Christ: Our Ultimate Mediator as Prophet, Priest, and King

And when we look at the offices of Christ one of the key concepts that we encounter is the idea that Christ is called our mediator. Just as Moses was called the mediator of the old covenant so Christ is called the mediator of the new covenant. And what does a mediator do? A mediator is a go-between, an intermediary, somebody who stands between two or more parties usually mediating a dispute, but not necessarily. [00:00:31]

Now, when we think of mediators in the Old Testament or go-betweens or agents that function in some relationship between God and man we see three major kinds of mediators (not the only ones because you have Moses in a special category), but the three types of mediators that we meet in the Old Testament are those whom are selected by God for a specific task and then are enabled to perform their task by virtue of their being anointed by the Holy Spirit. [00:01:51]

And the three basic roles that we find there are that of the prophet, that of the priest, and that of the king. And so with respect to Jesus when we look at the offices held by Christ in the drama of redemption we say that Jesus has or is involved in what is called technically the Munus Triplex, or the threefold office that Christ fulfills all three of these Old Testament offices in one person, that Christ is our Prophet, He is our Priest, and He is our King. [00:02:29]

Now, through the prophets God gives His Word. But when we look at Christ in the New Testament, we see that He is the prophet par excellance. I want to spend a couple of moments on this because we have a tendency to underestimate this. We're so excited about His deity and His kingship and these other aspects of His ministry we tend to think that being a prophet is kind of a lesser office and not something that's very important. [00:05:08]

He not only proclaims the word of God, He is the Word of God. The author of Hebrews begins his book by saying, "In former times and divers way God has spoken to us the prophets," and so on, "but now in these latter days, He has spoken to us through His Son," who is the very incarnation of the Word of God, Who manifests fully that which the Father gives Him. [00:06:23]

Now, as a mediator in the Old Testament instead of the priest facing the people and being the spokesman for God, rather the basic posture of the priest was that the priest faced God with their back to the people, because just like the prophet the priest was a spokesman, but he spoke for the people. He was the one who came to make intercession in behalf of the people. [00:09:04]

Now we've seen that the author of Hebrews sees in Jesus a priest who is unique. We notice that in this Psalm 110 two things are ascribed to the one who is being addressed. "The Lord says to my lord sit Thou at my right hand. He will make the earth your footstool." Here is a promise of kingship that the Father gives to the Son. But in just a couple of lines later He says, "And Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." [00:10:39]

And what the author of Hebrews tells us with respect to the superiority of the priesthood of Christ is that first of all He doesn't have to make sacrifices for His own sin because He's sinless. Second of all, He doesn't have to repeat His sacrifice. The sacrifice that He offers is offered once and for all. Thirdly, the sacrifice that He offers is not that of sheep and goats, as the Scriptures tell us the blood of sheep and bulls and goats will not take away sin. [00:14:57]

And so the author of Hebrews tells us that His priesthood fulfills this text. You can see why Psalm 110 is so important because in this Psalm it declares that the Messiah would be a priest and that He would not be a Levitical priest, that He would be a priest of a different order, indeed of a higher order, namely, of the order of Melchizedek. And that higher priesthood is manifested in not only the moral perfection of Jesus, who doesn't have to make any sacrifices for His own sin before He enters into the temple. [00:13:08]

Now, you may have a difficult time thinking of the office of king biblically as being that of a mediator. But if we go back to the roots of the Old Testament it's very important for us to understand that if we ever see a manifestation of the divine right of kings, we see it in the Old Testament, because the King of Israel is not autonomous. He does not have absolute authority invested in himself, but rather he receives his office from God, and he is called to exercise a vice-regency, that is a vice regency that he is to manifest the justice and the rule of God Himself. [00:16:14]

And so when Christ comes He is heralded as the newborn king. In fact, He is crucified because of the claims to kingship, and that's what Pilate was so exercised about. You know, "What about this kingdom business?" and Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world," but that doesn't mean He didn't have a kingdom. In fact, God makes Him His King, and we see the culmination of Jesus' earthly ministry as we looked at the states of Christ's life not in His resurrection but in the ascension. [00:20:33]

Again where God then elevates Him to His right hand, takes Him to His coronation, installs Him there at His right hand as the ruler of the whole universe, as the King of the kings and as the Lord of the lords whose reign shall go on forever and ever as the King who is the Shepherd-King. Isn't that an interesting idea in the Old Testament? Like David learned how to be a good king by the care that he bestowed and the protection he gave to the sheep that were put into his care, and so the king of the Messiah-King would be a Shepherd-King and He would be a Priestly-King, not to mention a Prophetic-King. [00:22:23]