Introduction

"Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." (Gen. 1:26)

The first man, Adam, was created as the image of God; and as such, he was called to do the will of God by thinking God's thoughts after Him, declaring God's thoughts in all his words and works, and ruling over the lower creation as God's vice-gerent for the glory and praise of God. And before Adam sinned, he reflected the image of God perfectly. Clearly, man was created a prophet, priest and king under God.

Sin shattered the entire relationship in which Adam stood as a prophet, priest and king under God. His knowledge of God became darkness. The prophet became a liar, and that's what man is today. By our fallen, spiritual nature we are all liars. We don't want God in any of our thinking, but since every man is created as the image of God, the knowledge of the Creator is indelibly etched into our very being. Every man, as the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 1:20, knows enough about God to be left without excuse. Every man knows that God exists, and that we must worship and glorify Him as God. But we deny even this truth in our own minds. As Paul wrote in Romans 1:18-19: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them."

Every fallen, unregenerate man suppresses or holds back the knowledge of God which he knows to be true. He lies to himself by saying, "God doesn't exist. We evolved. There's nothing else in this world but the things we can see." Yet every man sees the wrath of God directed against mankind in all creation because of sin. That is what every man knows of God. But fallen, unregenerate man doesn't want to talk about God. He doesn't want to sing His praise because he doesn't know God as Savior. He only knows God as Judge! That is how every man comes into this world as a child of Adam.

That is why we must have Christ. He came as the Prophet, Priest and King sent from heaven to do the Father's will. We read of Christ in Hebrews 10:7: "Then I said, Behold, I have come; In the volume of the book it is written of Me; To do Your will, O God." As Prophet, Christ stood in the place of His people to glorify the Father in all of His words. While we were yet enemies, Paul writes in Romans 5:8, lying in our sin, shame and death, Christ stood as Prophet in the place of His bride, the church. As Prophet, Christ is and proclaims the good news of the Gospel, and He works His salvation in the soul of every elect sinner by causing them to hear the Savior's voice. 2 Corinthians 4:6 teaches: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

The Believer's Office as Prophet

In Q&A 32 of the Heidelberg Catechism we read: "But why are you called a Christian? Because by faith I am a member of Christ and thus a partaker of His anointing, in order that I also may confess His Name, may present myself a living sacrifice of thankfulness to Him, and with a free conscience may fight against sin and the devil in this life, and hereafter in eternity reign with Him over all creatures."

By true faith every believer confesses to be a member of Christ's spiritual body, the church. And as members of Christ we partake in His anointing as God's Prophet so that we may confess His name in all creation. Therefore, every true believer is a prophet as well as a priest and king and is called of God to reflect the glorified and exalted Christ, who lives in us by His Holy Spirit. Christ has come and has realized His threefold office. And He has realized it for us, and now realizes it in us by His Word and Spirit. By the faithful preaching of His Word, the light of God's glory shines upon us in the face of Jesus Christ. Christ prophesies in such a way that He not only gives us understanding of the truth of the Bible, but He lays it upon our hearts, compelling us to speak and to sing the praises of our God. Jesus said in Matthew 10:32-33: "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."

Christ has spoken the powerful Word of salvation and those who have heard His Word cannot help but proclaim His name in all of creation. The redeemed of the Lord, who are now ruled by the principle of grace, desire to think, speak and live God's thoughts in every area and aspect of their life to the glory and praise of God. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:13: "And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "‘I believed and therefore I spoke,'" we also believe and therefore speak." And what we speak, confess and proclaim is the revealed and inscripturated Word of God. We are not prophets in the sense that we are receiving new revelation from God. That age passed with the last apostle and the closing of the canon of Scripture. Hebrews 1:1-2: "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds." God speaks through His Son and His Son speaks in the Word of God for He is the Word of God (Jn. 1:1). Rather we are prophets in that we declare the Word already given to us by God. But the prophetic office of Christ is not the only office of which believers partake.

The Believer's Office as Priest

Jesus is called Christ because He is ordained by God the Father, and anointed with the Holy Spirit, to be our only High Priest, who by the one sacrifice of his body, has redeemed us, and ever lives to make intercession for us with the Father. By true faith we are members of Christ, and therefore we also partake of His anointing as priests under God, presenting ourselves as living sacrifices of thankfulness to Him.

Our priesthood is not one of making payment for sin. That was finished once and forever by Christ for all God's elect. But the sacrifice we offer up as priests is one of continual thankfulness to God. "Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name" (Hebrews 13:15). When we are united to Christ by true faith we are also made partakers of Christ's anointing and we share in His priestly office. And by the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit in our heart, we are compelled to present ourselves living sacrifices of thankfulness to God.

The effect of Christ's priesthood for us is that we are now free to live unto Him. As High Priest, Christ powerfully works in us so that we are freed from the power of sin in order to serve the true and living God. We are now free to offer ourselves a living sacrifice of thankfulness to Him, who alone deserves all our thanks and praise. We begin even now in this veil of tears to consecrate ourselves unto God in Christ in order "that with our whole life we show ourselves thankful to God for His blessing, and that He be glorified through us" (H.C. #86). And this is first evident by a life of prayer, which the catechism tells us is the chief part of thankfulness which God requires of all those redeemed in Christ (H.C. 116). But we also present our lives as a living sacrifice by striving to walk in devotion to Him in all things. Because of God's grace in us we now "take delight in living according to the will of God in all good works" (H.C. 90).

Because of the great sacrifice of Christ for all those given to Him by the Father (John 6:37), the whole world now belongs to the believer in order that he might serve God by presenting himself as a living sacrifice. Paul said to those who are heirs in Christ Jesus, "Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come; all are yours. And you are Christ's, and Christ is God's." (1 Cor. 3:21-22). Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:7: "God has given us all things richly to enjoy," not merely for self-satisfaction, but for the service of our God. In that light it is certainly true, as Scripture teaches, "the little that a righteous man has, is better than the treasures of many wicked." In Christ we are restored to the priestly calling God has given us, so that even if we have little, it is dedicated to God's glory and service. For when we live by faith, acknowledging what God has given us in the priesthood of Jesus Christ, then we take delight when we hear the Word of God in Romans 12:1: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."

The Believer's Office as King

As the image of God, man was created prophet, priest and king and was given dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. He was given the anointing to serve God as king in the creation and rule in the name of God over all things.

Because of the fall of Adam, every man now wants to rule without God. By his fallen nature, man is now at war with God and he spends his life trying to keep God out of his every thought. He works with all his might in every area of his life to dethrone God as King of the universe. Apart from Christ, man no longer takes delight in thinking God's thoughts after Him. Fallen, unregenerate man now serves as king of self in every area of life. And apart from the new birth in Christ and His dominion in our life, we are all lying prophets, priests and kings of Satan. We read in 2 Timothy 2:26 that all those apart from Jesus Christ "have been taken captive by him (Satan) to do his will." This is clearly manifested every day by the manner in which the unregenerate man lives.

The purpose of God has never and could never change - Christ shall have dominion! God has set His Son upon His holy hill of Zion. Jesus Christ exercises a kingly authority and power of grace over the souls of all whom He makes subject to Himself by the Gospel. Though the souls of the elect belong to Christ from eternity in the counsel of God; though the Father gave them to Christ, and they are His, and He died for them; yet Satan has possession until Christ sends forth His regenerating Spirit making their hearts subject to the rule of Christ. And those who are citizens in His kingdom are willing subjects to His rule of grace, and they bow their necks under the yoke of Jesus Christ! The result of such a spiritual reign of Christ is that the believer repents of his sin, and "with a free conscience fights against sin and the devil in this life, and hereafter in eternity reign with Him over all creatures." This spiritual reign of Christ is manifested in the daily life of every believer by his "heartfelt sorrow for sin, causing him to hate and turn from it always more and more" (H.C. 89). His life is now filled with a "heartfelt joy in God through Christ, causing him to take delight in living according to the will of God in all good works" (H.C. 90).

By true faith, believers now begin to live out of the principle of the new life of Christ within them, and they desire to take dominion in every sphere of life for Christ their King! They now live in enmity over against the wicked ways of this sinful world, which are at war with Christ. "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15-17). How shall the subjects of Christ be among the slaves of Satan? Yes, in this world the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Satan are mingled (Matthew 13:30), and we cannot avoid entirely the company of the ungodly except we go out of the world (1 Cor. 5:7). But the citizens of Christ's kingdom find their fellowship with the saints of God. (2 Cor.6:14-18)

Believers are members of Christ by true faith, and it's His rule that sets us free from the curse of the law. That's what the Catechism refers to when it says "with a free conscience (believers) may fight against sin and the devil in this life..." When we stand in Christ we are no longer under the curse of the law, since Christ bore that curse for us on the cross! Jesus said in John 8:36: "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." That freedom is not a freedom from the Law of God as a rule of life. It is exactly in the freedom of Christ that we begin to live according to the Law of God in all good works (H.C. #90, 91), even though we have only a small beginning of such obedience in this life (H.C. #114). The man who rejects the Law of God demonstrates that he does not live out of the principle of grace in Christ, but is still under the bondage of sin.

Yes, sin is still in the believer, and the old man remains under bondage, but the new man in Christ now has dominion. And though the power of sin is still within the believer, its dominion is abolished. Now we delight in the law of God after the inward man (Romans 7:22), even though we see that other law in our members. No longer under the dominion of sin, we now serve the law of God and fight against sin and Satan every day by the Word and Spirit of Christ.

We are called Christians because we are members of Christ by true faith, and partakers of His anointing, and therefore as kings in Him, we shall after this life reign with Him eternally, over all creatures. How blessed are we who have been brought by grace under Christ's dominion! For with the eyes of faith we can see our eternal King leading us to heaven where we shall reign with Him forevermore. As partakers of Christ's anointing, the Christian is truly a prophet, priest & king for the glory, honor and praise of God!