The Old Testament Scriptures set forth Moses, Aaron (and Melchizedek)^[1] and David as types of Christ in his work as Prophet, Priest and King. In each case, the New Testament Scriptures demonstrate exactly how Christ fulfills all three of these offices. 

One, Christ is “that Prophet” who fulfills the promise God made to Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.”

Two, Christ is the “Priest in the order of Melchizedek” as promised in Psalm 110:4: “The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.’” Christ is also the high priest who replaces Aaron and the Levitical priesthood. 

Three, Christ is David’s greater Son who established the everlasting kingdom promised to David and now sits on the throne in fulfillment of the Davidic covenant made in 2 Samuel 7:12, 13: “When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

Commentators and preachers of all persuasions have set forth these truths concerning the three offices of Christ. The Westminster Larger Catechism is typical. 

Question 42: Why was our Mediator called Christ?

Answer: Our Mediator was called Christ, because he was anointed with the Holy Ghost above measure; and so set apart, and fully furnished with all authority and ability, to execute the offices of prophet, priest, and king of his church, in the estate both of his humiliation and exaltation.

Question 43: How does Christ execute the office of a prophet?

Answer: Christ executes the office of a prophet, in his revealing to the church, in all ages, by his Spirit and Word, in divers ways of administration, the whole will of God, in all things concerning their edification and salvation.

Question 44: How does Christ execute the office of a priest?

Answer: Christ executes the office of a priest, in his once offering himself a sacrifice without spot to God, to be a reconciliation for the sins of his people; and in making continual intercession for them.

Question 45: How does Christ execute the office of a king?

Answer: Christ executes the office of a king, in calling out of the world a people to himself, and giving them officers, laws, and censures, by which he visibly governs them; in bestowing saving grace upon his elect, rewarding their obedience, and correcting them for their sins, preserving and supporting them under all their temptations and sufferings, restraining and overcoming all their enemies, and powerfully ordering all things for his own glory, and their good; and also in taking vengeance on the rest, who know not God, and obey not the gospel.

The New Testament Scriptures clearly show that: 1) Christ is the true and final Prophet who replaces Moses; 2) Christ is the true and successful Priest who replaces the Aaronic priesthood; 3) Christ is the true and everlasting King who fulfills the covenant promise to David. We will look at the passages setting forth these truths. 

The men who held these three offices under the old covenant controlled, in one way or another, the entire life, worship and morality of the theocratic nation of Israel, the old covenant people of God. Christ, as the new covenant Prophet, Priest and King, controls the entire life, worship and morality of the church, the new covenant people of God. 

The Holy Spirit, in the New Testament Scriptures, used powerful object lessons to show, in each case, how Christ is the fulfillment of all three of these types.

1) The Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-6) is the object lesson that shows the new Prophet has replaced Moses as prophet and lawgiver. The new Prophet also replaced all of the old covenant prophets as God’s spokespersons. The message from heaven saying, “Listen to my Son” is the Father showing the change from the old authority to the new and final authority. This is the same message proclaimed in the book of Hebrews (Heb. 1:1-3). Christ is the last and final prophet. He has given us the full and final message of God. God has said all he has to say in his Son.

2) The rending of the veil of the Temple from top to bottom at the moment of Christ’s death (Matt. 27:50-51) is the object lesson showing that the new Priest has replaced Aaron and fulfilled the Melchizedek prophecy. Again, this message is explicit in Hebrews (Heb. 9:1-10; 10:19-22). The message that we may now come boldly to the throne of grace by the new and living way now opened through Christ’s work on the cross (Heb. 10:19, 20) could never have been preached as long as the Levitical priesthood was in effect, and the veil in the temple was hanging in place.

3) The gift of tongues on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-36) is the object lesson showing that the resurrection and ascension of Christ to sit on the throne of David has established the kingdom promised to David and prophesied in both Joel 2 and 2 Samuel 7. The message is “bow in repentance, faith and assurance before the newly crowned Lord” (Philip. 2:9-11), or as the Psalmist said, “Kiss the Son” (Psalm 2:12). 

Dispensationalism clearly sees the ministry of Moses as prophet and Aaron as priest as clear pictures foreshadowing the work of Christ in behalf of the church. Some of the most heartwarming and Christ exalting teaching that I have ever heard or read was from the ministry of men from the Brethren Assemblies preaching on the typology of the Tabernacle. They rightly saw Christ’s work as Priest on behalf of the church in everything. However, when they came to the prophets all they could see was Israel and an earthly millennium. Christ’s present Kingship over the church was not to be found in any of the Prophets. The church was a hidden mystery until first revealed to Paul and set forth in Ephesians. The message of the prophets only involved a future earthly and Jewish millennium. In this theology, Christ is Prophet and Priest over the church but not a present King over the church. He is only a coming King over a future redeemed Israel and not a present King over a present redeemed church made up of both saved Jews and Gentiles. Some of my dispensational brethren insist that Christ is “Lord over the church and King over Israel.” His kingly rule was postponed until a future date.

Covenant Theologians see Christ as David’s son already established on David’s throne in heaven. He is presently King just as much as he is Prophet and Priest. They also have no trouble seeing Aaron being replaced as High Priest by the Lord Jesus. However, they will not allow Christ to be a Lawgiver who replaces Moses as lawgiver. They will acknowledge Christ is the Prophet promised in Deuteronomy 18:15 but insist his prophetic work was to merely give the true interpretation of the Law that God gave to Moses. Our Lord does not change in any way any moral law given by Moses nor does he add any new laws to those given through Moses. In other words, our Lord is the last and greatest exegete, or interpreter, of the Law given to Moses, but he is only an interpreter, he is not a lawgiver in his own right. He gives no new moral laws or in any way changes those laws Moses taught. Christ is the last and greatest exegete of Moses, but Moses is the full and final lawgiver! Christ does not replace Moses as lawgiver in the same sense that he replaces Aaron as priest. We will expand on this when we cover Christ as Prophet.^[2]

In Covenant Theology, the so-called “moral law,”^[3] meaning the Ten Commandments, cannot be changed in any way, even by the Son of God himself. Moses’ ministry as lawgiver over the conscience is just as much in effect for a Christian today as it was for an Israelite under the old covenant. Those who hold this theology would never think of sending a believer back under the old covenant to have Aaron offer a lamb for them, and yet those same people insist that we must send believers back to Moses to learn morality and ethics. We must treat Moses as the full and final lawgiver and Christ as merely the true interpreter of Moses. It is our belief that Christ fulfills all three offices, Prophet, Priest and King in this dispensation and in the church. We believe Christ replaces Moses as Lawgiver in exactly the same sense that he replaces Aaron as Priest. We also believe that Christ is presently seated on David’s promised throne as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Several things are essential in this discussion in helping us with the knotty question of “continuity/discontinuity.” The ministries of all three offices, prophet, priest and king, were tied up with the old covenant. Moses was the mediator of the old covenant that established Israel as the special nation of God’s uniquely chosen people. Aaron was the high priest who administrated the whole system of sacrificial offerings. David was the king given the special kingdom prophecy that one of his sons would sit on his throne in an eternal kingdom. The New Testament Scriptures showing the fulfillment of the three offices prophesied in Old Testament Scriptures clearly demonstrate the failure and end of the old covenant and all it brought into being. A totally new covenant has fulfilled the promises of the old covenant and completely replaced it. The church has a new Prophet, a new Priest, and a new King.

This truth is set forth in a much misunderstood text.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things have become new (2 Cor. 5:17 KJV).

The NIV is a far better translation.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!^[4] (2 Cor. 5:17).

Paul is not saying, “If a person becomes a Christian, his whole life is changed. His old sinful habits are all gone and he lives a totally different life.” It is certainly true that biblical conversion radically changes the life style of the person converted. This truth is a major theme of the New Testament Scriptures. However, that is not Paul’s point in this text. Paul is not dealing with sanctification in this text; he is dealing with the new creation brought in by Christ through the new covenant. The contrast is not with how radically different lost and saved people live, but with describing a person being under the new covenant as opposed to being under the old covenant. 

The apostle is contrasting the old Adam creation with the new Christ creation. Both the old things that have passed away, and the new things that have become new in this text are in aorist tense. That means that the old things spoken of have all, with no exceptions, “once for all” passed away in totality. Likewise, the things that have become new mean “all things” without exception have become, “once and for all,” totally new. If this is describing the change in a Christian’s life, then Christians are sinless and totally holy. Who among us can say that every single bad thing in their life has forever gone away and everything, without a single exception, has become totally new, different and permanent? This text is not talking about sanctification but justification. It is not describing our day to day state but our eternal standing before God in Christ. Every Christian can say, “Many, even possibly ‘most,’ things are in the process of becoming new,” but no Christian can say, “all things without exception have once and for all become new.” That would be tantamount to saying, “I have become a sinless, perfect person.” 

The book of Hebrews is the commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:17. If a man is “in Christ,” he has been crucified with Christ, dead, buried and raised with Christ, and at this very moment is seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He is part of two different creations at the same time. He is part of a physical creation and also part of a spiritual creation. To be “in Christ” is to be a part of the “new creation,” or the “new man” mentioned in Ephesians 2:15. The new creation is the church viewed as the body of Christ that was created on the day of Pentecost. To be “in Christ” is to be under grace and baptized into the body of Christ. It is to be under the new covenant or in the new creation. In the new creation, everything is totally, radically and permanently new. John MacArthur has stated it clearly:

BETTER EVERYTHING:

In this epistle [Hebrews], contrasts reigns. Everything presented is presented as better: a better hope, a better testament, a better promise, a better sacrifice, a better substance, a better country, a better resurrection, a better everything. Jesus Christ is presented here as the supreme Best. And we are presented as being in him and as dwelling in a completely new dimension—the heavenlies. We read of the heavenly Christ, the heavenly calling, the heavenly gift, the heavenly country, the heavenly Jerusalem, and our names being written in the heavenlies. Everything is new. Everything is better. We don’t need the old.^[5]

It is not recorded in Scripture but the Jews may well have taunted the early Christians on several fronts. The first one would have gone something like this: “You guys cannot have a true religion since you do not have any of the things essential to a religion. You have no prophet, no priest, no temple, no sacrifice, no covenant or any of the things that are an essential part of a religion.” The writer to the book of Hebrews answers such a taunt by stressing that the Christian has everything the Jews have, and in every instance what the Christian has is something better. The church has a better prophet, a better priest, a better temple, a better sacrifice, a better covenant, etc. All things are not only totally new under the new covenant, they are also better than anything under the old covenant. The old is totally fulfilled and has vanished away. The new has come and established everything new and complete.

There are two very important principles established in a correct understanding of 2 Corinthians 5:17 and the book of Hebrews. First, everything in the old covenant has been fulfilled and has permanently passed away. Everything in the new covenant is radically, totally new and nothing will pass away except faith will give way to sight. However, even though everything under the new covenant is new, all of these new things were prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures as future realities to come in Messiah’s reign. As we will see when we develop the truth of Prophet, Priest and King, the new merely fulfills what was promised in the old. Our Lord fulfills the expectations that grew out of the promises that God gave in the Old Testament Scriptures. In one sense, the new makes no sense without the old and in another sense the old is not even close to complete without the new. Many people quote Augustine’s famous statement, “The new is in the old concealed and the old is in the new revealed,” but they really don’t consistently carry that through in detail. They either read the New Testament back into the Old Testament and try to Christianize Judaism, or they read the Old Testament into the New Testament and try to Judaize Christianity. 

The question of continuity/discontinuity is not the primary subject of this book. However, it should be clear that the subject does directly impinge on the relationship of the old and new covenants. Understanding how much better Christ’s ministry of Prophet, Priest and King is when compared with Moses, Aaron and David clearly involves continuity and discontinuity. Aaron and David’s ministries are clear examples of discontinuity expressed in terms of promise and fulfillment. It is essential that the comparison of the old and new covenants, especially in the book of Hebrews, be seen as a comparison of Judaism and Christianity and not baby versus mature Christians. Again, John MacArthur has said it far better than we could. By the way, MacArthur’s commentary on Hebrews is one of the best treatments of Hebrews in print.

The Contrast between Christianity and Judaism.

Throughout the book of Hebrews, the many comparisons and contrasts are basically between Christianity and Judaism. This truth is essential to a proper interpretation of the epistle.

The central theme and message of the book of Hebrews is the superiority of the New Covenant to the Old, that is, of Christianity to Judaism. Within this theme are the sub themes of the superiority of the new priesthood to the old, the new sacrifice to the old ones, the new Mediator to the old ones, and so on. This is the key that unlocks every section of Hebrews, and to use any other key is, I believe, to make forced entry.

In the book of Hebrews the Holy Spirit is not contrasting two kinds of Christianity. He is not contrasting immature Christians and mature ones. He is contrasting Judaism and Christianity …. He is contrasting the substance and the shadow, the pattern and the reality, the visible and the invisible, the facsimile and the real thing, the type and the anti-type, the picture and the actual.

The Old Testament essentially is God’s revelation of pictures and types, which are fulfilled in Christ in the New Testament. The book of Hebrews, therefore, compares and contrasts the two parts of God’s revelation that our division of the Bible reflects.^[6]

We will see this contrast as we compare the ministry of Moses, Aaron and David with the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will see three great and godly men who, despite their faithfulness and godliness, nonetheless had to be replaced. None of them, or all of them put together, could accomplish the goal of God’s sovereign grace. That great work took a new Prophet, a new Priest and a new King. A fellow pastor, Chad Bresson, wrote the following: 

One way in which this telos has been achieved in the fullness of the gospel is the way in which Jesus fulfills all the mediatorial offices of Messiah: He is more than just the Prophet, Priest and King of his people: He is the Prophet and the message; Priest and the sacrifice; King and the law. All things, indeed, have joined in him. He is the perfection of God’s purpose. 

The New Testament sets forth Christ as the true and final Prophet. God has said all that he has to say in his Son, see Hebrews 1:1-3. He is the new covenant Prophet. 

For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.’ 

“Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days. And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways” (Acts 3:

22-26).

The New Testament sets forth Christ as the very kind of priest that sinners need to adequately represent them before God. He can bring all for whom he died into the presence of God fully justified.

Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he lives to intercede for them.

Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself (Heb. 7:23–27).

The New Testament sets forth Christ as King. He not only rules as King, he guards and protects all his subjects. “… the government will be on his shoulders” (Isa. 9:6). 

They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings … (Rev. 17:14).

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