Christ be about His business as Prophet... habitually.

So, I'm teaching Sunday School again this year. I'm so glad that our church has decided to use a curriculum created by Children's Desiring God (part of Desiring God ministries), because whenever I plan for a lesson using this SOLID curriculum I feel that I'm even more blessed and amazed at God's grace than the kids are. The curriculum for the class I'm teaching this year is called "How Majestic is Your Name". Every week we discuss a different name of God: what it means, why it applies to God, how God manifests the characteristics of this name in Scripture, how it affects us as God's people, etc. Last week, for example, we talked about Jesus as "The Lamb of God", so we discussed things like sin, blood atonement, temporary vs. perfected sacrifice, etc. Pretty common conversation topics with 10-year-olds, right? Diggity.

The name for this morning's lesson was "High Priest". We talked about the Tabernacle, the separation of the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant, the role and duties of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement, and so on. The discussion got me thinking about the awe-inspiring nature of the fulfillment of the threefold office of the Christ of God: Prophet, Priest and King.

There were three offices to which God appointed men of Israel under the Old Covenant. These three offices fulfilled distinct roles as servants to both God and His elect in that they, respectively, brought God to His people (Prophet), interceded on behalf of the people to God (Priest), and united the people under God (King). In each of these offices, Christ is seen as perfectly and infinitely glorious because He both inherits each office eternally, as well as redeems and completes the glory of the office by fulfilling it to its perfection. I'd like to do a post about each of these offices*, starting with Christ as Prophet.

The prophets of the Old Covenant served as God's voice to His children. God chose specific men to fulfill specific roles as the ones who were to declare the great and glorious "thus says the LORD" to the people of Israel. This is how God revealed His nature and will to His chosen people. However, Jesus has become the final and perfected Prophet of God the Father to His people, as it is written:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

-Hebrews 1:1-2

God spoke to His chosen people in order to reveal Himself to them. In what better way can He choose to do this than by sending His very self to His people to live among them, and die in their midst as an atonement for their sin? There is no greater way, and God has done precisely this:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

-John 1:14

Christ is the very Word of God, the absolute reflection of His character to His people, because Christ is at the same time both fully human and fully God: the perfect communication from God to mankind! Indeed, there is nowhere other than to God the Son that we need look in order to find God the Father:

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

-John 14:8-9

The incarnation of God in the flesh has perfected the ministry of the prophet of God. Because of the revelation and ministry of Jesus on earth, God has now fully revealed to His creation all that is necessary for men to know about their Creator in order to be reconciled to Him. Jesus Himself has shown that the revelation of God's Word in the Old Testament served as a witness to Him (John 5:39-40). Possibly without even knowing it, God's prophets of old were giving glory to Christ and pointing the way to him! And now that Jesus has been revealed to the world, the ministry of the prophet has been fulfilled, since the entirety of the Holy Scriptures, all of God's word that He has chosen to speak to His people, points to Jesus. And Jesus continues to speak to men and women as the final, perfected Prophet through His Spirit, convicting the world of sin and revealing Himself to the sheep of His fold through the Scriptures that have been written about Him.

The revelation of God to mankind began with creation (through Christ), continued with selected dispensation of prophecy (about Christ), has been fulfilled in the revelation of God's Word on earth (in Christ), and now draws men and women to redemption as found in the Gospel (by the Spirit of Christ).

Soli Deo gloria, yo.

*If you want to read more about Christ's roles in the threefold office of Prophet, Priest and King, you can read about John Calvin's thoughts on the matter here. It was Calvin who first brought this idea to a prominent light in Christian doctrine.