Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
“Let’s Talk about Jesus” Our Prophet, Priest and King

“Let’s Talk about Jesus” Our Prophet, Priest and King

Last updated on: October 24, 2015 at 7:51 am by Roger E. Olson

“Let’s Talk about Jesus” Our Prophet, Priest and King 2015-10-24T07:51:35-05:00 Roger E. Olson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Recently here someone chided me for not talking about Jesus enough. Well, in my own defense, my whole and entire reason for criticizing Calvinism (as well as other wrong theologies) is Jesus. Jesus as God incarnate, the perfect and yet understandable revelation of God, God’s character and will, forms the foundation and center of my whole theology. I thought I had made that clear, but apparently not explicitly enough for him.

So let me say it once again: For me Jesus Christ is God and Savior, the perfect revelation of God in humanity, the “human face of God,” the divine in humanity, the mediator between God and humanity, the foundation and center of all Christian faith and thought, the key to understanding history and all reality including myself as sinner saved by grace.

That is my confession as a Christian theologian.

Of course, much more could and should be said, has been said (by me) and will be said.

One aspect of my own Pietist-Pentecostal-informed spirituality is the centrality of Jesus Christ as not only God, Lord, master, but also as friend. To be sure, he is a unique friend, unlike any other friend, but also and at the same time still and nevertheless friend to those who obey his command which is to love him and each other. None of us do this perfectly, yet he remains our friend insofar as we seek this disposition and action from our hearts. And this is a condition he will give us if we ask him for it.

I grew up in a church and large, extended family (of many denominations!) that sang and talked frequently about Jesus our friend. Jesus was a member of our household. He was always there, watching, waiting, listening, even speaking. Intimacy with Jesus was part and parcel of our spiritual ethos. Yet, from earliest age I knew Jesus not only as friend but also as Lord and master.

I grew up having conversations with Jesus; I still do that. I wake up many mornings with a hymn or gospel song on my mind and in my heart, even on my lips, and that begins a day-long conversation with Jesus. “Friendship with Jesus, fellowship divine. O what blessed, sweet communion; Jesus is a friend of mine.” That is at the heart of my spirituality and informs my theology. This friend of mine is someone who reveals the heart of God to me and I know him as someone who would never create anyone for eternal torment. He is not “nice,” but he is good; he is not “safe,” but he is kind. He gives me comfort and affliction in needed measure—like a true and good friend.

I have trouble relating to fellow Christians who do not know or want to know that intimacy with Jesus that lies at the center of my Christian spirituality. Mere orthodoxy does not interest me; nor does “relevance to culture.” Both have some value, but they are not crucial to knowing God in the way God wants to be known—in communion through what Emil Brunner called “I-Thou encounter.”

I respect fellow Christians of a more liturgical and contemplative spirituality, but I never quite understand their liturgical worship or mysticism. I’m not putting them down, but I confess to being bemused and perplexed by them. They do not enhance my spirituality which revolves almost exclusively around conversional piety—“personal relationship with Jesus.”

One aspect of Reformed tradition and theology that connects well with my Jesus-centered spirituality is understanding Jesus as prophet, priest and king. As a child I first encountered this “threefold office of Christ” through the frequently sung hymn “Praise him, praise him…prophet and priest and king.” Later, in seminary, I encountered this rubric for understanding “the work of Jesus Christ” first in volume two of Brunner’s Dogmatics and then in Calvin’s Institutes.

My friend Jesus is also, and before being my personal friend, God’s uniquely chosen and anointed prophet to humanity—more than any previous prophet in that he is God revealing himself to humanity. He is greater than any merely human prophet and yet fulfills that office perfectly as they (Moses through John the Baptist) fulfilled it imperfectly. As my divine-human friend, Jesus functions as prophet to me through his life of perfect obedience to God’s will and convicting, challenging voice correcting, encouraging and guiding me. I know his prophetic voice first and foremost through Scripture, the “cradle” that holds him (Luther), but I also hear his prophetic voice in the gospel preached, in testimonies from fellow Christians, in the voices of social critics calling for justice, in works of devotional literature and in that “still, small voice” that speaks to me with correction, encouragement and guidance in my own heart and mind.

My friend Jesus is also, and before being my personal friend, God’s uniquely chosen and anointed priest for humanity—more than any human priest (mediator) before or after him. He voluntarily offered his life for and for all sinners, reconciling us to God by his sacrificial life and death. His atoning death is the center of everything—including history itself. Apart from it I and everyone would be lost; because of it we all have hope for life abundant and free. I love to meditate on the cross, sing about the cross, hear the message of the cross preached and even see re-enactments of the cross as in “passion plays” which were more common when I was a child. (Our church and most like it performed passion plays every year on the Sunday before Easter. On Easter Sunday we would sing triumphantly “Up from the grave he arose!”)

My friend Jesus is also, and before being my personal friend, God’s uniquely chosen and anointed king for humanity—greater than any human ruler, lord or master. Jesus rose from death, conquering fear of death for all who trust in him, and will return to earth as messiah bringing perfect peace, justice and prosperity for all people. In the meantime, in the “time between the times,” the “already but not yet” situation, he is king by right and intervenes with conquering power over sin, death and the devil when the church prays.

The gospel hymn “One Day” expresses this threefold offices of my friend Jesus so beautifully:

One day when Heaven was filled with His praises, One day when sin was as black as could be, Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin, Dwelt among men, my Example is He!

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me; Buried, He carried my sins far away; Rising, He justified freely forever; One day He’s coming—O glorious day!

One day they led Him up Calvary’s mountain, One day they nailed Him to die on the tree; Suffering anguish, despised and rejected: Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He!

Refrain

One day they left Him alone in the garden, One day He rested, from suffering free; Angels came down o’er His tomb to keep vigil; Hope of the hopeless, my Savior is He!

Refrain

One day the grave could conceal Him no longer, One day the stone rolled away from the door; Then He arose, over death He had conquered; Now is ascended, my Lord evermore!

Refrain

One day the trumpet will sound for His coming, One day the skies with His glories will shine; Wonderful day, my belovèd ones bringing; Glorious Savior, this Jesus is mine!

Refrain

This hymn by evangelist and theologian J. Wilbur Chapman (d. 1918) expresses my faith and the center of my spiritual life. It also expresses the story at the heart of my theology-the true story of God with us in the man Jesus who is still alive as God’s perfect prophet, priest and king living in and with us by our faith in him.

This could be enough to unify all evangelical Christians; I wish it were, I wish it were. Unfortunately, there are those evangelical Christians for whom it is never enough. One must adopt their whole systematic theology to be considered truly, authentically evangelical and a fulfilled Christian. That theology is Charles Hodge’s Systematic Theology—even when they don’t know it by that name. (Their theological leaders know it but make it sound as if it’s simply “the Bible” and “the gospel.)

Then, on the other hand, there are those evangelical Christians who have “risen above” all “trite talk” of Jesus as “friend” as intrinsically trivializing. In light of John 15 (and my own spirituality) I simply don’t understand that perspective. Jürgen Moltmann, a German theologian who has greatly influenced me, emphasizes the desire of God to be our friend through Jesus Christ. Every concept can be and is trivialized by someone, somewhere. Our task, my task, is to retrieve good, biblical concepts that have been trivialized by others and to avoid doing that myself. I’m sure there are some reading this who think I have trivialized it in my own spirituality and testimony, but all I can say to them is that they are not my judges. He is my friend and judge. I will rest in him and be judged by him.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

October 22, 2015

A Rare, Good Television Sitcom: "Grinder"...Should Make Us Think about Our Culture

Next Post

October 26, 2015 Announcements about Two of My Books and a Forthcoming Book

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Against Liberal Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I wanted a vineyard so badly that my wife arranged the owner's death through false witnesses. Who am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

David Ahab Jezebel Naboth