_A Summary of the Christian Faith by Henry Eyster Jacobs, D.D., LL.D Copyright, 1905, BY THE BOARD OF PUBLICATION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA. Chapter XIII. Pages 159-166 -------------------- CHAPTER XIII. THE OFFICES OF CHRIST--CHRIST AS PROPHET. I. _What relation has the contents of the two preceding chapters to what is now to be treated_? The Personal Union and the two States of Christ are means: the Offices of Christ are the end, i. e., the Son of God became incarnate and humbled Himself and was ex- alted in order to be our Prophet, Priest and King. --------------------End of Page 159-------------------- 2. _What three things belong to the Mediatorial Office_? (a) The Revelation of God's Will. (b) The Preparation of Redemption. (c) The Application of Redemption. The first is comprised in His office of Prophet, the second, in that of Priest; and the third, in that of King. 3. _What Scriptural ground is there for this distinc- tion_? He is called _Prophet_. Acts 3:31--"Moses indeed said, A prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you from among your brethren like unto me." Matt. 11:9--"A prophet? Yea, and I say unto you, much more than a prophet." _Priest_. Heb. 4:14--"Having then a great high priest who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God." 7:17--"For it is witnessed of him, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedek." _King_. Matt. 21:5--"Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee." Rev. 17:14--"The Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords and Kings of Kings." 4. _What is the meaning of "prophet"_? Not simply, or chiefly one who predicts, but the inter- preter or spokesman of God. The word "_pro_" means "forth" rather than "before" in a temporal sense. "Elijah and Paul were prophets, not because they foretold the fu- ture, but because they enlightened the present" (Stanley, as quoted by Century Dictionary). Daniel was as truly a prophet when he interpreted the dream of Nebuchadnez- zar as when he foretold future events. 5. _What, then, is the Prophetic Office_? It is that by which Christ declares to men, for all time, and for all places, the nature and will of God. John 1:18--"No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him." Heb. 1:2-- "God hath, at the end of these days, spoken unto us in his Son." Mark 9:7--"This is my beloved Son; hear ye him." The word of the Father, spoken at the Transfiguration, means, "there is no reason why you should lament the --------------------End of Page 160-------------------- departure of Moses and Elias. Here is my Son who will teach you, as well as all who follow you until the end of time, fully and plainly, all that you need to know concern- ing me and my will and the world to come. HEAR YE HIM." 6. _What does this imply_? That "all who would think or speculate in a saving manner concerning God must make all things subordinate to the humanity of Christ" (Luther, de Wette I, 226). "For this end, God had His Son to become incarnate, in order to withdraw us from the contemplation of His majesty, to that of His flesh" (Melanchthon, "Loci Com- munes," I ed.). Christ is thus the great and only Revealer of God to man. A great American preacher, of another Church, has expressed this with great force: "Why do I believe in God? If some man asked me, when on the street, I think, I should have an answer to give him. I could give one great reason--two great reasons which are really one great reason--why I believe in God. I believe in God, my friends, I believe in God with all my soul, be- cause this world is inexplicable without Him and expli- cable with Him, and because Jesus Christ believed in Him; and it was Jesus Christ that showed me that this world demanded God and was inexplicable without Him, and that made certain every suspicion and dream that I had had before" (Philip Brooks, "Addresses," p. 56). In revealing God to man, Christ also revealed man to him- self: "Not only do we know God only through Jesus Christ, but we know ourselves only through Jesus Christ. We know life and death only by Him. Except by Jesus Christ, we know not what life it, nor what death is, nor what God is, nor what we ourselves are" (Pascal, "Thoughts"). 7. _But was there no revelation of God to men prior to the incarnation_? --------------------End of Page 161-------------------- Yes, but this revelation was partial, incomplete and preparatory. Heb. 1:1, 2--"God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son." Beside this, whatever revelations they made came to them through the Son, as the Word, or Revealer of God. They were the reflection of the light which was approach- ing in the advent of the Son. 1 Peter 1:10, 11--"The prophets sought and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them did point unto." 8. _Who is by pre-eminence the great prophet of the Old Testament, and how is the Old Testament prophetic office contrasted with that of Christ_? Moses; between whom as the prophet of the Old Testa- ment, and Christ as the prophet of the New Testament the contrast is frequently drawn (Deut. 18: 15-18; John 1:21, 25; Acts 3:22; 7: 37). The former received that which he taught externally by revelation of God in the Mount (Heb. 8:7); the latter by His anointing, i. e., a peculiar gift of the Holy Spirit with His human nature, as the temple of the Godhead bodily, and the incarnate Word of God (Is. 61: 1; John 1:14). It was the duty of the Old Testament prophets and Moses as the greatest to declare: "Thus saith the Lord." It was the preroga- tive of Christ to proclaim: "Verily, verily, I say unto you." It was for them to declare the authority of God's word. But none but Christ could say: "Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away" (Matt. 24:35). 9. _What was the subject of Christ's teaching_? Both Law and Gospel. 10. _How did He teach the Law_? (a) By republishing it, without the Rabbinnical addi- tions by which it had been overlaid and obscured, and --------------------End of Page 162-------------------- without the ceremonial and forensic elements, which be- longed only to the Old Testament. (b) By indicating its spiritual character and application. 11. _Where was this especially done_? In the Sermon on the Mount, which is a restatement of the Law, with a presentation of its spiritual application, introductory to the declaration of the Gospel. 12. _In what words does Christ make most clear his relation to the Law_? Matt. 5:17, 18--"Think not that I came to destroy the law or the pro- phets; I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished." 13. _How was this further enforced_? By His holy example, in complying with all the precepts of the Law, both in letter and in spirit. His life was a model and standard as to how the two tables of the Law are to be fulfilled. There is no object lesson so complete in all its details and so impressive in its effects, as that presented in the record of His visible intercourse among men. Matt. 22:42--"Not my will, but thine be done." Phil. 2:5--"Have this mind in you which was in Christ Jesus." Rom. 15:2, 3--"Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good unto edifying. For Christ also pleased not himself." 1 Peter 2:21--"Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps." Luke 16:24--"If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." 14. _Was the preaching of the Law by Christ merely a reaffirmation of its principles, or was it accompanied also by a reaffirmation of the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures_? We need only refer to His frequent appeals to the authority of Scripture: Matt. 21:42--"Did ye never read in the Scriptures?" 22:22--"Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures." 26:52--"That the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." Luke 24:45--"Then opened he their minds that they might understand the Scriptures." --------------------End of Page 163-------------------- As well as to His customary formula, "It is written" (Matt. 4:4, 6, 7, 10; 11:10; 21:13; 26:24, 31; Mark 7:6; 9:12; 11:17; 14:21, 27, etc.). According to the teaching of Jesus, it was sufficient that a passage appealed to was in the canon of the Old Testament as received by the Jewish Church of His period, to make it authoritative (John 10:34). 15. _But did not His teaching contain a criticism of the Law_? Undoubtedly, as in passages where He leads His hear- ers from the treatment of the merely external side of the Law to its deeper meaning, i.e., from the shell to the ker- nel, as in Matt. 5:21-48, or where He exacts more than its merely provisional prescriptions allowed, as in Matt. 19:7-12. His criticism has to do not with the books or the text of the Old Testament, but entirely with its ma- terial, which, while of equal obligation for those upon whom it was enjoined, must be divided, in the light of the coming of Christ, into that which belongs to the forensic and ceremonial laws, and is, therefore, of only temporary value, and that which belongs to the Moral Law, and, therefore permanent. (Chapter XXV. 17, 27-33.) John 1:17--"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." 16. _Was the preaching of the Law the main object of this office_? No. The Law He preached, because men had forgotten and perverted what Moses had taught them. He showed how the most searching spiritual requirements were taught even by Moses (Matt. 22:36-40). The Formula of Concord (508), therefore calls "the preaching of Moses and the Law" "a strange work of Christ" (see Is. 28:21), subordinate "to his proper office, to preach grace, console and quicken, which is properly the preaching of the Gospel." --------------------End of Page 164-------------------- 17. _What is included in the Gospel_? All things pertaining to His person and work an- nounced in order to call forth and sustain faith (Chapter XXV, 34-39). The teaching of doctrine is subordinate to the bringing of men to a knowledge of the Son Him- self, and through the Son to a knowledge of the Father. Matt. 11:27--"Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." 1 John 4:9--"Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world." 18. _The Prophetic Office embraces, then, more than the function of teaching_? It includes also the impartation of spiritual power whereby through the Holy Spirit He moves men's hearts to embrace the doctrine of the Gospel (John 6:45). 19. _What two stages of this office are there_? The Immediate and the Mediate. The former was when Christ, in His own person instructed men. The latter He exercised through the Apostles, and through all who preach the Word and by their lives bear witness to the faith, until the end of time. John 20:21--"As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you." Luke 10:16--"He that heareth you, heareth me." Eph. 4:11-13. 20. _Was there progress in Christ's teaching_? The contents of the Gospel were not announced in all their fullness at once. Christ adapted His teaching to the capacity of those whom He taught. John 17:12--"I have yet may things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." Mark 4:34--"And without a parable, spake he not unto them; but private- ly to his own disciples, he expounded all things. His sufferings and death He did not announce until they were immediately impending. Neither was their significance realized until after His ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Even after Pentecost, the universality of redemption and the complete freedom of the Christian from the Mosaic ritual were only gradu- ally apprehended, and amid considerable controversy in --------------------End of Page 165-------------------- the Apostolic Church, as the Book of Acts clearly shows. The gift of the Holy Spirit as the Great Teacher was to be apprehended and utilized through the struggles of be- lievers towards the light. John 16:26--"But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father shall send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your re- membrance all that I said unto you." 21. _What were the seals of His Prophetic office_? His miracles (John 3:2; Luke 24: 19). 22. _What was their special function_? John 20:31, 31--"Many other signs there for did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God." On this, Gerhard ("Harmony of Gospels") says: "We see in this passage that his purpose is assigned miracles, viz., of being aids and supports of faith, by exciting and preparing the minds of men to believe God's Word and promises, which are worthy of belief even without mir- acles, or, as the Apostle says (1 Tim. 1:15), 'worthy of all acceptation.' Miracles, however, only confirm, they do not impart faith. They who believe not from the Word, but from miracles, in the time of temptation do not re- main steadfast."[*] 23. _What is meant by the promise (John 14:12) that greater miracles will be wrought by those who follow Him as preachers of the Gospel_? The reference is to inner spiritual miracles in the con- version of men. The number brought to the knowledge of salvation by the immediate exercise of His office was very small when compared with the thousands whom He converted mediately at Pentecost through the sermon of Peter. The changed lives of converts to Christianity is an ever repeated miracles. So also is the spread of Chris- tianity and its perpetuity through ages of incessant conflict. -------------------- *My esteemed colleague, Prof. Dr. Spaeth, in a sermon to the students of our Seminary, 1905, on the Gospel Lesson for Epiphany, illustrated this in one very condensed sentence: "From the star to the Word; from the Word to Christ." --------------------End of Chapter Page 166-------------------- This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg by William Alan Larson and is in the public domain. You may freely distribute, copy or print this text. Please direct any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther Library at Concordia Theological Seminary. 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