Q. How does Christ fulfill the office of a prophet?
A. Christ fulfills the office of a prophet in revealing to us, by Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.
Commentary
The first of Christ’s three offices answers our ignorance. Fallen man is darkened in his understanding and cannot find God by his own searching, so Christ comes as a prophet, the great revealer of God. A prophet’s task is to speak God’s word to men, and Christ does this supremely, for He is not merely a messenger who brings a word from God but the Word of God Himself. “No one has ever seen God; God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18). All the prophets before Him pointed forward to Him; in Christ, the full and final revelation of God has come.
The catechism says He reveals the will of God by Word and Spirit. These two always work together. By His Word Christ teaches us the truth of God, first in His own earthly preaching, then through the apostles and prophets whose writings make up the Scriptures, which are His word to His church in every age. By His Spirit, He opens blind eyes to understand that Word, for the same truth that leaves the natural man unmoved becomes light and life when the Spirit applies it to the heart. Christ promised this very thing: “the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things” (John 14:26). The Word without the Spirit is heard but not received; the Spirit never works apart from the Word.
The limit and the aim of this prophetic teaching is the will of God for our salvation. Christ does not satisfy our idle curiosity about every mystery, but He tells us all we need to know that we might know God savingly and to walk with Him. He no longer calls His people servants kept in the dark, but friends, “for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). To sit under Christ’s prophetic office is to take His Word as our final authority and to plead for His Spirit to make it plain, refusing both the deadness that hears without understanding and the pride that seeks revelation apart from the Word He has given.
Scripture Proofs
“No one has ever seen God; God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18).
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).
“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689
8.10: This number and order of offices is necessary; for in respect of our ignorance, we stand in need of His prophetical office; and in respect of our alienation from God, and imperfection of the best of our services, we need His priestly office to reconcile us and present us acceptable unto God; and in respect to our averseness and utter inability to return to God, and for our rescue and security from our spiritual adversaries, we need His kingly office to convince, subdue, draw, uphold, deliver, and preserve us to His heavenly kingdom.