Priest and king

This week's questions

How doth Christ execute the office of a priest? Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God; and in making continual intercession for us.

Question 25

How doth Christ execute the office of a king? Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

Question 26

Question 24 opened Christ's office as prophet (last week); Questions 25 and 26 open the other two. How he carried them out in his humiliation and exaltation is the subject of Questions 27 and 28 next week.

One offering, unceasing prayer

Christ is both the priest and the sacrifice. The first proof text says that "through the eternal Spirit" he "offered Himself unblemished to God" (Hebrews 9:14), and the next that he offered himself once:

so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.

Hebrews 9:28

The old priests repeated their sacrifices; "by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14). Charles Spurgeon, the London Baptist preacher, contrasted the Passover lamb, killed every year, with Christ: "our greatest joy is, that the blood of Jesus has been once shed" Spurgeon, The Blood.

‘To satisfy divine justice’ means that God does not pretend sin away. Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, put it in a sentence: "to sin is nothing else than not to render to God his due" Anselm, Why God Became Man 1.11. Paying that debt is satisfaction. The Belgic Confession (1561), of the continental Reformed churches, confesses that Christ offered himself on the cross "to appease his wrath by his full satisfaction" Belgic Confession, Art. 21, and the Reformed teach it as penal substitution: he bore the penalty we deserved. Its fruit is reconciliation: God "reconciled us to Himself through Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:18). The third proof text says he was made like his brothers to be "a merciful and faithful high priest" for the sins of the people (Hebrews 2:17).

The last proof text says his priesthood goes on: "He always lives to intercede for them" (Hebrews 7:25). Matthew Henry, an English minister, writes that he holds his office "to give spiritual and eternal life to all who rely upon his sacrifice and intercession" Matthew Henry. So the Belgic Confession says that we have "no access unto God save alone through the only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous" Art. 26.

The church has used several pictures for how the cross saves. The Fathers loved the picture of Christ the victor over sin, death and the devil Gustaf Aulén, Christus Victor; in the twelfth century Peter Abelard stressed the love of the cross kindling love in us Abelard, Commentary on Romans. The Reformed gladly receive the victory and the example, and hold that both rest on the satisfaction.

The Catholic Church teaches that Christ left his church a visible sacrifice, by which the one sacrifice offered in blood on the cross is made present in the Mass without the shedding of blood, and its saving power applied for the forgiveness of sins Council of Trent, Decree on the Sacrifice of the Mass. The Reformed hold that the single offering was sufficient and cannot be repeated, and the Westminster Confession calls the Supper "a commemoration of that one offering up of himself, by himself, upon the cross, once for all" WCF 29.2.

On the question of whom Christ died for, the Canons of Dort, of the Dutch Reformed synod, and John Owen teach that he effectually redeemed those the Father had given him Canons of Dort 2.8 John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ; the Arminian Remonstrants and the Lutherans, that he died for all. Within the Reformed world the seventeenth-century French theologian Moïse Amyraut offered another account. The cross and atonement, in the Christian Doctrine course, sets out these views; see also Why did Jesus have to die?

The King who rules and defends

In the first proof text of Question 26, James recalls how God visited the Gentiles "to take from them a people to be His own" (Acts 15:14). The King first gathers his people. ‘Subduing us to himself’ is not dragging us against our will: "Your people shall be willing on Your day of battle" (Psalm 110:3). The next proof texts confess "the LORD is our King. It is He who will save us" (Isaiah 33:22), and foresee a king who "will reign in righteousness" (Isaiah 32:1). The Larger Catechism says he rules by "preserving and supporting them under all their temptations and sufferings" Larger Catechism, Q. 45. Another proof text names the end of his reign:

For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

1 Corinthians 15:25-26

The powers were already disarmed at the cross (Colossians 2:15); at the last day they will fall entirely. See also Prophet, priest and king and, in the Reformed Faith course, Christ alone.

To ponder this week

Christ intercedes for me today: how does that change my praying this week, and where do I still resist his rule? Begin your prayers with Hebrews 7:25. Your prayers may be halting, but his intercession does not stop. Where you find a place you have kept back from him, make it a place to hand over, not a place of condemnation.

Practice