Our hope for eternity, the Trinity and the Mediatorial Office of Christ

Status
Not open for further replies.

py3ak

Unshaven and anonymous
Staff member
I have been considering for some time with how to even raise this question and not made much progress, so please excuse any lack of clarity in formulation or difficulty in working through. It seems to impinge on some recondite and abstruse matters, and yet it also has immediate relevance for faith and prayer.

Our hope for eternity has an impact upon how we live now: how we conceive of our relationship to God, and everything else. And there seem to be, within the Reformed world, some differences, if not strictly of opinion at least of emphasis, with regard to what we expect in our glorified eternity

So what about the mediatorial office of Christ? Calvin says:
For what end were that power and authority given to him, save that the Father might govern us by his hand? In the same sense, also, he is said to sit at the right hand of the Father. But this is only for a time, until we enjoy the immediate presence of his Godhead. (...) Christ, therefore, shall reign until he appear to judge the world, inasmuch as, according to the measure of our feeble capacity, he now connects us with the Father. But when, as partakers of the heavenly glory, we shall see God as he is, then Christ, having accomplished the office of Mediator, shall cease to be the vicegerent of the Father, and will be content with the glory which he possessed before the world was.
(Institutes II,14.3)
From Calvin, it would appear that the mediatorial office of Christ is temporary: does it therefore follow that in eternity we shall not love Him in those relations in which we have learned to love Him on earth (those relations then ceasing)? But then why is the consummation set out as the marriage supper of the Lamb?

Or to put it another way, is there a significant difference between the expectations regarding eternity of a Christological supralapsarian and those of other views?
 
If you search google books for Looking unto Jesus: a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the soul's eyeing ... By Isaac Ambrose
You may find it to be a help. I believe he says something similar to Calvin only in more detail.



William


.
 
Thank you for the reference, William. I was very intrigued by Augustine's view that even at the last judgment the wicked will not see Christ as God, but believers will.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top