THE

CHAPTER IV.

THE OFFICES OF CHRIST.

HE Lord Jesus appeared among men as the long-expected Messiah, the Anointed of the Father. As such, He combined in His sacred Person the three great offices of Prophet, Priest, and King; and these offices now belong to Him in His state of exaltation.

He is the PROPHET of His Church. To Him we turn as the Revealer of the Father, the Supreme Teacher, in whom the gradual and fragmentary disclosures of truth given in preceding ages were completed (Heb. i. 1-3). As the scene of the transfiguration was about to close, and Moses and Elijah, the representatives respectively of the law and the prophets were about to depart, the Voice from the cloud of light proclaimed, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him' (Matt. xvii. 5).

It is instructive to mark how the Saviour spoke of Himself as revealing the Father, and declaring the truth which He had commissioned Him to announce. In the prayer which He offered up before He entered Gethsemane, He said, addressing the Father, 'I manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me; and they have kept Thy word. Now they know that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are from Thee : for the words which Thou gavest Me I have given unto them; and they received them, and knew of a truth that I came forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me' (John. xvii. 6-8). And as He closed that prayer, He said, referring to His

immediate disciples, I made known unto them Thy Name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou lovedst Me may be in them, and I in them' (v. 26). But it was not by His teaching only that the Lord Jesus made known the Father to His disciples. He was Himself the revelation of the Father's perfections. They who were privileged to mark the out-beamings of His moral excellences, and especially the commingling glory of His holiness and love, beheld in them the manifestation of the Father's character; and we, too, who reverently ponder the evangelical narratives, so as to trace the Redeemer's footsteps and listen to His words, 'see the Father.' In the conversation which followed the last supper, when Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us,' our Lord replied, Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father: how sayest thou, Show us the Father?' (John. xiv. 8, 9.)

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We have already had occasion to speak of the authoritative character of our Lord's teaching, and the impression which this feature of it produced on the minds of His hearers. We need only refer, in illustration, to the Sermon on the Mount. we listen to it, we feel that we are in the presence of One who speaks as the Supreme Lawgiver, all whose precepts are binding on the conscience, so that their observance or neglect will influence, will indeed determine, the eternal destinies of men. Other features of the Saviour's teaching will readily occur to the devout student of His words. The lofty spirituality of Hist discourses, the clear insight into the workings of the human heart which they evinced, the impressive manner in which He set forth the extent and amplitude of the Divine precepts, aз reaching to the thoughts and feelings of the mind,—the solemnity of His warnings as to the result of cherished sin and obstinate resistance to the light of truth,-the tenderness and condescension of His addresses to the penitent and humble,and the encouraging and attractive manner in which He declared the Fatherly character of God, and the minuteness of His providential care of His people,-all show Him to be

emphatically THE PROPHET, at whose feet we should sit with reverence and gratitude. We may well linger on His own precious words, 'I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life: no one cometh unto the Father but by Me.'

But the prophetic office of our Lord did not terminate with His ascension to His glory. He is our Teacher still. His own words, recorded under the inspiration of the promised Spirit, instruct, and comfort, and warn us. So, too, He speaks to us in the writings of His Apostles, composed under the guidance of the Spirit of truth (John xiv. 25, 26; xvi. 12-14). These writings, thus Divinely inspired, shed light on some of the deeper truths which our Lord Himself uttered when on earth; and His own words teach us that the full disclosure of the Christian scheme, with its rich provisions of grace and blessing, was reserved for the Holy Ghost, when He should have ascended to the throne of His glory.

The Lord Jesus is also the PRIEST of the mediatorial economy. To this office there attaches a profound interest; for, as sinful men, we need a Mediator who shall open to us, by an availing and effectual sacrifice, the way into the Father's presence, and who shall appear as our Representative when, in conscious demerit and utter feebleness, we draw near to seek the mercy and grace which we need.

The nature and functions of the priestly office are clearly set forth in the Holy Scriptures, and especially in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In a secondary sense all true believers are priests, as being consecrated to God, and permitted to draw near to Him to offer the spiritual sacrifices of praise and prayer, and to intercede for others. But, in the strict and proper sense, a Priest is a Divinely-appointed Representative of his fellow-men, who on their behalf offers to God a sacrifice for sin, who, on the ground of that sacrifice, makes intercession. for them, and then, in the name of Jehovah, comes forth to bless them. All this is found in the adorable Redeemer. Constituted a Priest by the irrevocable oath of the Eternal Father,

and fully qualified for His functions by His participation of our nature and His deep experience of its sorrows and conflicts, the Lord Jesus offered up Himself to God as the Sacrifice for our sins, and now appears in the heavenly world as our Representative, and makes intercession for all who come unto the Father by Him. And He is the only Priest, in the strict and proper sense, under the Christian dispensation, just as His sacrifice is the only sacrifice for sin; and that sacrifice He Himself presents for us, opening to us individually the way into the holy of holies. Through Him we may draw near with confidence to the very throne of God, and bear away every blessing that we need (Heb. iv. 14-16; x. 19-25).

The frequency with which our Lord's priesthood is spoken of as being after the order of Melchizedek' requires a brief reference to the leading particulars in which that remarkable Priest-King was a type of Christ. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews has unfolded this subject with great copiousness; and his remarks are most suggestive. As we ponder his words, we see that every thing in the history of Melchizedek was specially arranged by Divine Providence to constitute him the type of Him who was to come, and whose priestly mediation was to be the hope of the Church of God.

The very name 'Melchizedek,' 'King of righteousness,' he reminds us, was significant; while the name of the city over which he reigned, 'Peace,' or 'City of Peace,'-a city the inhabitants of which, led by their sovereign, took no part in the sanguinary conflicts of neighbouring tribes,-was also significant. Thus in the Person of the Lord Jesus the priestly office is combined with royalty; and He is preeminently the righteous and pacific Sovereign, who imparts to His people gathered around Him in His holy Salem, His City of Peace, 'righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.' Then, again, the great peculiarity of Melchizedek's priesthood was that he was not one of a race of priests, invested with that office in virtue of his descent from others who bore it, and in his turn transmitting it to his descendants, but that he stood alone,

the one priest of his own order. Even so the Lord Jesus is invested with a priesthood that is unique and exclusive, such a priesthood as no one before Him could sustain, and which cannot pass over to any other. And then the remarkable incident, that Melchizedek, as the priest of God Most High,' blessed Abraham, the head of the chosen race, and the representative, in one sense, of the visible Church of God, foreshadowed the dignity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His relation, as the Source of blessing, to the universal Church; while it indicated also the superiority of the Melchizedecian priesthood to the Levitical.

But the Lord Jesus is also the KING of the mediatorial constitution. He rules in the kingdom of God.' Its laws are established by His authority; its blessings are dispensed by His hands. In His public ministry there were allusions to the regal office which belonged to Him, and which, after His sacrificial sufferings and death, He would formally assume. In the parable of the talents, uttered when He was approaching Jerusalem at the last passover, He referred to His own approaching departure and enthronement, together with His second coming: -'A certain nobleman went into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. . . . And it came to pass, when he was come back again, having received the kingdom, that he commanded these servants unto whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by trading' (Luke xix. 12, 15). As He stood before Pilate, He replied distinctly in the affirmative to the question of the governor, 'Art Thou the King of the Jews?' and He added, My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence.' And when Pilate rejoined, Art Thou a King then?' He answered, 'Thou sayest that I am a King. To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice' (John. xviii. 36, 37).