WSC Question 23:

Of Christ’s Offices

QUEST. 23. What offices doth Christ execute as our Redeemer?

ANSW. Christ, as our Redeemer, executeth the office of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation.

Q. To what different kinds of offices was Christ anointed?

A. To general and particular offices.

Q. Wherein do Christ’s general and particular offices differ?

A. Christ’s general offices are executed in every thing he does for our salvation; but his several particular offices are executed only in part of his work.

Q. To what general offices was Christ anointed?

A. To the offices of Mediator and Redeemer.

Q. What is the business of a Mediator?

A. It is to reconcile parties at variance.

Q. Between whom is Christ Mediator?

A. Between God and sinful men, 1 Timothy 2:5.

Q. Can there be any other Mediator between God and man?

A. No; for none other has a proper interest in both parties; nor can any lay his hand upon them both for their reconciliation, Job 9:33.

Q. How has Christ a proper interest in both parties?

A. He is God’s Son, and our brother and kinsman.

Q. Whereby does Christ remove God’s legal enmity against us?

A. By his righteousness and intercession.

Q. How does Christ slay our real enmity against God?

A. By enlightening our minds, and subduing our wills.

Q. What do you mean by a Redeemer?

A. One that recovers back what was forfeited and enslaved.

Q. Whom does Christ redeem?

A. Sinful men.

Q. From what does he redeem us?

A. From our spiritual slavery and bondage.

Q. To whom are we naturally in bondage?

A. To law and justice, sin and Satan, Isaiah 49.

Q. By what does Christ redeem sinners?

A. By price and power, or by purchase and conquest.

Q. How does he redeem us from the law and justice of God?

A. By the infinite price of his blood, 1 Peter 1:19.

Q. How does Christ redeem us from sin and Satan?

A. By the infinite power of his Spirit, in teaching, subduing, ruling, and defending us, Psalm 110.

Q. Why is not a price given to sin and Satan, as well as to law and justice?

A. Because sin and Satan have no just right to enslave sinners, except what depends on the law and justice of God.

Q. Who typified Christ as our Redeemer?

A. The kinsman-redeemer under the law [of Moses], in his redeeming his brother or near kinsman.

Q. Wherein does our redemption by Christ resemble that?

A. Christ buys back our persons from slavery, and our inheritance from mortgage; avenges our blood upon Satan our murderer; and by marriage with our nature and persons, raises up a seed of saints, and fruits of good works.

Q. To what particular offices was Christ anointed?

A. To the offices of prophet, priest, and king.

Q. Did ever these three offices properly meet in any other?

A. No; but Christ is the way to God as a priest, the truth as a prophet, and the life as a king.

Q. How do you prove that Christ is a prophet?

A. The scripture calls him a prophet like to Moses.

Q. How do you prove that Christ is a priest?

A. He is often so called in scripture, and God swears that he is a priest for ever, Psalm 110:4.

Q. How do you prove that Christ is a king?

A. The scripture often affirms it, and God calls him his king set upon his holy hill of Zion, Psalm 2:6.

Q. Why behoved [required] Christ to have all these three offices?

A. To cure our threefold misery of ignorance, guilt, and bondage, Acts 24:18; Colossians 1:13.

Q. How does Christ cure our ignorance?

A. By becoming the wisdom of God to us as a prophet.

Q. How does Christ cure our guilt?

A. By becoming the Lord our righteousness as a priest.

Q. How does Christ deliver us from bondage?

A. By becoming our sanctification and redemption as a king.

Q. What connection has our salvation with these offices of Christ?

A. He purchased our salvation as a priest, reveals it as a prophet, and applies it as a king.

Q. What connection have the gospel-promises in general with these three offices of Christ?

A. Christ reveals the promises as a prophet, confirms them by his blood as a priest, and applies them as a king.

Q. Are Christ’s offices the proper fountain of the gospel-promises in the original making of them?

A. No; but rather Christ’s offices flow from the original making of the promises.

Q. What then is the proper fountain of the promises in the original making of them?

A. The infinite, free, and sovereign love of God.

Q. Does not the accomplishment of the promises on us flow from the offices of Christ?

A. Yes.

Q. What promises are accomplished by Christ’s executing the office of a prophet?

A. The promises of light, leading, knowledge, and instruction.

Q. What promises stand immediately connected with Christ’s priestly office?

A. The promises of pardon, peace, reconciliation , acceptance, etc.

Q. What promises are accomplished by Christ’s executing his kingly office?

A. The promises of regeneration, sanctification, defence and preservation from enemies , and victory over them, etc.

Q. In what different orders do Christ’s offices stand related to one another?

A. In their natural order of dependence upon one another, and their order of execution upon the hearts of sinners.

Q. How do they stand in their natural order?

A. The priestly office possesses the first place, the prophetical the second, and the kingly the last.

Q. Why must Christ’s priestly office stand first in the natural order?

A. Because divine justice cannot admit of our being blessed with instruction or deliverance, until first in order of nature our sins be atoned for; and God, as reconciled through Christ’s death, must be the matter which he as a prophet does teach; and his blood must be the price of his kingdom, Isaiah 53.

Q. Why must Christ’s prophetical office stand before his kingly?

A. Because his saving instructions are the means of our subjection to him as our king.

Q. Where is this natural order of Christ’s offices clearly represented?

A. In the 22nd Psalm; where Christ first suffers as a priest, then declares God’s name to his brethren as a prophet, and at last becomes governor among the nations as a king.

Q. What is the order of Christ’s offices in their execution upon us?

A. The prophetical office possesses the first place, the priestly the second, and the kingly the last.

Q. Why must his prophetical office be first executed on us?

A. Because until we are savingly taught by him as our prophet, we can neither know, nor believe on him as our priest for remission and acceptance.

Q. Why must the priestly office stand before the kingly in this order of execution upon us?

A. Because until the death of Christ as a priest is applied to our conscience, for removing our guilt, and slaying our enmity against God, there can be no deliverance from the bondage of sin, or subjection to Christ as a king.

Q. Is it very dangerous to invert the due order of Christ’s offices?

A. Yes; it is ruining to our souls.

Q. Who invert this order?

A. Such as place Christ’s kingly office before his priestly, by teaching, that Christ in the gospel has given us a new law of sincere obedience, by observance of which, we become entitled to Christ and his righteousness.

Q. What is the danger of that doctrine?

A. It makes our justification to depend on the works of the law.

Q. Do sinners close [join] with all Christ’s offices at once?

A. Yes; Christ cannot be divided, 1 Corinthians 1:13.

Q. To which of these offices must we fly [flee] for justifying righteousness?

A. Only to the priestly, Romans 3:24.

Q. Does Christ fully execute all his offices?

A. Yes.

Q. What mean you by Christ’s executing his offices?

A. His doing the work that belongs to each of them.

Q. In what estates does Christ execute his offices?

A. In his estate of humiliation and of exaltation.

Q. Why did he first in order of nature execute them in an estate of humiliation?

A. Because by his humiliation he procured to himself the honour of executing them in an estate of exaltation, Philippians 2.

Q. How long shall Christ continue to execute his offices?

A. To all eternity.

Q. How prove you that Christ will be a prophet for ever?

A. From the Lamb’s (or Christ’s) being called the light of heaven, which is everlasting, Isaiah 60:19.

Q. How prove you that Christ will be a priest forever?

A. God sware to him, Thou art a priest forever, Psalm 110:4.

Q. How prove you that Christ shall be a king for ever?

A. Of his kingdom there shall be no end; and he shall reign forever, Isaiah 9:7; Luke 1:33.

Q. How should we improve [prove and confirm in our lives] these offices of Christ?

A. By receiving and employing him in them all in their due order, for wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification.