July 13, 1919
W.W.PRESCOTT

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I call attention first to this principle, that the mediation of Christ grows out of his sonship; it is involved in his sonship, that in the very nature of his relationship to the Father he must be the mediator for the Father. We have been studying the person of Christ. All that we have received concerning his person is still true, and that idea of relationship to him is still true and it is still true, as I have endeavored to emphasize, that we are dealing with facts, that the gospel is the announcement of those facts, and our personal experience is in our relation to those facts and that person. So it is yet. So we shall still go on with the study of the person of Christ, but now in a special application of the theme, and I call attention first to this idea. The mediation rests upon the idea, grows out of that sonship, that relation, and that the mediator is both the son of God and son of man, just as we have been studying. We build upon that.

Turn to the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. This whole epistle is the exposition of this question, the mediation of Christ, but observe that we have the very foundation of this exposition in the first and second chapters. I think we have lost much by simply taking certain texts out of this epistle to the Hebrews, rather than taking the whole epistle. The first name that is given to this being who is expounded in this epistle to be the surety of the covenant, the mediator of the covenant, the minister of the sanctuary, the first term applied to him is Son. He has spoken to us in his Son, and you observe that the word his is supplied in our texts, indicating that there is no exact corresponding word and the fact that it is so expressed places emphasis upon the rela-

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tionship rather than upon the individual. Not that the individual is not present, but that the emphasis now is upon the relationship, upon the sonship, rather than upon the person who is the son. Not that we dismiss him at all, but this epistle is to expound a certain phase of that individual. That phase, that view, grows out of that relationship which is expressed here. He has spoken to us by one who stands in the relation to him of a son. This chapter is taken up with an exposition of the exalted character and being of the son. “Appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, the very raying forth, emanation, the very outshing of his glory. In the gospel of John, in which he expresses more than in any other gospel the idea that he is the son of God, the word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Here is describing his character, his being, he is the effulgence, the emanation, the raying forth of his glory, the very image of his inmost being. That translation person in our authorized texts, is one of those illustrations where interpretation came into the translation. The word that is used here is the word translated confirmation in two or three other epistles. It is the substance in the metaphysical sense. The very image of his substance, not material substance, but the very image of his inmost being, what he actually is. Not in a material sense. His very inner being is revealed in this psalm from which the text in Hebrews is quoated. I think this translation helps us, “The expression of his essence,” his inmost being.

Now
in the eighth verse he is called God,
in the tenth verse he is called Lord,
in the eleventh verse the eternity of his being is predicated, “thou continuest.”
That is the first chapter of Hebrews, just to expound to us the question of the mediation of Christ.

You come to the second chapter, and you take exactly the other term. He is not spoken of in the second chapter as God, or Lord, or Eternal in his being, the only term applied to him is his earthly name, Jesus. We behold Jesus, son of Man. So that these two chapters in laying the foundation for the exposition of this question of the mediation of Christ, emphasize first the sonship, second the double force of that sonship as son of God, and God, and Lord, and Eternal, and second he is the Man, the Son of man. That lays the foundation for the exposition of this question.

Now let us read 1 Tim. 2:5: “For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus.”

That sets forth this fact in clear terms, that there is only one mediator, that that mediator is a man as well as God, that his name is Christ Jesus. Now in the fifth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews there is another term given to this. Hebrews 5:4. Speaking of the work of the priest, “And no man taketh the honor unto himself, but when he is called of God, even as was Aaron. So Christ also glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but he that spake unto him, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee: as he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.”

Here the sonship is placed first and the priesthood growing out of it. He did not assume that honor to be the high priest, but God made him high priest. He that said unto him, Thou art my

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Son, this day have I begotten thee, and said in another place, Thou art a priest. You take this scripture that comes from the second Psalm, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” Turn to Acts 13 and see the application of that scripture. It was from this Psalm that the Apostle Paul preached. 32nd verse: “And we bring you good tidings of the promise made unto the fathers, that God hath fulfilled the same, unto our brethren in that he raised up Jesus”—notice the word Jesus here—“that man of Nazareth. As also it is eritten in the second psalm, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.” That is, he applies that scripture to the resurrection. Now you put the sonship and the priesthood together. “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” Here that expression is used as applied to the resurrection. “Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” There is the relation between the sonship of Christ as demonstrated in the resurrection. There is a connection between his work as priest and his resurrection life. He was not made priest after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. That endless life in the man Jesus is demonstrated in that victory in death in the resurrection. “When ye have lifted up the son of man, then shall ye know that I am he.” And you go back to Isaiah’s prophecy from Isaiah 41 to 45, and see what is involved in his saying, Then shall ye know that I am he. You will find it is equivalent to saying, Then shall ye know that I am God, and in it was the resurrection.

Now read Romans 1:1-3: “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which be promised

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afore through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead;”

Put them all together. The demonstration that Jesus, the man, was the Son of God and God, was the resurrection. He was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, the son of man. He was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead. “When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he.” And upon that rests his priesthood, his mediation for us, the power of that endless life, a life demonstrated to be endless, eternal, from the fact that death couldn’t hold him. Reading further, you have the same thought from Revelation 1:17,18: “I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death of Hades.” The endless life that is expressed in Hebrews 1:11, “Thou continuest.”

Now upon the basis of the first chapter rests the hope of his ability as priest and mediator, because as the Son he continues, that is, the eternal Son, because he is God, because he is Lord, there is the basis for our confidence in him as mediator for us, because he is Jesus, the Son of man, born of the seed of David according to the flesh. Upon this rests the means for bringing to us the power of the endless life. Uniting that eternal power with us in our flesh, that rendered it necessary that he should take the flesh, so that Son of God, Son of man, the incarnation, the death, the resurrection, and ascension, are all necessary to our view of him as our high priest in the heavenly sanctuary.

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Now, then, in order to bring clearly before us this subject of the mediation of the Son, and in order that we may get the view of this mediation, for us in our present state, I divided the subject in this way: 1. The mediation of Christ in Creation 2. the mediation of Christ in administration.

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That I apply first to the original creation. Then I apply the same thing to the new creation, that is, to redemption. His mediation in creation, his mediation in administration in the original creation and in the things that are visible; his mediation in creation, his mediation in administration when he undertakes our present case in sin.

Now let us study first his mediation in Creation. He is the mediator between his Father and the universe, mediating the life and the light of the Godhead. That is to say, we must not limit the mediation of Christ the Son to this time of sin. The mediation of Christ for sin grows out of his mediation before sin came into the world; and his mediation for his Father before sin came into the world lays the foundation for his mediation after sin comes into the world. Is that clear? His mediation during the time of sin, which is but an incident in eternity, grows out of his mediation before sin came into the world at all; and after sin is out of the world, he will go on in his mediatorial work through all eternity, because his mediation grows out of his sonship, and he is the eternal Son. Now let us read some scriptures very definitely on this, and see their application.

Prov. 8:22: “Jehovah possessed me as the beginning of his way.” You say it does not read that way. In the authorized text and in the text of the Revised Version, it reads like this: “Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way.” The marginal reading of the Revised Version is, “Jehovah possessed me as the beginning of his way.” I think we can even drop out that little word as. “Jehovah possessed me, the beginning of his way.” He is the beginning of the way. He is the end of the way, too, but now we are dealing with this thought.

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This word possessed is rather peculiar in its meaning. It is the same word and the same form of the word that is used in Gen. 4:1, and you see by the connection just what is involved: “And the man knew Eve, his wife; and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man.” That is, a man was born. I have acquired a son. This in Prov. 8:22 is the same word exactly: “Jehovah possessed (acquired) me, the beginning of his way.” The sonship is emphasized in this very word. The Son was the Father’s way out of Himself. He is also the way back to the Father. So when we apply it in the matter of our personal relationship to God—“Through him we have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” He is the beginning of the way out, and he is the way back. Therefore, he who is in the way, he who is in Christ, is in the way to God, a living Way.

This chapter in Proverbs is speaking of Wisdom, 1st verse: “Doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice?” That is a personification of wisdom and understanding. It is really a personification of wisdom as Christ. According to I Cor. 1:24, we preach Christ crucified, the wisdom of God. The Lord possessed me, wisdom, his Son, the beginning of his way.

John 14:6: “I am the way.” “Possessed me, the beginning of his way,” that is Christ, the person.

Now, is this thought clear to you? In creation God’s wisdom becomes visible through His Son, the Way? Hold that thought a bit, because I want to apply it, not simply to these visible things that wisdom becomes visible there, but we want to apply it further—that wisdom becomes visible here, in Christ.

Psalm 104:24: “O Jehovah, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all.”

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Prov. 3:19: “Jehovah by wisdom founded the earth.” Now go to the 3d chapter of Hebrews, and you will see that applied to his mediation. Sometimes unfortunate translations turn us away from these connections. In Hebrews 3, where it says that “He that built all things is God,” it is not the ordinary word for build. It is translated also establish, He that established all things is God. I like the word founded, He that founded all things is God, just as it says here—By wisdom he founded the earth.

Prov. 8:27-30: “When he established the heavens, I was there: When he set a circle upon the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when the fountains of the deep became strong when he gave to the sea its bound, that the waters should not transgress his commandment, when he marked out the foundations of the earth; then I was by him, as a master workman.”

That is wisdom—by wisdom, in wisdom, hast thou made them all.
Have you ever asked yourself why is it that in the Old Testament scriptures so much space is taken in talking about the things of the visible universe? Take the book of Job—one of the earliest books, perhaps the earliest—and you go through the argument there. You have three men arguing with Job. The Lord says they have not said the thing that is right, and yet you hear them quoted very positively as proving doctrine. It is better to see whether God said it or whether somebody else said it—somebody that God said was not doing the right thing. Because a thing is in the Bible does not prove that we should use it in proving a doctrine. “Thou shalt not surely die,” is in the Bible, just as much as “I am the way, the truth and the life.” But I choose the latter as the basis of my confidence. In the book of Job you have false philosophy. It is not that all that those men

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said was false, but they used those facts to establish the false philosophy. That is the trouble with their reasoning. But when God came to reason with Job, what did he say? He simply began by asking questions about the material universe. Follow it right straight through and you will find his whole argument with Job was simply asking him questions about the material universe, and when he had finished Job said, I abhor myself.

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Now let us pass on to the New Testament to get a further interpretation. First Corinthians 8:6, “Yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him.” When we speak of God the Father, his Fatherhood means that he is himself is the source of all things. There is but one God, and we unto him, and one Jesus Christ, and we through him. This is to be taken in its

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most absolute sense. The Father, the Source of all things; one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things. This is simply an unfolding to us of that truth in Proverbs, “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way. The Son was the agent, the way, the Mediator in all the creation.

John 1:3, “All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” Christ is that “Person”, that “Wisdom”, that “Way”—The Source, the Father; the Son, the one through whom all things came into existence—in the broadest sense of the world.

Col. 1:16,17 (Remember this, that a wrong scientific theory about the origin of creation will always lead to a false gospel. That is what we face today. And a false theory concerning the original creation leads to a false theory concerning the new creation of the gospel.) Verses 12,13,14: should also be taken in this connection:

(Col. 1:12-17) “Giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his live; in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins: who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him.”

There are three different words used in this connection: speaking about creation: “Created in him”, “created through him”

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and “created unto him.” And he is before all things, and in him all things consist—subsist—exist. (Here is shown his administrative characteristic). You take the verses from the 14th to the 17th of this chapter, and they set forth the Son as Mediator in creation, mediator in administration of the things created.

FM WILCOX: May I ask in what sense you use the word “Mediator” before creation? As the instrument?

PRESCOTT: As the instrument, as the agent, through whom the action passes back and forth.

Now notice the connection here. He is spoken of as the Son. It does not say “the kingdom of Jesus” or the “kingdom of Christ,” but “the kingdom of the Son.” It is that personal relationship—“in him”, “through him”, “unto him” are all things. The continued existence of the universe is dependent upon the continued existence of the Son. The coming into being of the universe is dependent on the Son. The continuation of the universe depends upon the son because “in him” all things subsist or exist, are held together.

Now take Psalms 90:1,2, and we get another view of it (We are speaking now of the original creation and his mediation in the original creation before sin came into the world.)

“Lord, thou has been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” The origin of creation was a birth. The Father, the source of all things—the Son, the way for all

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things. The bringing into being of all things, a birth. The mountains were brought forth—were born.

Compare John 1:3 with John 8:58. “All things came into being through him” “Before Abraham was born, I am.” The word rendered “was born” in John 8:58 is the same word as rendered “came into being” in John 1:3. It is the word “birth.” The same as in Ps. 90:1,2 “Thou gavest birth to the world.” “All things were born through him, and without him was not anything born that was born.”

Now if I may apply the thought: In the book “Education” page 99 we read this statement “A mysterious life pervades all nature.” That life is manifest in our nature—that living power. The Son is the Mediator of that living power in our nature, and creation is a birth.

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<ç>[after introducing the idea that the Son was mediator even before the entrance of sin…]

LACEY: Is not the difficulty after all merely connected with the use of the word “Mediator”. Professor Prescott is using the word in the sense of “Intermediary”. Christ is the intermediary between God and creation. God’s power is represented through Christ in his product of creation. Professor Prescott is using it in its original Latin sense. In this sense Christ is not only the mediator between God and sinful men, but the intermediary of the entire universe—all the created works of God.

F.M.WILCOX: What is the original meaning?

LACEY: One who goes between—in the middle—a go-between.

G.B.THOMPSON: Did we have a “go-between” before sin came in?

PRESCOTT: May I add right there, the whole idea of the imminence of God in creation is because they leave out the Mediator. Then they come to us and say: “God in man,” leaving out the mediator.

<ç>[Kellogg’s error]

ANDERSON: I think this difficulty we have is a real one. I think the Bible is very clear in making this word “Intermediary”—a redemptive word.

DANIELLS: That is my idea.

ANDERSON: I do not think we are safe in using this idea in relation to creation. I think it belongs to the idea of

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redemption from sin. The question of the creation is a matter of God’s power, and the question of redemption is a matter of God’s personal life.

PRESCOTT: That is the very thing I have presented. Creation is a birth—God’s life goes forth (as I read this morning): “A mysterious life pervades all nature.”

ANDERSON: But don’t we believe that the experience of the new life—redemption—is something that the sinner does not experience. He is in sin. He lives by the power of God, but has not a present spiritual life.

PRESCOTT: Before men fell, what about him then? When he was created in the image of God, did he have spiritual life?

ANDERSON: He was in the process of receiving that spiritual life by personal fellowship with God.

PRESCOTT: He was not created a spiritual being?

ANDERSON: Not a complete being. He was on the plane of probation, and by fellowship with God was to attain to perfection, the same as we. We have been lost. We are on the plane of death; to be raised from that plane to the plane of deliverance we must have the personal life of God, and that comes through the Incarnation. I think that these two ideas blur. If we are not careful we are liable to take a step in the direction of Pantheism.

PRESCOTT: I distinguish between original mediation and the redemptive mediation. “Through him all things were born”—come into being, and man came into being in the image of God, through that creative mediation. I cannot think man was anything less than

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in the image of God according to the Scripture—and that was by creative mediation.

ANDERSON: It does not speak of “birth” in that connection.

PRESCOTT: It says in Psalms 90:1,2 “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting, thou art God” (The Revised Version makes this plain. It says the “mountains were brought forth”. When we speak of a child being brought forth we mean it was born.

Now let me emphasize this. It is very important. I distinguish between the creative mediation before sin entered the world, and the redemptive mediation, after sin came in. What I insist upon is that some one by some power did both.

(Amens)

PALMER: Could we not retain the idea expressed by the word “in him” and “through him” without using the word “Mediator”, which in the Scripture is so closely associated with recreation from sin?

PRESCOTT: I cannot take another word for it, but it is all right for you to take any word you choose. But I simply say that when I studied this theme this word seemed to be the best expression of that idea.

THOMPSON: I want to get things straight, and I confess some of these definitions are perplexing. I heard this morning the mention of the word “Essence”. What does that mean?

LACEY: It referred to a translation which said Christ was the very expression of the Father’s essence. That means he was the exhibition of the very being of God. No one knows what God is except as he is revealed through Jesus Christ.

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G.G.THOMPSON: I want to read a statement from the Spirit of Prophecy: “The thought that God is an essence pervading all nature is one of Satan’s most subtle devices.”

LACY: It means (the use of the word essence) that he was the very idea of what God was himself in his life, his mercy, and power. He is the expression of God.

THOMPSON: I understand Pantheism teaches there is not anything behind nature, and this theory teaches there is a Person behind it.

DANIELLS: I fear there is a danger in the use of terms. When we come to talk to an audience who do not understand these terms there is danger of them not knowing what we are preaching.

PRESCOTT: How about the “new birth?” It says that we are to be born again, and Nicodemus did not understand it. But there is the old birth and the new birth, and old creation and the new creation.

DANIELLS: When we use these terms in this fashion we must be very careful.

PRESCOTT: I recognize that truth and error lie right close, side by side, and the reason why error comes up so near is to make us afraid of the truth. Now when error makes us afraid of the truth we back off from the truth and lose it. Now if we can have wisdom enough to have the full benefit of the truth and not swing off over into the error, we are in advance of our position. I went through this experience. I was the one that had to stand up and face Dr. Kellogg on his book the Living Temple. He was striking at, and turning aside, the very fundamental truths of the gospel. Now how did it come about? By his science, in

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that he left out what did not look forward to the Mediator in creation. His next step was that he left Him out of the new creation. He had God “immediately” in mind and not “mediately.” So long as we hold the idea of the Mediator in the original creation we will hold the idea of the Mediator in the new creation and will not be swung off.

ANDERSON: I speak of this because I had some experience along this line when I started for China. Before leaving I had a long talk with Dr. Kellogg on this very matter. At that time he was the leading man in our Mission Board. He insisted that unless I had a certain theory I was not fitted to go to China. And he spent a long time to explain just what God was, and how I should teach God when I got into China. We finally got down to the point where we looked into the matter of the “new birth”, and I asked if he thought the new birth was a new separate life that had come down from God through Jesus Christ to take possession of the human being. He said “No, I don’t believe that. There is no difference between the new birth—the spirit life and the physical life. There is no line there. The life that we have—the ordinary natural life—becomes in harmony with God by changing the attitude.” I said, I did not believe that; before a man can come into the Kingdom he must become a part of God’s own divine life; and that has been provided for us in the gift of Jesus Christ; and that life is just as real to the person as the things we handle in our hands. Dr. Kellog drew no distinction between the ordinary things of the natural creation and the spiritual life that is to come to us in the incarnation through the gift of Jesus Christ.

PRESCOTT: The first time Dr. Kellogg talked with me privately over his new views, he said practically the same thing and I said, speaking to another party about it afterward, “Unless Dr. Kellogg changes his mind about that question, he is gone, for he has lost the very fundamental thing in the gospel.”

PALMER: Dr. Kellogg apparently went astray first in the interpretation of God’s relation to the physical universe and it so appeared, perhaps you will remember, in an article in GOOD HEALTH. That is where we first saw it, and read it, and the next morning after we had read it, I said to Mrs. Palmer, “What do you think of that article? It has left a queer feeling with me?” She said, “That seems like another God.” He went off on that, and our next discovery was that he was off on the matter of recreation and new birth. Having lost the way out from God, he lost the way back to God.

PRESCOTT: I have a question that Brother Bollman wanted to ask this morning and has written. “You first emphasize the name Jesus by tracing it back to Jehovah. This morning you emphasize it by leading back to man. How does this harmonize?”

Entomologically, the word Jesus can be traced back to two Hebrew words meaning Jehovah for Salvation. When Jehovah was revealed for salvation, it was as the son of man.

DANIELLS: Well, our time is up now and that brings us to the second study….