Question 24 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, How does Christ fill the office of a prophet?

The answer given is, Christ fills the office of a prophet in revealing to us by his Word and Spirit the will of God for our
complete salvation.

The purpose of a prophet is to speak the words of the one who sent him. Many of the prophets ended their declaration with the words “says the LORD” or “declares the LORD.” The Old Testament prophets came on the scene with a message to the nation of Israel that was given to each prophet by God.

In John 14:9, Jesus made an astounding claim when he said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”

In Jesus, we have the ultimate prophet who reveals the words, actions and character of God the Father. Because Jesus is the eternal Son of God, he can perfectly reveal God the Father to us.

It is never a bad thing to point out that Jesus did not come with a message of judgement. As Jesus said to Nicodemus:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

John 3:17–19 (CSB)

Jesus is the prophet who came to bring the light of God’s love and show us a way out of the darkness.

Question 23 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What offices does Christ fill as our Redeemer?“

The answer given is, “Christ as our Redeemer fills the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, in his states both of humiliation and exaltation.”

The specific offices mentioned will be further detailed in Questions 24 through 26, so these three terms will be covered in future posts.

It is worth noting that the title “Christ” that was given to Jesus is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah.” Both the Greek and Hebrew words literally mean “anointed one.”

In the Old Testament, we see that priests and kings were anointed with oil as they were appointed to their work. For examples see Exodus 28:41 (Aaron as priest) and 1 Samuel 15:13 (David as king).

It is clear from the Gospels that Jesus considered himself the long awaited anointed one spoken of in the prophets. When he read from Isaiah in the synagogue, he did not hesitate to apply the words of Isaiah 61 to himself when he read,

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Luke 4:18-19 (CSB)

Jesus is the only one who has demonstrated the ability and the authority to fulfill all three of these offices in combination in one person.

Question 22 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks: How did Christ, the Son of God, become man?

The answer given is: Christ, the Son of God, became man by taking to himself a body and a soul like ours, being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.

The first observation that I need to make is that there is mystery here. We must acknowledge that complete understanding of this is beyond our reach as humans.

Secondly, note the process that is mentioned. Christ became man. The eternal second person of the Trinity took a body and became man.

There is at least one group, that claims to be Christian, that has this teaching the other way round. They teach that man can become god through following the teaching of their church. This claim can be found no-where in Scripture.

Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary. Jesus was not a human child born of two human parents that somehow became the Messiah or upon whom was conferred deity. This is a heresy that was dealt with and rejected in the early church.

With regard to Jesus being sinless, I am reminded of one of the stand-out verses in the writing of the Apostle Paul. He states:

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB)

Jesus, who was born and lived without sin, took the punishment for our sin so that we might be viewed by God as having Christ’s righteousness.

Without Christ’s perfection, the idea of Christ being our substitute would fall flat and we would be left without hope.