# When did the mediatorial reign of Christ begin?



## canuk (Nov 6, 2005)

I just arrived home from church and wanted to pose this question as it was raised in our adult sunday school class.

We are going through the Shorter Catechism and we are at the part about the office of Christ as King. Our pastor through out this question as something for us to mull over and give an answer next Sunday.

My thoughts are somewhat like this. The two levels of Christ's Lordship are His natural Lordship and His mediatorial Lordship. His natural Lordship is the Lordship He possess by original right because He is God, and God rules over all (Psalm 103:19). He has always been Lord in this way, since He has always been God. His mediatorial Lordship, on the other hand, is the Lordship He has because He is Savior of the world. This Lordship is based upon His suffering and death, by which He won our salvation. "For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living" (Romans 14:9). Whereas His natural Lordship is original, His mediatorial Lordship was won. Whereas His natural Lordship is eternal, His mediatorial Lordship was acquired (Hebrews 1:5; 5:5). 

Am I on the right track?


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## PuritanCovenanter (Nov 6, 2005)

From the foundation of the World. 

A great book on the subject is Messiah the Prince by William Symington. It is the best. There has always been a need for a mediatorial reign in creation. 

[Edited on 11-6-2005 by puritancovenanter]


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Nov 6, 2005)

The position of Symington was that "Christ was _formally_ appointed to the kingly office _by his Father from all eternity in the covenant of grace_" (_Messiah the Prince_, p. 40, emphasis his) and in that sense his dominion as Lord has always existed but that as Mediator and King that he was actually invested with regal power at and after his resurrection (p. 43). Psalm 2.7-8 which promised the crowning of Messiah as King was fulfilled in Christ's resurrection and ascension (Acts 13.33; Heb. 1.5 and 2.8). The whole chapter in Symington's book on the _Appointment_ of Christ to the office of king is very helpful. He explains how the "economical" relationship between God the Father and God the Son involves a dominion that is both co-extensive and co-eternal, and yet required humiliation and then exaltation and royal investiture of power and dominion in history wrt to God the Son. 



> He was King from eternity; from the entrance of sin into our world he exercised the regal functions; in the lowest depths of his humiliation, occasional signs of dignity and power appeared. But not until his resurrection from the dead and ascension to the throne of the Father, was his investiture with this power publicly and formally recognised....The appointment of Christ to the kingly office has been represented as inconsistent with his divinity. It is supposed to imply inferiority. But the economical character of the Son removes the difficulty at once. It is not as God absolutely considered, that it takes place; but as Mediator. In this capacity it is easy to suppose him invested with authority; and, considering the deep humiliation to which he voluntarily submitted in this character, there can be no difficulty whatever in understanding either the fact or the nature of his exaltation.



A good introduction to the doctrine of the mediatorial kingship can be found here.

Matthew Henry on Psalm 2.7ff is very helpful:



> We have heard what the kings of the earth have to say against Christ's kingdom, and have heard it gainsaid by him that sits in heaven; let us now hear what the Messiah himself has to say for his kingdom, to make good his claims, and it is what all the powers on earth cannot gainsay.
> 
> I. The kingdom of the Messiah is founded upon a decree, an eternal decree, of God the Father. It was not a sudden resolve, it was not the trial of an experiment, but the result of the counsels of the divine wisdom and the determinations of the divine will, before all worlds, neither of which can be altered--the precept or statute (so some read it), the covenant or compact (so others), the federal transactions between the Father and the Son concerning man's redemption, represented by the covenant of royalty made with David and his seed, Ps. lxxxix. 3. This our Lord Jesus often referred to as that which, all along in his undertaking, he governed himself by; This is the will of him that sent me, John vi. 40. This commandment have I received of my Father, John x. 18; xiv. 31.
> 
> ...




[Edited on 11-6-2005 by VirginiaHuguenot]


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## PuritanCovenanter (Nov 6, 2005)

My presumption Andrew is that He has always been a mediator also. He is the one who went to Abraham and met him confirming a covenant and also again before the destruction of S&G. He is the one who met Moses in the Burning Bush. He is the one who stood as Captain of Isreal when confronting or engaging Joshua. He is the one saying, "who will go for us" to which Isaiah responded, "Here am I Lord, send me." No man has seen God in His full Glory at any time but we have seen Christ who is God. This ministry of going between God and Man has always existed from the foundation of the world. 

1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Nov 6, 2005)

I agree Randy that the Second Person of the Godhead has always from eternity been appointed to the office of Mediator. But I think it is most proper to speak of him in that capacity since the Incarnation and in particular from the point in time of his self-sacrifice on the Cross and his ascension to the right hand of the Father to intercede for his people. The efficacy of his Mediation applies to all of human history but the office of Mediator was something that he assumed officially as God Incarnate and at a point in history tied to those events concerning his death and subsequent resurrection and exaltation (see WCF, VIII.IV).

Thomas Ridgeley:



> It was requisite that the Mediator should be Man....The reason assigned is, that he might perform obedience to the law....It was requisite that the Mediator should be God and man in one Person. [see WLC #38-40]



[Edited on 11-6-2005 by VirginiaHuguenot]


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## PuritanCovenanter (Nov 6, 2005)

Okie Dokie. 

Either way He has all dominion. Aye?


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Nov 6, 2005)

> _Originally posted by puritancovenanter_
> Okie Dokie.
> 
> Either way He has all dominion. Aye?



Aye! 

Psalm 145.13: Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.

Isaiah 9.7: Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Matthew 28.18: All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth.

Ephesians 1.22: And gave him to be head over all things to the church.

Philippians 2.9-11: Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.


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