Of the official Person and Relations of the Messiah.
The term Jehovah, though employed interchangeably with the other Divine
designations, is in one respect peculiar. It is never used with
reference to any other than the Divine Being. Hence it is by many
regarded as a proper name. It is however replaced in the New Testament
by an appellative.
Gesenius, who regards this as a proper name, and the word Elohim as an
appellative, refers to the "Seventy" as uniformly prefixing the definite
article to the word which they substitute for Jehovah; making the
version, as in the English, _The_ Lord. He considers the formulas, "I
shall be what I am," and "which is, and which was, and which is to
come," as expressing the meaning of this name, by which the being
designated was to be distinctively recognized, remembered, and
acknowledged for ever, according to the declarations: "This is my name
for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations;" and "this is my
name for ever: so shall ye name me throughout all generations."
But, as has been shown, this name is employed both separately and
conjointly, with strictly official designations, to identify the second
Person of the Trinity in his delegated character and work; who in the
New Testament is announced as Jehovah, Immanu-El, Jesus, the Christ.
The subsistence of three distinct coëqual Persons in the Godhead is
eternal. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are, as persons,
coëternal, coëqual, and alike infinitely removed from all possibility of
change. Whatever change has taken place with respect to them must
therefore be merely relative, and have reference to their respective
agencies, and to the works of creation, providence, and grace. They are
accordingly revealed to us in connection with those works, and in the
relations which they sustain to them, and to each other in connection
with them; and pursuant to the economy or covenant in which those
relations and works are founded, the designations by which they are
respectively made known are _official_ designations, or employed with a
personal and official reference. The Father is first, the fountain of
authority, and delegates the Son. The Son is second, and is subordinate
to the Father. The Holy Spirit is third, and is subordinate to the
Father and the Son. The Father sends the Son to accomplish the works
assigned to him. The Son reveals the Father, and executes his will. The
Holy Spirit does the will of the Father and the Son. It is in these
relations that the respective Persons are worshipped, and not jointly or
in unity. The Father is worshipped through the Son as the medium of
access and homage. The Father and Son respectively are worshipped
through the gracious indwelling influence of the Holy Spirit.
These relations of the respective Persons are therefore official, and
must be referred to as originating in the covenant, in which the whole
scheme of agency and manifestation in the works of creation, providence,
and redemption, was founded. No such relations are to be conceived of as
existing eternally; for in their nature the respective Persons are
coëqual. Subordination must have been voluntarily assumed for special
purposes and agencies which required it. When creatures were to be
brought into existence, relations not previously existing were
requisite; and as those relations to creatures required various agencies
of the respective Persons, new relations between them were requisite;
and these, being founded in compact, are properly termed _official_.
Accordingly, all Divine acts towards creatures are personal acts of the
Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. They act not as a unity in respect
to creatures.
Hence all the acts of the Son in the works of creation, providence, and
redemption, are ascribed to him in one and the same official Person and
delegated character, by whatever designations he may, in relation to
those works, be referred to; and it was accordingly in that character
that he appeared personally and visibly in the ancient dispensations;
assumed the human form, walked, conversed, and performed various actions
proper only to one in that form. The nature of his delegated
undertaking, and the objects of those dispensations, required such
local manifestations of his person and visible agency, and also that he
should speak to and of himself in the different aspects in which he then
appeared, and in which he exercised his prophetic office, in relation to
his future coming and his sacerdotal work. Thus he speaks of himself as
the Seed of the Woman, the Son of David, the King, the Saviour, the
Anointed, the Messenger, the Redeemer, the Holy One, the Branch, the
Shepherd, Immanuel.
This may be illustrated by referring to the New Testament, and
considering that the Divine and human natures being united in the Person
of the incarnate Word, whatever is true of either of those natures in
that union, is affirmed of him as a Person; and for aught that appears,
whatever is affirmed of his Divine nature in that Person is affirmed of
him in his official character, whether with reference to his preëxistent
or to his incarnate state. Many things are said of him which are
predicable of his human nature only, but which nevertheless could not be
said if he was not both God and man in one Person. Thus it is said, that
he died for our sins--and that he rose for our justification. Other
things are said of the same Person, which are predicable only of his
Divine Nature; as that he came down from heaven, that he came forth from
God, and that he was in the beginning. Hence the propriety with which in
both the Old and New Testaments the various Divine names and titles are
applied to him, to designate the One Anointed, delegated--Person.
Since writing this work, the author has read the treatise of Dr. Isaac
Watts, entitled, "The Glory of Christ as God-Man," in which he describes
the visible appearances of Christ before his incarnation, inquires into
the extensive powers of his human nature in its present glorified state,
and endeavors to explain and illustrate the Scriptures which relate to
those appearances, and to the Person who under various divine names and
official designations visibly appeared, by supposing that the human soul
of Christ was created prior to the creation of the world, and
thenceforth, being united to the Second Person of the Godhead, appeared
and acted, visibly and otherwise, in all that related to this world.
There being no question but that the mediatorial Person created the
world, appeared visibly, and conducted the administration of the Old
Testament dispensations, there is, as might be anticipated, a degree of
plausibility in the reasonings and illustrations of this venerated
author. But many grave and unanswerable objections to his peculiar views
present themselves. It is not perceived that the supposition of the
preëxistence of the human soul of Christ is either sustained by the
Scriptures, or has in any respect, as a means of explanation, any
advantage as compared with the view taken in this work, viz: that,
pursuant to a covenant between the Persons of the Godhead, the Second
Person assumed the official character and relations which are peculiar
to him as Mediator; those, viz: in which he executed the works of
creation and providence, and manifested himself under various Divine
names and official designations, as Jehovah, Elohim, the Messenger, the
Messiah; the official personal actor and revealer. To his Person in this
official character and agency the human nature was in due time united,
so as to include two natures in his one Person. But since the delegated
official Person, into union with which the human nature was taken,
preëxisted, and as a Person was the same before as after the
incarnation, the acts of that Person in the delegated official
character and relations above referred to, were to the same effect, and
involved essentially the same conditions before as after the advent.
Since he undoubtedly acted as Mediator in the ancient dispensations, we
must, in reference to his agency then, ascribe to him what peculiarly
constituted and ever preëminently distinguishes that character, viz: its
being the delegated official character of a Divine Person. Regarded in
that light, there seems no more difficulty in ascribing visible
appearances and other acts suitable to his office in his relations to
men, prior to the assumption of human nature into union with his Person,
than after that union. The relations of his Person, in his delegated
official character, to creatures and material things, were the result,
not of the incarnation, nor of any occurrence after the commencement of
his delegated, subordinate, mediatorial work, but of his appointment to
that work, and must be regarded as coëval with that appointment. They
were the relations of the official, mediatorial Person; and for aught
that appears or is conceivable, rendered visible personal appearances in
the likeness of man, and the performance of acts, utterance of words,
&c., like those of man, as practicable before as after the addition of
human nature to that Person.
The views advanced by Dr. Watts proceed upon the assumption that two
distinct _persons_ were united; whereas it was two distinct _natures_ that
were united in one Person. That Person existed before the human nature was
added to it. The nature added had no separate or distinct personality. It
became part of the preëxisting Person. "He took it to be his own nature,
... causing it to subsist in his own Person," says Owen. The Logos, the
personal Word or Revealer, the delegated Official Person or Mediator, who
"was in the beginning and was God, was made flesh and dwelt among us."
John i. "He took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the
seed of Abraham." Heb. ii. 16. "He did not assume a nature from angels,
but he assumed a nature from the seed of Abraham." Syriac Text. "The Lord
Jesus Christ is God and man in one person. For there is supposed in these
words (Heb. i. 16) his preëxistence in another nature than that which he
is said here to assume. He subsisted before, else he could not have taken
on him what he had not before. Gal. iv. 4; John i. 14; Tim. iii. 16; Phil.
ii. 6, 7. That is, ... the Word of God ... became incarnate. He took to
himself another nature, of the seed of Abraham according to the promise;
so, continuing what he was, he became what he was not; for he took this to
be his own nature ... by taking that nature into personal subsistence with
himself, in the hypostasis [substance or subsistence] of the Son of God;
seeing the nature he assumed could no otherwise become his. For if he had
by any ways or means taken the person of a man in the strictest union that
two persons are capable of, in that case the nature had still been the
nature of that other person, and not his own. But he took it to be his own
nature, which, therefore, must be by a personal union, causing it to
subsist in his own person.... This is done without a multiplication of
persons in him; for the human nature can have no personality of its own,
because it was taken to be the nature of another person who was
preëxistent to it, and by assuming it, prevented its proper personality."
(Owen on the Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. ii. 16.)
"Christ is the Jehovah whose dominion is proclaimed, [Psalm xcvii.,] who
is declared to be the God whom men and angels are bound to serve and
worship. Such is He who for our deliverance condescended to assume our
nature.... For thus it seems the matter stood in the counsels of Eternal
Wisdom: It behooved Him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining unto God, to
make reconciliation for the sins of the people." (Horsley's Sermon on
the 97th Psalm.) That is: It behooved Him, the Christ, Jehovah in the
preëxisting official Person, to assume our nature.