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be able to reach right up to heaven and right down to earth, in other words the perfect
mediator or Go-between:
"For there is one God, one Mediator also between God and men, Himself man, Christ
Jesus, Who gave Himself a ransom for all . . . . ." (I Tim. 2: 5, 6, R.V.).
Until the redemptive purpose of the ages is realized and at last a perfect creation
embodying heaven and earth comes into existence, the mediatorial work of the Son of
God is necessary.
When all that separated God and man is removed and abolished then we read:
". . . . . Behold, the tabernacle (dwelling place) of God is with men, and He will dwell
with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be
their God" (Rev. 21: 3).
At last there is no more need of Temple ritual, priests or mediators, for all barriers
between men and God have vanished at this point of time and God's great redemptive
purpose is finally achieved.
When we consider the earthly life and service of Christ in the Scriptures, we link it
therefore with His Sonship and His voluntary humiliation in laying aside His will for the
will of the Father (John 5: 30; 6: 38), so that this will might be permanent in word
(John 14: 24) and work (John 14: 20; 17: 4).
The Lord, as it were, suppressed His own Deity. He `emptied Himself' ("made
Himself of no reputation" Phil. 2: 7) of everything pertaining to His own will, His own
words and His own deeds, and became the "Sent One", the perfect Servant of the Father.
It was from this standpoint and from this only that He said:
"My Father is greater than I" (John 14: 28).
It was only from the standpoint of relative position during His earthly life when He
became the Son and the Servant, that this was true. In human affairs a lieutenant is in an
inferior position to his captain, though he may be personally and in ability much his
superior. We must not confuse status with role and operation. Oscar Cullman was right
when he expressed a similar thought: "to speak of the Son has meaning only in reference
to God's revelatory action, not in reference to God's Being". The essence of God was
not touched when He Who was the Word and was God (John 1: 1) became flesh and took
upon Himself a human body. That human Body was never a substitution for His Deity,
but an addition to it. It was "God Who was manifest in the flesh" (I Tim. 3: 16) not just
an exalted human being raised up by God.
When we realize that His Sonship commenced at Bethlehem, we can understand why
the four Gospels have more reference to this Sonship than the rest of the N.T. Coming to
the Prison Epistles we are struck by the fact that there are two references only to Christ as
the Son: