Our Anointing in Christ
The New Testament brings the offices of prophet, priest and king to their fulfillment in Christ. The special offices of priest and king ceased to exist with the outpouring of the Spirit and the special office of prophet with the closing of the canon. All God’s people have become prophets, priests and kings in Christ and the only prophet-priest-king we need to represent us now is the pre-eminent anointed one, Christ himself.
The office of believer is in Christ. We are called Christians because we are partakers of his anointing (Acts 11:26, 26:28 1 Peter 4:16). As we are united to him by faith, we receive what he has. This includes not only his righteousness and life, but also his office. He was anointed with the Spirit, and we receive our anointing in and from him. God has anointed us (2 Corinthians 1:21). 1 John 2:20-27 (based on Jeremiah 31:33,34) describes our anointing by the Spirit, and Acts 2:17 fulfilled the prophecy of Joel: Christ poured out his Spirit so that sons and daughters, servants, old men and children could prophesy.
It is especially notable that the priestly and kingly offices, separated in the Old Testament, are united in us because of our union with Christ (Revelation 1:6, 5:10, 20:4,6, 1 Peter 2:9).
All, old and young, servants and masters, children and adults, men and women, are equal in the office itself. All have the same anointing, the same office, the same basic responsibilities and privileges. As prophets we know and speak the word of God. As priests we enter the most holy place and offer commanded sacrifices. As kings we fight against the Devil, the world and sin in ourselves, and reign with Christ.
The office of believer means that every Christian is a prophet, priest and king. The Heidelberg Catechism puts it this way in question and answer 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 with a free conscience may fight against sin and the devil in this life, and hereafter in eternity reign with Him over all creatures.
We are prophets.
But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.’ Acts 2:16-21
The Spirit equips us for this office by giving us the knowledge of God (Joel 2:16-21). Our privilege is to know the Lord (1 John 2:20-27), and our duty is to confess the name of Christ before men (Matthew 10:32). We teach and admonish each other even in our singing (Colossians 3:16, Romans 15:14).
We are priests.
You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5
The Spirit equips us for this office by our sanctification (1 Peter 2:5). Our privilege is entry into the most holy place through the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19-22). Our duty is the offering of ourselves (Romans 12:1), our praise (Hosea 14:2, Hebrews 13:15) and our gifts (1 Corinthians 9:13-14).
We are kings.
To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. Revelation 3:21
The Lord equips us for this work by giving to us the armor of God and the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:12-18). Our duty is to fight against our enemies (Ephesians 6:12-18) – the world, the flesh and the Devil – as those who are already conquerors in Christ (Romans 8:37). Our privilege will be to sit with Christ on his throne (Revelation 3:21, 20:4, 22:5) and to judge the world and angels (1 Corinthians 6:2-3).
In fact, this office is united with the office of priest so that we are a royal priesthood, after the pattern of our Lord Jesus Christ and Melchizedek (1 Peter 2:5, Revelation 1:6).
The office of prophet-priest-king equips us for life as Christians, and the duties of the office guide all of our activity as servants of God and men. The office is a position, not an occasional function, so we are always using or abusing our office in everything we do. The member of the church is acting in his office in his relation to other members of the body. The wife in the home is acting in her office as prophet-priest-king in relation both to her husband and to her children. There are no queens in the kingdom of God. Children are prophets, priests and kings in their obedience to their parents, and servants to their masters. Here too what Paul says in Galatians 3:28 applies: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Every time we sin, therefore, we abuse the office Christ has given us, and expose ourselves to the judgment of God: that our enemies will rule us (Leviticus 26:17, Nehemiah 9:28), that there will be a famine of the word of God (Amos 8:11), that the house of God will become destitute.
Conclusion
The differences in role and authority between various groups or classes of Christians, then, are not due to a difference in office, but rather to the rules that God has added to his word regarding the use of the offices: that only men may hold the special offices, that we must be obedient to the elders, that wives must be subject to their husbands, that children must obey their parents and servants their masters and so on. The rights and obligations of all these individual kings, priests and prophets differ according to gender, age, position, circumstances, gifts and capacity. These also are part of our anointing and the means by which the Spirit equips us for our particular places in the bodyof Christ and our work in the church, family and world.
No one may set himself above another as if his anointing is fuller or better. No one may claim greater privileges or better access to the Lord. No one may say that his service is more important. We are all highly exalted. Everyone has the same sure hope of glory with the same exalted Christ.
What the office of believer does do is teach us that every true Christian has the Spirit, every Christian has the right and obligation to know and talk about the Lord, to enter the most holy place to offer acceptable sacrifices to the one enthroned above the cherubim, and to take up the sword of the Spirit for the casting down of strongholds. It is the preparation and equipping we need to perform the particular services to which the Lord calls us. It enables us to live as faithful servants in whatever work God appoints for us and with whatever gifts he has given.