"there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5)
There is a discussion going on at the Coffee Bible Club Blog concerning whether the Angel of YHWH in the OT is God the Son. It is at 166 comments and counting - I've never seen anything like it. I haven't had the time to get involved and I don't have firm enough opinions on it anyway.
But I do have a nagging question:
Can there be a mediator between God and humanity who is not human?
Further, can there be a mediator between God and sinful humanity, who does not share in the suffering which is the just punishment for our sin?
The letter to the Hebrews has been brought into the discussion on the blog, although I've only skim read how people have dealt with it. However it would seem to me that Hebrews says several things that are relevant (that I can think of off the top of my head):
- The Old Covenant was mediated by Angels but the New by God's own Son.
- The Old Covenant was also mediated by imperfect sinful priests the New by a perfect sinless priest.
- Jesus was tempted like we were and so can sympathise with our weaknesses.
- Jesus was made perfect for his mediatory role by suffering.
The OT is characterised by a distance between God and humanity. We have to take at full seriousness the verses about people being unable to see God and live because of their sinfulness. Only in the NT did God come close. As Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:5 it is 'the man' Christ Jesus who is our mediator. That is why the most common places that the NT writers see Christ in the OT are in men - the priests, the kings, the nation.
I don't think the debate is really about whether the Israelites knew the Triune God or a Unitarian God, with the Angel of YHWH as a test case. I think the debate is really about mediation and revelation.
... sorry Glen. I perfectly understand if you want to shoot me now.
Bang!
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For me there are *two* questions that need answering:
1) Can there be a Mediator who is not the Son?
2) Can there be a Mediator who is not man?
I think we want the answer to *both* questions to be no. If we only answer question 2) 'solus Christus' takes a major (I'm tempted to say fatal) blow.
I fully understand that to answer *both* questions leads to a tension in our thinking, but I think it's a tension we need to embrace lest we lose the centrality of Christ.
To help think through some of the tension here are some thoughts:
* Theologians speak of the deus incarnandus - God on the way to incarnation. That's the pre-incarnate Christ.
* Just as OT saints were *forgiven* on account of Christ's future atoning work (which they looked towards) so they had epistemological access to God through Christ's future incarnation (which they looked towards).
* I don't mind if you want to say that this knowledge of God was more dim pre-incarnation - all I'm saying is that knowledge of God is tied to knowledge of the Mediator.
* Remember that right from the outset the protoevangellion is all about incarnation. And remember that Gen 4:1 reveals Eve's hope as set on the LORD-Man (Lit. she says "I have brought forth the LORD-Man").
Interestingly enough the BC Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel translates Gen 4:1 as "I have brought forth the Man - even the Angel of the LORD." Her hopes were set on incarnation. And BC Israelites saw the Angel as the promised Seed.
* The view I'm arguing for is that these appearances of the Son were not simply freaky apparitions but pledges of the incarnate once-for-all Christophany. (See those Owen quotes I posted up the other day).
Off the top of my head those are the sorts of things that might help in thinking it through. But I'd urge you to hold onto *both* questions I've posed and therefore to embrace that tension.
thanks Dave. I'm uneasy with how abstract a lot of reformed doctrine gets when it starts talking about the OT - asking questions of "knowing savingly", or "being saved", or being "regenerate"...
ReplyDeleteWhat I like about your nagging question is that it's trying not to abstract questions from the scriptures. I'd not thought about that question of man before, a suffering, tempted, priest man. I guess the questions of "Son" and "man" are related, if man is made in the image of God.
Paul doesn't talk much about priests does he? Do you think "mediator" in Galatians or Timothy means what Hebrews meant by priest?
... thinking about both your comments. May get back to you.
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