Chapter 2: Christ as Author — His Knowledge and Revelation

Christ the author of evangelical theology; most perfectly furnished with knowledge of the divine will — The foundation of the most perfect knowledge of Christ the Mediator (John 1:18) — The manner, fullness, and most absolute perfection — The revelation of the divine will conforming to that knowledge — Evangelical theology — Its principles.

"Holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus," says the apostle, at Hebrews chap. 3:1. This we have treated briefly in the preceding chapter. It remains that we should carefully examine that very confession of ours, or evangelical doctrine. That Christ was sent from the bosom of the Father, most perfectly furnished with knowledge of the divine will, so that nothing new was left to be drawn from the fountain of truth by those who would come after the King (Ecclesiastes 2:12) — nearly all Christians agree among themselves on this. He Himself indeed, the Word, the eternal Word of God, has an infinite knowledge of all things, and the most absolute understanding of the entire divine essence and will, innate in Himself — that is, communicated to Him from eternity by the Father together with the divine subsistence. But insofar as He stood forth as the Head of the church, Mediator, and the apostle of our confession delegated by the Father, He knew only those things (namely, in that nature in which He Himself performed the entire mediatorial office) which were given and revealed to Him by the Father. Hence He affirmed that He did not know certain things (Mark 13:32), and that He knew nothing beyond what the Father had revealed to Him (John 5:30, 7:16, 17). The same economy continues even after His glorious exaltation to the right hand of the Father. From where He testifies that He received from the Father that solemn Apocalypse which He published not by the breath of the Spirit alone, but with a living voice from heaven (Revelation 1:1). The Socinians fabricate the notion that during the time of His desert fast He was caught up into heaven and instructed in the council of God concerning the office delegated to Him and how it was to be rightly discharged — a monstrous fiction drawn from the lacunae of the Muhammadan Alcoran, which we have refuted in our Evangelical Vindications. The Baptist sets forth the foundation of that knowledge of the divine will which was in Christ Jesus (John 1:18) — if indeed those words belong to the Baptist, which Chrysostom denies, saying, "The saying is not from the forerunner, but from God" — whoever they belong to, these are the words: "No one has ever seen God," not even Moses himself, through whom the law was given, ver. 17; "The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom (that is, in the lap) of the Father, He has declared Him." For since He is the only-begotten Son of God, and therefore of the same essence as the Father, He has an infinitely most perfect knowledge and comprehension of the divine essence itself, and therefore of all truth latent in it. He alone is therefore qualified to expound God perfectly, since He alone has seen God. Moreover, since He was in the bosom of the Father, He was privy to all His counsels and secrets; and for the declaring of the divine will He was committed to Him.

The task committed to Him to be duly discharged — He was endowed with the Holy Spirit, not by measure (John 3:34), for God measured out to Him the Spirit without measure most abundantly, and together with Him an immense sea, as it were, of spiritual gifts, especially of wisdom and understanding in the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2, 3). So that in Him were "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden" (Colossians 2:3). Whatever lay hidden from eternity in the divine mind — pertaining to the illustration of God's glory, the establishment of the kingdom, the institution of worship, the gathering of the church, the calling, instructing, and comforting of the elect, and whatever finally pertains to the rendering of human obedience to God — of all this He was most perfectly instructed by God the Father, and stood forth as the messenger of His will to men. In this opinion, therefore, all agree: namely, that Christ, as the apostle of our confession, had most perfectly explored all of God's counsel concerning His worship and our obedience; whereas all other expounders of the divine will, even the most celebrated legislator himself, were made partakers only of some portion of it, that portion, namely, which served the dispensation under which they ministered. Nothing lay so deeply hidden in the eternal abyss of the divine mind that He did not perfectly search it out; nothing so minute that was ever pleasing or acceptable to God in His worship that escaped or eluded that most wise breast of His.

Furthermore: that this most holy author of our theology communicated to His disciples — who were to propagate His doctrine to all nations — that entire counsel of God, the knowledge of which He had most perfectly obtained, partly by His living voice and partly through the Spirit whom He received as a gift from the Father after His ascension, is testified by Holy Scripture and agreed upon by Christians. For since He was faithful in the whole house of God to Him who appointed Him (Hebrews 3:2) — and that not only as His faithful servant in the mediatorial work (Isaiah 42:1), but also as the only-begotten Son (Hebrews 3:6), who was heir of all things and to whom the house itself belonged, whom He loved uniquely (Ephesians 5:25, 26), with a love to which nothing was ever equal or comparable (Romans 5:6–8) — it was plainly impossible that He should not perfectly declare for the benefit and salvation of that house those things which He had received from the Father to that end. Now this revelation of the divine will, given by the Father to Christ and communicated by Him through the Holy Spirit to His apostles and others for the use of the whole church, is that evangelical theology — taken in the abstract, it denotes the divine doctrine which we are about to set forth.

These things having been premised, we will briefly enumerate the principles of this theology which are proper to it, or its chief causes.

1. The first of these is: "No one, relying on his own powers or native ability, with whatever external aids brought in to assist, is able, with respect to the saving ends toward which it directs the human mind, to perceive or rightly understand this theology." And in this its nature is first of all distinguished from all other sciences. For as the apostle plainly declares, "The natural man is not capable of the things of the Spirit of God, nor can he understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14). So the Lord Jesus Himself teaches, "No one is able to come to Him unless the Father draws him" (John 6:44). This theology also shows everywhere that men outside the knowledge of Christ are dead in sins, blind, senseless, and dull, so that they are unable to grasp this heavenly doctrine or to understand it savingly — as we have set forth more fully elsewhere.

2. Second, it teaches "that he must be born again, or be spiritually regenerate, who wishes to know savingly or profitably the doctrine which it presents — that is, to the end for which it is destined by its most holy author." And here it differs immeasurably from all human wisdom. For even if men are most highly cultivated in every kind of learning, stretching to the highest reach of human intellect, exerting all the faculties and keenness of the mind, and leaving nothing untried — unless they have been regenerate, it is impossible for them to be savingly imbued with this doctrine: "For unless one is born again," says our Lord, "he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). And this theology expounds the kingdom of God. But more must be said about this principle afterwards.

3. Then, third: "No one is regenerate except by the power of the Holy Spirit, by whose efficacious operation all who are born of God are translated from spiritual death to life" (John 3:5, 6, 1:13; Titus 3:5).

4. And therefore, fourth: "That Holy Spirit alone is able to bring anyone to the saving perception of this theology, or to bestow on anyone the understanding by which the evangelical doctrine is savingly understood (John 16:13; 1 John 2:20; 1 Corinthians 2:10–16; 2 Corinthians 4:6); and therefore all who devote themselves to this theology ought, distrusting their own powers, to seek His aid and assistance by continual prayer" (Luke 11:13; James 1:5; Ephesians 1:17, 18).

5. Fifth: "That the worship of God established by the power of this theology is spiritual, whose glory by no means falls under the eyes of men, nor is exposed to the carnal understanding of anyone" (2 Corinthians 1:6–10, and John 4:21–24).

6. Finally: "That all worshipers of God in Christ, according to the norm of this theology and by its power, are separated from the world, and therefore are and always will be hated by it, for this reason — namely, that they have received the Holy Spirit, of which the world is not capable" (2 Corinthians 6:14–18; John 15:18, 19, 14:16, 17; Galatians 1:4, etc.). We will see this theology itself pressing these chief maxims at greater length afterwards.