Chapter 8: Of Christ The Mediator (Part 1)

Understanding The Westminister Confession of Faith
Chapter 8:
Of Christ The Mediator (Part 1)

In order to mine the wealth of rich teachings of this chapter of the WCF, I will do it in two parts. Part 1 this week will focus on “mediation” and the “mediator”. In Part 2 next week, I will touch on the “offices” of the mediator.

The revealed word of God vividly presents Christ under several themes: He is the Head and Saviour of the Church, He is the Heir of all things, He is the Judge of the world, He is the Mediator between God and man, He is the Prophet, the Priest, and the King, and much more. We meet Him as one of these in various places in the Bible.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia defines “mediation” (in the broadest sense) as “the act of intervening between parties at variance for the purpose of reconciling them … for the purpose of leading them into an agreement or covenant.” Theologically, this means as an act, mediation refers to the method by which God and man are reconciled through the instrumentality of some intervening process, act or person. More particularly, it refers to reconciliation through the atoning work of the Person of Jesus Christ.

The term itself does not occur in the Old Testament, but the idea it expresses is found in the word “daysman” in Job 9:33, “Neither is there any daysman between us, that might lay his hand upon us both.” The word daysman means a person who is appointed “to prove, decide, judge, rebuke, reprove, correct, to make right.” The phrase, “lay his hand upon us both” pictures a person – an umpire – who has the power to adjudicate between two parties – in our case, between a holy God and sinful and unholy man. One who comes between God and man to remove their differences.

“Mediator” and its verb form are used six times in the New Testament. (See Gal 3: 19 – 20; Heb 6: 7; 8: 6; 9: 15; 12: 24.) And Christ Jesus is forcefully presented as the one and only mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2: 5). This means only He is able to make reconciliation between God and man possible by His all-perfect atoning sacrifice.

Such a mediator must be at the same time both divine and human: divine such that his obedience and sufferings are of infinite worth; and human such that His work might represent man, and be capable of rendering obedience to the law and satisfying the claims of justice; and that in His glorified humanity He might be the head of a glorified Church.

An infinite distance separates fallen men and God. An adequate and satisfactory mediator is needed if a harmonious relation is to be established. Sin, the moral offence, separates all people from God and requires reconciliation on the grounds of the atonement of the promised Messiah under the Covenant of Grace. The Bible reveals Jesus Christ as that Mediator between God and man. If you don’t go to Him, if you are not in Him, then you are not reconciled to God.

In Him,
Rev Robert Chew