Before turning to the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Leiden professors have two final theses worth catching. Both concern how Christ’s rule differs now from how it will be.
52. But as Christ’s church has a twofold state, the one of grace in this age and the other of glory in the future, we should distinguish the current government of the church from the one that is to come. For in this life Christ rules his church through … faithful pastors, and he protects it by the administration of devout political magistrates. In the life that is to come, he will rule it directly, without the external supports of that kind and by the divinity he shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit, so that together with them he may be all things to every member of the household of faith …
53. Hence it says that when Christ will hand over to God all the elect who clung to him in the unity of perfect faith and who have been freed completely from their fear of the enemy, he will also hand over to him his mediatorial (or dispensational) scepter so that he may forever conduct his purely Divine reign over his elect with the same glory and majesty that he shared with the Father from eternity (1 Cor 15:24, 26).
Note what changes and what doesn’t. Pastors and magistrates are temporary supports, fitted to an age of grace. In glory the mediation runs direct: the scaffolding comes down, the building stands.
Westminster on the Mediator
Everything traced so far — the Person of the Mediator, two natures in one, the threefold office, satisfaction rendered, redemption applied — receives classical confessional expression in The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), Chapter 8:
1. It pleased God, in his eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, his only-begotten Son, to be the Mediator between God and man, the Prophet, Priest, and King; the Head and Saviour of his Church, the Heir of all things and Judge of the world; unto whom he did, from all eternity, give a people to be his seed [descendants], and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.
2. The Son of God … did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man’s nature … yet without sin … So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and manhood, were inseparably joined together in one Person, without conversion, composition, or confusion.
4. … he was made under the law, and did perfectly fulfil it; endured most grievous torments immediately in his soul, and most painful sufferings in his body; was crucified, and died; was buried, and remained under the power of death, yet saw no corruption. On the third day he arose from the dead, with the same body in which he suffered; with which also he ascended into heaven, and there sits at the right hand of his Father, making intercession; and shall return to judge men and angels at the end of the world.
5. The Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of himself, which he through the eternal Spirit once offered up unto God, has fully satisfied the justice of his Father, and purchased not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the Kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given unto him.
8. To all those for whom Christ has purchased redemption he does certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same; making intercession for them, and revealing unto them, in and by the Word, the mysteries of salvation; effectually persuading them by his Spirit to believe and obey; and governing their hearts by his Word and Spirit; overcoming all their enemies by his almighty power and wisdom, in such manner and ways as are most consonant to his wonderful and unsearchable dispensation.1Van Dixhoorn ed., Creeds, 197-200.
Six Details Worth Noticing
The Confession grounds Christ’s work in God’s eternal purpose and identifies the roles God ordained him to fulfil. Its Christological affirmations rest on the same purpose: for God’s intention to be accomplished, Christ is who he is. The emphasis falls on his mediatorial role — he stands between God and man by the Father’s decision and the Spirit’s anointing.
The chronological outline adds several interesting features: the ‘most grievous torments’ Christ endured ‘immediately in his soul’; his remaining under death’s power but without corruption; the explicit statement that he rose ‘with the same body in which he suffered’; an elaboration of the physical nature of the ascension, the same body suffering, rising and ascending; the description of his work at the Father’s right hand as ‘intercession’; and the inclusion of angelsamong those he judges at the end of the world.2Commentary here is extracted from Thompson and Doyle, ‘Work of Christ,’ 3-4; headings are mine. See further Brannon Ellis, ‘Post-Reformation Dogmatics,’ in T & T Clark Companion to the Atonement, 693-700.
Definite Redemption
The discussion of Christ’s death and its benefits repays study.
Here are affirmations of Christ’s perfect obedience, finding its high point in his self-sacrifice, and of the Trinitarian nature of the atonement — the Son offered through the Spirit, satisfying the justice of the Father. Sacrifice, obedience, satisfaction, redemption, reconciliation and inheritance are all present.
But most distinctive is how his atoning work is circumscribed by the decree of election. Section one mentions a people chosen as his seed. Section five specifies reconciliation ‘for all those whom the Father has given him.’ Section six affirms the benefits reach the elect in all ages. And section eight insists the achievement of redemption is co-extensive with its application.
The emphasis throughout is on the certainty of the benefits of Christ’s work for the elect. Here, facing Arminianism, which stressed the power of the human will to limit God’s work of salvation, is a statement of particular or definite redemption by God. God is sovereign in salvation.
Note carefully, though: the Confession does not state that Christ died only for those who are saved. It implies it.
That distinction is worth respecting. A confession that implies something has declined to assert it, and reading the implication as an assertion misrepresents what its authors chose to say.
Compact by Necessity
One final observation, and it applies to creeds generally.
Creeds and confessions — even this one — were necessarily compact and compressed affirmations of Christian doctrine. They essentially followed the chronological course of Jesus’ life, sometimes augmented, as most notably here, with statements of purpose and extent. Other approaches would be more schematic.
A fitting note on which to close. The offices themselves are one such schematic approach — not a replacement for the chronological story the creeds tell, but a way of asking what that story accomplished.
Prophet, Priest and King: one Person, one office, three functions. And what he purchased, he certainly and effectually applies.