OUR PROPHET JESUS CHRIST

 

OUR PROPHET JESUS CHRIST

Westminster Shorter Catechism 24

Quest. How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?

Ans. Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by His Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.

Introduction

When you look around the world it’s not hard to see that many people have a poor knowledge of God. You just have to look at all the false religions to see that people have a poor understanding of God – Judaism, Islamism, Hinduism, etc. And you can see that people have a faulty understanding of God on account of Socialism, Communism, Secularism, Humanism, Atheism, etc.

Inchmurrin Island, Loch Lomond

People all over the world think that you can choose to worship God any old way you want. Or they think that you can ignore God or relegate Him into the realm of philosophy, mythology or whatever. All of this just goes to show that fallen man has a warped and sinful understanding of the God who made us.

Some people worship sticks, stones, trees, and rivers – even the whole planet earth or the sun. While others pretend that they don’t worship anything as they devote themselves to their football team, or their job, or their family or whatever. Yes, we can make a graven image of sport, work, family etc., every bit as much as we can sticks, stones, metals, and trees!

When God created Man, He created him in His own image and likeness  with true knowledge of God, of Man, and of God’s creation. But when Man sinned in Adam his understanding became darkened. He entered into a new realm – the realm of ignorance. Man therefore needs to have his understanding renewed if he is going to know the truth about God, man himself, and God’s creation.

The good news is that God took the initiative. He has sent His only begotten Son to bring us, among other things, the understanding we need in order to be saved from the penalty for our sins. He has brought us the knowledge of salvation that we might receive eternal life. This is to say that we need to know the true God personally if we are to receive eternal life from Him.

The Apostle John says, “And we know that the Son of God has come and given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true; in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

To know the true God and to be in His Son (i.e., to be a true believer) is to know eternal life. Jesus Christ reveals the true God to us in His Gospel, i.e., by His Spirit and His Word. And He gives us this revelation through His office of Prophet.

Jesus Christ is Our Prophet by God’s Will

Jesus Christ has been raised up and anointed as our Prophet by God. Where does the Bible call Jesus Christ a Prophet? Well, we all know that Moses was a prophet of God. In his capacity as prophet Moses was a type or picture of Christ “For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people’” (Acts 3:22-23).

So, we see then from the context of this verse that Jesus Christ is the Prophet that God raised up. Therefore, Jesus Christ is to be listened to in all things in whatever He says, which is to say that Jesus Christ reveals the will of God. And those who listen to Him, and who, by the power of the Spirit, put into practice what He is revealing, will not be destroyed.

However, conversely, the warning for those who do not hear or heed Him is that they shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. But the main thing we need to see is that Jesus Christ is the Prophet of God. Therefore, all other true prophets in the Bible simply pointed to Him.

Now, as you know, a prophet forth-tells the will of God as well as fore-telling the will of God. In other words, prophets are not only about telling the future. Prophets by the Holy Spirit reveal truth about God, about Man, and about God’s creation. In a word, prophets bring understanding from God to man.

Now then, because of the fall, man in many ways has become ignorant of God and His creation. Though he knows about God, his understanding of God is distorted by his own sin. Fallen man suppresses the truth about God, himself, and creation in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18) and believes the lie instead (Rom. 1:25). Therefore, man needs his understanding renewed.

The full understanding of God is brought to us in Jesus Christ, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2a). So, God used to speak to His people by His prophets, plural. Now He speaks to His people by His Prophet, singular, even Jesus Christ.

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In Old Testament times God communicated to the prophets by theophanies, voices and visions etc. And in New Testament times, even our own, He communicates by His Son, our Prophet, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God’s last and final Word to fallen man. That’s why it shall be that every soul who will not hear this Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.

There is no other prophet to come after Jesus. If you’re not listening to what God’s saying to you in Jesus Christ, you’re not listening to God. And if you’re not listening to God then you are doomed to destruction!

Fallen man thinks there is a smorgasbord of ways of knowing God. But there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Jesus Christ is the very last and very final Prophet of God.

Jesus Christ Reveals God’s Will to Us

Jesus Christ our Prophet, in a word, reveals God’s will to us. When we talk about the will of God, what do we mean? Well, the will of God is what God wills or wants us to believe and do. If God wills you or me to do something, does that mean we’ll automatically do it? You’d have to say it doesn’t. Why is this?  Some would say that it’s because man has free will and that God will not interfere with that free will. But that would place man outside of the control of God, wouldn’t it?

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    If man operated outside of the will of God, then God has lost control of His creation, or at least that part of it that is man. Do you see what I mean? If man has a free or autonomous will (i.e., free and autonomous from God), then God is left as a spectator in the affairs of men. God is left in the sidelines like you or me watching a football match from the bleachers. All He can do is wrap Himself up in club colours and cheer His side on! But that’s not how Almighty God operates, is it? No, God in a former time spoke to His people by His prophets. And in our own time speaks to us by His Son Jesus Christ our Prophet.

It’s through this “speaking” to us that God reveals His will to us. And what are some of the things He reveals to us? What are some of the things that God would have us believe? Well, one of the major things has to be that man’s will is now in bondage.

Fallen man refuses to believe that his will is in any kind of bondage. And truth be known, this is actual evidence if not proof that fallen man’s will is in bondage. But how can the will of man be in bondage if it’s supposed to be a free will? Well one of the things Jesus Christ has come to do is give us understanding. Understanding of what? Well, as already mentioned, He brings us an understanding of God, of ourselves, and of God’s creation.

What is wrong with our understanding that we need revelation from God? Well, as already mentioned, both our will and our understanding are in bondage. Bondage to what? Bondage to going against the will of God, that’s what!

Sin is the breaking of God’s Law. God’s revealed will is God’s Law. Therefore, anyone who cannot stop themselves from sinning proves that they are in bondage to sin. Therefore, if you claim you have free will and you are doing anything other than the will of God you are proving that your will is in bondage and is not free.

If your will was free, you would always do the will of God because you were made to image God. You would not go against His will. Put another way, if your will was free, you would keep God’s Law. Why? Because God’s Law is God’s will for man. Fallen man does not keep God’s Law because his will is under the rulership of sin, which sin is the transgressing of God’s Law (1 John 3:4). Therefore, one of the things our Prophet Jesus Christ reveals to us is that we are sinners.

He reveals to us that we sin in thought, word, and deed. Why do we sin in thought, word, and deed? Because our understanding has been darkened. As the sun sets in the west, so the light of knowledge has set in our minds. By our own choice we have let a mountain of sin has come between God’s light and us. That is what man desired when in Adam he sinned against God.

Man wanted separation from God. Man desired to be autonomous from God. Man wanted his will to be free, free from God’s will. Therefore, our will is in bondage to our sinful desires. God created Adam with a true knowledge of God, of man, and of creation, and of God’s will (Rom. 2:14-16). God also entered into a covenant, the pre-Fall Covenant of Works, with Adam as Man’s representative (Gen. 1:26-28, 16-17, 3:17-19; Hos. 6:7; Rom. 5:12f).

Adam was created with a free will. Before the Fall Adam’s will was to do only God’s revealed will. But after the Fall, Adam’s will was to go against God’s will. That’s the bondage of the will. Adam desired free will, i.e., a will free from God and His Moral Law. In this he set himself up as prophet. He became a false prophet. Yet even after the Fall God still demands that man do God’s revealed will – that Man keep His covenant (Gal. 3:12).

God never lessened or lowered the demands after man exercised his free will and sinned. God still demands perfect obedience to His Law even though man’s will is now in bondage. But what happens if fallen man tries his hardest to keep God’s Law? He still fails miserably, doesn’t he? Why? Because his will is in bondage to sin, to going against God’s Law, that’s why!

Jesus Christ Reveals God’s Will to Us for Our Salvation

In short, He is revealing to us the will of God for our salvation. Notice how the Catechism says He does it, “by His Word and Spirit.” Why not just by His Word? If we have free will, then surely His Word alone would suffice? Why do we need the Spirit of God if all we have to do to be saved is to conform our supposed free will to God’s revealed will? Well, think about it, our Prophet Jesus Christ is revealing to us, by His Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation. It’s our salvation that is in view when Christ reveals God’s will to us.

Therefore, it’s not, “Here’s My will. Now go and exercise your own free will in order to save yourself!” No, that would be like supplying you with a hot air balloon without any means of hot air! It would be like putting on the kettle to boil for you without putting water in it! It would be an empty salvation, as empty as a cheap Easter egg! No, Jesus our Prophet doesn’t just reveal God’s Will to us. He reveals God’s Will to us for our salvation! Therefore, He doesn’t just give us the Word. No, He gives us the Word and the Spirit for our salvation, which is to say that He gives us the hot air for the balloon that will lift us to Heaven. He puts the living water in our kettle and brings it to the boil.

Jesus executes His office of Prophet not by an empty word, but rather by His Word and His Spirit working together. He brings us to life by His Spirit as He calls us by His Word. We remain dead to the Word unless the Spirit fills us as air fills our lungs, as water fills our bellies. Thus, the Spirit works with the Word.

Without air we are dead; without water we are dead. Without the Spirit of God we are dead. Therefore, Jesus Christ our Prophet gives us His Word and His Spirit. It’s like the “Valley of Dry Bones” in Ezekiel 37. You can prophesy or talk to the bones till you are blue in the face and nothing would happen unless the Spirit breathes life into dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones!

As a stale room needs fresh air, so does fallen man need the Holy Spirit. As a stagnant and therefore dead pond needs fresh water, so fallen man needs the Spirit of Christ. As an ignorant man needs knowledge, so fallen man needs the Spirit with the Word. Man in his fallen state is ignorant of God’s will for salvation. Therefore, fallen man needs the true Prophet to reveal to him that will.

Jesus Christ our Prophet reveals God’s will by His Word and His Spirit, for our salvation. Therefore, if Christ is revealing God’s will to us by His Spirit with the Word, it is Christ who is saving us and not we who are saving ourselves by exercising our supposed free will to make a decision to follow Jesus!

Our Prophet Jesus Christ has been raised up by God. Therefore, He is God’s spokesman. If we don’t listen to Him, instead of being saved to the uttermost, we will spend eternity in Hell being utterly destroyed by the wrath of God (John 3:36). Therefore, we need to study His Word, don’t we? And we need to ask for His Spirit to help us to understand it.

Rev Prof Dr Francis Nigel Lee

If the Word makes us wise unto salvation, then we need, like Timothy, to be instructed in it. And that’s why the Lord gifts His Church with preachers and teachers. In a word, these gifts are the Spirit. Do you see it? Jesus Christ our Prophet reveals God’s will to us for our salvation by raising up gifted preachers and teachers in His Church.

The gifts of preaching and teaching of God’s Word that these men have are simply the Holy Spirit at work. All the gifts the Lord gives His Church are summed up in a word – the Spirit. The Spirit with the Word is what gives us an understanding of our need for salvation. And the Spirit with the Word is what satisfies that need for salvation.

As an empty cup needs filling, so does ignorant man need knowledge for salvation. Jesus Christ our Prophet fills our need by His Spirit with the Word. In Christ our Prophet our cup runneth over (Psa. 23:5 KJV). In Christ our Prophet streams of living water flow from our bellies (John 7:38 KJV).

We need to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom. Therefore, every Christian ought to crave good teaching. That’s how you tell who’s who in the churches. Those who are Christians crave good, solid Biblical teaching. Those who are not only want their ears tickled!

Ear tickling massages only ears. Good preaching and teaching of God’s Word massages dead hearts unto life! Ear tickling is to have sweet nothings whispered in your ear. It’s to hear the meaningless chatter of a budgie bird. It’s to have a budgie nibble on your earlobes. Budgie words are empty words. But the Christian seeks to be filled. He seeks to have Christ’s Word dwell in him richly in all wisdom. Therefore, the true Christian seeks the true Prophet. And he finds that true Prophet wherever the Spirit labours with the Word.

To be sure, some preachers and teachers excel other preachers and teachers, but whatever gifts they have, they all come from the Lord Himself. Therefore, it is our Prophet Jesus Christ Himself who is speaking through His preachers and teachers as they tell forth His Word. His gifted preachers and teachers are His mouthpiece.

Jesus Christ our Prophet reveals God’s will to us through His preachers and teachers as they expound God’s Word. And He reveals God’s will to us for our salvation. And He reveals God’s will to us by His Spirit working with His Word. Therefore, His preachers and teachers must themselves first be full of His Spirit and His Word if we are going to have revealed to us God’s will for our salvation.

If the preachers and teachers are confused, then the message of salvation becomes garbled. Therefore, we should all keep on praying that the Lord would be pleased to raise up preachers and teachers who will clearly reveal God’s will to us regarding salvation.

Conclusion

Jesus Christ is our Prophet. He is the eternal Word of God who in the fullness of time became also man. “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one” (1 John 5:7). As Jesus, the Word incarnate, lived a perfect life under God’s Law on behalf of us who couldn’t. He paid in full the penalty we owe God for our breaking of His Law. He was raised from the dead, proving that God was satisfied with His work.

Jesus Christ our Prophet is now bodily in Heaven. Yet He still speaks to us by His Spirit through His Word. And He does so by gifting His Church with gifted preachers and teachers. In this way He brings light to darkness, knowledge to ignorance – but only to those who listen to Him, i.e., to those who hear Him and do His will!

We’ve seen something of what Westminster Shorter Catechism 24 means when it asks: How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet? Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by His Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.

Quoted from my Growth Enhancer book. See Amazon for you copy: Growth Enhancer: Enlarging Westminster Shorter Catechism 1-28 : McKinlay, Neil Cullan: Amazon.com.au: Books