What does it mean that Jesus is prophet, priest, and king?

There are three offices the Lord sustains—Prophetic, Priestly and Kingly—Prophet, the One who can bring the conscience into the presence of God; Priest, the One who can sustain the worshipper in the presence of God; King, the One who will uphold the rule of God in this world.

Again the name "Christ," which every one knows, is but the Greek form of the Hebrew "Messiah," speaks of Him as the One anointed of God to be the Deliverer in three necessary ways: a Prophet to bring out of error; a Priest to open the way to God; a King to govern for God.

It is interesting to note that all through Scripture there are three official glories of the Lord continually shining out, Prophet, Priest, and King. The Prophet voices God — He is His mouthpiece. The Priest makes purgation of sins, while the King is the appointed heir of all things. The apostle is the one who has come out, the priest is the one who has gone in.

The three great offices by which relationships between God and man are maintained are those of Priest, Prophet and King. THE PRIEST maintains relations with God by drawing near to God on behalf of the people, and for this, in association with the priest, there must of necessity be the Ark of the Covenant and sacrifice — the Ark signifying the presence of Jehovah, and sacrifice the way of approach. THE PROPHET renews relations with God by appealing to the conscience and heart of the people with a message from God. When the priest fails and the people cease to draw nigh to God by means of priesthood, then God, in His sovereign grace, draws nigh to the people by the prophet. THE KING: maintains relations between the people and God by ruling and leading the people under the authority of God; When the king is established God no longer rules and leads directly, but acts through the king, and the blessing of the people depends upon the personal faithfulness of the king to God.

It might be mentioned here that the title “Christ” is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew word “Messiah.” The title in both languages means “The Anointed.” In the Old Testament we get three classes of persons anointed: the king for the kingly office; the priest for the priestly office; and the prophet for the prophetic office. The Lord was THE Anointed, to carry out the will of God, anointed to be the Saviour, the Revealer of the Father, THE Prophet; THE Priest; THE King; the Son of Man, with worldwide dominion; the Messiah, the King of the Jews; the King of kings, and Lord of lords, not a King among kings, inter alia, but a King OF kings. All that the world will ever know of blessing flows from THE Anointed One. The precious ointment was poured upon Aaron’s head, ran down to his beard, and descended to the skirts of his garments (Ps. 133:2), so all blessing flows from the position that our Lord has got as THE Messiah or Christ, THE Anointed. How securely the glory of God lies in those pierced hands.

The actual word, Messiah, occurs only twice in the Old Testament (Dan. 9:25-26), and only twice in the New Testament (John 1:41; 4:25). In the Old Testament there were three classes of persons anointed on their induction to office—priests, prophets, kings. The word, anointed, referring to individuals, occurs 43 times in the Old Testament. Seeing that practically in every case the word applies to priests, prophets and kings, it is translated by the word, anointed, for the word, Messiah or Christ, can only refer to our Lord. At the same time the anointings of priests, prophets and kings, no doubt were typical of our Lord, who sustains all these three offices. He is God’s Priest, our Great High Priest (Heb. 3:1); He is God’s Prophet, for Deuteronomy 18:18 tells of God promising that He would raise up a Prophet like unto Moses, but whose words should not fall to the ground; and lastly He is God’s King, for we read in Psalm 2:6, how the day will come when our Lord shall sit as King upon the holy hill of Zion. We have our Lord presented prophetically as King and Priest upon His throne in the following Scripture,

I change the word Anointed to "Messiah," as being more conventionally correct for the Psalms. Messiah and Christ both mean " the Anointed." The former is Hebrew; the latter Greek. The anointing is consecration: in His case, 1st, as Prophet, for He is the bearer of the word of the Most High; 2ndly, as Priest, the conductor of divine worship; and 3rdly, as King, the conductor of government. "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power" (Acts 10:38).

336 Before treating of details, I would notice the way in which traditional theology obscures the truth and complicates men's thoughts as to it. Christ is spoken of in Scripture as Prophet, Priest, and King. Nothing can be simpler. But, having got hold of these three official positions, everything must come under them. Now these titles grow from Jewish analogies, and the full gospel light is dropped by this. He is King - king to save, they say, to give life, and the like.

All this is unscriptural. He was the great Prophet on earth. He is Priest in heaven. He is in title, and will be in fact, King of Israel, and over the nations. Scripture never speaks of His being King of the church, nor of His saving in the spiritual sense of salvation as king. The whole system of thought is narrow, and, if Scripture be simply received, it is much simpler. He is Son of God, and gives life as such - quickens whom He will. He has suffered as Son of man, and will be head over all things as such. He is Advocate with the Father. He is Head of the body, the church, His bride - the firstborn, too, among many brethren. I only notice these as examples to point out the narrowness of the system and the far greater simplicity and richness of Scripture.

Speaking of Christ as prophet, priest, and king, and reducing all saving grace to these offices, is a very poor and confused way of considering the Lord's grace. The Son of God quickens whom He will, and with the Father (John 5) is by the Spirit the one source of life to whosoever receives it: He is the one only accomplisher of redemption by which any are delivered and saved. But to make Him always prophet, priest, and king for this, is theology and confusion. He is the Truth. It was by His Spirit any prophet spoke. But to say He was always prophet is only making confusion. God declares by Moses, that a Prophet should the Lord their God raise up unto them. This Peter assures Israel God had done: though all testimony of truth flowed from Him by the Spirit, He was a prophet when God raised Him up in the midst of Israel according to promise. He became a priest after He was made like to His brethren in all things. In other words, He became a man that He might be a priest. But even this, though laying the ground for it in the sacrifice of Himself as the high priest representing His people on the great day of atonement, He did not exercise, the apostle tells us, till on high in heaven. He was King in title when He became incarnate, but did not exercise His royalty.

The great Prophet had come into the midst of His people: to Him they would not hearken. Rejected, He had gone to heaven to be a Priest for those who believe; and when He comes again as King, He will unite all these glories in His own person, and His kingdom shall have no end!