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We have seen so far how that it was God's purpose to glorify Himself in the salvation of a
multitude of sinners chosen out of Adam's fallen race through Christ as Mediator. God the Father
in the everlasting covenant of grace invested God the Son with the office of Mediator. God the
Son agreed to act in official subordination to the Father for the purpose of fulfilling the Father's
will so that all the perfections of Deity would be honored, magnified, and manifested in the
salvation of sinners. God the Father put the whole responsibility of the salvation of His elect upon
God the Son. Salvation is conditioned on Christ, the one Mediator between God and men.
We are going to consider the office of mediator as it pertains to the Lord Jesus Christ. His office
in general is that of Mediator. Remember, a mediator is one who stands between two parties at
variance to act on behalf of both. Christ is the one Mediator between God and men in that He is
God to represent God before men and man to represent man before God. There are three main
branches of His one office of Mediator. These three offices are PROPHET, PRIEST, and KING.
All three offices are included in His title of Messiah, or Christ, the Anointed. All of God's
prophets, priests, and kings were anointed when they were invested with these offices. Among
men these offices never met in one person. Melchizedek, for example, was a king and priest but
not a prophet. David was a prophet and king but not a priest. Aaron was a prophet and a priest
but not a king.
Only in God the Son incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ, do all these offices meet. He is our Prophet
to reveal God to sinners. He is our Priest to represent us before God. He is our King to rule over
and dispose of all things for the glory of God. The case and condition of God's elect, all whom
the Father gave to Him, required Him to fulfill the duties of these offices. The fulfillment of these
particular offices is described in Scripture in various ways and titles given to Christ our Mediator.
For example, Christ is described as our Representative Head and Substitute. He is called the
Surety and Testator of the covenant. He is called our Savior, our Shepherd, our
Kinsman/Redeemer, our Propitiation, the Captain of our salvation, our Advocate, and our
Intercessor. These are all mediatorial offices and duties of Christ.
To fulfill the duties of these offices He had to be the Representative, Substitute, and Surety of the
whole election of grace. Remember, had Christ been only a prophet sent from God to instruct
men in divine truth, or had He been only a king to exercise divine rule over a spiritual kingdom,
He might have fulfilled His mission as the representative of God without becoming the Substitute
of men. This is where we see that the ground of His mediatorial glory was His PRIESTLY office.
He is not only our Prophet and our King, but He is our High Priest.
"Christ, as Mediator, was 'made under law' as the substitute, representative, and surety, of His
people" (Buchanan). Because of our fall in Adam, mankind by nature lies in a state of
condemnation and guilt, alienated and enemies of God. In Adam we rebelled and declared war on
God. The whole human race in Adam was doomed to eternal punishment and damnation unless
God, the offended party, would intervene and provide a way of redemption and salvation.
Remember, God had determined before the fall to save a people of His own sovereign choice out
of Adam's fallen race. But being a just and righteous God, He could not save them apart from His
law and justice being satisfied. God must be holy and just. He can by no means clear the guilty.
God is loving and gracious, but He cannot exercise His love and grace at the expense of His
justice and holiness. God must find a way that He can be both holy and gracious, just and
merciful, righteous and loving. He must be both a just God and a Savior, or He cannot save at all.
Therefore, He had to provide a mediator, one who could not only stand between God and men,
but who could also represent men, one who would substitute Himself in their place and satisfy law
and justice on their behalf.
The whole purpose of His mediation was to reconcile God to men and men to God. In order to
accomplish this He had to establish the ground of peace (2 Cor. 5:21). He had to remove the
ground of condemnation and establish the ground of justification for His people. He had to bring
about a propitiation towards God. He had to satisfy God's law and God's justice by fulfilling the
precepts of that law perfectly and by suffering on the cross for the sins of His sheep. Satisfaction
means He secured the salvation of His people and laid a sure ground of pardon, acceptance, and
entitlement for all that should believe in His name. This ground is not their faith. It is His
righteousness imputed and received by faith. His fulfilling the duties of His priestly office is the
establishment of this righteousness that demands the salvation and final glory of all for whom He
died to the praise and glory of the Father.
His fulfilling the duties of His prophetic and kingly offices is directly grounded upon the
establishment of this righteousness. Without this righteousness, as a prophet, all that He could
reveal is the wrath of God (Rom. 1:18). Without this righteousness, as a king, all that He could
do is exercise wrath against sin. So we see that His offices as Mediator and the duties He
performs are all dependent upon His establishing a righteousness that enables the Father to justify
the ungodly. All of His offices testify of God's absolute, free, and sovereign grace. They prove
and illustrate in every particular how all of salvation is conditioned on Christ and no part of
salvation is conditioned on the sinner.
Consider Him as the Covenant-Head of the elect. This is sometimes referred to as the doctrine of
Federal Headship. Christ is often said to be Head of the church (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18). He is
the Head of the Church in the sense that He communicates life to it, and in that He oversees and
protects the church. He is the source of all life for His people. He sustains us and supplies us
with all grace. He is the Head of the Church in the sense that He rules over us and leads us. We
are His subjects. He is the Head of the Church in the sense that He is our Husband and we are
His Bride. His headship in these senses chiefly belongs to His Kingly office. But He is also our
Representative-Head in that all of God's elect were considered in Him, and represented by Him,
when He made a covenant with the Father for us. When He engaged Himself to do and suffer all
that was required for our salvation, He agreed to do it not only on our behalf, but in our name and
in our nature, as our Substitute. We see this in several particulars:
I. IN ELECTION (Isaiah 42:1-4; Ephesians 1:3).
God the Son was first chosen and divinely appointed by God the Father (Isa. 42:1-4). His people,
God's elect, were chosen IN HIM as their Representative (Eph. 1:3-4). Christ was set up as
Mediator not as a private person but as a Representative-Head. When God chose His people out
of Adam's fallen race, they did not exist personally, but Christ did, and He represented them.
Therefore, they were capable of being chosen IN HIM. How could we have been blessed with all
spiritual blessings when we did not exist? We were blessed in Christ our Representative.
This shows us that the heart of election is not merely that God chose a people unconditionally
before the foundation of the world. This certainly is essential to a Biblical understanding of
election, but it is not, in and of itself, the heart of election. The heart of election is the elects'
union with Christ. Here we the purpose of God in choosing a multitude of guilty, hell-deserving
sinners out of Adam's fallen race, and we see His purpose in saving them. His purpose is to
glorify Himself in the salvation of sinners based on the righteousness of their
Representative-Head, the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). We see then that God's glory is the
main issue in election and salvation, and Christ's righteousness is the main issue in the glory of
God in salvation. It is based upon the righteousness of Christ that God the Father is enabled to be
both a just God and a Savior. This is why we cannot know God as a loving, saving Father apart
from Christ (Matt. 11:27; John 17:1-4).
We hear some people claim that they believe election is unconditional and that salvation is
conditional, conditioned upon the sinner's faith. They cover themselves by adding that the faith is
the gift of God. It is true that saving faith is the gift of God, but the faith that God gives His elect
believes that Christ's blood and righteousness makes the only difference between saved and lost.
The faith God gives His elect believes that Christ by Himself met all the conditions of salvation
and secured for the believer all grace here and all glory hereafter. We see, then, that it is
impossible to claim that election is unconditional while claiming salvation is conditioned on the
sinner's faith. Christ, according to His union with the elect, secured everything necessary for their
salvation, including faith. To say that election is unconditional and that salvation is conditioned
on faith is more subtle than most heresies, but it is just as deadly. It is only as we see the heart of
election that we see how the mediatorial glory of Christ revealed in the Gospel puts all things in
salvation, including the work of the Holy Spirit in us, in their proper place. This is the only way
that God can be glorified as both a just God and a Savior, Christ can be exalted and given the
preeminence as Lord, and all ground of boasting be excluded in the redeemed sinner.
II. IN PROMISE (2 Corinthians 1:20).
The everlasting covenant of grace is a covenant of promise made to the elect of God as they were
considered in Christ. All the promises of the covenant were made to Christ as the Representative
of the elect before the world began (Titus 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:9). None of these promise then were
conditioned on them but all were conditioned on Him, and, therefore, sure and certain (2 Sam.
23:5; 2 Cor. 1:20).
It is essential to our salvation that our Mediator be our Representative-Head. Christ in the
everlasting covenant of grace engaged Himself as our Representative and Substitute to obey and
suffer all that God required of us. All that He did as our Mediator, He did not as a private person
but in our name and in our nature as our Representative. This may be proven by comparing
Christ's representative work with Adam's. Read Romans 5:12 -Adam, the first man, was the
federal head and representative of the whole human race, all of his natural off-spring. Therefore
all men by nature are guilty and condemned based upon the one act of Adam's sin. Adam's guilt is
imputed and his sinful nature is imparted to everyone whom he represented (the whole human
race) WITH NO CONSIDERATION OF OR CONTRIBUTION FROM THEIR PERSONAL
SINS. Death spread to all men because all sinned in Adam, not in our own persons, but in the
person of Adam, our representative. We were not yet born, so our condemnation could not have
come upon consideration of or by contribution from our personal sins.
By the same principle, God's elect are made righteous and justified based upon the one act of
Christ's obedience and death. Christ's righteousness is imputed and His holy nature is imparted to
all whom He represented (the whole election of grace) WITH NO CONSIDERATION OF OR
CONTRIBUTION FROM THEIR PERSONAL OBEDIENCE. The righteousness of Christ
demands the justification and life of everyone whom He represented because they obeyed the law
perfectly and suffered all punishment due unto their sin, not in their own persons, but in the
Person of Christ, their Representative. Many of God's elect were already dead and many had yet
to be born when Christ established this righteousness. Their justification could not have come
upon consideration of or by contribution from their personal obedience. Read Romans 5:18-19 -
A. One sin, one righteousness (5:18) - Paul concludes it is certain that Adam's sin is ours by
representation and imputation, and that one sin brought all whom Adam represented into a state
of condemnation before God. Even so, or likewise, according to the very same principles of
representation and imputation, it is certain that Christ's righteousness demands the free
justification and life of all whom He represented. Notice carefully, God DOES NOT say that the
free gift of righteousness is merely provided for all IF they meet the condition of faith. God says
emphatically that the free gift of righteousness "CAME UPON," or is actually communicated to
"ALL UNTO JUSTIFICATION AND LIFE." Whoever or however many he means, we know
that they are those who will without fail come to justification and eternal life based on the one
righteousness of Christ imputed.
Those whom Christ represents were raised again unto justification 2,000 years ago at Calvary, not
in their own persons, but just as surely in the Person of their Representative with whom they are
one. THEY SHALL BE JUSTIFIED IN THEIR OWN PERSONS BECAUSE CHRIST'S
RIGHTEOUSNESS WAS ESTABLISHED FOR THEM AND SHALL BE IMPUTED TO
THEM. Christ's righteousness demands their justification and life according to God's promise
which is perfectly consistent with His holiness and truth.
B. The legal transaction (5:19) - "Made sinners ... made righteous" means legally constituted, or
put into a position of guilt and righteousness respectively. This language is much the same as the
apostle used in 2 Corinthians 5:21. The whole context here points not to a moral change but a
legal standing. No one can make this more simple and easy to understand than the Apostle Paul
does in this verse. Adam's sin is the only ground of condemnation, while Christ's righteousness is
the only ground of justification. Adam's sin demanded death, guilt, alienation from God, and
wrath for "the many" whom he represented, because his sin was their sin, not personally, but by
representation and by imputation. Christ's righteousness demands life, justification, reconciliation,
blessedness, eternal peace and joy for "the many" whom He represented, because His
righteousness is their righteousness, not personally, but by representation and by imputation. So
the very heart of Paul's argument in 5:12-21 is contained in verses 12, 18 and 19.
All the elect, all whom Christ represented, shall in time, in each successive generation, be justified
in their own persons based on the imputed righteousness of Christ. This blessed truth of the
absolute certainty of salvation for all of God's elect, grounded upon the imputed righteousness of
Christ, DOES NOT shut any sinner out for two very specific reasons:
It will help us immensely to see in 5:12-19 that no reference made to our personal sins or our
fallen nature, nor to our potential to and practice of sin. Paul proves over and over again that we
are guilty and condemned by the one sin of the one representative, Adam. Now the following
constitutes the joy and peace which comes from believing. This is comfort for those sinners who
have truly been slain by the law. Here, we can rejoice in the absolute certainty of salvation.
There is also no mention whatsoever of our personal righteousness or good works, no reference
whatsoever to any inherent righteousness or any potential to or practice of morality. God the
Holy Spirit by the Apostle Paul proves over and over again that the righteousness of ONE is made
or legally imputed to the "many" as the only ground of salvation. We must see that this truth does
not diminish or exclude the demerit and abomination of our personal sins. Personal sins only add
to the guilt and condemnation of all men in Adam, but they are not the ground of our
condemnation. Also, this truth does not diminish or exclude the value and necessity of personal
obedience of all who are saved and justified, but personal obedience is not the ground of salvation
and justification. Paul is not teaching that Christians are not obligated to obedience. He is not
teaching that obedience and good works are not needed. He is teaches that obedience and good
works are needed as evidences of salvation and as the grateful responses of a redeemed sinner,
but they are not needed as forming any part of the ground of salvation. Only Christ's
righteousness can have that exalted place, that He might have the preeminence.
