Jesus: Prophet, Priest, King

If you had three words to describe Jesus, what would you say? Gentle? Kind? Loving? Teacher? Savior? Compassionate?

These descriptors are all true, but a more basic level, Jesus’s person and work can be summed up like this: Prophet, Priest, and King. These three offices were the only official offices of God’s people Israel in the Old Testament. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of these Israelite offices, so whenever we read about them in the Old Testament, we need to keep one eye on that text and another looking ahead to Jesus in the New Testament.

Prophet
The job of a prophet was to speak the words of God. Jesus is God’s word in the flesh (John 1:1-2), God’s final revelation (Heb. 1:1-2). Jesus came to speak the words of the Father to the world (John 8:28). In our heart of hearts, we want to hear the true God or a god of our own making speak to us. We all look for some kind of divine word, don’t we? Who is the most influential speaker in your life? You need a prophet who will deliver pure words that give life, not false promises that cannot deliver. 

Priest
Priests went to God on behalf of the people. As a mediator between God and man, they offered sacrifices to God for atonement for sin. Jesus came as the sole and final mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5). He is the great high priest who has no need to offer sacrifices repeatedly (Heb. 4:14-16; 7:26-27), because he has made a once-for-all sacrifice (Heb. 10:1-14). He did not sacrifice a lamb; he is the Lamb (John 1:29, 36; Rev. 12:11). At our core, we all realize that we have inadequacies that keep us from being right with God. What mediator do you seek to find righteousness and forgiveness? You need someone who is perfect and spotless to stand in the gap, to go to God on your behalf and represent you before him.

King
A king is someone who ruled and reigned over a people and brings blessing to that people  Jesus is the true King and the king we have always longed for. He is the promised descendant of David the king (Rom. 1:3). He brings brings the promised kingdom of God to earth (Mark 1:15). His throne and kingdom will never come to an end (Heb. 1:8-9; 12:18-29). We desire to be ruled justly and with love, but we all realize that our human governments are insufficient, incomplete, and always corrupt at some level. We also wrongly desire to be ruled by everyday things that are temporary by nature. What rules you? What authority do you look to for security, hope, and blessing? You need a king full of grace and truth and will never lead you astray.

The most wonderful thing about this perspective on Jesus life and work is that anything you say about him will fall under one or more of these three offices. This is no shallow and boring Christ. It is a dynamic, strong, gracious, and supreme Christ. And do not be fooled. Everyone has prophets, priests, and kings (not just ancient Israel!). It’s just a matter of whether we set our gaze on false ones or the true One.

Monday Miscellanies: Law

A guest post by Jonathan Edwards

79. Law

The natural reason why it is as Romans 7:8 ff. [says], “But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence,” etc. [The] reason why man has the more strong inclination to moral evil when forbidden, is because obedience is submission and subjection, and the commandment is obligation. But natural corruption is against submission and obligation, but loves the lowest kind of liberty as one of those apparent goods that it seeks; and when he disobeys, he looks upon it that he has broke the obligation. When he thinks of the perpetration of such a lust, and thinks how he is strictly upon pain of damnation forbidden, tied by such strict bonds from it, it makes him exceeding uneasy, the consideration is so against corrupt nature; which uneasiness takes away all liberty of thought, and makes the mind dwell upon nothing but the contrary and supposed good, the liberty, causes [him] to meditate upon the pleasantness of the act, and makes it appear much greater than otherwise it would do.

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. The motives to believers to perform the commands of God, are [not] because salvation is [upon] the condition of doing them, and damnation what we are obliged to for disobedience; but the amiableness of God, to whom sin is contrary, the loveliness of virtue, and its natural tendency to happiness, which has no such tendency as the other. Wherefore now in gospel times, ’tis requisite that all ceremonial commands should be abolished, which have no intrinsic direct loveliness, nor agreeableness to the lovely God, or tendency to happiness.

What Are You All About?

What are you all about? If you are a church leader, what is your church all about? If you had to give a one-word answer, what would you say?

As Paul begins his letter to the Romans, he writes that he has been called to be an apostle, “set apart for the gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1). In other words, all of Paul’s life and ministry revolves around the gospel. That’s Paul’s “what-am-I-all-about-in-a-nutshell” word (see Rom. 1:16-17, too). To Paul, the gospel isn’t simply some piece of “helpful” information he throws to people on his missionary journeys, as if it’s a pill they swallow or a membership they sign up for to get eternal life. Paul’s whole existence is centered on the gospel, so it is gospel he’s going to give to saints that they might be more like Jesus and to unbelievers that they might come to Jesus (see Rom. 1:15).

Why is his focus on the gospel? First, God promised the gospel in the Hebrew Scriptures (Rom. 1:2). Paul, like the other New Testament authors, read the Old Testament “christologically,” that is, the Old Testament promised and foreshadowed Christ’s incarnation, redemption, and restoration. The gospel does not exist in a vacuum–it is grounded in the history of God’s people Israel.

Second, the gospel does not just promise Jesus, it reveals who Jesus is and what he has done. Jesus’ life and work is the content of the gospel. As it has been said before, he is the gospel. In Romans 1:3-5, Paul’s writes that Jesus is revealed in the prophets (the Old Testament) as the Son of David and the Son of God. He is the One who has ushered in the new creation through his resurrection and the one who has given us grace and the mission to make disciples of all nations.

Discipleship, mission, sacraments, doctrine, and other things are vital to our lives as Christians. But none of them can be the main thing. The gospel gives unity, meaning, and purpose to all those things. In his book, Center Church, Tim Keller writes, “Because the gospel is endlessly rich, it can handle the burden of being the one ‘main thing’ of a church” (37). Would that it be so for our churches and our own lives!

What Should Family Worship Look Like?

As a father of two daughters (one outside the womb and one inside), I am continually thinking about the gospel-shaped environment of our home. Carly and I want our girls to grow up dazzled by the grace of God in the gospel. As the husband and father, it is my divinely-ordained joy and duty to pray about and plan intentional opportunities to cultivate a “gospel culture” in our home. (If you are a single mom or the wife of an unbeliever, keep reading. I hope this will be helpful to you, too!) The problem is that if I don’t plan now and decide beforehand what we will do as parents to train our children, nothing will happen. Even though our oldest girl is seventeen months old and literally has a fifteen second attention span (if food is involved), it’s never too early (or too late!) to ask, “What should family worship look like?”

By “family worship,” I mean intentional, structured, and systematic times of instruction, reading, praying, and singing together. You may wonder, “Shouldn’t we just make sure our whole lives are about Jesus? Why emphasize this formal stuff?” Yes, we should not just be a Christian family for thirty minutes a night plus an hour on Sunday mornings. In ancient Israel, parents were called to rehearse the glory of God’s redemption in the Exodus during their normal daily rhythms (Deut. 6:7). This, too, is worship, and the same should be true for Christian parents today.

Yet at the same time, God also commanded parents to establish formal times of instruction and worship (Deut. 6:6, 8-9). This would provide opportunities for children to ask questions of their parents and for parents to properly interpret God’s redemption to their children (Deut. 6:20-25). In the New Testament, Paul tells fathers to bring their children up in the “discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4), certainly implying structure.

What then should family worship look like? The Bible doesn’t give a prescription, and I don’t have all the answers (after all, my kids are seventeen months and twenty weeks in utero!). But as I reflect on it, here are some major elements of family worship that can help cultivate, by the Spirit’s power, a gospel-shaped home:

• Reading Scripture. This is essential. At the very least, we need to read Scripture with our children, and teach them how to understand the Bible. We must show them that it is a story of how God rescues his children through Jesus, the Hero of the story. By God’s grace, we use the Bible to expose our children’s sin and help them see how the Hero is the solution to everything they truly need. 
  
• Prayer. When we pray, we should pray meaningfully. While good grades, thanks for the sunshine, and requesting good night sleep are important, what we really need to pray for is spiritual renewal and growth. Our kids will pick up whether or not we are shallow pray-ers. They will pray about what we pray about. When we pray together, I want the flavor of Scripture, not scattered thoughts, to saturate my prayers. I want to be quick repent of my sin, exalt Christ, and be bold to ask God to open my kids’ eyes to their need and that he gives them faith in Jesus.
• Reciting the Apostles’ Creed. Christians have been reciting the Creed since the second century and for good reason. It summarizes the absolute fundamentals of the faith in an easy-to-remember way. (You can sing it, if you’d rather. I usually sing it to our oldest daughter as I’m putting her to bed.) This is a simple way to instruct our kids in what we believe. It is not boring theology! It is about God! If you are not into theology, you are not into God. We never move past belief, and saying, “I believe in God the Father Almighty…” is, indeed, a profoundly theological thing to say. The question is not whether we and our children will be theologians; the question is whether we will be good ones.
• Catechesis. Don’t freak out! Catechesis (or catechism) simply comes from a Greek word meaning “to teach.” Call it whatever you want, but the point is that to “discipline and instruct” our children in the gospel, we must have a systematic plan. Forging catechesis and Scripture together can make things easier. There are so many resources out there including a new interactive catechism called New City Catechism (with video teaching and settings for child or adult). You can even put it on your iPad. There’s also a number of other books/children’s Bibles that can be used in a catechetical (teaching) manner: The Jesus Storybook Bible, Long Story Short, and Big Truths for Young Hearts. 
• Singing. Pick up a hymnal or put in a worship CD and start singing! What matters is not how we sing, but that we sing. Did you realize that the longest book in our Bibles, the Psalms, is a songbook! Right now, we’re singing songs like “Jesus Loves Me” and “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” But every now and then we break out “Amazing Grace,” “Thy Mercy My God,” “Jesus Paid It All,” “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us,” or something else. Singing brings glory to God and joy to our hearts. I want our family to glorify God and be happy doing it.

I don’t have all the answers, and I know there will be frustrating “family worship” times when tempers flare and somebody leaves crying. We can’t control everything, but we can have a plan by God’s grace, be flexible, mix it up, and keep it simple. As parents, let’s lean into God’s grace, walk in the Spirit, get creative, be serious, have fun, and watch God work in the lives of our kids. I know he will.

Monday Miscellanies: Rewards

A guest post by Jonathan Edwards

168. Rewards

How is it said that our happiness is the reward of holiness and good works, and yet that we are made happy wholly and solely for the sake of Christ? I answer, ’tis not solely by Christ that we have holiness and good works given us, but ’tis only by him that our holiness and good works are capable of a reward. He purchased holiness for us, which is indeed not different from happiness; and he purchased that they should be capable of a reward, and should be rewarded, yea that their good works should be worthy of a reward. So that properly, now, the good works of saints are worthy of being rewarded; the saints are worthy to walk in white [Revelation 3:4].

The Psalms: Singing of the King

Series Index:

1. The Psalms: Singing of the King
2. Covenant: A Strategy for Singing the Psalms
3. David the King
4. Yahweh the King
5. Messiah the King
6. Summary and Conclusion

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Part 1 in a 6 part series. View series intro and index.

Chances are, if you are a Christian, you love the book of Psalms. Probably more than Leviticus or Nahum. We closely identify with its praises, complaints, cries for help, and thanksgivings. Its raw emotion and relentless truth arrests our mind and affections. For good reason it is used in worship services and liturgies around the world. After all, Psalms was the primary book of prayer and praise for the ancient Israelites, as it should be us today. Most of the psalms have direct relevance to our contemporary lives, and it is clear that there is something deep and rich to this marvelous collection–perhaps deeper and richer than we realize. It is less clear, however, that a unifying theme actually exists in Psalms. Perhaps you have simply thought it is a book of 150 random songs about God. Thankfully, this is not the case. Recognizing a unifying theme will not just add information to our brains, but it will greatly help to use Psalms in our individual and corporate worship.

The most important person in ancient Israel was the king. In his prosperity, the people prospered. In his failure, the people failed. In a significant way, more so than any other Old Testament book, Psalms makes this abundantly clear. That is why Israel treasured Psalms! It is a book rife with hymns, laments, praises, and hopes about Israel’s Davidic king and their ultimate King, Yahweh. Over the next couple of weeks, we are going to examine Israel’s theology of kingship in the Psalms by showing how the book celebrates and petitions for Yahweh’s reign over Israel and the nations through the Davidic king (this is my thesis for you fellow nerds out there). Now, if you wanted to punt after hearing ”theology of kingship,” hang in there. That simply means that Israel thought about their king in a God-centered (i.e. Yahweh-centered) way. In short, Israel’s “theology of kingship” is this: their national king wasn’t an end in himself; the king’s rule pointed to something greater–the rule of Yahweh himself.

So, here’s where we are going in these posts:

• I will propose a strategy for how to interpret Psalms as a whole. Namely, I will suggest that we read Psalms through the lens of the Davidic covenant.
• I will examine various psalms that are often categorized as “royal” and “enthronement” psalms. That means we’ll look at the ones that emphasize David as King and Yahweh as King, respectively.
• I will examine other so-called royal psalms that point forward to a future Messiah-King, who will bring God’s rule to earth.
• Then, to wrap it all up, I will synthesize what we find and provide a summary of Israel’s “theology of kingship” in the Psalms.

I hope you’ll stay tuned over the next couple of weeks as we journey through this beloved book!

Neither Rosy Optimists nor Despairing Pessimists

George Eldon Ladd, in The Gospel of the Kingdom, writes about the proper Christian attitude as the world continues toward its end. He says that Christians should have a healthy “biblical realism” rather than dogged optimism or pessimism.

We are not rosy optimists, expecting the gospel to conquer the world and establish the Kingdom of God. Neither are we to be despairing pessimists who feel that our task is hopeless in the face of the evil of This Age. We are realists—biblical realists. While we recognize the terrible power of evil, we also continue in the mission of worldwide evangelization. As we continue that mission, we should expect to see victories revealing God’s Kingdom. But when Christ returns in glory he will accomplish the last and greatest victory.

Christ has already conquered through his gospel—and we share in that victory—and he will one day bring final victory when he returns. Nevertheless, in this age creation will groan and evil will wax and wane. I think this is especially important for us Westerners to remember in light of the upcoming election. No matter who is elected, the Kingdom of God will not come with them, nor will a tunnel of blacker darkness.

We serve a sovereign God and we do not secure victories in elections or legislation but through gospel-advancement to the ends of the earth. Therefore, in spite of any prosperity or catastrophe, the Christian never builds false assurances or loses hope in this age because our blessed hope is the return of our dearest Lord Jesus. At that time, and at that time only, will he make all things new and all the sad things untrue.