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believer faultless before the throne (Jude 24). This "exceeding joy" is reserved for the
believer until the moment "When His glory shall be revealed" (I Pet. 4: 13).
"That the elaion agalliaseos here does not mean the oil of consecration to office, is
plain from the consideration that the administration of the kingly office is described in the
preceding context as having already existed" (Moses Stuart).
"We must distinguish this anointing from that of Acts 10: 38 and Isa. 61: 1. For it is
consequent upon the righteous course of the Son of God in His humanity, and therefore
belongs to His triumph" (Alford).
Two further terms used here show that Christ as the Mediator, and not as He was
before the world began, is intended. These terms are "Thy God" and "Thy fellows". As
the Lord, He is God, and God can have no fellows, but one of His most important yet
most misunderstood relationships is expressed in the words "The God of our Lord Jesus
Christ" (Eph. 1: 17). Who is at the selfsame time "The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ"
(Eph. 3: 14); indeed "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. 1: 3). This
relation to His office as "The Son" also relates to His Mediation and His Headship.
Throughout the Old Testament from the call of Abraham and on unto the speech of
Stephen in Acts 7:, the Lord has borne the name of "The God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob", the covenant-keeping God of Israel. Those who are addressed in the epistle of
the Mystery, Ephesians, had no such God. They were aliens, strangers, Christless,
hopeless and Godless. By the very nature of their natural condition, and by the very
nature of the new revelation made known in Ephesians, the believing Gentile could no
more approach the Lord as the God of Abraham than the Syro-phoenician woman could
approach Him as the Son of David (Matt. 15:). But instead of this being a loss or a
disadvantage, we discover it to be but another opportunity for grace to triumph. Who
would cling to the God of Abraham, when the Son of God became the Head of his
calling? It is for this reason that in the ministry of Paul both before Acts 28:, and in
the ministry also of Peter, Jesus Christ is set forth as "The One Mediator between God
and men" and we gladly relinquish all hope of using the title "the God of Abraham"
because we can instead call upon "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ".
We come back therefore to Heb. 1: 9 and rejoice that here also we read "Therefore
God, even Thy God", realizing that this special anointing is entirely related to His
Mediatorial office, and can have no relation to His own intrinsic Deity. The same epistle
that says "Thy God" can without contradiction or confusion equally say "Thy throne, O
God", for Christ is both God and Man.
Again, who can be God's "fellow"? Yet here, the Son of God is anointed with the oil
of gladness "above His fellows". This phrase contains the first of five occurrences of the
Greek word metochos "partakers" in Hebrews:
"Anointed . . . . . above thy fellows" (Heb. 1: 9).
"Partakers of the heavenly calling" (3: 1).
"We are made partakers if . . . . ." (3: 14).
"The heavenly gift . . . . . partakers of the Holy Ghost, if . . . . ." (6: 4, 6).
"Chastisement, whereof all are partakers" (12: 8).