It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, to be the Mediator between God and man, the Prophet, Priest, and King the Head and Saviour of His Church, the Heir of all things, and Judge of the world: unto whom He did from all eternity give a people, to be His seed, and to be by Him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.
This is a densely-packed paragraph that is too rich to be covered in one day's post. So I propose to split the discussion up a bit.
The Confession begins its consideration of Jesus Christ by calling him God's "only begotten Son." The Greek word used of Jesus in the New Testament is monogenes, which is usually rendered "only begotten" or "the one and only" is some translations. The word "unique" might be thought to be a synonym for this concept but is really weak and inadequate here. It is not just that there is no one else like Jesus, but that there can be no one else like him. He is a once-for-all person.
This Jesus has been chosen and ordained of God. See Hebrews 1:1-3 and compare Psalm 2:7-12 to appreciate the special calling of Jesus. This happened according to God's eternal purpose and according to God's good pleasure (Ephesians 1:3-12, 18-23). And he is the firstborn of many brethren, as is stated in Hebrews 2:13, which applies Isaiah 8:17-18 to Jesus. Just as Adam was chosen and ordained of God to be mankind's representative under probation, Jesus has been chosen and ordained as mankind's new representative, savior, and the mediator between God and men, which is the next subject we will take up.
Tomorrow: The only mediator between God and men explained.
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