Just as Christ’s office as priest logically proceeds from his office as king, so too his office as prophet logically proceeds from his office as priest. Christ actualized his testament of grace by his death on the cross and resurrection on Easter Sunday. As prophet, he delivers that new testament. He thereby fulfills the third function of sacrifice in the Old Testament, namely, the ratification of a covenant/testament. When instituting the Lord’s Supper, Jesus said “this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”(Matt. 26:28).
St. Paul writes that Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). Because Jesus fulfilled the law, he delivers the gospel of unilateral and universal forgiveness, as well as eternal life and bodily resurrection. Since death is the wage of sin, the logical result of the destruction of sin on the cross is the destruction of death. This occurred in Jesus’s bodily resurrection, which actualized and proleptically anticipates the bodily resurrection of all humanity (1 Cor. 15:20). As a prophet, Jesus announced his resurrection victory.
In Deuteronomy 18, Moses spoke of a coming eschatological prophet who would be like him. Those who ignored this prophet’s word would be condemned (Deut. 18). Similarly, because Christ inaugurates a new testament, he is the fulfillment the prophetic role of the Servant written about by Isaiah. In a word, a new exodus and a new Passover Lamb, calls also for a new Moses. Just as Moses sprinkled the children of Israel with the blood of the covenant (Exod. 24:8), so too would the Servant will “sprinkle many nations” (Isa. 52:15).
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