The Person of the Mediator

Footnote

Thomas F. Torrance, "The Person of the Mediator," in The Mediation of Christ (Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1983), 57-82

Bibliography

Torrance, Thomas F. "The Person of the Mediator." In The Mediation of Christ, 57-82. Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1983

Publication life cycle / General notes

See related audio recording #1981-TFT-5c.

Discussed in the Reading Group on May 6, 2021: Video.

Series Number
1981
Series name (click to see more)
The Didsbury Lectures
Publisher (click to see more)
Paternoster Press
Colyer Categories (click to see more)
2. The Christological and Soteriological Center
Synopsis/Outline

Pagination and headings indicated below are taken from the later 1992 edition.

  • [Introduction], p. 47.
  • The Inner Relation of Christ to the Father, p. 50.
  • The Oneness in being between the Son and the Father, p. 53.
  • The Incarnate Constitution of the Mediator, p. 56.
  • Is God really like Jesus? p. 59.
  • The Unity of Christ's Person and Work, p. 62.
  • The Personalising and Humanising Activity of Christ, p. 67.
Quotation

Pagination indicated below is taken from the later 1992 edition.

"Since in Jesus Christ God himself has come into our human being and united our human nature to his own, then atoning reconciliation takes place within the personal Being of the Mediator. In Jesus Christ the Creator Word and Son of God incarnate, his Person and his Work are one. What he does is not something separate from his personal Being and what he is in his own incarnate Person is the mighty Act of God's love for our salvation. Christ and his Gospel belong ontologically and inseparably together, for that is what he is, he who brings, actualises and embodies the Gospel of reconciliation between God and man and man and God in his own Person. In him the Incarnation and Atonement are one and inseparable, for atoning reconciliation falls within the incarnate constitution of his Person as Mediator, and it is on that ground and from that source that atoning reconciliation embraces all mankind and is freely available to every person." (pp. 62-63)

"...the Incarnation must be regarded as creative, personalising activity. As the incarnate Son of God Jesus Christ is Person in his own divine Being, but we are all created persons. He is the personalising Person, and we are personalised persons. Thus, far from depersonalising human being, or overriding the human person, the coming of Jesus Christ has the effect of personalising human being in a profounder way than ever before. With the Incarnation there took place an acute personalising of all God's interaction with us, so that the incarnational union of the Person of the Son with our human nature must be regarded as the most intensive personalising of it that could have taken place. In Jesus Christ we have embodied in our humanity personalising Person and personalised person in one and the same being, in whom the personalised person is brought to its fullest reality. Thus far from being emptied or overpowered by the divine Person, the human person is reinforced and upheld in its indissoluble oneness with the divine." (p. 68)

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