The Mediation of Christ

by Thomas F. Torrance

In "The Mediation of Christ," Thomas F. Torrance (Professor Emeritus of Christian Dogmatics at the University of Edinburgh) sets forth a devotional theology of the atoning work of Christ the mediation of revelation, the mediation of reconciliation, the person of the mediator, the mediation of Christ in our human response, and the atonement and the Holy Trinity. This important 2nd edition adds a foreword addressing the reality of unconditional grace in relation to "the integrity of the response we are called to make in repentance for sin and in acceptance of Jesus Christ as our personal Savior." Also added to this edition is a new final chapter, which further addresses the centrality of the Trinity in the atonement.

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction, Christianity, Religion, Christian, Spirituality

126 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Thomas Forsyth Torrance, MBE FRSE (30 August 1913 – 2 December 2007), commonly referred to as T. F. Torrance, was a Scottish Protestant theologian. Torrance served for 27 years as Professor of Christian Dogmatics at New College, Edinburgh in the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his pioneering work in the study of science and theology, but he is equally respected for his work in systematic theology. While he wrote many books and articles advancing his own study of theology, he also edited the translation of several hundred theological writings into English from other languages, including the English translation of the thirteen-volume, six-million-word Church Dogmatics of Swiss theologian Karl Barth, as well as John Calvin's New Testament Commentaries. He was also a member of the famed Torrance family of theologians.
Torrance has been acknowledged as one of the most significant English-speaking theologians of the twentieth century, and in 1978, he received the prestigious Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion.[1] Torrance remained a dedicated churchman throughout his life, serving as an ordained minister in the Church of Scotland. He was instrumental in the development of the historic agreement between the Reformed and Eastern Orthodox Churches on the doctrine of the Trinity when a joint statement of agreement on that doctrine was issued between the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Orthodox Church on 13 March 1991.[2] He retired from the University of Edinburgh in 1979, but continued to lecture and to publish extensively. Several influential books on the Trinity were published after his retirement: The Trinitarian Faith: The Evangelical Theology of the Ancient Catholic Church (1988); Trinitarian Perspectives: Toward Doctrinal Agreement (1994); and The Christian Doctrine of God, One Being Three Persons (1996).

Reviews

[Adam Lam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, quite academic in nature. Can see some of his influences when he writes, like that he learned from Barth, or that he is also well-versed in scientific literature. A slow-burn type of book.

A nice summary of how Christ is front and centre in all matters of theology, including atonement, reconciliation, faith, and even daily Christian activities. There is also heavy consideration on how God's revelation to Israel connects with reconciliation and union in Christ.

Some representative quotes:

'Yet it is not atonement that constitutes the goal and end of that integrated movement of reconciliation, but union with God in and through Jesus Christ, in whom our human nature is not only saved, healed and renewed, but lifted up to participate in the very light, life and love of the Holy Trinity'

'[Jesus] embodied in himself the personal address of God's Word to man and the personal response of man to God's Word.'

'What Jesus did was to make himself one with us in our estranged humanity when it was running away into the far country, farther and farther away from the Father, but through his union with it, he changed it in himself, reversed its direction and converted it back in obedience and faith and love to God the Father'

'Propitiation is wholly from beginning to end the movement of God's forgiving and expiating love, whereby in the initiative and freedom of his own divine being, He acts both from the side of God as God toward man, and from the side of man as man toward God.

[Micah Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't care for his take on passibility, but I will be reading more Torrance.

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the single best, popular introduction to Torrance's thought. His Thesis: Jesus’s revealing the Father cannot be abstracted from the matrix of Israel, which also received God’s revelation. Rather, we must have a dynamic epistemology which seeks the inner relations.

The movement of revelation: God calls and his revelation molds the object The word of God penetrates into the divine depths of Israel’s soul and being (8). And in this movement God gives us adequate concepts:

God’s revelation of himself through the medium of Israel has provided mankind with permanent structures of thought and speech about him” (17). These structures are:

a. Word and Name of God
b. revelation, mercy, truth, holiness
c. Messiah, savior, prophet, priest, king
d. Father/Son/Servant
e. covenant, sacrifice, forgiveness, atonement, reconciliation, redemption
f. Liturgy
g. These constitute the essential furniture of our knowledge about God.

Conclusion: God has given us a revelation identical with himself: Jesus Christ is the revelation of God (23).

The Mediation of Reconciliation

Thesis: The mediation of revelation cannot be divorced from the mediation of reconciliation (24).

Genuine knowledge involves a “cognitive union of the mind with its object” (24). We may know something only in accordance with its nature. The object’s nature will prescribe to us the mode of knowing appropriate to it. Personal beings require personal modes of knowing. If we are to know God in accordance with his nature, then he will adapt us to a mode proper to it. We cannot know God without love. Ascetic tradition: basically means to be purified from wickedness. Does not entail later wackiness (a point made with some force by Gregory Nazianzus).

The Person of the Mediator

Instead of abstracting Christ, we should proceed by investigating his being-constituting-relations (onto-relations; p. 47). The internal relations disclose the inner rationality, or logos to us.

The Atonement and the Holy Trinity

Thesis: “Proper understanding of God as [Trinity]...takes place only within the movement of atoning propitiation whereby God draws near to us and draws us near to himself in believing response and brings us into union with himself through the gift of the Spirit” (110).

Atonement must be found within the inner being of God: God’s activity is not separate from his being. It is a being-in-act and Act-in-being (113). Communion of the Spirit: We only know God as he reveals himself to us through himself. The Spirit seals our adoption. He actualizes his own self-giving.

This was a magnificent and stirring read. It is much easier than Torrance's other works.

[Misael Galdámez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hit me with that vicarious humanity of Christ. Inject it into my veins:

“Jesus was incorporated into a long line of sinners, the wickedness of which the Bible does not cover up [and] he made the generations of humanity his very own, summing up in himself our sinful stock, precisely in order to forgive, heal, and sanctify it in himself...From his birth to his death and resurrection on our behalf, he sanctified what he assumed through his own self-consecration as incarnate Son.”

In an ontological, real, tangible way, Jesus has healed humanity. He, the fullness of deity, assumed human flesh, healing it by his divine power from the inside out, from infancy to death. He was faithful for the faithless. And now?

“[Reconciliation] means that the eternal communion of love in God overflows through Jesus Christ into our union with Christ and gathers us up to dwell with God and in God."

Jesus is all we have. His prayers, his works, his faithfulness, his steadfastness, his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his coming again. Through him we participate in the divine life. Other things I took from this book are that the incarnation and atonement cannot be separated but are two parts of the same whole.

Having said that, bro could use an editor. Ok, maybe the rest of y'all are smarter than I am, but I don't enjoy (re)reading run-on sentences that could have used a full stop 15 words ago. I'm not the Apostle Paul. Other times, I felt he went all the way around his point to get to it, instead of writing more direct. Don't blame me, my wife's a journalist. That said, I enjoyed and recommend it.

[Tyler McQuilkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

[Colby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some interesting claims.
Some claims I found odd and outdated.

Mostly, a solid rapprochement of Barth and Patristics in the analysis of the Person and Work of Christ.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 5 out of 5]

**************Rereading for a study and discussion**********************


"When I say "I believe" or "I have faith" I must correct myself and add' not I but Christ in me.'"

To try and review this book in a few paragraphs would be like showing you the world in a couple of photos. The mediation of Christ is what this short volume is about, but that can't possibly express the depth or volume of information, instruction, and inspiration within. That God's work is a whole, and that we in our sin and depravity have attempted to break it up, to divide it and in so doing have attacked God again and attempted in some ways (unknowingly) to crucify Christ to ourselves again..

Too theological? Sorry. I recommend this book. The split in the Church (including the schism between east and west, Christian and Jew...yes I said Christian and Jew, Old and New Testament) and the actual mediation of Christ are a subject for study and meditation for all Christians.

I believe that I may have gotten a percent or two of what there is here to get and will need in the future to reread and study this book. it is short, but extremely dense (and by that I mean a lot packed into a small space).

I have moved Torrance to my list of favorite writers, theologiens and (somewhat) appoligists.

Five stars.

[Steve Irby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished "The Mediation of Christ, " by T.F. Torrance.

Late Edit: this may be one of my top three books of the year.

I would guess more quotes here than anything. Torrance is a titan and I doubt I have much to add. Not to mention Scottish theologians are tough for me to read (sorry N.T. Wright) but this is a work which must be read.

In speaking about theological method he likens it to what the apostolic and patristic church had: "The fundamental clue with which they operated was the oneness of Jesus Christ, the Jew from Bethlehem and Nazareth, with God the Father on the one hand and with the unique fact and history of Israel among the nations on the other hand. With that complex of interrelationships they found themselves coming to grips with the essential message of the gospel embodied in Jesus in its relation to the age-old message of God that had been worked out in his covenant partnership with Israel, and discovered that it was a message for the salvation of all mankind," p 5.

As a heads-up, when he says "all mankind" he means all. His intro was a self-labeling as a universalist. I gladly await his coverage of this position. As Roger Olson has stated, all Christians should [because of the overwhelming love of God expressed in Jesus Christ] be hopeful universalists.

I'm going to try to paraphrase his comparison: in Isreal you have a people of God (out of all peoples He chose them) for Gods revelation unto Gods reconciliation. This points to and directly leads to Jesus, in place of Israel, being the very best revelation, and ultimate reconciliation as mediator between God to man as God-man. So far this isngood because Torrance is giving Isreal a role to play where as many begin time at Mt 1:1 (me included).

"Thus as both the incarnate revelation of God and the embodied knowledge of God, Jesus Christ constitutes in Himself the Way, the Truth and the Life through whom alone access to God the Father is freely open to all the peoples of mankind. That is to say, as the incarnate Word and Truth of God Jesus Christ in His own personal Being is identical with the Revelation which He mediates," p 9. And with that I take back what I said about Scottish theologians. Torrance is writing straight poetry. The very paragraph the above came from was brilliant, and not in a British kind of brilliant as in "let's run to the pub for a wee drink after the football game," to which your bloke says "that would be brilliant," kind of way. No, I am speaking about "phenomenal insight" kind of brilliant.

Just as Israel was the embodiment for the revelation of the scripture of the first covenant, and Christ for the ultimate revelation, likewise the body of Christ, the Church is for revelation (assume all the * on that statement you like, I let it stand as is).

"[F]or the cross has the effect of emptying the power-structures that the world loves so much, of their vaunted force. And so people continue trying to make Jesus serve their own ends in the world, thereby 'crucifying' Him all over again. Let's be frank. Jesus was crucified by the political theology of His own day, but is that not what people, even the Church, continue to do when under a programme of putting Christian ideals into effect they politicise the role of Jesus in human society and in international relations today? The deadly root of man's inhumanity to man, the source of all human violence, is in the wickedness of the human heart, and it is there that it must be undone," p 31.

What amazing prose. Quit trying to force people to act "Christian" by law; Jesus changes people from the cross. Take people to the cross and stop dragging them around via the vote.

He makes an interesting comparison of the Immaculate conception of Mary for the Romans to the verbal plenary inspiration of scripture for Protestants. For the Romans Jesus had to have come to us from a pure and flawless physical origin. So they say that Mary was without sin, original or personal. For Protestants Jesus has to come to us from a pure and flawless origin. Hence "inspiration" is twisted so far that people are formulating how a mustard seed is truly the smallest seed. I thought this was very astute.

"How can we Christians claim to proclaim atoning reconciliation through the cross of Christ when we contradict it by refusing to be reconciled with one another or to allow reconciliation through the body and the blood of the Saviour to be translated into our Church divisions?" P 46.

Torrance gets into some subatomic particle stuff when dealing with Christology and the Trinity. So the whole physics analogy is lost on me but when he is dealing with straight Christology and Theology it is very good.

"He is God in the nature of God, and man in the nature of man, in one in the same person. He is not two realities, a divine and a human, joined or combined together, but one Reality who confronts us as he who is both God and man. We are not to think of Jesus Christ, Athanasius used to argue, as God in man, for that could be said of a prophet or a saint, and stops short of what the incarnation of the Son of God really was. Rather must we think of Jesus Christ as God coming to us as man," p 56. What an awesome way to write it.

I read a lot of chapters but this chapter three was the most profound of any. He worked off of the hypostatic union for showing the person and work of Christ. The hypostatic union was treated as more of a model for the person and work of Christ, though it too was dealt with. Maybe Moltmann's "The Way of Jesus Christ" had a chapter as good as this. Maybe.

"A merely representative or a merely substitutionary concept of vicarious mediation is bereft of any actual saving significance. But if representation and substitution are combined and allowed to interpenetrate each other within the incarnational unionof the Son of Godwith using which He has actually taken our sin and guilt upon His own being, then we may have a profound and truer grasp of the vicarious humanity in the mediatorship of Christ, as one in which He acts in our place, in our stead, on our behalf but out of the ontological depths of our actual human being," pp 80-81.

Torrance goes on to state how the above is a problem for both liberal theology and fundamentalist theology alike. Roughly you have penal substitution and moral influence. As such the fundamentalist tend towards substitution and hold to a very cosmic Christ while avoiding the humanity while the reverse is true for the liberals. Whereas with an all encompassing atonement theology balanced by an correct Christology we see both are equally true: the Theanthropothic (God-man) saviour was the substitutionary redeemer and the representative of mankind, at the same time thus changing how we act now and whose we are forever. (Add that Christ defeated Satan, Sin and death by being the representative substitution and I'd be totally on board with Torrance.)

I was wondering how he lands at universalism. It seems he gets there by saying that Gods grace through Christ is so great that it isnt reliant upon our affirmation of it. Christ as our mediator has already made the weak link of our acceptance of God (his words, not mine) a "yes" in His living the life for God and dying our death. He gets here using unlimited grace, so no insult intended, he is a logically consistent, Calvinisticly influenced scholar like Moltmann and Barth. I say that because he balances his stance on the power of God with the goodness of God and runs unlimited grace all the way out to its universal coverage while denying "that horrible doctrine" of double predestination.

"Only God can forgive sins, so that unless Christ is God, His word of forgiveness is empty of any divine substance. Unless Christ is one and the same substance as God, as well as one and the same being as ourselves, then the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross for us and our salvation is in fact without divine validity or saving power," p 124.

"Unless the Holy Spirit is Himself God, then He does not actually give is communion with God or mediate to us His redeeming and sanctifying presence in and through Himself [...] The Holy Spirit is not just some divine force emanating from Godbut different from Him, not some sort of action at a distance or some kind of gift detachable from God, for God is Spirit. In fact, the Holy Spirit is the transcendent freedom of God to be present to us in such a way as to realize our relationship with God as the creative and sustaining Source of our being and life [...] in Him the divine gift and government are identical, " p 125.

The last five pages of this book were very good trinitarian material showing how both the act and being fit together in salvation: the being of God is acting for our salvation from the Father, through the Son by the power of the Spirit.

Excellent book. Though his leaning as hard as he does on unconditional grace in a very Augustinian way is offputting because all gifts have to be accepted. But because he is a universalist determinist it isnt as harsh as the writings of many in that tradition.

[JD Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really excellent book. Torrance presents Christ’s person and work in a refreshingly Trinitarian and Jewish framework with a firm on eye on the Reformed confessions.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just read this through twice today. It's that good of book. It's one of the finest "small" pieces of theology I've read since Barth's "the Humanity of God." Torrance's thesis is simple: "in Jesus Christ the Mediation of divine Revelation and the Person of the Mediator perfectly coincide. In Jesus Christ God has given us a Revelation which is identical with himself. Jesus Christ is the Revelation of God." As the Revelation of God, Jesus Christ mediates reconciliation and facilitates our human response through God's atoning work.

Particularly timely is Chapter 4, "The Mediation of Christ in our Human Response." As the title suggests, Torrance argues that our human response to the person and work of God in and through Jesus Christ is grounded in God Himself. Properly speaking our repentance and conversion to God is still a work of God. It is the mediating work of God that guarantees the possibility of our positive response to God.

[VJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a lot to take in, but I took it all in! It's an incredible read! Very life-changing as well. It's as if suddenly everything makes overwhelming sense and you're thankful to God that somebody referred you to this book. Every Christian reader, I think, have got to read it (in addition to C.S. Lewis' books).

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A published version of Thomas F. Torrance’s Didsbury Lectures (delivered in 1982 in Manchester), The Mediation of Christ is a stimulating volume that is more accessible than some of the theologian’s work. The late Dr. Torrance’s goal in this volume was to approach an understanding of Christ from two perspectives: 1) in terms of his identity within the covenant of Israel defined by its relationship with God and 2) in terms of his internal relationship with God as revealed to us through his witness and actions as self-communication (p. 13). Torrance unapologetically admits his dependence upon biblical revelation, but he offers a caveat over some ideas of revelation by insisting: “A two-way movement was involved: an adaptation of divine revelation to the human mind and an adaptation of articulate forms of human understanding and language to divine revelation.” (p. 17)

As a result, Torrance moves forward in his argument to state: “…the whole Word of God and the perfect response of man were indivisibly united in one Person, the Mediator, who was received, believed, and worshipped together with God the Father and the Holy Spirit by the apostolic community which he creatively called forth and assimilated to his own mission to the Father.” (p. 19) Building on this reciprocal relationship within the Trinity as revealed in the Incarnation, Torrance builds on his earlier work, Space, Time, and Resurrection, to state: “God’s revelation was mediated to Israel in the continuous indivisible field of space-time, in such a way that the physical configurations were inextricably interwoven with its communication and articulation to Israel. That is why, as we shall see, revelation and reconciliation had to go together.” (p. 25) Hence, detaching the understanding of Jesus from the covenant described in the OT is to obscure the message rather than clarify it (p. 29).

Another danger described by Torrance is the modern world’s tendency: “…instead of interpreting the invisible in terms of the visible, or the noumenal in terms of the phenomenal, we have had to do the very opposite: interpret what is visible from what is inherently invisible.” (pp. 30-31) He uses the scientific analogy of quantum mechanics to illustrate what he calls “onto-relational structures” in understanding Christology and the Trinity (p. 58). “That is to say, the relations which persons have with one another as persons are onto relations, for they are person-constituting relations.” (p. 59) Although he doesn’t use the term, there is something of a quantum entanglement between the persons of the Trinity.

As Torrance develops his approach, we begin to see the ultimate significance of this. If Jesus is separate from the Reality of God, merely a creature, this would empty faith of all self-revelation and make Jesus’ relationship to the Reality of God tangential, a mere moral example (p. 71). This is because Jesus outside of God cannot redeem us or reconcile us. Why? Because only the Creator can do that (p. 72). I liked his conception that the atonement is the start, but not the end, of God’s plan (p. 77). He concludes that Jesus Christ is “the humanizing Man.” (p. 79) In this sense, Torrance is consistent with the Athanasian tradition of the man-ward and God-ward ministry of Christ (p. 83).

As a result, we interpret Jesus’ whole life as a vicarious response to God (p. 90). He goes on to show that because of our relationship to Christ, “Faith has to do with the reciprocity, and indeed the community of reciprocity between God and man, that is, with the polarity between the faithfulness of God and the answering faithfulness of man.” (pp. 91-92) Most specifically, “We must speak of Jesus Christ as constituting in himself the very substance of our conversion, so that we must think of him as taking our place even in our acts of repentance and personal decision, for without him all so-called repentance and conversion are empty.” (p. 96). If believers were to take that last sentence to heart, it would lead to a bold reassessment of how we understand grace.

I was delighted to find this worn and well-read volume at a library sale at King’s College, University of Aberdeen. It seemed appropriate that, attending a conference of modern Scottish theologians, I should reacquaint myself with one of the great ones who has departed us. Because of the nature of the book (based on a series of lectures), the volume cannot be as thorough as we might find in some of Torrance’s work, but it is outstanding nonetheless.

[Chandler Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Hence when Jesus Christ reveals God the Father to us in and through himself as the only-begotten Son, he gives us access to knowledge of God as he really is in his divine nature: what God is toward us in the revealing and saving acts of Jesus Christ he is in eternally and immanently in himself, and what God is in himself eternally and immanently as Father and Son he actually is toward us in the revealing and saving acts of Jesus Christ.”

Another incredible volume from the greatest theologian of the 20th century! While there are many books I read and think are truly excellent and 5-star worthy, there are only some books I read that where I feel like my thinking has been significantly shaped after reading the book. This book now joins Torrance’s “Trinitarian Faith” as intellectually transformative works in my academic journey. Specifically, Torrance’s treatment on the vicarious work, life, and activity gave me a renewed and enriched understanding of this work of Christian even in the daily life of the Christian. Galatians 2:20 is the foundational verse for Torrance’s vision of the Christian life. I was specifically encouraged by Torrance’s discussion of Jesus’s vicarious work in prayer and worship as I consider my own struggles in habitual prayer. Torrance also presents a wonderful definition of the Gospel message and corrects liberal and fundamentalists views of atonement that are prevalent in the Christian world today. There is simply too much rich content in this book to summarize well enough here. According to Torrance, Jesus is the culmination of God’s revelatory act to Israel in which we can know God as he is in himself. Torrance has a unique view of the present and valid role of Israel in God’s revelatory and reconciling work. It cannot be captured by any major theological system today and highlights what a creative thinker Torrance was. To conclude this review, I will quote Torrance’s definition of the gospel message:

“God loves you so utterly and completely that he has given himself for you in Jesus Christ his beloved Son, and has thereby pledged his very being as God for your salvation. In Jesus Christ God has actualised his unconditional love for you in your human nature in such a once for all way, that he cannot go back upon it without undoing the Incarnation and the Cross and thereby denying himself. Jesus Christ died for you precisely because you are sinful and utterly unworthy of him, and has thereby already made you his own before and apart from your ever believing in him. He has bound you to himself by his love in a way that he will never let you go, for even if you refuse him and damn yourself in hell his love will never cease. Therefore, repent and believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.”

[Russell Matherly · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be perfectly honest, the fourth chapter alone is, for me, what cinched the fourth star. Otherwise, to be blunt, I don’t get it. Maybe this is one I will need to come back to in a couple of years and try again. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the Trinitarian focus and the patristic edge to the whole thing. Big fan of that! And that fourth chapter was particularly moving. Other than that, I don’t really think much stuck out. Some of the references and analogies seemed out of place and didn’t clarify the content per sé. So, to quote the great Randy Jackson “it was just alright for me.”

[Rick Dugan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent study on Trinitarian theology and it's implications through union with Christ. Jesus Christ mediates the revelation of God, reconciliation with God, and the human response to God. Torrence explains at length the importance of understanding Christ within the context of his trinitarian relations. In fact, this is the only way to understand him.

Fair warning that this isn't an easy read.

[Nick Bersin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic. Torrance brings together the strands of Christian dogmatics that have been artificially split from each other into a coherent whole. Reading this felt like everything I've learned over the past 4 years clicking and finally being expressed in a way that made sense. Strong recommend.

[Erik Bonkovsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Profound and helpful at times; confusing and philosophically overwrought at times. If I were smart enough to understand more of it. I might give it more stars.

[Nika Spaulding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short yet profound. Had to read it slowly but full of gems about God, revelation, atonement and trinity.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked a lot of what Torrance had to say. I couldn't get behind some of his Barthian presuppositions about Jesus' human nature.

[Joshua Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this is absolutely a must-read for anyone serious about Christology and theological reasoning.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. If you’re looking to get into Torrance an excellent first read.

[Frank Stafford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Important

[Chase Bartlett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Torrance brings beauty through his words and interesting concepts to wrestle with.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, despite its short length (126 pages), was challenging to read. T. F. Torrance's concepts and explanation take quite a bit of work to process, and I found myself re-reading paragraphs frequently as I tried to understand his perspective. That said, I love his approach to theology, and especially to understanding the work of Christ. In this book Torrance argues for how one must understand God's relationship with Israel before one can understand who Jesus Christ was, or how his work as mediator between God and man worked. Torrance explains how Israel was originally chosen to mediate God's revelation to the world, and how God's revelation in Christ was actually a continuation of the role of Israel. Torrance also makes a strong case for how intellectual dualism and "scientific" objectivity in the western church have harmed our theology, stripping away the Trinitarian understanding of Christ's saving work that was so well understood by theologians of the early church. It's been taking me a while to get my mind around Torrance's Trinitarian understanding, and how it affects our understanding of the atonement, but as I'm beginning to get it I'm struck by how Biblical it is, how very true, and how anemic our understanding of the gospel message is in the modern western church. I wouldn't recommend this book for those who are shy about reading theology, but if you do like theology this is probably a must read.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 5 out of 5]

"When I say "I believe" or "I have faith" I must correct myself and add' not I but Christ in me.'"

To try and review this book in a few paragraphs would be like showing you the world in a couple of photos. The mediation of Christ is what this short volume is about, but that can't possibly express the depth or volume of information, instruction, and inspiration within. That God's work is a whole, and that we in our sin and depravity have attempted to break it up, to divide it and so doing have attacked God again and attempted in some ways (unknowingly) to crucify Christ to ourselves again..

To theological? Sorry. I recommend this book. The split in the Church (including the schism between east and west, Christian and Jew, Old and New Testament) and the actual mediation of Christ are a subject for study and meditation for all Christians.

I believe that I may have gotten a percent or two of what there is here to get and will need in the future to reread and study this book. it is short, but extremely dense (and by that I mean a lot packed into a small space. Five stars.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

HEy I had to read this for systematic 2 as well...this is an amazing book I re-read some pages once ina while to be refreshed in it. It's a book that talks about what that word Mediation means, and why Christ did it for us. It also talks about the dividing walls and why they were broken down in Christ Jesus....WOW...intense read, very heavy theologically. Will challenge people from traditions I have been in, but very good! Didn't agree with some parts of the book, but still overall I recommend it to read to understand the work of Christ and what it really means for humanity!

[Mammu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise summary of Trinitarian, Christ-centered theology. The first 3 chapters summarizes Torrance's other book, "The Christian Doctrine of God", while the last 2 chapters really get into depth about the mediation of Christ and what it means for us. This is also more readable than most of his other books. He loves complex compound sentences, but this book isn't as dense as the others and is easier to understand--which makes it a good introductory piece to read for those interested in reading more Torrance books.

[Tstevick]

This was the first book I ever read that seriously (and effectively) wrestled with a doctrine of Israel and how the distinctively Jewish framework in which Christ must be interpreted. It is one of the more important works that Torrance wrote on Christology and is just about the easiest introduction to Torrance possible (not to mention fairly easy to get a hold of and relatively inexpensive).

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a solid little book of theology! It contains five lectures by TF Torrance on the mediating work of Christ. My favorite was the fourth lecture ("The Mediation of Christ in Our Human Response") which is NOT to be missed and the fifth lecture ("The Atonement and the Holy Trinity").

[Bobby · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first Torrance book, and glad it was; what an introduction to his thinking!