01.15. The mediator of the covenant.

15. The mediator of the covenant. The counsel of redemption is not a human design, whose execution depends on all kinds of unforeseen circumstances and is therefore at the most uncertain. But it is infallibly certain, because it is the decision of God’s gracious and omnipotent will. As it was determined in eternity, so it is accomplished in time. All that the doctrine of faith has to do, therefore, is to describe the way in which the unchangeable counsel of the Lord concerning the salvation of His children is worked out and applied. And since that counsel was mainly concerned with three major issues, about the Mediator, through whom salvation had to be acquired, about the Holy Spirit, through whom it had to be applied, and about the people to whom it had to be given, the instruction in the Christian faith has in the sequel also to occupy itself with three issues.

Firstly, it has to deal with the person of Christ, who will acquire salvation through his suffering and death. Then she must indicate the way in which the Holy Spirit makes the person of Christ, with all His benefits, part of the elect. And thirdly, it has to give attention to the persons who partake of this salvation acquired by Christ, and thus to speak of the church or congregation as the body of Christ. Finally, this teaching naturally leads to the completion of the salvation that awaits believers hereafter. During the treatment it will become clear that the counsel of redemption is well ordained and assured in all parts; the unspeakable grace, the manifold wisdom and the almighty power of God are revealed in it.

All these virtues appear in the clearest light right from the person of Christ. Faith in the intermediary is not exclusive to Christianity. All men and peoples not only live in the consciousness that they are not partakers of salvation, but they also carry in their hearts the conviction that this salvation must in some way be indicated and granted to them by certain persons. The idea is widespread that man, as he is, cannot approach God and live in His presence; he needs an intermediary who will open the way to Godhead. In all religions, therefore, there are mediators who, on the one hand, make Divine revelations known to mankind and, on the other hand, convey the prayers and gifts of mankind to God.

Sometimes lower gods or spirits act as such intermediaries, but often they are also people endowed with supernatural knowledge and power and in a special odor of holiness. They occupy a prominent place in the religious life of the people and are consulted on all important occasions in special and public life, such as disasters, wars, diseases, enterprises, etc. But whether they act as soothsayers or magicians, as saints or priests, they do show the way which, in their opinion, man must take in order to obtain the favor of Godhead, but they are not the way itself. The religions of the peoples are independent of their persons. This is true even of those divine services which were founded by certain persons. Buddha and Kongfutse, Zarathustra and Mohammed may have been the first professors of the religion founded by each of them, but they are not the content of that religion and are related to it in an external and, to a certain extent, accidental way. Their religion could remain the same even if their name were forgotten or their person replaced by another. In Christianity, however, the situation is quite different. It has been said from time to time that Christ never wanted to be the only Mediator and that He would be perfectly content to forget His name, provided His principle and spirit lived on in the congregation. Others, however, who have severed all ties with Christianity for themselves, have contested and refuted this idea in an impartial manner. Christianity bears a completely different relationship to the person of Christ than the religions of the nations do to the persons by whom they were founded. Jesus was not the first confessor of the religion named after him. He was not the first and foremost Christian, but He occupies a wholly unique place in Christianity. He is not the founder of Christianity in the usual sense, but He is the Christ, the Sent One of the Father, who founded His Kingdom on earth and is now extending it and preserving it until the end of the ages. Christ is Christianity itself; He is not outside it but in the midst of it; without His name, person, and work, there is no more Christianity. In a word, Christ is not the signpost to salvation, but the way itself. He is the only true and complete Mediator between God and man. What religions have suspected and hoped for in their belief in the Mediator, that is not the case.

What the religions have suspected and hoped for in their mediatorial faith, has been essentially and completely fulfilled in Him. In order to grasp this completely unique significance of Christ, we must start from the idea of Scripture, that He did not first begin to exist, as we do, at His conception and birth, but that He already existed centuries before and was from eternity the one-born and beloved Son of the Father. In the Old Testament the Messiah is already referred to by the name of Father of eternity, who is an eternal Father to his people. Isaiah 9:5, and whose goings forth (origin and provenance) are from of old, from the days of eternity, Micah 5:1. The New Testament joins in this, but expresses the eternity of Christ much more clearly. It is already contained in all those places where the entire earthly life of Christ is presented as the fulfillment of a work that God had commissioned him to do. It is true that it is also said of John the Baptist that he had to come as a second Elijah and did come. Mark 9:11-13, John 1:7. But the emphasis and the frequency with which it is said of Christ that He came into the world to accomplish His work indicate that this expression is meant here in a special sense. י

It is not only written in general terms that He went out from the Father to preach, Mark 1:38, and that He came to call sinners to repentance and to give His soul as a ransom for many, Mark 2:17, Mark 10:45. But it is also explicitly said that He was sent to preach the Gospel, Luke 4:43, that it was the Father who sent Him, Matthew 10:40, John 5:24, John 5:30, John 5:36 etc., that He came from the Father and in His name, John 5:43, John 8:42, John 13:3 etc., that He came down from heaven to preach the Gospel, Mark 1:38, Jesus knows himself to be the only Son, who loved the Father and was sent out into the vineyard after many other servants, Mark 12:6. He, who is the Son of David, was already David’s Lord, Mark. Mark 12:36, existed already before Abraham, John 8:58, and had already glory with the Father before the world was, John 17:5, John 17:24. This self-consciousness of Jesus regarding His eternal existence is further unfolded in the apostolic testimony. In Christ that eternal Word became flesh, who in the beginning was with God and God Himself, John 1:1, John 1:14. He was the manifestation of His glory and the expressed image of His independence, and is not only higher than all the angels, but has a claim to their worship, is an eternal God and an eternal King, who always remains the same and whose years will not come to an end, Hebrews 1:3-13. He was rich, 2 Corinthians 8:9, was in the form of God, so that He was equal to the Father not only in essence, but also in form, in position and glory, but did not regard this equality with God as something that He should selfishly possess and use for Himself, Php 2:6, but rather gave it up to take on the form of a man and a servant, Php 2:7-8 and was in that way exalted to the Lord, who came from Heaven and as such formed an opposition to Adam, the man from the earth, 1 Corinthians 15:47. In a word, Christ is like the Father, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, Revelation 1:11, Revelation 1:17, Revelation 22:13. The activity of this Son of God, made flesh, did not begin with his appearance on earth, but goes back to the creation. Through the Word all things were made without exception, John 1:3, Hebrews 1:2, Hebrews 1:10; He is the first-born, the head, the principle of all creatures, Colossians 1:15, Revelation 3:14, standing before all things, Colossians 1:17; and the creatures were not only created by Him, but they continually exist together in and through Him, Colossians 1:17, and are from eyes to eyes, from eyes to ears, from eyes to ears. Colossians 1:17 and are carried from moment to moment by the word of His power,

Hebrews 1:3; and they are at last also created for Him, Colossians 1:16, because God has appointed Him, who was the Son, heir of all things, Hebrews 1:2, Romans 8:17. For in Him was life, the full, rich, inexhaustible life, the source of all life in the world, but that life was for men, who were created in God’s image and possessed a rational, moral nature, to be the light, the source of the divine truth which men should know and practise. And though mankind then became darkness through sin, yet the light of the Word still shone in that darkness, John 1:5; it enlightened every man that came into the world, John 1:9, for the Word was and remained, and still worked in the world, though it was not known by that world either, John 1:10. The Christ who appears on earth in the fullness of time is, therefore, according to the description which the Scriptures give of Him, not a man beside and in the midst of other men, not the founder of a divine service and not the preacher of a new moral doctrine, but He occupies a wholly unique place. He was the Creator, Sustainer and Ruler of all things; in Him was the life and light of men. When He appears in the world, He does not come to it as a stranger, but He is its Lord, knows it and is related to it. Recreation is related to creation, grace to nature, the work of the Son to the work of the Father. Salvation is built on foundations that have been laid in creation. The significance of Christ for us becomes even clearer if we now take a closer look at his relationship to Israel. There the Word (of the Logos) dwelt and acted in the whole world and in all mankind. But although the Light shone in the darkness, the darkness did not understand it; and although the Word was in the world, the world did not know it, John 1:5, John 1:10. Israel was ״his own’, and He was not among Israel as He was in the world, but He came to that Israel deliberately and after centuries of preparation; Christ is of the fathers as far as the flesh is concerned, Romans 9:5. And although He was rejected by his own - the world is described as not knowing Him, John 1:10, but the Jews are described much more strongly as not accepting Him, as rejecting and refusing Him - His coming was not in vain for that reason, because those who accepted Him received from Him the right and the power to become God’s children, John 1:12. When John 1:11 says of the Word that it came to his own, this undoubtedly refers to the Incarnation, to the coming of Christ in the flesh. But it also implies that the ownership relationship of the Word to Israel did not come about only through the incarnation, but existed long before then. Israel was His and therefore the Word came to His in the fullness of time. In the same moment that Jehovah accepted Israel for his own, there also came a special relationship of that people to the Word (the Logos) came into being. For he himself is the Lord whom Israel sought, the Angel of the Covenant, who would soon come to his Temple, Malachi 3:1, and who had dwelt and worked among Israel from the days of old. In many places in the Old Testament reference is made to the Angel of the Covenant or Angel of the Lord; it is through this Angel, as was demonstrated earlier in the doctrine of the Trinity, that the Lord reveals Himself in a special way to His people. Although distinct from the Lord, He is so one with Him that the same names, attributes, works and honors can be attributed to Him as to God Himself. He is the God of Bethel, Genesis 31:13, the God of the fathers, Exodus 3:2, Exodus 3:6, who promises Hagar the multiplication of her seed, Genesis 16:10, Genesis 21:18, who guided and redeemed the patriarchs, Genesis 48:15-16, who gave the people the gift of God. The Angel of the Covenant gives Israel the assurance that the Lord Himself is in their midst as the God of salvation and redemption, Isaiah 63:9. His appearance was a preparation and an announcement of that complete self-revelation of God, which would take place in the fullness of time in the incarnation. The whole Old Testament dispensation was an ever-closer approach of God to his people, to dwell in their midst forever in Christ, Exodus 29:43-46. This teaching about the existence and the activity of the Word, before it appeared in Christ in the flesh, is of the utmost importance for a right understanding of the history of mankind and for a right consideration of the people and the religion of Israel. For thus it becomes possible to recognize all that is true and good and beautiful also in the heathen world, and at the same time to uphold the special revelation that was given to the people of Israel. While the Word and the wisdom of God were at work in the whole world, they appeared among Israel as the Angel of the Covenant, as the manifestation of the name of the Lord. In the Old and New Testaments the covenant of grace is one; the believers of the Old Testaments have not been saved in any other way than we have and we are not saved in any other way than they have. It is the same faith in the promise, the same trust in the grace of God, that opens the access to salvation then and now. And the same benefits of forgiveness and regeneration, of renewal and eternal life, were then and are now given to the faithful. They all walk on the same path, even though the light differs in brightness, which irradiates the faithful of the Old and New Testaments.

There is, however, another important peculiarity involved here. Paul says of the Ephesians that in former times, when they still lived as Gentiles, they were without Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:11-12). For they had no promise of God to which they could cling, they lived without hope in the world, and they had no God in their hearts whom they could know and serve. Of course the Apostle does not mean by this that the Gentiles believed in no gods; for elsewhere he says of the Athenians that they were religious throughout, Acts 17:22, and speaks of a revelation which God gave them also, Acts 17:24 ff, But knowing God, they did not glorify and give thanks to Him as God; they were perverted in their deliberations and served gods who by nature are not gods, Romans 1:21 ff, Galatians 4:8. And so Paul does not deny that the Gentiles had all kinds of expectations about the future this side and that side of the grave, but he expresses the thought that all those expectations, as well as the gods they served, were vain, because there was no firm, unquestionable promise from God’s side in Christ.

It was different among Israel. He accepted them as His children, dwelt among them with His glory, gave them the successive covenant gifts, the law, worship, and especially also those promises which referred to the Messiah and which indicated that He would come forth from Israel as flesh. But although Christ, as far as the flesh is concerned, is of the fathers, He is more than man, He is God above all praise in eternity, Romans 9:5, and existed and worked also in the days of the Old Testament. The Christians in Ephesus lived without Christ as long as they were Gentiles, but the Israelites in the old days were connected with Christ, namely with the promised Christ, who already existed and was active as mediator. He was active in the distribution of His benefits, but also in the preparation, by word and deed, by prophecy and history, of His own coming in the flesh, and in casting a shadow over all the people of Israel of the body of spiritual goods, which He Himself would acquire and bring about in the fullness of time. The Apostle Peter expresses this thought clearly and unambiguously in the first chapter of his first letter. When he speaks there of the great salvation, which the faithful already possess in principle and which they can fully expect in the future, he also demonstrates the glory of this salvation by saying that the prophets of the Old Testament made it the subject of their study and reflection. All the prophets have this in common: they prophesied about the grace that is now given to believers in the days of the New Testament. They received knowledge of this through revelation, but this revelation did not make them passive, but put them, so to speak, to work. This revelation stimulated them and awakened them to investigate and inquire after these things themselves, not in the manner of philosophers who try to discover the mysteries of creation with their own understanding, but as holy men of God, who made the special revelation, the future salvation in Christ, the object of their investigation, and in that investigation let themselves be guided not by their own thoughts, but by the Spirit of God. They inquired after when and how the Spirit of Christ, who was in them, would acquaint them with the sufferings Christ had to undergo and the glory that awaited him after these sufferings, through his preparatory testimony (1 Peter 1:10-11). The testimony that Jesus breathes into the hearts of His own and bears about Himself is the proof that they are partakers of the Spirit of prophecy, Revelation 19:10.

Through this revelation of the Spirit, Israel came to those rich and glorious expectations which are summarized under the name of Messianic.

These Messianic expectations are usually divided into two groups. The first are those which refer generally to the future of the Kingdom of God. These are also of great significance and are most closely related to the promise of the covenant of grace. That promise implies that God will be the God of His people and of their seed, and therefore does not only refer to the past and present, but also to the future. It is true that the people are continually guilty of unfaithfulness, apostasy and breaking the bonds with the Lord. But precisely because it is a covenant of grace, the unfaithfulness of the people cannot destroy the faithfulness of God. The covenant of grace is, by its very nature, an eternal covenant that continues from generation to generation. If, therefore, the people do not walk in the way of the covenant, God can, as it were, abandon them for a time, subject them to chastisement, judgment, exile, but He cannot break His covenant, because it is a covenant of grace that does not depend on the conduct of mankind, but rests solely in God’s mercy. He cannot break the covenant, for his own name and fame and honor are attached to it. After wrath, therefore, God’s goodness is always revealed; after judgment, His mercy; after suffering, His Lordship.

Israel was taught all this in the course of its history by prophecy. Through prophecy they gained an insight into the nature and purpose of history such as we find in no other nation. The Old Testament gives us to understand that the reign of God’s will, that the Kingdom of God, is the content and thus the course and ultimate goal of history. It is His counsel, His counsel of good pleasure and redemption, which exists forever and will defeat all opposition. Through suffering we attain glory; behind the cross hangs the crown. One day God will triumph over all his enemies and let his people share in the fulfillment of all his promises. There will come an empire of justice and peace, of spiritual and material prosperity. And in the glory of that kingdom, Israel, but also the nations, will share. For the unity of God brings with it the unity of mankind and the unity of history. Then the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord and the promise of the covenant will be fulfilled: I will be your God, and you will be my sons and daughters. The prophecies and the psalms are full of these expectations. But they do not stop there, and they also extend to the way in which the Kingdom of God will be confirmed and completed in the future. And then they become the Messianic expectations in the narrow sense, telling us how God’s rule on earth will be established in the future by a certain person, the Messiah. It is true that in recent times attempts have been made to remove all these Messianic expectations from the original religion of Israel and to place them in the time after the exile. But from other quarters this has been strongly refuted and also conclusively refuted. The Messianic expectations all revolve around two concepts: the day of the Lord, which is a day of judgment for Israel and the nations, and the Messiah, who will then bring salvation and establish the Kingdom of God on earth. And both these concepts did not originate with the prophets of the eighth century, but existed long before this time and were then elaborated and applied by the prophets whose books have been preserved to us.

Scripture itself shows this when it traces the expectations of the future back to ancient times. Of course, at first they are still of a general nature, but this is proof of their antiquity, and the gradual development which can subsequently be seen in these predictions powerfully reinforces this proof. In the mother’s promise, Genesis 3:15, enmity is set up between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, and the promise is made that the former will crush the latter’s head. With Calvin we have the seed of the woman in the first place to think of the human race, which, transferred to God’s side in the covenant of grace, has to fight against all power that is hostile to Him and receives its Head and Lord in Christ. History shows that this human race, which fights against the seed of the serpent, by no means includes all nations, but is increasingly shrinking and limiting itself. The promise continues only in the line of Seth. When the first people were destroyed by the flood, there was soon a separation in the family between Cham and Japhet on the one side and Shem on the other. And the promise is now specified in such a way that Jehovah becomes the God of Shem, that Japheth first expands far and later comes to live in Sam’s tents, and that Canaan becomes both their servant, Genesis 9:26-27. From the lineage of Shem, later on, when the pure knowledge and service of God are once again in danger of being lost, Abraham is chosen, and he receives the promise that he, blessed by the Lord, will be a blessing to many, yes, that all the generations of the earth will wish and seek that blessing that God bestowed on Abraham and his seed, and that therefore they will all be blessed in him, in his seed, Genesis 12:2-3. Among the sons of Jacob and the tribes of Israel, Judah again is designated later as the one who shall enjoy the preeminence over all his brethren. According to his name he became the praised one, Genesis 29:35, and the mighty one among his brethren, 1 Chronicles 5:2. They praise and serve him, and his enemies submit to him; and this reign will last until there comes one to whom the nations will obey, Genesis 49:8-10. The name Schilo in Genesis 49:10 is difficult to understand and is interpreted very differently, but the idea of the blessing pronounced on Judah is nevertheless clear; Judah has the preeminence among all the tribes of Israel, he has the dominion over all his brethren and from him shall come forth the future ruler of the nations. This promise was initially fulfilled in David, but at the same time it entered a new phase of development. For when David had received rest from all his enemies, the intention arose in him to build the Lord a house. But instead of David building a house for the Lord, the Lord, through Nathan, announces to David that He will build him a house by inheriting the royal dignity in his line. The Lord will make a great name for David, like the name of the great men of the earth; after David’s death He will put his son Solomon on his throne and be his father, and finally He will make his house and his kingship permanent before Him; David’s throne will stand firm for ever and ever, 2 Samuel 7:9-16, Psalms 89:19-38. From now on the hope of Israel’s pious people has been built upon David’s house, and sometimes prophecy in general stands by this expectation, Amos 9:11, Hosea 3:5, Jeremiah 17:25, Jeremiah 22:4. But history taught, that no king of David’s house met the expectation. And in connection with this history the prophecy pointed more and more clearly to that future in which the true son of David would appear and sit on the throne of his father for all eternity. Gradually this future David was referred to by the name of Messiah as a proper name. Messiah was at first, and remained for a long time, a general name and indicated everyone who was elected and anointed to one or another office among Israel. Anointing with oil was a common custom among the Eastern peoples, and served to soften the face burned by the sun and to make the members of the body fresh and supple again, Psalms 104:15, Matthew 6:17. It was a sign of joy, Proverbs 27:9 and was left in times of mourning, 2 Samuel 14:2, Daniel 10:3; it served as a token of hospitality and friendship, Psalms 23:5. 2 Chronicles 28:15, Luke 7:46, and was also employed as a means of healing, Mark 6:13, Luke 10:34, James 5:14, and as an expression of reverence towards a person who has died, Mark 16:1, Luke 23:56, John 19:40. This anointing was also incorporated into the worship service and thus acquired a religious significance. Jacob made the stone on which he had rested his head at Berseba a memorial stone and anointed it with oil, as a sign of consecration to the Lord who had appeared to him, Genesis 28:18, Genesis 31:13, Genesis 35:13. Later, in accordance with Moses’ law, the tabernacle, utensils and altar were anointed in order to sanctify them and set them apart for God’s service, Exodus 29:36, Exodus 30:23 and Exodus 40:10.

Once in a while we read of the anointing of prophets; Elijah anointed Elisha, 1 Kings 19:16, and in Psalms 105:15 the word anointed alternates with the word prophet. Furthermore the priests and especially the high priest were anointed, Leviticus 8:12, Leviticus 8:30, Psalms 133:2, so that he can be called the anointed priest, Leviticus 4:3, Leviticus 4:5, Leviticus 6:22. And especially we read of anointing with the kings, with Saul, 1 Samuel 10:1, David, 1 Samuel 16:13, 2 Samuel 2:4, 2 Samuel 5:3, Solomon, 1 Kings 1:34 etc. The kings were therefore called anointed. The Kings are therefore called anointed of the Lord, 1 Samuel 26:11, Psalms 2:2. But from here the usage widens. In Scripture anointed are also called those persons whom God chooses and makes competent for His service, without there having been a literal anointing with oil in them. In Psalms 105:15 the anointed and the prophets refer to the patriarchs. In Psalms 84:10, Psalms 89:39, Psalms 89:52, Habakkuk 3:13 perhaps the people of Israel or their king bears the name of anointed one. In Isaiah 45:1 it is applied to Cyrus. The anointing with oil is only a sign, which indicates on the one hand the dedication to God’s service and on the other hand the election, calling and appointment to that service by God Himself. When David was anointed by Saul, the Spirit of the Lord was upon him from that day onward, 1 Samuel 16:13.

Now in this sense the name of Anointed One, Messiah, was especially arranged for the future King of David’s house. He is the Anointed One par excellence, because He was not appointed by a man but by God Himself and not with the sign of oil, but without measure anointed with the Holy Spirit Himself, Psalms 2:2, Psalms 22:6, Isaiah 61:1. When the name of Messiah (Anointed One) came into use as a proper name and without an article for the future King of David’s house, cannot be said with certainty. But in Daniel 9:25 the name already appears in this sense, and in the days of Jesus’ walk on earth it was in general use in that sense. In John 4:25 the Samaritan woman says to Jesus: I know that Messiah is coming, without the article, which has been wrongly included in the Dutch translation. Although anointed first had a general meaning and could indicate all kinds of people, it gradually became a proper name and was applied only to the future king of David’s house. He is the Messiah, the Anointed One par excellence; he is Messiah alone. The image of the Messiah is now worked out in many ways in the prophecy of the Old Testaments. In the foreground is always His Kingship; He is called Anointed, because He is anointed King, Psalms 2:2, Psalms 2:6. On the basis of the promise that was given to him, David himself expects that a ruler over men will come from his house, who will rule in righteousness; for God has made an everlasting covenant with him, in which everything is properly regulated and insured, 2 Samuel 23:3-5. And this is the expectation of all the prophets and psalmists; the future salvation of Israel is indissolubly connected with the Davidic royal house, and the future king from that house is also the King of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is not a poetic or philosophical concept, but a reality, a part of history; it is from above, spiritual, ideal, and yet it will come about in time, under a King from the house of David. It is a kingdom of God and yet a thoroughly human, earthly, historical kingdom. Thus the future Kingdom of God is drawn to us in the prophecy with paints and colors that are derived from the conditions of that time, and which cannot be taken literally, but nevertheless give a deep impression of the reality of that Kingdom; it is not a dream; it is being realized here on earth, in history, under a King of David’s house. But however much this kingdom of Messiah may be inferior in tangible reality to any other earthly kingdom, it is nevertheless radically different. It is, although only established by struggle against and victory over all enemies, Psalms 2:1 ff, Psalms 72:9 ff, Psalms 110:2, a kingdom of perfect righteousness and peace, Isaiah 32:1, Psalms 45:7-8, Psalms 72:7; which righteousness consists above all in the fact that the needy are saved and the wretched helped, Psalms 72:12-14. But further, it extends over all enemies, to the ends of the earth, and remains for all eternity, Psalms 2:8, Psalms 45:7, Psalms 72:5, Psalms 72:8, Psalms 72:17, Psalms 110:2, Psalms 110:4. At the head of the Kingdom of God stands a Sovereign who, although a man, far exceeds all men in dignity and honor. He is a man, is born of David’s house, is a son of David, and is called a son of man, 2 Samuel 7:12 ff, Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:5, Micah 5:1, Daniel 7:13. He is Immanuel, God with us, Isaiah 7:14, the Lord our righteousness, Jeremiah 23:6, Jeremiah 33:16, in whom the Lord Himself comes with His grace to His people and makes dwelling among them. In prophecy it is the same whether the Lord or His Messiah rules over His people; now it is said that the Lord, and then again that His anointed King will appear, judge the nations and redeem Israel. Thus, for example, it is said in Isaiah 40:10-11. The Lord will come with power, His arm will rule, He will lead His flock like a shepherd, and in Ezekiel 34:23, that the Lord will raise up a shepherd, namely His servant David, who will lead His people and be their shepherd. The prophet Ezekiel says of the New Jerusalem that its name will be: The Lord is there, Ezekiel 48:35, and Isaiah presents it in such a way that in the Messiah God is with us, Isaiah 7:14. Ezekiel connects the two thoughts when he says, I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be Sovereign in the midst of them, Ezekiel 34:24, just as Micah also says that Messiah will lead the people of Israel in the power of the Lord, in the glory of the name of the Lord his God, Micah 5:3. This is the reason why in the New Testament both sets of texts can be explained in the Messianic sense. In the Messiah God Himself comes to His people; He is more than man, He is the perfect revelation and indwelling of God, and therefore also bears Godly names; He is called Wonderful, Counselor, Strong God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Isaiah 9:5. But however great the dignity and power of this Messiah may be, the prophecy adds a very remarkable feature. He will be born in very humble circumstances and in very distressed times. Perhaps this is already included in the words of Isaiah, that a virgin, a young woman, without any further description, will give birth to a son, and that this son will share in the suffering of His people, because he will only eat milk and honey, which are the main products of a land that has been destroyed and is not being cultivated, Isaiah 7:14-15, Isaiah 53:2. There the prophet says that a tree will come forth from the severed trunk of Isai and that a shoot will sprout from its roots; in the time in which Messiah will be born, the Davidic royal house will still exist, but it will be dethroned and will be similar to a trunk that has been severed, but will still be able to produce a new shoot. Micah expresses the same thought in another way, when he says that the house of Ephrata, that is, the Davidic house of kings, is so called because Ephrata was the region in which David’s birthplace, Bethlehem, was situated, that the house of Ephrata is the smallest among all the families of Judah, but that nevertheless a Ruler would come forth from it who would be great to the ends of the earth. Micah 5:1. That is why the Messiah is also indicated with the name of sprout by Jeremiah 23:5, Jeremiah 33:15 and by Zechariah 3:8, Zechariah 6:12. When Israel is scattered and Judah is in misery, when almost all expectations are gone and all hope extinguished, then the Lord will raise a Sprout from the decayed House of David, who will build the temple of the Lord and establish His kingdom on earth. However much the Messiah may come with power and glory. He will yet appear in humility, not riding a war horse, but sitting for peace on a donkey, a colt, a young of the donkeys, Zechariah 9:9. He shall be King, but also Priest; both dignities shall be combined in Him, as in Melchizedek, and He shall bear both for ever, Psalms 110:4, Zechariah 6:13. This idea of the humility of the Messiah leads us to that other image, under which it is especially presented by Isaiah, namely, the image of the suffering servant of the Lord. The people of Israel were to be a priestly kingdom, Exodus 19:6; they were to serve God as priests and then rule royally over the earth, just as man was originally created in God’s image and therefore received the rule over the entire earth. In the picture of the future, therefore, one destiny stands out and another. Time and again we read in the prophecies and the psalms that God will do justice to his people and give them victory over all his enemies. Sometimes this victory is described in very crass terms: God will arise, his enemies will be scattered and his haters will flee from his face; he will drive them away as smoke is driven away; as wax melts before the fire, so God’s enemies will perish from God’s face; He will crush the head of his enemies, the skull of one who walks in his sins; He will bring them back from the depths of the sea, that his people may wash their feet in their blood and the tongue of their dogs may be dyed red with it, Psalms 68:2-3, Psalms 68:22-24, Psalms 28:4, Psalms 31:18, Psalms 55:10, Psalms 55:16, Psalms 69:23-29, Psalms 109:6-20, Psalms 137:8-9 etc. All these curses are not expressions of personal vengefulness, but descriptions in Old Testament language of the vengeance of God on His and His people’s enemies. But the same God, who thus punishes the wicked, will give justice, peace and joy to all his people, and that people will serve him with a united shoulder. Through tribulation and suffering they will arrive at a state of glory and bliss, in which the Lord will make a new covenant, write His law in their hearts and give them a new heart and a new spirit, so that they may walk in His statutes and keep and do His law.

These two features of Israel’s future are also present in the same way in its Messiah. He will be a King who crushes his enemies with an iron scoop and shatters them like earthen vessels, Psalms 2:9, Psalms 110:5-6, etc. Nowhere is there a more realistically portrayed victory over God’s enemies than in Isaiah 63:1-6. There it is illustrated how the Lord arrives in red-painted garments, shining in His garment and advancing in the fullness of His power, speaking in righteousness and able to redeem. And to the question of the prophet: Why is your garment so red, and are your clothes like those of a vinedresser? the Lord answers: I have walked alone through the press, and there was no one with me from among the nations; I have walked with them in my wrath and I have trampled on them in my anger, so that their lifeblood has splashed on my garments and all my garments have been stained by it. For a day of vengeance was in my heart and my year of salvation had come. In Revelation 19:13-15 some of the characteristics of this description are applied to Chris when he returns in the last days and subdues all his enemies. And this is absolutely right, because He is a Saviour and a Judge, a Lamb and a Lion, at the same time. But then He is also a Redeemer and Saviour. Just as the Lord is just and merciful, just as His day is a day of vengeance and a year of redemption, just as Israel will rule royally over his enemies and will serve God priestly, so the Messiah is at the same time the King anointed by God and the suffering servant of the Lord. Isaiah, in particular, introduces us to this figure. The prophet thinks first of all of the people of Israel, who are in exile and have a calling to fulfil towards the Gentiles in that very time of suffering. But in the development of his prophecy this suffering figure takes on more and more the character of a particular person, who priestly atones for the sins of his people through his sufferer, who as a prophet proclaims this salvation to the ends of the earth, and receives a royal share among the great and shares the spoils with the mighty, Isaiah 52:13-15, Isaiah 53:1-12. In the anointed King God reveals His glory, His power, the majesty and highness of His name, Micah 5:3; in the suffering servant of the Lord He reveals His grace and the riches of His mercy, Isaiah 53:11. The prophecy with Israel ends in these two forms, and that prophecy is rooted in history. Israel herself as a people is God’s son, Hosea 11:1, a priestly kingdom, Exodus 19:6, clothed with the glory of the Lord, Ezekiel 16:14, but at the same time also God’s servant, Isaiah 41:8-9, sharing in the reproach with which the enemies reproach the Lord, Psalms 89:51-52, and for his sake slain all day long and regarded as sheep to be slaughtered, Psalms 44:23. Both, the glory and the suffering of Israel, of Israel as a people and then of its servants such as David, Job and others in a special sense, have a prophetic character; they both point to Christ; the entire Old Testament with its laws and institutions, with its offices and ministries, with its events and promises, is a foreshadowing of the suffering that was to come for Christ, and of the glory that will follow, 1 Peter 1:11. As the church in the days of the New Testament has become one with Christ in the likeness of his death, and will be so in the likeness of his resurrection, Romans 6:11; as it fills in its body the remnants of the tribulations of Christ, Colossians 1:24, and also be changed in the image of Christ from glory to glory, 2 Corinthians 3:18; so the church of the Old Covenant in all its suffering and glory was the preparation and foreshadowing of the humiliation and exaltation of that Priest-King, who in due time would establish the Kingdom of God on earth.

There is no doubt that the New Testament sees itself in this light and understands its relationship to the Old Testament in this way. What Jesus says, that the Scriptures testify of Him, John 5:39, Luke 24:27, is a thought that underlies the whole New Testament and is also clearly expressed each time. The first disciples of Jesus recognized Him as the Christ, because they found in Him that of which Moses and the prophets had spoken (John 1:46). Paul testifies that Christ died, was buried and raised according to the Scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. Peter says, that the Spirit of Christ in the prophets testified beforehand of the sufferings that were to come upon Christ ׳and of the glory afterwards, 1 Peter 1:11 .-. And all the books of the New Testament show directly or indirectly that the whole Old Testament has come to its fulfilment in Christ; the Law with its moral, ceremonial and civil commandments, with its temple and altar, priesthood and sacrifices, and likewise the prophecy with its promise both concerning the anointed King from the house of David and concerning the suffering servant of the Lord. The entire Kingdom of God, which had been foreshadowed in Israel’s people and history, outlined in the law in national forms and announced in Old Testament language through prophecy, came near in Christ and descended from heaven to earth in Him and His congregation. This close connection between Old and New Testament is of the utmost importance for the truthfulness of the Christian faith. For the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah promised to Israel, forms the heart of the Christian religion and distinguishes it from all other religions. It is therefore vigorously opposed by the Jews, the Mohammedans and all heathen peoples, and at the present time is also opposed by many who bear the name of Christians. These try to argue that Jesus never considered Himself the Messiah, or that at best He dressed up His profound religious consciousness and His high moral calling in that temporary form, but that this form now has no meaning for us at all. But the testimonies of the New Testament are too numerous and too strong for such a view to be sustained for long. That is why others have gone much further in recent times. They cannot deny that Jesus thought of himself as the Messiah and attributed all sorts of superhuman qualities and powers to himself. But instead of bowing down and accepting Jesus as he is, they conclude that Jesus was a man who suffered from imagination, bigotry and all kinds of excesses. Yes, the fight goes so far that some attribute all kinds of ailments of soul and body to Jesus and from that explain the high thoughts He had about Himself. This struggle about the person of Jesus, which has again taken on such a serious character in recent years, shows by necessity that the question: What do you think about the Christ? As it did in previous centuries, it still occupies and divides people’s minds today. Just as the Jews had different ideas about Jesus and some saw Him as John the Baptist, others as Elias, others as Jeremiah or one of the prophets, Matthew 16:13, and there were also those who accused Him of madness and possession, Mark 3:21-22, and so it has been throughout the ages, and so it is still today. Even if we renounce those few who dare to openly accuse Jesus of being a bigot, there are thousands who still recognize Him as a prophet, but no longer profess Him as the Christ of God. And yet, Jesus maintains his full claim to this name and is satisfied with nothing less than this confession. He is a man and is described as such on all pages of the New Testament. He is, although the eternal Word, made flesh in time, John 1:14, Php 2:7, our flesh and blood and in all things "like" our brothers, Hebrews 2:14, Hebrews 2:17, of the fathers as far as the flesh is concerned, Romans 9:5, Abraham’s seed, Galatians 3:16, of Judah’s tribe, Hebrews 7:14, Revelation 5:5, of David’s lineage, Romans 1:3, born of a woman, Galatians 4:4, man in the full, true sense, with a body, Matthew 26:26, a soul, Matthew 26:38 and a spirit, Luke 23:46, with a human mind, Luke 2:52 and a human will, Luke 22:42, with human emotions of joy and sorrow, wrath and mercy, Luke 10:21, Mark 3:5, etc. with human needs for rest and relaxation, for food and drink, John 4:6-7 etc. Everywhere and always Jesus appears to us in the Gospel as a human being, -to whom nothing human is alien. He has been tempted in all things, as we are, yet without sin, Hebrews 4:15, has in the days of his flesh offered prayers and supplications to God with strong pleading and tears, and learned obedience from what he suffered, Hebrews 5:7-8. His contemporaries, therefore, do not doubt His true human nature for a moment. In the Gospels He is usually referred to by the simple, historical name of Jesus. It is true that this name was given to Him by explicit command of the English and that it implies that He is the Saviour of His people (Matthew 1:21). But in itself this name has been known among Israel from time immemorial and has been used by many people. Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Jehoshua or Jeshua, which comes from a verb that means to save. The successor of Moses was first called Hosea, but was later called Jehoshua (Joshua) by Moses, Numbers 13:16 and appears in Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8 under the name Jesus. And so we read in the New Testament of other persons who bore the name of Jesus, Luke 3:29, Colossians 4:11. The name alone could not make the Jews think that the son of Mary was the Christ.

They therefore usually speak of Jesus as the man called Jesus, John 9:11, the son of Joseph, the carpenter, whose father and mother, sisters and brothers we know, Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3, John 6:42, the son of Joseph, of Nazareth, John 1:45, Jesus the Na- zarener, Matthew 2:23, Mark 10:47, John 18:5, John 18:7,John 19:19, Acts 22:8, Jesus the Galilean, Matthew 26:69, the prophet of Nazareth in Galilee, Matthew 21:11. And the usual title by which Jesus is addressed is that of Rabbi or Rabbouni, teacher, master or my master, John 1:39, John 20:16, by which in those days the scribes and Pharisees were usually addressed, Matthew 23:8, and He not only accepts that title but claims it for Himself, Matthew 23:8-10. These names and titles do not yet imply that people recognized Him as the Christ. And this is not yet the case either, when they call him in general Heer, Mark 7:28, Zone David. Mark 10:47, or a prophet, Mark 6:15, Mark 8:28, call Him. But although a true and complete man, Jesus from the beginning was aware that he was more than a man, and as such was recognized and confessed by all his disciples with ever-increasing clarity. And that is not only the case, as is so often claimed, in the Gospel of John and the Letters of the Apostles, but it is also already clearly stated in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Besides, the contradiction that one wants to make nowadays between the historical Jesus and the Christ of the church, is completely untenable. It is then said that Jesus was and wanted to be no more than a pious Israelite, a religious genius, an exalted teacher of virtue, a prophet, as so many had been among Israel in the past; and everything else that is now professed by the congregation about this historical Jesus, his supernatural conception, his Messianic life, his resurrection, his ascension, etc., is said to be the fruit of the imagination and added by the disciples of Jesus to the original image of their Master. But there are so many and so serious objections to this whole idea that it cannot satisfy anyone. After all, if all those facts mentioned above did not take place, but were later condensed and included in the life of Jesus, some explanation must be given as to how the disciples of Jesus came to create such fabrications and from where they derived the material for these skilfully constructed fables. The impression that Jesus’ extraordinary personality made on them is by no means suitable, for such an impression would only be that of a highly exalted man and would not contain any elements of the Christ as the church confesses Him. And these elements must be sought, and indeed are sought, in the Jewish sects of the time, or in the Greek, Persian, Indian, Egyptian, and Babylonian religions, by which Christianity is robbed of its independence and peculiarity, and made into a hotchpotch of Jewish and pagan errors. But moreover, the first three Gospels were written by men who themselves had the firm conviction that Jesus was the Christ. They were written at a time when the church had already existed for some time, when the preaching of the Apostles had already gone out to all sides of the then known world, and when Paul had already written several epistles. Nevertheless, these Gospels were generally accepted and recognized. In the early days of the Apostles and their co-workers there was no known conflict about the person of Christ. They all believed that Jesus was the Christ, that God had made this Jesus, who was crucified by the Jews, a Lord and Christ, and that in His name He gave repentance and the forgiveness of sins. This faith has been the foundation of the Christian community from the beginning. Paul argues in the fifteenth chapter of his first letter to Corinth that the Christ according to the Scriptures, the Christ who died, was buried and rose again, was the content of the apostolic preaching and the object of Christian faith, and that without these facts, both that preaching and that faith are vain and the salvation of those who died in Christ is a dream. There is no choice but between these two: either the apostles are false witnesses of God, or they have testified and proclaimed that which was from the beginning, that which they have seen, seen and felt of the Word of life. And likewise: Jesus was either a false prophet, or He was the faithful Judge, the first-born from the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth, who loved us and washed us of our sins in His blood and made us kings and priests unto God and His Father Revelation 1:5-6. There is no contradiction between the historical Jesus and the Christ of the church. The testimony of the apostles is the unfolding and explanation of the self-witness of Christ given under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The building of the church rests on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, of which Christ is the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 3:20).

However tempting the task may be, there is no opportunity here and now to give a full development of the content of the testimony given by Christ about Himself and by the Apostles about their Master and Lord, but attention should be drawn to a few details.

Like John the Baptist, Jesus preached that the kingdom of God was at hand and that citizenship in that kingdom could only be obtained by faith and conversion (Mark 1:15). But he puts himself in a completely different relation to that kingdom than John or any of the prophets. All of them have prophesied about it, Matthew 11:11, Matthew 11:13, but Jesus is the owner and possessor of it. He did receive it from the Father, who ordained it for Him in His decree, Luke 22:29. But for that very reason it is His kingdom, which He freely disposes of for the benefit of His disciples. It is the Father who prepares a wedding for his son, Matthew 22:2, but the son is the bridegroom, Mark 2:19, John 3:29, who celebrates his own wedding in the future union with his own people, Matthew 25:1. The Father is the owner of the vineyard, but the son is the heir, Matthew 21:33, Matthew 21:38. Thus Jesus also calls the kingdom of God His kingdom, Matthew 13:41, Matthew 20:21, Luke 22:30, and speaks of His church as being founded on the rock of His confession, Matthew 16:18, Matthew 12:39, Matthew 12:42; for His sake everything, father, mother, sisters, brothers, house, field, yes the own life has to be left and denied; whoever loves father or mother, son or daughter above Him, is not worthy of Him: whoever confesses or denies Him before men, will accordingly be confessed or denied by Him before His Father, who is in heaven, Matthew 5:11, Matthew 10:32 f..., Mark 8:34. To this high place, which Jesus attributes to Himself in the kingdom of heaven, all His words and works correspond. They correspond perfectly to the will of His Father; Jesus is completely without sin; He is not aware of any violation of God’s will and never confesses to any error or sin. He does allow Himself to be baptized by John, but absolutely not in order to receive forgiveness of sins Himself, as others do, Matthew 3:6. Because John objected to baptizing Jesus precisely because his baptism was a baptism of conversion to the forgiveness of sins. And Jesus acknowledges that objection, but also takes it away, by saying that He is not baptized to receive personal forgiveness of sins, but to fulfill all righteousness, Matthew 3:14-15, Matthew 10:18, but by no means in order to deny himself moral perfection. The rich young man, however, came to Jesus in the same way that people in those days came to the Scribes and Pharisees with all kinds of greetings and honors, Matthew 23:7; he wanted to flatter Jesus and take him for himself, by calling Him good, (or rather, good, best) Master. Jesus does not like this flattery; He does not want to be greeted and honored in the manner of the scholars of Scripture. Good, in the full sense, the source of all blessings and benefits is God alone. So here Jesus in no way denies his moral perfection, but resists the thoughtless flattery of the rich young man. And so also in Gethsemane; His human nature looks up to the suffering that awaits Him and proves its truthfulness in the prayer that this cup might pass from Him, but at the same time it also demonstrates its complete submission and obedience: not my will, but Thine, O Father, be done! Matthew 26:39. But even at that anxious hour, neither in Gethsemane nor on Golgotha any confession of sin comes from His lips. On the contrary, all that He is and speaks and does is in perfect accord with God’s holy will. All things which He reveals in words and deeds concerning God and His kingdom, are given Him by the Father, Matthew 11:27.

He did not teach like the scribes, through, shrewdly, scholastically, but as one having power, as one who had received prophetic authority from God, Matthew 7:29, and that same power was manifest in His works. He cast out the devils by the Spirit of God, Matthew 12:28, by the finger of God, Luke 11:20, has power to forgive sins, Matthew 9:6, and power also to lay down his own life and take it on again, John 10:18. And all this power he received from his Father.

Jesus brings all his words and works back to his Father’s commandment, John 5:19-20, John 5:30, John 8:26, John 8:28, John 8:38, John 12:50, John 17:8. To do his His will is his food, John 4:34, so that at the end of his life he can say that he is his Father. This relationship, in which Jesus relates to the Kingdom of God in his person, his words and his works, is expressed in his Messianic character. There has been and still is a great deal of research into whether Jesus considered himself to be the promised Messiah, and, if so, how he came to this awareness.

About the first, however, there can be no doubt on an open-minded reading of the Gospels, not only of John, but also of Matthew, Mark and Luke. To name but a few: in the synagogue at Nazareth He announced that the prophecy of Isaiah was being fulfilled today, Luke 4:16 f. To the question of John the Baptist, whether He was the promised Messiah, He answered in the affirmative, by referring to His works, Matthew 11:4 f. He accepts Peter’s confession: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," and sees it as a revelation from His Father, Matthew 16:16-17. The prayer of the mother of the Zebedaides is based on the belief that Jesus is the Messiah and is understood and answered by Jesus in this sense, Matthew 20:20, His performance in the temple, Matthew 21:12 f., His institution of the Lord’s Supper, Matthew 26:26 f., all rest on the assumption that He is the Messiah, David’s Son and David’s Lord, and can replace the old covenant by a new one. And which actually detracts all, for nothing else than the confession, that He was the Christ, the Zone of God, He was condemned and put to death, Mark 14:62, and the inscription above His cross: Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews, seals it.

Another question is, in what way and by what means Jesus came to this awareness that He was the Messiah. But all generally accepted ideas today, that Jesus was originally not aware of this, that this idea came to Him only late, at the baptism, or even later, after and through the confession of Peter, that He accepted it out of necessity or tolerated it as a less appropriate but inevitable form of His religious-moral calling, all these and similar ideas are out of touch with reality, are in direct conflict with the testimony of Scripture and with the nature of Jesus’ personality. There was without doubt a development of the human consciousness of Christ, for we read explicitly that He increased in wisdom, in size, in grace with God and mankind, Luke 2:52. In the quiet family of Nazareth, under the guidance of His mother, His human insight into His own person and work, into the work that the Father had commissioned Him to do, into the kingdom that He had come to establish, has gradually clarified and deepened on the basis of the Old Testament Scriptures. But as a boy in the temple He already knew that He had to be in the things of His Father, Luke 2:49. And before He was baptized by John, He knew that He did not need it for the forgiveness of His sins, but only to be obedient to the will of God in all things. For Jesus this baptism was therefore not a break with a sinful past, for He had none; but from His side a complete surrender and dedication to, and from God’s side, a complete equipping and enabling of Himself for the work that the Father had commissioned Him to do. As Messiah he is already acknowledged by John, and the day after by the disciples whom he joined, John 1:29-51. But this confession was, so to speak, a preliminary one. It was not at all what it should and would be. It was still accompanied by all kinds of errors concerning the nature of the Messiahship. The disciples involuntarily thought that Jesus would be a Messiah, as the Jews of that time generally imagined, a king who would do battle with the heathen nations and place Israel at the forefront of the nations in glory. When Jesus, after his public appearance, did not live up to this expectation, even John the Baptist began to have doubts, Matthew 11:2 ff. And the disciples had to be reprimanded by Jesus and taught better at every moment. The Jewish expectation of the Messiah was so deep in their souls that they even asked Jesus after the resurrection whether he would now establish the kingdom for Israel.

These misconceptions, which generally prevailed about the Messiahship, also in the circle of His disciples, made it necessary for Jesus to follow a certain educational line in preaching it. It is well known that in the first period of His activity Jesus never says in so many words that He is the Christ. The content of his preaching is the kingdom of heaven, and the nature, the origin, the progress and the completion of the kingdom is explained extensively, especially in striking parables. And His works consist of works of mercy, in healing infirmities and all kinds of sicknesses among the people. These works testify of Him, and from them His disciples, including John the Baptist, must conclude who and what He is, wherein lies the character of His Messiahship. Indeed, it is as if his Messiahship were a secret that must not be made public. More than once His works brought to mind that He was the Christ, but then He sharply commanded that no one should say so, Matthew 8:4, Matthew 9:30, Matthew 12:16, Mark. Even when, towards the end of his life, the disciples got to know him better and, through Peter, on the road to Caesarea Philippi, they confessed him as the Christ, the Son of the living God, he still sharply commanded them not to tell anyone, Matthew 16:20, Mark 8:30. Jesus was the Christ, but He was in a different sense than the Jews then imagined. He did not want to be, and was not allowed to be, in accordance with their expectations; he even avoided them in order not to be taken by force and exalted as king, John 6:14-15. Messiah he was and wanted to be, but in accordance, not with the will and favor of the people, but with the will and counsel of his Father, with the prophecy of the Old Covenant.

Therefore He chooses, to designate Himself, that peculiar name of Son of Man, which appears repeatedly on His lips in the Gospels. The name is undoubtedly derived from Daniel 7:13, where the world empires are presented in the image of animals, but the rule of God over His people in the image of a son of man. The place was also explained in some Jewish circles in a Mesian sense, and the name was thus known, at least to some, as an indication of the Messiah, John 12:34; but still it does not seem to have been a common name or to have had a fixed meaning. There were no such fleshly expectations attached to this name as, for example, to the name: Zone David, King of Israel. That is why this name was the most suitable for Jesus, because on the one hand it expressed that He was the Messiah promised by the prophecy, and on the other hand He was not in the sense of the Jewish people. This is proven by Jesus’ use of this name. He refers to Himself by this title in two series of places, namely in those texts in which He speaks of His poverty, suffering and humiliation, and in others in which He speaks of His power, highness and exaltation. For example, in the first case He says: The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his soul as a ransom for many, Matthew 20:3-8; in the other case He declares before the High Council that He is indeed the Messiah, and then adds: But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the power of God and coming on the clouds of heaven, Matthew 26:64. The same thought forces itself upon us, when we compare places like Matthew 8:20, Matthew 11:19, Matthew 12:40, Matthew 17:12, Matthew 18:11, Matthew 20:18 etc. with Matthew 9:6, Matthew 10:23, Matthew 12:8, Matthew 13:41, Matthew 16:27, Matthew 17:9, Matthew 19:28, Matthew 24:27, Matthew 24:30, Matthew 24:37, Matthew 24:39, Matthew 25:13, Matthew 25:31 etc. With this name Jesus describes Himself in His full Messianicity, in His humiliation, in His elevation, in His grace and in His power, as Saviour and as Judge. And in this He now summarizes the entire Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah. As we have indicated before, this developed in two directions, in that of the anointed King from the house of David and in that of the suffering servant of the Lord. In the Old Testament these lines usually run parallel to one another, but in the case of Daniel they meet. The Kingdom of God will be a reign in the true and full sense, but that reign will be human, the ’reign of a Son of man’. And so Jesus says that He is indeed a King, the King of Israel, the King promised and anointed by God; but He is nevertheless in a different sense than the Jews expected. He is a King who rides on the foal of a donkey, a King of righteousness and of peace, a King who is also a Priest, a King who is also a Saviour. Power and love, justice and mercy, highness and humility, God and man are united in Him.

He is the complete fulfilment of the entire Old Testament law and prophecy, of all the suffering and all the glory, which were the preparatory and foreshadowing part of Israel, the counterpart of the kings and the priests under Israel, the counterpart of the people of Israel themselves, who were to be a priestly kingdom and a royal priesthood. He is King-Priest and Priest-King, Immanuel, God with us. Therefore, the kingdom He came to preach and establish is at once internal and external, invisible and visible, spiritual and physical, present and future, private and universal, from above and yet below, from heaven and yet on earth. And Jesus comes again; He came to save the world, He returns to judge it.

One more characteristic should be added to this image of Jesus, as the Gospels describe it to us; and that is that He is conscious of being the Zone of God in a very special sense. In the Old Testament this name was already used for the angels, Job 38:7, for the people of Israel, Exodus 4:22, Deuteronomy 14:1, Isaiah 63:6, Hosea 11:1, and in that nation again for the judges, Psalms 82:6, and for the kings, 2 Samuel 7:11-14, Psalms 2:7, Psalms 89:27-28. In the New Testament, Adam is called the son of God. Luke 3:38, the children of God bear this name, 2 Corinthians 6:18, and it is especially given to Christ. He is referred to by this name from various sides and by very different people: John the Baptist and Nathanael, John 1:34 John 1:50, Satan and the possessed, Matthew 4:3, Matthew 8:29, Mark 3:11, by the high priest, the multitude of the Jews, and the chief over a hundred, Matthew 26:63, Matthew 27:40, Matthew 27:54, by the disciples, Matthew 14:33, Matthew 16:16 and by the Evangelists, Mark 1:1, John 20:31. Although Jesus does not usually call Himself by that name, He nevertheless accepted this confession of His divine Sonship without any contradiction and at times openly declares that He is the Zone of God, Matthew 16:16-17, Matthew 26:63-64, Matthew 27:40, Matthew 27:43.

Now there is no doubt that the various persons who referred to Jesus in this way did not all take this name in the same deep sense. On the lips of the chief of a hundred, Matthew 27:54, of the High Priest, Matthew 26:63, of Peter, Matthew 16:16, the same name did not have the same content and the same meaning. The chief priest was a pagan and did not call Jesus a heathen, but a son of God. The Chief Priest was thinking especially of the Messianic dignity, because he asked Jesus if He was the Christ, the Son of God. But when Peter, after having had contact with Jesus for a long time, emphatically confesses Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God, who has the words of eternal life, then there is undoubtedly a deeper meaning in this, which the disciples later, after the Resurrection, have learned to understand more and more fully and richly.

Indeed, Jesus can also be indicated in an Old Testament, Theocratic sense with the name of the Zone of God. As the King anointed by God, He may and can be called His Son. He is the Son of the Highest, to whom God the Lord will give the throne of his father David, Luke 1:32, the holy seed born of Mary, Luke 1:35, the Holy One, as the possessed man called Him, Mark 1:24, the Son of the blessed God, as the high priest used this expression as a further description of the Messiah, Mark 14:62. But this Theocratic Sonship has a deeper meaning for Jesus and arises with Him from a different relationship to the Father. He did not become the Son of God because He was received in Mary in a supernatural way, Luke 1:35, nor because He received the Holy Spirit at baptism without measure, Matthew 3:16, nor because He was made a Lord and Christ by God through the resurrection, Acts 2:36. It is true that on those occasions He was recognized and honored by the Father as His Son in Christ, but His Messianic dignity did not begin then. It goes back much further; and Scripture teaches us that Christ is not actually called the Zone of God because He is the anointed King of Israel, the Messiah, but rather the other way around, that He was appointed by God to be King because in a very real sense He was His Son. That this is how it is presented elsewhere in Scripture is beyond any doubt. Already in Micah 5:2 it is said that the output of the Lord from the house of David is from the beginning, from the days of eternity. In Hebrews 1:5, Hebrews 5:5, the verse from the second Psalm: "Today I have generated you" is explained from eternity, in which Christ as the Son, as the reflection of God’s glory and the expressed image of His own nature, was brought forth by the Father. And in Romans 1:4 the apostle declares that Christ, by the resurrection of the dead, was powerfully proved to be the Son of God. He was the Zone of God in a special sense, from eternity, Romans 8:32, Galatians 4:4, Php 2:6, but in his supernatural conception, baptism and resurrection this came increasingly clearly into the light.

We find the same teaching in the Gospel according to the descriptions of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Jesus is aware that He has a relationship with the Father that is essentially different from that of all other people. Even as a boy He knew that He had to be in the things of His Father, Luke 2:49. At his baptism and later again after the glorification on the mountain, God openly declares by a voice from heaven that this is his beloved, only Son, in whom he has all his good pleasure, Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5.

He speaks of Himself as the Son, who is exalted above the angels, Matthew 24:36, Mark 13:32. Other men sent by God are but servants, but He is the only Son, the Son who loved the Father and was His heir. Matthew 12:6-7. The kingdom in which He reigns was predestined to Him by His Father, Luke 22:29; He sends to His disciples the promise of His Father, Luke 24:49 and will one day come in the glory of His Father, Mark 8:38. He never speaks of our Father, but always of His Father, and on the other hand puts the prayer of our Father on the lips of all His disciples, Matthew 6:9. He is in one word the Son, Mark 13:32, while all his disciples are children of their Father, Matthew 5:45. All things have been given over to Him by the Father, for no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and whomever the Son wills to ’reveal’, Matthew 11:27. And after the resurrection He gave His disciples the charge to teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that He had commanded them, Matthew 28:19. The Gospel of John, in which not only the evangelist but also the apostle is speaking, adds nothing essentially new, but elaborates everything much deeper and wider. The name Son of God also here sometimes still has a theocratic sense, John 1:34, John 1:50, John 11:27, John 20:31, but as a rule it has a deeper meaning. Not only is Jesus often called the Zone of God by others John 1:34, John 1:50, John 6:68; but He also calls Himself this way, John 5:25, John 9:36, John 10:35, John 11:4, and in still more cases speaks of Himself only as the Son without further definition. As such He attributes to Himself the power to perform miracles, John 9:35, John 11:4, to spiritually and physically raise and quicken the dead, John 5:20, and makes Himself, as the Jews understood, equal to God, John 5:18, John 10:33. He also spoke of the Father, and of Himself as the Son in such an intimate manner, that these statements only come into their own when God is in a very special sense His Father, when He is His own Father, John 5:18. Everything He attributes to the Father, He also attributes to Himself. The Father gave Him power over all flesh, John 17:2, so that the fate of all men depends on the relationship in which they place themselves with Him, John 3:17, John 6:40. He, like the Father, quickens whom He wills, John 5:21, presides over all, John 5:27, does everything the Father does, John 5:19, and even received from the Father to have life in Himself, John 5:26. He and the Father are one, John 10:30; He is in the Father and the Father is in Him, John 10:38; to see Him is to see the Father, John 14:9. It is true that the Father is greater than He is, John 14:28, because the Father has sent Him, as Jesus repeatedly declares, John 5:24, John 5:30, John 5:37 etc. But this does not take away from the fact that He is the Father of all things. But this does not alter the fact that He was already in the glory of God before His conception and will return there later (John 17:5). His Sonship is not based on his mission, but conversely his mission on his Sonship, John 3:16-17, John 3:35, John 5:20, John 17:24. Therefore He is the Son, the only begotten Son, John 1:18, John 3:16, John 3:18, 1 John 4:9, the only begotten of the Father, John 1:14, the Word, who in the beginning was with God and Himself God, John 1:1, the Saviour of the world, John 4:42, whom Thomas addresses and confesses as his Lord and his God, John 20:2.