This past year I have had it pressed on my mind that I need to teach a little more on how certain theological aspects of who God is and what he does impacts us. This past Christmas we walked through four attributes of God that were found in the manger. For the next four weeks, we’re going to look at the three offices of Christ and how each of those effects our walk with God.
Now in our modern mind, when we talk about offices, we tend to think of buildings with cubicles and water cooler talk. There is the show “The Office” where it’s filmed like a documentary about a bunch of people working together and all their hijinks. But when speaking of the offices of Christ, we are talking about positions that carry with it authority to enact certain duties. The three offices, or positions of authority, of Christ are: king, prophet, and priest.
As we jump into our series on the offices of Christ, we need to understand where this language came from. In the fourth century a Christian historian named Eusebius of Caesarea, wrote about three authorities of Christ that were seen in the Old Testament yet were fulfilled in Jesus. Eusebius wrote, “And not only those who were honored with the high priesthood, and who for the sake of the symbol were anointed with especially prepared oil, were adorned with the name of Christ among the Hebrews, but also the kings whom the prophets anointed under the influence of the divine Spirit, and thus constituted, as it were, typical Christs. For they also bore in their own persons types of the royal and sovereign power of the true and only Christ, the divine Word who ruleth over all. And we have been told also that certain of the prophets themselves became, by the act of anointing, Christs in type, so that all these have reference to the true Christ, the divinely inspired and heavenly Word, who is the only high priest of all, and the only King of every creature, and the Father’s only supreme prophet of prophets. (Ecclesiastical History 1.3, 7-8.)”
Eusebius saw throughout the Old Testament, three major offices of authority instituted by God to guide and direct the people of Israel. But these offices did not come about out of no where, they are rooted in who God is.
Now in the Old Testament, God both fulfilled these roles and delegated these roles to his chosen people Israel. We can see that in God these roles were fulfilled in the Genesis account. In the act of creation, God shows his kingship over the earth. Genesis 1:1 begins with, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Theologian David Carr notes that, “Though Gen. 1 never once uses the word ‘king’ for God, it echoes the Enuma Elish epic in its use of a creation account to demonstrate the absolute supremacy of ‘God’.” God is seen as the King in Genesis 1; he is the sovereign over all the earth, creating it from nothing and ruling supremely over it. It is why the Church, in Acts 4:24, would pray together, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them … (ESV)” And it is why the elders in Revelation 4:11 would shout, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” As human history unfolded and God focused on the nation of Israel, it was his intent to rule Israel as her king. When Isaiah speaks of God to the people he states, “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: (Is. 44:6)” Zephaniah would declare, “The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. (Zeph. 3:15b)” However, Israel desired an earthy king like the nations who surrounded them. Reluctantly, but not caught off guard by the request, God extended his office of king first to Saul, and then to David and his linage. This office of king was not on the scale of a universal kingship, but was more like a regent king. Yet, the true king of Israel would only be fulfilled in Christ, bringing kingship of God and to the heir of David together. Thomas would echo the words of Psalm 5:2 when he would proclaim after the resurrection, “My Lord and my God! (Jn. 20:26-28)”
The second office that God shows to occupy is the role of prophet. In Genesis 2, after God has made man, and placed him in the Garden of Eden, he speaks to Adam, “… 16 ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. (Gen. 2:16-17)” God spoke of what would happen if Adam chose to eat of the fruit from the forbidden tree. This prophetic word came to pass in Genesis 3, when the results of Adam and Eve’s decision to rebel against God and succumbed to the temptation of the serpent. Adam and Eve then fall into sin, and God’s word was fulfilled that they would enter into death. God would declare this prophetic ability in Ezekiel’s day, telling the people, “For I am the Lord; I will speak the word that I will speak, and it will be performed. It will no longer be delayed, but in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and perform it, declares the Lord God. (Ez. 12:25)” To the prophet Isaiah, God stated, “I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it. (Is. 46:11b)”
This office would eventually be extended to a host of other prophets, such as Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and many others. Christ takes up this office and minsters as a prophet by calling people back to God, and proclaiming prophetic utterances of coming judgment. Jesus’ first words in Mark 1:15 are, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” From Christ’s work, others are given a spiritual gift of prophecy, but never in the same vein as the prophets of the Old Testament, now that the Prophet above all prophets had arrived.
The final office that God fulfills in the first three chapters of Genesis, is that of priest. This happens soon after Adam and Eve fall into sin. God’s word tells us that, after God decrees punishment for Adam, and Eve, and the serpent, that “… the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. (Gen. 3:21)” When we speak of God’s atoning work in salvation, one aspect is that of covering. God covers our sin by way of sacrifice. David would open Psalm 32:1 with, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” In ancient Israel “The act of covering was often linked to God's mercy and protection, as seen in the sacrificial system where sins were covered through offerings. (Kasah,” https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3680.htm)” Psalm 85:2 also records this covering, “You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin.”
For Adam and Eve, God performs the first act of covering in the Scriptures. This priestly role would eventually be extended to the Levites in the Exodus, as God set up his ceremonial institutions. The Levites would sacrifice on behalf of the people of Israel, as the blood of the animals would then cover the people’s sin. Christ would fulfill these sacrificial rites, as he would bring the sacrifice of himself before the Father. This work would then prompt the Hebrew writer to proclaim, “… we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God … (Heb. 4:14)”
God shows himself to be King, Prophet, and Priest in the Old Testament Scriptures. He then extended and separated these offices in the nation of Israel. Kings, prophets, and priests were set as examples of what it meant to follow God righteously and what it meant to act in those offices unrighteously. When Jesus came, being God himself, he took on these roles in his earthy ministry. Christ reestablished what he had at the beginning of his creation. In this way, Jesus’ claims to be God and the seeker to bring about his kingdom come together. As we move forward in this series, we’re going to dive deeper into each of these offices and see how fully Christ fulfills them. We will also see how these offices of Jesus’ work to effect us.
My challenge then for you this week is to take each of these three offices and meditate on how God fulfills them in your life. For the office of King, how is God king over your life, how is he not? How is God a prophet in your life, are you listening to him? How is God priest in your life, do you trust his ministering work? We need to understand how each office of God effects our daily lives, because when we do, we will better trust and obey him.
Let us be a people who better understand the work of God, that we might be able to trust and obey him ever greater. Amen.
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