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assume this character for Christ. An affirmative answer would seem to be required in view of
the fact that we are called co-heirs with Christ. Is He then also an heir? This question may be
answered in the affirmative in view of the statement found in Luke 22:29. The inheritance
referred to here is the mediatorial glory of Christ, which He received as an inheritance from the
Father, and which He, in turn, communicates as an inheritance to all those that are His. But
though there is undoubtedly a testamentary side to the covenant, this is but one side of the
matter, and does not preclude the idea that the covenant is really a covenant. It can be called a
testament, because (1) it is as a whole a gift from God; (2) the New Testament dispensation of it
was ushered in by the death of Christ; (3) it is firm and inviolable; and (4) in it God Himself gives
what He demands of man. Yet this should not be interpreted to mean that there are no two
sides to the covenant, and that it is therefore absolutely monopleuric. However unequal the
parties in themselves may be, God condescends to come down to the level of man and by His
grace enables him to act as the second party in the covenant. A monopleuric covenant in the
absolute sense of the word is really a contradictio in adjecto. At the same time those
theologians who stress the monopleuric character of the covenant did this to emphasize an
important truth, namely, that God and man do not meet each other half way in the covenant,
but that God comes down to man and graciously establishes His covenant with him, freely
giving all that He demands, and that man is really the only one that profits by the covenant. It is
essential, however, that the dipleuric character of the covenant be maintained, because man
really appears in it as meeting the demands of the covenant in faith and conversion, though it
be only as God works in him both to will and to do, according to His good pleasure.
E. THE RELATION OF CHRIST TO THE COVENANT OF GRACE.
Christ is represented in Scripture as the Mediator of the covenant. The Greek word mesites is
not found in classical Greek, but does occur in Philo and in later Greek authors. In the
Septuagint it is found but once, Job 9:33. The English word “Mediator,” as well as the Holland
“Middelaar” and the German “Mittler,” might lead us to think that it (mesites) simply
designates one who arbitrates between two parties, an intermediary in the general sense of the
word. It should be borne in mind, however, that the Scriptural idea is far more profound. Christ
is Mediator in more than one sense. He intervenes between God and man, not merely to sue
for peace and to persuade to it, but as armed with plenipotentiary power, to do all that is
necessary to establish peace. The use of the word mesites in the New Testament justifies our
speaking of a twofold Mediatorship of Christ, namely, that of surety and that of access (Gr.
prosagoge, Rom. 5:2). In most of the passages in which the word is found in the New
Testament, it is equal to egguos, and therefore points to Christ as one who, by taking upon
Himself the guilt of sinners, terminated their penal relation to the law and restored them to the
right legal relationship to God. This is the meaning of the word in Heb. 8:6; 9:15, and 12:24. In