Mediator (Christ as Mediator)
The subject will be treated under the following heads:
(1) Definition of the word mediator;
(2) Christ the Mediator;
(3) Christ's qualifications;
(4) Performance;
(5) Results.
(1) Mediator defined
A mediator is one who brings estranged parties to an amicable
agreement. In New Testament theology the term invariably implies
that the estranged beings are God and man, and it is appropriated
to Christ, the One Mediator. When special friends of God --
angels, saints, holy men -- plead our cause before God, they
mediate "with Christ"; their mediation is only secondary and is
better called intercession (q.v.). Moses, howover, is the proper
mediator of the Old Testament (Gal, iii, 19-20).
(2) Christ the Mediator
St. Paul writes to Timothy (I Tim., ii, 3-6) . . . "God our
Saviour, Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the
knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator of
God and men, the man Christ Jesus: Who gave himself a redemption
for all, a testimony in due times." The object of the mediatorship
is here pointed out as the salvation of mankind, and the imparting
of truth about God. The mediator is named: Christ Jesus; His
qualification for the office is implied in His being described as
man, and the performance of it is ascribed to His redeeming
sacrifice and His testifying to the truth. All this originates in
the Divine Will of "God our Saviour, Who will have all men to be
saved". Christ's mediatorship, therefore, occupies the central
position in the economy of salvation: all human souls are both for
time and eternity dependent on Christ Jesus for their whole
supernatural life. "Who [God the Father] hath delivered us from
the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of
the Son of his love, In whom we have redemption through his blood,
the remission of sins; Who is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of every creature . . . all things were created by him
and in him. And he is before all and by him all things consist.
And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning
the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he may hold the
primacy: Because in him, it hath well pleased the Father, that all
fulness should dwell; And through him to reconcile all things unto
himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, both as to
the things that are on earth, and the things that are in heaven".
(Col., i, 13-20)
(3) Qualifications
The perfection of a mediator is measured by his influence with the
parties he has to reconcile, and this power flows from his
connection with both: the highest possible perfection would be
reached if the mediator were substantially one with both parties.
A mother, for instance, is the best mediator between her husband
and her son. But the matrimonial union of "two in one flesh", and
the union of mother and child are inferior in perfection to the
hypostatic union of the Son of God with human nature. Husband,
mother, son, are three persons; Jesus Christ, God and man, is only
one person, identical with God, identical with man. Moreover, the
hypostatic union makes Him the Head of rnankind and, therefore,
its natural representative. By His human origin Christ is a member
of the human family, a partaker of our flesh and blood (Heb., ii,
11-15); by reason of His Divine Personality, He is "the image and
likeness of God" to a degree unapproached by either man or angel.
The Incarnation establishing between the First-born and His
brethren a real kinship or affinity, Christ becomes the Head of
the human family, and the human family acquires a claim to
participate in the supernatural privileges of their Head, "Because
we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones."
(Eph., v, 30.). Such was the expressed will of God: "But when the
fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman .
. that we might receive the adoption of sons." (Gal., iv, 4-5;
also Rom., viii, 29.) The man Christ Jesus, therefore, who was
designed by God to mediate between Him and mankind, and whose
mediatorship was not accidental and delegated, but inherent in His
very being, was endowed with all the attributes are required in a
perfect mediator.
Christ's function as mediator necessarily proceeds from His human
nature as principium quo operandi; yet it obtains its mediating
efficacy from the Divine nature, i.e. from the dignity of an
acting person. Its first object, as commonly stated, is the
remission of sin and the granting of grace, whereby the friendship
between God and man is restored. This object is attained by the
worship of infinite value which is offered to God by and through
Christ. Christ, however, is mediator on the side of God as well as
on the side of man: He reveals to man Divine truth and Divine
commands; He distributes the Divine gifts of grace and rules the
world. St. Paul sums up this two-sided mediation in the words: ".
. consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus"
(Heb. iii, I); Jesus is the Apostle sent by God to us, the high
priest leading us to God.
(4) Performance
How do we benefit by Christ's mediation? Christ is more than an
enlightening teacher and a bright example of holiness; He destroys
sin and restores grace. Our salvation is not due exclusively to
the Mediator's intercession for us in His heaven; Christ
administers in heaven the fruits of His work on earth (Heb., vii,
25). Scripture compels us to regard the work of the Mediator as an
efficient cause of our salvation: His merits and satisfaction, as
being those of our representative, have obtained for us salvation
from God. The oldest expression of the dogma in the Church
formularies is in the Nicene Creed: "crucified also for us".
"Vicarious satisfaction", a term now in vogue, is not found
expressly in the Church formularies, and us not an adequate
expression of Christ's mediation. For His mediation partly
replaces, partly renders possible and efficacious the saving work
of man himself, on the other hand, it is a condition of, and it
merits, the saving work of God. It begins with obtaining the
goodwill of God towards man, and appeasing the offended God by
interceding for man. This intercession, however, differs from a
mere asking in this, that Christ's work has merited what is asked
for: salvatlon is its rightful equivalent. Further : to effect
man's salvation from sin, the Saviour had to take upon Himself the
sins of mankind and make satisfaction for them to God. But though
His atonement gives God more honour than sin gives dishonour, it
is but a step towards the most essential part of Christ's saving
work - the friendship of God which it merits for man. Taken
together, the expiation of sin and the meriting of Divine
friendship are the end of a real sacrifice, i,e. of "an action
performed in order to give God the honour due to Him alone, and so
to gain the Divine favour" (Summa Theologica III:48:3). Peculiar
to Christ's sacrifice are the infinite value of Victim, which give
the sacrifice an infinite value of expiation and as merit.
Moreover, it consists of suffering voluntarily accepted. The
sinner deserves death, having forfeited the end for which he was
created; and hence Christ accepted death as the chief feature of
His atoning sacrifice.
(5) Results
Christ's saving work did not at once blot out every individual sin
and transform every sinner into a saint, it only procured the
means thereto. Personal sanctification is effected the special
acts, partly Divine, partly human; it is secured by loving God,
and man as the Saviour did. Christianus alter Christus: every
Christian is another Christ, a son of God, an heir to the eternal
Kingdom. Finally, in the fulness of time all things that are in
heaven and on earth shall be re-established, restored, in God
through Christ (Eph., i, 9-10). The meaning of the promise is that
the whole of creation, bound up together and perfected in christ
as its Head, shall be led back in the most perfect manner to God,
from whom sin had partly led it away. Christ is the Crown the
Centre, and the Fountain of a new and higher order of things: "for
all are yours; And you are Christ's; and Christ is God's." (I Cor,
iii, 22-23).
J. WILHELM
Transcribed by Joseph P. Thomas
In praise of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.
Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).
This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For more information please download
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