Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Of Christ the Mediator, VIII:3

The Lord Jesus, in His human nature thus united to the divine, was sanctified, and anointed with the Holy Spirit, above measure, having in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell; to the end that, being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth, He might be thoroughly furnished to execute the office of a Mediator and Surety. Which office He took not unto Himself, but was thereunto called by His Father, who put all power and judgment into His hand, and gave Him commandment to execute the same.

History contains nothing or no one to compare to the Lord Jesus Christ. The perfect man, whose food and drink was to do the will of the Father. He was prepared in every capacity to fulfill his mission.

That Christ was "holy,...undefiled, and full of grace and truth," surprises no one familiar with the Scriptures, but the divines' odd choice of "harmless" as a descriptor puzzles at first. We tend to think of something harmless that it is innocuous, lacking the capacity to hurt, of no threat or consequence. Yet the Lord Jesus is certainly a threat to the world, the flesh, and the devil. This is an instance where language has changed. The divines simply intended to communicate Jesus's sinlessness and fitness for the task appointed unto him by the Father. I rather doubt that anyone will call him "harmless" in our contemporary sense when he returns in his glory to judge the nations.

Tomorrow: Jesus obeys the will of the Father.

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