Prophet, priest and king

What ‘Christ’ means

‘Christ’ is not Jesus' surname. It is a confession. The Greek Christos (Χριστός) translates the Hebrew mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ), Messiah, and both mean ‘anointed’. When Andrew told his brother, "We have found the Messiah" (John 1:41), John added for his readers that the word is translated as Christ.

In Israel, pouring oil on someone's head marked them out for an office God had given. Aaron was anointed as priest (Exodus 29:7). When Samuel anointed David as king, "the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward" (1 Samuel 16:13). Elijah was told to anoint Elisha as prophet (1 Kings 19:16). Prophets, priests and kings were all anointed ones. Jesus was anointed not with oil but with the Spirit: Peter tells "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power" (Acts 10:38).

So the church has read in his title three offices. Early in the fourth century the historian Eusebius was already calling Christ the only high priest of all, the only king of all creation and the Father's supreme prophet Eusebius, Church History 1.3. At the Reformation John Calvin gave this teaching its classic Protestant shape Calvin, Institutes 2.15. The Heidelberg Catechism (Question 31) says he is called Christ because he has been ordained by the Father and anointed with the Holy Spirit to be "our chief Prophet and Teacher", "our only High Priest" and "our eternal King" Heidelberg Catechism, Q31. The Catechism of the Catholic Church likewise speaks of Christ as the one the Father anointed as priest, prophet and king, and teaches that the whole people of God shares in these three offices Catechism of the Catholic Church. The threefold office is not one church's private teaching but common ground. For the larger question of his messiahship, see Is Jesus the Messiah?

Prophet, priest and king

First, Christ is the prophet. Moses promised that God would raise up another like him.

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him.

Deuteronomy 18:15

In the temple Peter declared that this promise had come true in Jesus (Acts 3:22). Yet Jesus is more than one prophet among many. The prophets received God's word and passed it on; in these last days God "has spoken to us by His Son" (Hebrews 1:2), and the Son, who is at the Father's side, is himself the Word who makes the Father known. No wonder the crowds noticed that "He taught as one who had authority" (Matthew 7:29). Matthew Henry says of the prophet Moses foretold: "He speaks with fatherly affection and Divine authority united" Matthew Henry.

Second, Christ is the high priest. A priest stood before God for the people, offered sacrifice and prayed for them. Psalm 110 hears God say to David's Lord, "You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek" (Psalm 110:4), and Hebrews says this priest is Jesus.

Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them. … He sacrificed for sin once for all when He offered up Himself.

Hebrews 7:25-27

He is both priest and sacrifice. Other priests offered the blood of animals again and again; Christ "offered Himself unblemished to God" (Hebrews 9:14). So, trusting a high priest who sympathises with our weakness, we "approach the throne of grace with confidence" (Hebrews 4:16). Matthew Henry sums it up: "Christ executed one part of his priesthood on earth, in dying for us; the other he executes in heaven, pleading the cause, and presenting the offerings of his people" Matthew Henry. The meaning of his sacrifice is the subject of The cross and atonement, and his intercession in heaven of The ascension and Christ’s reign.

Third, Christ is the king. The angel told Mary about her son:

The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end!

Luke 1:32-33

The risen Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me" (Matthew 28:18), and Revelation gives him the name "KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS" (Revelation 19:16). Yet his kingdom "is not of this world" (John 18:36). He rules not by the sword but by his word and Spirit. He entered Jerusalem on a donkey, and he died wearing a crown of thorns under a notice that read "THE KING OF THE JEWS" (John 19:19).

The Fathers saw these offices even in the gifts of the magi. Augustine wrote: "Gold, as paid to a mighty King; frankincense, as offered to God; myrrh, as to one who is to die for the sins of all" Augustine.

Christ carries out these offices both in his humbling and in his exaltation. As we saw in the lesson on the incarnation, he humbled himself to death on a cross, and "God exalted Him to the highest place" (Philippians 2:9). The Westminster Shorter Catechism puts the whole teaching in four short answers. "Christ, as our Redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation." As prophet he reveals to us, "by his word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation". As priest he offered himself once as a sacrifice "to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God", and makes "continual intercession for us". As king he reigns "in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies" Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q23–26.

Sharing in his anointing

Right after Question 31, the Heidelberg Catechism asks: why are you called a Christian? Because by faith we are members of Christ and so share in his anointing. We confess his name, we offer ourselves to him as a living sacrifice of thankfulness, and we fight against sin and the devil in this life, and afterwards we shall reign with him Heidelberg Catechism, Q32. Peter says the same of the whole church.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

1 Peter 2:9

Every church receives this verse, and all agree that Christ is the one high priest whose sacrifice was offered once for all. They differ on how this shared priesthood relates to the church's ordained ministry. The Catholic and Orthodox churches teach, alongside the priesthood of all the baptised, a ministerial priesthood of bishops and priests received by ordination. These ministers preside above all at the Eucharist, which both churches understand not as repeating Christ's sacrifice but as bringing the people into the one sacrifice offered once for all. The Catholic Church teaches that the ministerial priesthood differs from the common priesthood of the faithful in essence and not only in degree Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Protestant churches (Lutheran, Reformed and Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal and others) put the weight, as Luther did, on the priesthood of all believers. Ministers are called and set apart to preach the word and administer the sacraments, but they are not a separate priesthood offering sacrifice. Anglicans keep the word ‘priest’ for their presbyters and understand it in a range of ways. Baptists and many free churches lay particular stress on every member's priesthood and on the responsibility of the whole congregation.

For all these differences, every tradition confesses that all the baptised share in Christ's anointing. So we listen to our prophet and speak his word, we come to God through our priest and pray for others, and we live under our king, resisting sin and waiting in hope. For more on who he is, see Who is Jesus?

Practice