The Three Offices of Christ
When we speak of Christ’s offices we are saying that He is our great Prophet (Acts 3:22, 26), our only high Priest (Heb. 7:24–28), and our eternal King (Rev. 17:14).
With these three offices He is unique in Scripture. No one else except Melchizedek (cf. Heb. 7) held all three offices. During the kingdom years it was forbidden that the kings of Israel and Judah serve both as priests and kings (cf. I Sam. 13:8–14; II Chron. 26:16–21).
A man might be a priest and a prophet like Samuel, or he might be a king and a prophet like David, but he could not be both king and priest. Only Melchizedek was both, and he was a unique picture of Christ. Christ, therefore, is unique. There is no one like Him, nor any other beside Him.
Because there is no one like Him, we must have no other beside Him: no earthly priest or prophet, and no king but Christ. His claims put to shame the claims of all those who say that they are prophets or priests or supreme rulers in the church of Jesus Christ. The church has no head but Christ, no prophet but the living word of God, and no priest but the Son of God.
But what is an office?
An office is first of all a position of service. With His offices Christ is called in Scripture “the Servant of Jehovah,” especially in the prophecies of Isaiah. As Servant of Jehovah He comes to do God’s will and work (cf. Isa. 49:1-6; John 4:34).
An office is also a position of authority. In His three offices Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). As Prophet His words have such authority that those who do not hear Him will perish. His rule as King is supreme over all. His work as Priest, both in making sacrifice and in blessing us, is a saving work because He was given authority by God to make that one sacrifice which atones for sin.
An office is also a mediatorial position. As Prophet, Priest and King He is our Mediator. He stands between God and us not only to make a priestly sacrifice for sin that satisfies the demands of God’s justice but also to bring us God’s word as Prophet and to rule over us in God’s name as sovereign King.
His name, Christ (or Messiah), tells us all this. That name means “Anointed One” and refers to the fact that He is anointed and appointed by God the Father through the Holy Spirit to be our Prophet, Priest and King.
Truly there is none like Him. Let us listen to no other, bow to no other, and trust in no other sacrifice but His. Rev. Ron Hanko
The Food of the Word
Our readers will recall that previously in our News (vol. III, no. 24), in discussing James 1:18, I spoke about the relation between the preaching of the word and regeneration.
I spoke in that article about the responsibility that God puts on us with respect to the preaching because the preaching of the gospel is connected to regeneration.
This subject is important enough to be discussed in a separate article.
We may take as our starting point Peter’s words in I Peter 2:1–3: “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”
I mentioned the fact that God, who through His Holy Spirit is the author of the new life of regeneration in the hearts of His elect, creates by this new life a new man. He has also ordained that the new man grow spiritually. That new man grows spiritually by being fed. That is why Peter speaks of “growing” in the verse quoted above.
But that new man grows spiritually by spiritual food and that food is the preaching of the gospel. Peter compares the preaching of the gospel with “milk” which a baby drinks from its mother because that milk is a “perfect” food for the child. In fact it is a food which even gives the newborn baby what is necessary to ward off infections and diseases.
What a beautiful figure this is!
We are newborn babes in Christ. We need food which is perfect. That is, we need food which will ward off the diseases of sin and error. It will make us “immune” to them. And at the same time it will enable us to grow so that we become mature men of God.
God will see to it that those who are born again by His power will also receive that milk of the word. God knows who His elect are. He feeds those elect by means of the preaching. God applies that preaching to the hearts of the elect so that they are preserved. His people are so fed that they grow spiritually until the time God takes them to heaven. It is all the work of God.
It is also true that God saves His people as rational and moral men. That is, God saves His people in such a way that they become conscious of their salvation so that they know it, appreciate it and are thankful for it.
As my seminary professor was wont to say, “God does not take His people to heaven on the upper berth of a Pullman sleeper,” a reference to the sleeping cars of the old railroads.
This puts a responsibility upon us.
There are different kinds of preaching.
There is preaching which is partly truth and partly heresy. It is preaching which is said to be biblical and Reformed but which in fact is partly a proclamation of God’s sovereign and particular grace and partly a proclamation of the Arminian doctrine of man’s free will and his natural ability to accept or reject the overtures of a gospel “offer.”
This preaching is a mixture of spiritual food and poison. If you feed your children a mixture of good food and poison they will eventually die. If a preacher feeds his congregation with a mixture of the truth of Scripture and the poison of heresy the people will die.
There is preaching which has no heresy in it but which is not sharp and clear proclamation of the truths of God’s sovereign and particular grace. It is the kind of preaching to which a Reformed man responds with the words, “I really did not hear anything wrong in that sermon but there was nothing alive or strong or biblical either.” It is wishy-washy preaching. It is like a soup or stew which in itself is wholesome but which is so watered down that one who eats it most of the time is not going to be poisoned by it but if that is all he eats he will become weak and sickly from anaemia.
And so it is with preaching. Weak, watered-down preaching that resembles watery soup gives no nourishment to feed the new man in Christ.
We are health-conscious these days. We want good food, nourishing food, food which will give us health. Not too much fat, we say, for we have to watch our cholesterol. Not too much “junk food” from McDonald’s because there are not enough vitamins in that food. We want a balanced diet.
But when it comes to the food of our soul we can be singularly careless, even though our spiritual life is far more important than our natural life in the world.
Peter tells us that we must “desire” the sincere milk of the word. That is our calling. The consequences of not doing so are terrible. The blessings of doing so are many and great.
But that calling means that we seek that church where such true preaching is found and that is the nourishment we need. It is preaching which is biblical, preaching which is solidly doctrinal, preaching which gives us the truth as it is in Christ—for Christ (who comes to us through the preaching) is finally the food of our souls.
To do less is to imperil our soul’s salvation. To be obedient is to be blessed with great and wonderful blessings. Prof. Herman Hanko
What Is the Function of the Local Church?
One of our readers has asked, “What is the function of the local church?” This is an important question that needs a clear answer from the word of God, especially today. The church today has largely abandoned its God-appointed work.
That the local church has often failed in its responsibilities is at least one reason, we believe, why many do not understand the importance of the local church and do not want membership in it. If the local church were more diligent in fulfilling her calling perhaps people would love her more.
Christ gives the local church its commission in Matthew 28:19-20. The sole function of the church, according to Christ, is the preaching of the gospel and the administering of the sacraments which Christ appointed.
This is confirmed by Paul’s exhortation to the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20. The work he did in Ephesus was a pattern for the elders there and for the church of all ages. That work involved nothing more nor less than the faithful preaching of the gospel.
At several points the local church today has failed in this calling. Many see the calling of the church primarily as a political or social calling. There is no ground for this in Scripture. One would be hard-pressed to find from the preaching of Jesus or the apostles anything at all about the political climate or social problems of the world in which they lived. Their preaching concerned exclusively sin and grace.
Paul says it well in I Corinthians 2:2, 4: “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified … And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”
Would that more churches today would say the same!
Often too the church today fails in its calling toward its own members. In many churches they are almost entirely neglected. They are more often than not so completely uninstructed in the Scriptures that the words of the prophet come true, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6). Nor is the word brought for their comfort and admonition as Paul brought it, that is, “from house to house” (Acts 20:20).
This is especially a fault when the church meetings are used for evangelistic purposes rather than for the building up of the people of God. We would heartily agree with the sentiment which says, “The notion that church meetings should be used to tantalize or attract non-Christians is a delusory recent development. Nothing like it is found in Scripture. In fact the apostle Paul spoke of unbelievers entering the assembly as an exceptional event (I Cor. 14:23).” Hebrews 10:24-25 indicates that church services are for the benefit of believers, not unbelievers. The early church’s priorities clearly were to worship God and to uplift the brethren. “The church came together for worship and edification. It scattered to evangelize the world” (John MacArthur).
Sadly it is the case in many churches that the people having been evangelized and brought in find that their Christian growth stops at that point. Nothing more is done for them. They are only bodies to fill pews and numbers on the evangelism records of the church. The young people and children too are almost entirely neglected in spite of Jesus’ command, “Feed my lambs” (John 21:15). Yet people wonder why so many of them show no interest and go away as they get older.
Would that local churches see this, repent and return! Rev. Ron Hanko
