Mediation Mediator

5. Epistles of Peter.-The genuineness of these Epistles cannot here be discussed, nor their ‘Pauline’ features. They certainly give the same view of Christ’s mediatorial office as we find in St. Paul’s writings. This conception of Christ’s sacrificial death meets us in 1 Peter 1:2, ‘sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ’ (cf. Exodus 24). The new birth comes to pass ‘by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’ (1 Peter 1:3). The readers of the Epistle receive the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls, ‘through Jesus Christ’ (1 Peter 1:9). ‘The sufferings of Christ’ were prophesied beforehand by the Spirit of Christ (1 Peter 1:11). Redemption is not with gold, ‘but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ’ (1 Peter 1:19). Here the point of view of the Epistle to the Hebrews (chs. 9 and 10) is approached. Christ is the Living Stone through whom the living stones in the spiritual house ‘offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God’ (1 Peter 2:5), a clear picture of the mediatorial work of Christ (cf. Matthew 16:18). In 1 Peter 2:21 we are told expressly that ‘Christ also suffered for you (ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν), leaving you an example (ὑπολιμπάνων ὑπογραμμόν), that you should follow his steps,’ where the death of Christ is given as an example for us in suffering. But that this is not the sole idea in the atoning death of Christ we need only recall (1 Peter 1:18 f.), not to mention the rest of the sentence in 1 Peter 2:21-24, where we read that Jesus ‘did no sin’ and ‘his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.’ There is an evident reference to Isaiah 53, and the substitutionary character of the death of Christ for sins is clear enough. St. Peter’s own interpretation of ἔπαθεν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν is thus quite pertinent. Hence it is plain what is meant in 1 Peter 3:18 : ‘Because Christ also died (ἀπέθα_