Abstract
The following project is a constructive retrieval of one of the central insights of 19th-century Scottish theologian John McLeod Campbell on the work of Christ. One of McLeod Campbell’s principal convictions was that what Christ mediates in salvation is not an external transaction, but intrinsic to his very life as the Son of God and son of Mary. The following will not be an in-depth discussion of McLeod Campbell’s theology as a whole, but will provide the scriptural and theological scaffolding for his claim that Christ’s filial relationship of love with the Father and fraternal love for humanity are the means through which he accomplished his work.
Part one establishes the ontological and biblical framework for this approach based on Colin Gunton’s paradigm of the Triune mediation of creation, showing how McLeod Campbell’s claims about the work of Christ find a natural home within the larger framework of God’s relationship to creation, according to the New Testament witness of the person of Christ and the testimony of God’s ways with Israel in the scriptures.
Part two begins with a brief outline of McLeod Campbell’s view of the filial and fraternal work of Christ and then further develops and examines it in light of New Testament texts on God’s saving work and the fulfillment of God’s mediation with and through Israel. The entire arc of creation and redemption, mediated by the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit, shows that God acts in accordance with who God is. The aim of this project is not a comprehensive account of the work of Christ, but to demonstrate the scriptural and theological strength of one of McLeod Campbell’s central contentions; the result is a basic sketch open to further development.