, though involving a long succession of acts and events, so his official person is ever referred to as the same, though in the succession many events preceded that of his taking man's nature into union with that person. By appointment and covenant, virtually and officially he was the same from the beginning; and on that ground, and because his expiatory death in man's nature was essential to his undertaking as a whole, and its effect as necessary to the earliest as to any succeeding portion of man's race, he is spoken of as ”slain from the foundation of the world.”
Had no apostasy of man taken place, we are warranted in believing that he would have continued that local, visible presence and intercourse with Adam and his descendants which characterized the earliest period of their existence. For as Creator of all things he was the Heir and Lord of all, and would have been Lawgiver and King of the race, the medium of their relations to G.o.d and of their homage, as he is to be hereafter at the rest.i.tution of all things to their primeval condition, when all the evil consequences of the fall shall have been superseded, death itself destroyed, and the earth delivered from the curse and restored to its original perfection.
But no such course of things could have been possible had the earth, at the epoch of man's creation, been in its present imperfect condition, the scene of disease and death. Nor can there, if it was at the outset so imperfect and so fraught with physical evils, be a restoration of it hereafter to its pristine state. If it is to be renovated, remodelled, new-made, it is because it has been degraded from its primeval condition. If it is to be restored by the instrumentality of fire, that is to happen as the counterpart of its destruction by water. If its renovation is to be one of the consequences and concomitants of his perfect triumph over the evils of the apostasy, its subjection to its present state is no less certainly a consequence of the apostasy.
In view of this scheme and course of administration, we may perhaps discern some of the reasons why this earth and the human race were selected.
We may suppose that of all the orders of intelligent creatures, man, with his material body, is the least exalted, and for that reason, in such a course of manifestation to all orders, alliance with his nature would be selected.
The visibility required in such a scheme would require union with a visible body.
So far as we have reason to conclude, no other race of intelligent creatures is multiplied by succession. That peculiarity of the human race rendered it practicable for the Creator to take the human nature into union with his person; and it likewise allows of a perpetual increase of the subjects of his grace and of his kingdom, after the ruins of the fall shall have been overcome, and the sovereignty of the rest of the universe, preserved and confirmed in holiness, shall have been surrendered to the Father.
Probably the preservation of the rest of the universe from defection is among the results of his expiation of sin, his ascension incarnate to heaven, his reign there till his second advent, and his victory over Satan and all opposition. That being accomplished, he resumes and prosecutes his original purpose as visible Head and King of the human race.
CHAPTER XI.
Of the official Person and Relations of the Messiah.
The term Jehovah, though employed interchangeably with the other Divine designations, is in one respect peculiar. It is never used with reference to any other than the Divine Being. Hence it is by many regarded as a proper name. It is however replaced in the New Testament by an appellative.
Gesenius, who regards this as a proper name, and the word Elohim as an appellative, refers to the ”Seventy” as uniformly prefixing the definite article to the word which they subst.i.tute for Jehovah; making the version, as in the English, _The_ Lord. He considers the formulas, ”I shall be what I am,” and ”which is, and which was, and which is to come,” as expressing the meaning of this name, by which the being designated was to be distinctively recognized, remembered, and acknowledged for ever, according to the declarations: ”This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations;” and ”this is my name for ever: so shall ye name me throughout all generations.”
But, as has been shown, this name is employed both separately and conjointly, with strictly official designations, to identify the second Person of the Trinity in his delegated character and work; who in the New Testament is announced as Jehovah, Immanu-El, Jesus, the Christ.
The subsistence of three distinct coequal Persons in the G.o.dhead is eternal. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are, as persons, coeternal, coequal, and alike infinitely removed from all possibility of change. Whatever change has taken place with respect to them must therefore be merely relative, and have reference to their respective agencies, and to the works of creation, providence, and grace. They are accordingly revealed to us in connection with those works, and in the relations which they sustain to them, and to each other in connection with them; and pursuant to the economy or covenant in which those relations and works are founded, the designations by which they are respectively made known are _official_ designations, or employed with a personal and official reference. The Father is first, the fountain of authority, and delegates the Son. The Son is second, and is subordinate to the Father. The Holy Spirit is third, and is subordinate to the Father and the Son. The Father sends the Son to accomplish the works a.s.signed to him. The Son reveals the Father, and executes his will. The Holy Spirit does the will of the Father and the Son. It is in these relations that the respective Persons are wors.h.i.+pped, and not jointly or in unity. The Father is wors.h.i.+pped through the Son as the medium of access and homage. The Father and Son respectively are wors.h.i.+pped through the gracious indwelling influence of the Holy Spirit.
These relations of the respective Persons are therefore official, and must be referred to as originating in the covenant, in which the whole scheme of agency and manifestation in the works of creation, providence, and redemption, was founded. No such relations are to be conceived of as existing eternally; for in their nature the respective Persons are coequal. Subordination must have been voluntarily a.s.sumed for special purposes and agencies which required it. When creatures were to be brought into existence, relations not previously existing were requisite; and as those relations to creatures required various agencies of the respective Persons, new relations between them were requisite; and these, being founded in compact, are properly termed _official_.
Accordingly, all Divine acts towards creatures are personal acts of the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. They act not as a unity in respect to creatures.
Hence all the acts of the Son in the works of creation, providence, and redemption, are ascribed to him in one and the same official Person and delegated character, by whatever designations he may, in relation to those works, be referred to; and it was accordingly in that character that he appeared personally and visibly in the ancient dispensations; a.s.sumed the human form, walked, conversed, and performed various actions proper only to one in that form. The nature of his delegated undertaking, and the objects of those dispensations, required such local manifestations of his person and visible agency, and also that he should speak to and of himself in the different aspects in which he then appeared, and in which he exercised his prophetic office, in relation to his future coming and his sacerdotal work. Thus he speaks of himself as the Seed of the Woman, the Son of David, the King, the Saviour, the Anointed, the Messenger, the Redeemer, the Holy One, the Branch, the Shepherd, Immanuel.
This may be ill.u.s.trated by referring to the New Testament, and considering that the Divine and human natures being united in the Person of the incarnate Word, whatever is true of either of those natures in that union, is affirmed of him as a Person; and for aught that appears, whatever is affirmed of his Divine nature in that Person is affirmed of him in his official character, whether with reference to his preexistent or to his incarnate state. Many things are said of him which are predicable of his human nature only, but which nevertheless could not be said if he was not both G.o.d and man in one Person. Thus it is said, that he died for our sins--and that he rose for our justification. Other things are said of the same Person, which are predicable only of his Divine Nature; as that he came down from heaven, that he came forth from G.o.d, and that he was in the beginning. Hence the propriety with which in both the Old and New Testaments the various Divine names and t.i.tles are applied to him, to designate the One Anointed, delegated--Person.
Since writing this work, the author has read the treatise of Dr. Isaac Watts, ent.i.tled, ”The Glory of Christ as G.o.d-Man,” in which he describes the visible appearances of Christ before his incarnation, inquires into the extensive powers of his human nature in its present glorified state, and endeavors to explain and ill.u.s.trate the Scriptures which relate to those appearances, and to the Person who under various divine names and official designations visibly appeared, by supposing that the human soul of Christ was created prior to the creation of the world, and thenceforth, being united to the Second Person of the G.o.dhead, appeared and acted, visibly and otherwise, in all that related to this world.
There being no question but that the mediatorial Person created the world, appeared visibly, and conducted the administration of the Old Testament dispensations, there is, as might be antic.i.p.ated, a degree of plausibility in the reasonings and ill.u.s.trations of this venerated author. But many grave and unanswerable objections to his peculiar views present themselves. It is not perceived that the supposition of the preexistence of the human soul of Christ is either sustained by the Scriptures, or has in any respect, as a means of explanation, any advantage as compared with the view taken in this work, viz: that, pursuant to a covenant between the Persons of the G.o.dhead, the Second Person a.s.sumed the official character and relations which are peculiar to him as Mediator; those, viz: in which he executed the works of creation and providence, and manifested himself under various Divine names and official designations, as Jehovah, Elohim, the Messenger, the Messiah; the official personal actor and revealer. To his Person in this official character and agency the human nature was in due time united, so as to include two natures in his one Person. But since the delegated official Person, into union with which the human nature was taken, preexisted, and as a Person was the same before as after the incarnation, the acts of that Person in the delegated official character and relations above referred to, were to the same effect, and involved essentially the same conditions before as after the advent.
Since he undoubtedly acted as Mediator in the ancient dispensations, we must, in reference to his agency then, ascribe to him what peculiarly const.i.tuted and ever preeminently distinguishes that character, viz: its being the delegated official character of a Divine Person. Regarded in that light, there seems no more difficulty in ascribing visible appearances and other acts suitable to his office in his relations to men, prior to the a.s.sumption of human nature into union with his Person, than after that union. The relations of his Person, in his delegated official character, to creatures and material things, were the result, not of the incarnation, nor of any occurrence after the commencement of his delegated, subordinate, mediatorial work, but of his appointment to that work, and must be regarded as coeval with that appointment. They were the relations of the official, mediatorial Person; and for aught that appears or is conceivable, rendered visible personal appearances in the likeness of man, and the performance of acts, utterance of words, &c., like those of man, as practicable before as after the addition of human nature to that Person.
The views advanced by Dr. Watts proceed upon the a.s.sumption that two distinct _persons_ were united; whereas it was two distinct _natures_ that were united in one Person. That Person existed before the human nature was added to it. The nature added had no separate or distinct personality. It became part of the preexisting Person. ”He took it to be his own nature, ... causing it to subsist in his own Person,” says Owen. The Logos, the personal Word or Revealer, the delegated Official Person or Mediator, who ”was in the beginning and was G.o.d, was made flesh and dwelt among us.”
John i. ”He took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.” Heb. ii. 16. ”He did not a.s.sume a nature from angels, but he a.s.sumed a nature from the seed of Abraham.” Syriac Text. ”The Lord Jesus Christ is G.o.d and man in one person. For there is supposed in these words (Heb. i. 16) his preexistence in another nature than that which he is said here to a.s.sume. He subsisted before, else he could not have taken on him what he had not before. Gal. iv. 4; John i. 14; Tim. iii. 16; Phil.
ii. 6, 7. That is, ... the Word of G.o.d ... became incarnate. He took to himself another nature, of the seed of Abraham according to the promise; so, continuing what he was, he became what he was not; for he took this to be his own nature ... by taking that nature into personal subsistence with himself, in the hypostasis [substance or subsistence] of the Son of G.o.d; seeing the nature he a.s.sumed could no otherwise become his. For if he had by any ways or means taken the person of a man in the strictest union that two persons are capable of, in that case the nature had still been the nature of that other person, and not his own. But he took it to be his own nature, which, therefore, must be by a personal union, causing it to subsist in his own person.... This is done without a multiplication of persons in him; for the human nature can have no personality of its own, because it was taken to be the nature of another person who was preexistent to it, and by a.s.suming it, prevented its proper personality.”