The Pentateuch in the Old Testament identifies three specific religious institutions vital to the work of God in man. Moses explains to the Israelites these three offices in Deuteronomy 17-18. The passage not only explains the function of the three institutions in Israel’s theocentric society but also anticipates their fulfillment in the coming of Jesus Christ. Furthermore through Christ’s fulfillment and perfection of the three Deuteronomic institutions the Church, the bride of Christ, becomes enable to embody the three roles as well.
The first role Moses identifies is the institution of Kingship. Its central purpose is to possess and exercise dominion over God’s people. Verse 15 says, “you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses.” The phrase, “over yourselves” is reiterated three times within the one verse emphasizing the king’s authority and power over the people. Verse 15 further demonstrates God’s role and sovereignty in choosing and appointing Israel’s king. Just as all the king’s dominion would emanate from God’s authority, it would also be solely by God’s providence that the king would come.
While the Old Testament goes on to record the eventual appointment and reigns of numerous kings over Israel it is not until the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, when God is made flesh, that the institution is properly filled. First, God required that the king be an Israelite brother. Both Matthew’s genealogical record as well as Paul’s epistle to the Romans testify to Christ’s place among His Jewish brethren. This role of brethren is extended beyond the Jewish nationality in Matthew 25:40 where Christ calls His people the King’s brethren. In His humanity, as manifested in the Incarnation, Christ identifies with man and becomes his brother, fulfilling the requirement of king in Deut. 17 as a fellow “countryman.”
The Scriptures clearly demonstrate how Christ is King and holds dominion over the peoples of the earth. Matthew 25:31-34 pictures Christ sitting on His throne with all the nations gathered before Him under His dominion. Just as authority in Deuteronomy 17 comes from the God so also does Christ’s dominion emanate from the Father. First, this change in terminology from “Son of Man” to “King” in verse 34 mirrors Daniel’s prophecy, “One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him” (Dan. 7:13-14). With this assumption of dominion Christ assumes the role of eschatological Judge from God as well (Matt. 25:31; 28:18; 1 Cor. 15:25; Heb. 12:2).
His rule and His kingdom are further declared as perfect and holy. The prophecy of Daniel 7 goes on to declare, “His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:14). The apostle John records that, “on His robe and on his thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev. 19:16). The Spirit of God testifies throughout the Scriptures God the Father’s appointment of the Son as King and Lord over all the earth.
What is astounding is despite His glory and power Jesus Christ identifies Himself intimately with man through the Incarnation and crucifixion. By His atoning death and justifying act of righteousness on the cross Christ empowers the Church, His bride, with the same dominion over the earth. Before His ascension into Heaven Christ grants the same authority by which He rules to His disciples (Matt. 28:18-20). More than simply granting authority to His followers, the New Testament teaches that Christ shares His authority with Christians. John 1:12 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.” This implied brotherhood with Christ is further fleshed out in Romans 8:17 where Paul writes, “and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” As aforementioned because Christ became man and died for man’s sins when man responds in faith to Christ’s offer of salvation he becomes identified with Christ and, as Paul teaches, is considered co-heir with Him over all God has granted dominion over.
The second institution set forth is the Priesthood. Exodus 28:1-3 records Aaron’s calling by God to be His priest. The passages illustrates the honor of such a calling as well as reminds the reader that it is only God who calls. As Deuteronomy 18 demonstrates the priests were responsible for mediation between God and His people in the form of making sacrifices on their behalf. The Levitical priesthood, however, was imperfect and therefore incapable by their own merits of making a pure and complete sacrifice for the Israelites before God. Therefore the priests were to first sacrifice bulls to make atonement for themselves before interceding on behalf of the people.
Jesus Christ, however, requires no such self-atoning act. Being fully God Christ intercedes for man before the Father without blemish or fear (1 Tim. 2:5). Just as in the Levitical priesthood, Jesus was called and appointed priest by God the Father (Heb. 5:5). While on earth He pleaded with the Father on man’s behalf and through His perfection reconciles man to God (Heb. 5:7-9). The Hebrews-author writes, “He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance” (Heb. 9:15). Christ’s intercession is made possible because of the hypostatic union that exists within His person. Being both fully God and fully man, He bridges the gap in order to be the perfect mediator and high priest (Heb. 2:17).
Because Christ has mediated and interceded with the Father on man’s behalf and because He identified with man and made him His brother (Heb. 2:17; 4:15), Christians, too, are called to fulfill the institution of the Priesthood. The apostle Peter writes that the Church is a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). Paul makes the same exhortation in Romans 12:1 urging believers to consider themselves as “living sacrifices” to God to His glory and honor. As Christ’s ambassadors to a lost world it is further the duty of the Church to intercede on behalf of an unbelieving world. Jesus tells His disciples to “beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest” (Luke 10:2).
Finally, Deuteronomy 18 depicts the institution of the Prophets. Central to the role of “prophet” is proclamation. Verse 18 reads, “I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.” Parallel to the requirement of kingship, this passage also explicitly states that God will call His prophets “from your countrymen.” In other words, God will use one from among them to make His decrees known so that they may understand the Word of the Lord and have no excuse before God. The Old Testament illustrates how God’s prophets were often mocked and scoffed at, suffering great affliction and humiliation. And while of the three institutions the prophets held closest to the Word and service of the Lord, they were unable to reconcile the Israelites to God.
However, what man in his limited faculty was incapable of accomplishing the Word of God made through great proclamation and declaration. Peter declares in a sermon recorded in the Book of Acts that Christ was the great Prophet Moses had foretold of (Acts 3:22). Furthermore Hebrews 1:1-2 illustrates that whereas God used men in the Old Testament to proclaim His word, He sought to use Christ “in these last days” to make proclamation to the world. Two essential characteristics of Christ make Him the perfect Prophet to the world. First, Christ came as a man, “from your brethren,” to proclaim the goodness and righteousness of the Father. As St. Athanasius notes only in coming as a man could Christ appeal to all the faculties and senses of men to make known the Kingdom of God. Second, as “heir of all things, through whom also He (God the Father) made the world,” Christ possessed the divinity and the faculty to make proclamation none other in all of creation could. As the Hebrews-author continues in verse 3 of chapter 1, “He (Christ) is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”
With such authority and yet identification with His brethren in the Church, Christ enables Christians to also be great prophets and proclaimers of God’s Word. First, Christ makes known the Father so that the Church can proclaim Him to all the world (Luke 24:44-48). And second, Christ sends the Holy Spirit to empower the Church to make such proclamation (Acts 1:8). Just as the Old Testament prophets spoke to the Israelites to call them to repentance, so also the Church is called to make proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the holiness and righteousness of the Triune God.
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