Question 24: Christ our Prophet

Question 24: How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?

Answer: Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by his Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.

A prophet is someone who authoritatively speaks the word of God. At the outset of his ministry Jesus declared his prophetic status: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor." (Luke 4:18) The gospels summarize Jesus' ministry as a ministry of preaching and teaching (Matthew 4:23, Luke 4:15), and much of what we know about Christ is what he said, such as the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) or his many parables. Identified by John as the Word (John 1:1), Jesus was the ultimate prophet. Where other prophets necessarily declared, "Thus says the Lord," Jesus was able as the Son of God to proclaim, "Truly, Truly I say to you." The book of Hebrews opens by recognizing this comparison. "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world." (Hebrews 1:1-2)

The catechism identifies two means by which Jesus fufills this prophetic office. "Word" is more obvious - the written scriptures give are the word of Christ, profitable to make us wise unto salvation (John 20:31, 2 Timothy 3:15). But the Spirit is just as important, in two ways. First, the Spirit is the agent who guided the writers of Scripture so that they would record the words of Christ without error (1 Peter 1:11, 2 Peter 1:21). Second, the Spirit is the one who illuminates our minds so that we can see the truth of Scripture. 1 Corinthians 2:14 reminds us, "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are Spiritually discerned." Without the work of the Spirit to soften our hard hearts, the written word would have no effect upon us, and the revelation would pass us by.

The history of prophecy in Scripture warns us that the message of a prophet is often unwelcome. (Matthew 23:37, Luke 4:24) Are you willing to listen to Christ's word today?