In part 6 we began to look at the way the we apply Christ’s threefold office (triplex munus) to the Christian. Scripture teaches and we confess that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, has three offices: prophets, priest, and king. In Heidelberg Catechism 32 we say:

32. 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 that with a free conscience I may fight against sin and the devil in this life, and hereafter in eternity reign with Him over all creatures.

Because the Holy Spirit has united believers to Christ through faith we are prophets (see part 6). We are also priests. Since the Reformation was, in part, a rejection of the medieval renewal of priestcraft (including the institution in the 14th century of a memorial, propitiatory sacrifice in the mass) This might seem like an odd thing for a Reformed Christian, for a Protestant to say but it is not. Scripture clearly and repeatedly teaches that we are priests. The question is not whether we shall make sacrifices but what we offer and why.

you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pet 2:5; ESV see also v.9).

As priests we do make offerings. Paul writes of the offering made by the Philippians in support of his ministry:

I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God (Phil 4:18; ESV).

Just as Jesus is the Christ, the anointed, the Messiah, he is the High Priest. Melchizedek pointed to Christ. Aaron pointed to Christ. It is his priesthood that makes their priesthood significant. In other words, when Aaron and his successors made offerings, it was not they nor their sacrifices that gave significance to Christ’s offering of himself. No, it was as they looked forward to his priestly work that their’s had significance. Only to the degree that their work partook in and anticipated his was it of any benefit to believing Israelites. The blood of bulls and goats does nothing. The blood of Christ alone is satisfactory for our sins. Full stop.

Our priesthood adds nothing to Christ’s. It is not as if he inaugurated a new daily, ritual, memorial, propitiatory offering. He did not. His suffering obedience and sacrificial death completed all such priestly work. Jesus, not we, went outside the city to make his holy offering for us who are legally sinful, morally corrupt, and ritually unclean:

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come (Heb 13:12–14; ESV).

Notice the pattern in Scripture. Jesus has done for us therefore let us respond appropriately in light of his work. That is why our priesthood is figurative. We have become priests by virtue of our union with Christ the priest. The offering we make is only because of his once-for-all offering of himself.

Nevertheless, we are called priests and we are said in Holy Scripture to make offerings. This is why Paul says,

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Rom 12:1; ESV).

The writer to the Hebrews exhorts us, in light of all that Christ has done for us, that we should gather in congregation:

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Unlike the Levitical priests who went daily to the temple, in Christ the temple, by virtue of his grace and the Spirit-wrought union, by faith we are now his temple (1 Peter 4). As Christians we offer praise and ourselves to his worship. We are not turning away God’s wrath. That work has been done. We’re not sewing priestly uniforms for the future. That work has been done. We’re not saving toward the re-building of the temple. The temple has been destroyed and it was raised on the third day and by our union with Christ the Temple we are his temple (1 Cor 3:16, 17; 6:19; 2Cor 6:16; Eph 2:21). We are the temple over which the Glory Spirit hovers (1 Pet 4:14) as we await his glorious, visible return.

We should not think that our service in this life has no significance. It does. We are priests, anointed by Christ for his worship. When we gather together we do so as the temple, as priests, and as sacrifices, accepted only for the sake of Christ’s righteousness imputed and, in him, a sweet-smelling offering with which he is pleased.

Next: the believer’s office as king.

Here are all the posts on the Heidelberg Catechism.