Our eternity rests on details. One matter left undone, another passed over, and the entire human race would plunge deservedly into Hell for eternity. Yet God was pleased to take care of every detail necessary to redeem a people for Himself.
Of course, those details center on Jesus Christ the Mediator. The Second London Confession (2LC), recognizing the critical nature of every detail concerning the Messiah, sets forth ten paragraphs to concisely explain Christ the Mediator. While endless number of books have amplified the details of our Lord’s person and work, few documents written by the hands of redeemed men have expressed in an economy of words with memorable prose concerning Christ the Mediator as has the 2LC. Just as an exercise of the 2LC’s value in identifying critical details of our redemption and as an aid to meditation upon the supreme work of Christ as Mediator, let me offer just a few thoughts on the first paragraph of Chapter 8 in the confession.
It pleased God,
[So the entire redemptive work began in the pleasure of God.]
in his eternal purpose,
[So what Christ did was no plan B or last gasp alternative because Israel failed to keep the covenant made with God; Christ, from before the foundation of the world, is the intended Mediator of the redeemed!]
to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus,
[No angel or cherubim or other being could accomplish redemption. From infinite time past, the only begotten Son was chosen and ordained as Mediator of rebels, idolaters, anarchists, and sinners of every stripe.]
his only begotten Son,
[The unique Son, unlike those called “sons of God” due to His redemptive work, holds the solitary position as the Father’s only Son, thus affirming His deity.]
according to the covenant made between them both,
[Here the intra-Trinitarian agreement is solidified, knowing at what great cost to Father and Son it would require for the Son to be Mediator.]
to be the mediator between God and men;
[Who else by virtue of absolute deity could represent God and by virtue of absolute humanity yet without sin, represent men as Mediator? Who else could qualify to enter into the eternal presence on behalf of a sinful race?]
the prophet, priest, and king;
[The three offices observed so often in different personalities in the Old Testament are combined perfectly in the Lord Jesus Christ. As prophet He reveals God to us, as priest He mediates the way to God for us, and as king He reigns over us.]
head and savior of his church,
[The aim of Christ’s work as Mediator from before the creation focused upon His relationship to His church to be her head and savior, fully deserving her love, worship, and submission in all things.]
the heir of all things,
[Let that settle in—“the heir of all things!” All that the Father purposed in the vastness of creation and everything beyond that which our minds cannot comprehend belong to our Lord Jesus!]
and judge of the world;
[The creation belongs to Christ, so those rebelling against Him with unrepentant hearts and unbelieving minds will face Him, not as head and savior but as judge. What He is in immeasurable love and mercy to the church, He is in immeasurable wrath to the unbelieving.]
unto whom he did from all eternity give a people to be his seed,
[The Father’s gift to the Son by virtue of the covenant both made and the fulfillment of the redemptive promises by the Son’s faithfulness as prophet, priest, and king, now result in a people who belong to Him for all eternity.]
and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.
[How astounding is the effectiveness of Christ’s work! For all eternity the redeemed will echo praise to the glory of His grace since every detail in God’s saving economy is perfectly fulfilled by the Triune God.]
How thankful we are that our gracious God left no detail undone in His eternal plan to redeem a people for Himself through Christ the Mediator! Let us meditate upon Christ the Mediator and find our lives, worship, praying, relationships, and ministries the richer for it.
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