III.
What the Office of The Mediator is
It becomes a Mediator to treat
with both parties, the offended and offending. It was in this way that Christ
performed the office of Mediator, treating with each party.
With God, the offended party, he
does these thing:- 1. He intercedes with the Father for us, and prays that
our sin may not be laid to our charge. (The Commentary of
Zacharias Ursinus: On the Heidelberg Catechism—The Protestant Christian
Doctrines, Dating to 1563 [trans. G. W. Williard; Pantianos Classics,
1888], 111)
There are. Therefore, four principal
parts of the priestly office of Christ:
1. To teach men, and that in a
different manner from all others, who are called to act as priests; for he does
not merely speak to the ear by his word, but effectually inclines the heart by
his Holy Spirit.
2. To offer himself a sacrifice
for the sins of the world.
3. To make continual intercession
and prayer for us to the Father that he may receive us into his favor on
account of his intercession and will, and on account of the perpetual efficacy
of his sacrifice; and to have the promise of being heard in reference to those
things which he asks.
4. To apply his sacrifice unto
those for whom he intercedes, which is to receive into favor those that
believe, and to bring it to pass that the Father may receive them, and that
faith may be wrought in their hearts, by which the merits of Christ may be made
over to them, so that they are regenerated by the Holy Spirit unto everlasting
life. (Ibid., 191)
The fruits, or benefits of
Christ’s ascension into heaven are . . . 1. His intercession with the Father in
our behalf. This embraces, as we have already remarked, the perpetual force and
virtue of the sacrifice of Christ; the divine and human will of Christ which is
favourable to us, by which he desires that we may be received of the Father for
the sake of his sacrifice; and the consent of the Father, falling in with this
will of the Son, and approving of his satisfaction as a sufficient atonement
for our sins. In a word, it is the will of the Father and the Son, that the
sacrifice of Christ may forever avail in our behalf. (Ibid., 267)
That a work may be good it must
proceed from a true faith, which rests upon the merit and intercession of
Christ, and from which we may know that we, together with our works, are
acceptable to God for the sake of the mediator. (Ibid., 488)
