Monday, January 20, 2025

Three-fold Office of Christ (Psalm 2)

"Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance and the ends of the earth for Your possession" (Ps. 2:8).

During the last several posts, we have focused on the person of Christ. Beginning today and continuing through the completion of our look into the doctrine of Christ, we will focus more on His work. We will specifically examine His role as our Redeemer, the only Mediator between God and fallen humanity. Illuminating this aspect of Christ’s work is one of the primary purposes of John’s gospel, so that those who hear of Christ will know how to be saved.

As Mediator, Christ has three distinct offices—prophet, priest, and king. We see these offices foreshadowed in the nation of Israel. The Old Testament tells of prophets, those who spoke on God’s behalf to man; of priests, those who spoke on the people’s behalf to God; and of kings, those who exercised dominion over the nation.

While the early church fathers spoke of these different offices as they related to Christ, John Calvin was the first to expound on the importance of these offices as it related to Christ’s mediatorial work. This is a necessary distinction because we must understand Christ as fulfilling all three offices, as well as the importance each office has to us. To exclude one or two of them is to distort the doctrine of redemption.

Many in our day, for example, acknowledge Christ’s work as priest. They admit He sacrificed Himself for sinners and intercedes on their behalf. But they deny that He is king. This, they say, has only future reference. While they embrace His work as priest, they reject Him as king. Some even maintain that a person can be saved while rejecting Christ’s rule in their lives. But you cannot separate the king from the priest, or the prophet from the other two in the person of Christ. He is prophet, priest, and king.

As prophet, Christ is endowed with perfect knowledge and understanding. While He was on earth, He proclaimed the truth of God to the lost. Now He proclaims the truth through His Word and by the Spirit. As priest, He offered Himself as a sacrifice once and for all. He also intercedes at the right hand of God the Father for all who are His. As king, He exercises dominion, now and forever, over His kingdom and all things.

Read Jeremiah 1:9–10. How did Christ fulfill this role of a prophet? How does He continue to do so? Read Leviticus 9. How did (and does) Christ fulfill this role of a priest? Read 1 Samuel 8:19; 16:1. How does Christ fulfill this role of a king? Meditate today on Christ as your prophet, priest, and king in light of these passages.