The Work of Christ

When Jesus ascended, the disciples stood staring at the sky. Two figures in white appeared and asked them why (Acts 1:10-11). It is an honest question. What had just happened? The cross was finished. The resurrection had come. Now he was gone again, and the work felt incomplete. The ascension is the hinge between what Christ accomplished on earth and what he is doing right now.

The last prophet

Israel had been waiting for a prophet like Moses. Moses himself said so: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers" (Deuteronomy 18:15). Hebrews opens by placing Jesus at the end of a long prophetic line: "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son" (Hebrews 1:1-2). Christ is not the latest in a series. He is the word that closes it. The prophetic office does not mean he spoke only in the past. Hebrews still speaks of him as speaking in the present: "Today, if you hear his voice" (Hebrews 4:7).

His prophetic ministry continues through Scripture and through the Spirit he promised to send, who would lead his disciples into all truth (John 16:13).

The priest who did not come down

When the crowd mocked Jesus on the cross, some called out, "He saved others; he cannot save himself" (Mark 15:31). They meant it as an accusation. They were accidentally right about the logic and wrong about what it proved. A priest does not save himself. He offers himself for others.

The letter to the Hebrews develops this at length. Jesus offered himself as the sacrifice "how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience" (Hebrews 9:14). That sacrifice was offered once (Hebrews 9:28). It does not repeat. But the priestly work continues. "He always lives to make intercession" for those who come to God through him (Hebrews 7:25). Paul echoes it in Romans: Christ Jesus is "at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us" (Romans 8:34).

This is the significance of the ascension. Jesus did not simply leave. He went to the place from which he could do his ongoing priestly work. There is someone in heaven right now who knows what it is to be hungry, tired, tempted, and abandoned, and he is speaking your name before the Father.

The king already seated

Paul writes to Ephesus that God raised Christ "and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come" (Ephesians 1:20-21). The kingdom of Christ is not only a future hope. It has already begun. He reigns now. The powers that crucified him are already, in principle, defeated.

Revelation gives the returning Christ the title "King of kings and Lord of lords" (Revelation 19:16). He holds that title now, not only then. The return does not inaugurate the kingship. It completes and reveals it. Every corner of the universe that has not yet acknowledged him will acknowledge him when he comes (Philippians 2:10-11).

Three offices, one continuous work

Prophet, priest, and king are not biographical phases. They are not offices he held in sequence and set aside. All three are active right now. He still speaks as prophet, through the Spirit and through Scripture. He still intercedes as priest, carrying our names before the Father. He still rules as king, governing history toward its appointed end.

The Christian life is not lived under the memory of a savior. It is lived in relationship with a living one who is currently working in all three capacities. When you bring a burden to God, you are not shouting into an empty heaven. You are reaching toward a throne where someone who knows what your life feels like is already speaking on your behalf.

This week, ask your group which of the three offices they find hardest to hold onto in ordinary life and why.