The Messiah in Moses and the Prophets

by Eleazar Lord

The primary ground or reason of that mediation, in the economy of the universe, which is affirmed of the one Mediator in all the relations of God to the World, is the infinite difference between the Deity and creatures in nature, attributes, and mode of existence and action. The relations implied in the existence and agency of creatures are such as cannot be conceived to subsist between beings so diverse in all respects as the infinite and finite, except through an intermediate agent, in the constitution of whose person and office the opposite extremes are united. For in creating, upholding, and governing finite beings, the agency of the Creator and Ruler connects itself with the conditions and relations of time and space; the conditions and relations of matter; of succession of thought, feeling, and action; of that which is external, visible, limited; that which begins and ends.

It may therefore be said, that in the nature of things such mediation, the interposition of such an official Person, is necessary; and accordingly the agency of the Mediator in those relations is presupposed, assumed, or expressly recognized, throughout the Scriptures.

In this system, the moral government which is administered by the Mediator is founded on the perfections, prerogatives and rights of the Deity as manifested by him in the works of creation, providence and grace, and applies to creatures in the relations which they sustain to him.

The whole is therefore a system of manifestation; on his part of the perfections and rights of the Deity, and on theirs of holiness and happiness, or of sin and misery, in the relations in which they exist. In the progress of this system, all intelligent creatures will be instructed in all that is knowable by them concerning the Deity, and all that respects themselves, and the nature, tendency, and consequences of holiness on the one hand, and of apostasy and wickedness on the other.

The Deity thus made known will, by the holy, the unfallen and redeemed, be eternally reverenced, supremely loved, and exclusively worshipped and obeyed; his rights and prerogatives will be acknowledged, and his perfections and the boundless emanations of his goodness be regarded with ceaseless, adoring, grateful rapture and delight.

In the administration of his moral government over apostate creatures, and in their future punishment, the Mediator’s sceptre is a sceptre of perfect righteousness.

The course of things eventually to be realized on earth will be such as would have taken place from the beginning, had no apostasy occurred. The apostasy and the curse on man and the earth will be overcome. The antagonism between the Mediator and the Adversary will cease. The earth, freed from the curse and from all enemies, renovated, restored to its original beauty, will be the perpetual scene of holiness and happiness.

Under the past and present dispensations, the object has been to do away the consequences of the fall of the first Adam as head of the race. When the second Adam, (“the Lord from heaven,”) as head of his elect people, shall have accomplished this at his second advent, and destroyed all enemies, he will be thenceforth the head of the race for ever.

The apostasy was a violation of preëxisting relations between the Creator and creatures. The victory gained by Satan over the first Adam as head of his race made him as much master of that Adam and his descendants as he was of the angels who joined him in apostasy. By that victory he had the power of death. Doubtless it was his object to destroy, as to the purposes and mode of existence for which they were created, the race with which, by the constitution of his official Person, the Mediator was connected; and thereby to defeat him.

The victory of the second Adam over Satan, utterly despoils him of all he had taken from the first Adam, destroys all his works, and ends in the destruction of himself and all enemies. As yet the results are but partially manifested. His victory as man—the victory of that nature in his official Person which had been overthrown in Adam—was achieved by his triumph over the direct personal temptation in the wilderness, and by his death, resurrection and ascension. The consummation of his triumph by the final overthrow and banishment of all enemies, in which his Divine attributes and prerogatives will be displayed, is yet future.