23. What offices doth Christ execute as our Redeemer?
A: 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.
The Reverend John R. Mackay said that once when he looked into his own heart he could see there nothing but darkness, guilt and pride. “But,” he continued, “then I remembered that Christ is a Prophet who can dispel my darkness. Christ is a Priest who can remove my guilt, Christ is a King who can humble my pride. And I said that it were good that Christ and I should meet.”
In this answer the work of Christ for our salvation is described in the language of three offices and two states.
An office is any special trust, duty, charge or service laid upon or taken up by one person to perform for another. In the Old Testament we read of the work or offices of many prophets, priests, and kings. Our Lord Jesus Christ did all that it took three sets of men to do in the Old Testament and did all these offices better than they had. And He did all of the offices at one and the same time. He was and He is now our Prophet, our Priest, and our King; yes and our Shepherd, our Head, our Lord and Saviour.
And yet there is a difference between His state or condition as He did these things on earth and as He now does them in heaven. Phil. 2:5-11 tells us that, though Christ was in the form of God, yet He humbled Himself by becoming man, by taking the form of a servant, by dying the painful and shameful death of the Cross. We call this His estate of humiliation. The same passage tells us that because Christ did all this for our salvation, therefore, God also highly exalted Him. God raised Him from the dead and placed Him at His own right hand to reign over the people of God. This is Christ’s estate of exaltation.
The work of Christ in all His offices is entirely adequate and complete. His people need no other prophet, no other priest, no other king to add to what He has done, or to supplement what He is doing. Remember, He is not insufficient, He is our all-sufficient Saviour!
-William Childs Robinson