From Adam to Christ
Introduction
The biblical category of priest-king finds its origin within the narrative of Scripture. The study of this topic within the narrative of Scripture is called biblical theology. Biblical theology can be defined as an exegetical method that is “concerned with the overall message of the whole Bible. It seeks to understand the parts in relation to the whole."[1] Another helpful definition is that biblical theology is a “theological interpretation of Scripture in and for the church. It proceeds with historical and literary sensitivity and seeks to analyze and synthesize the Bible’s teaching about God and his relations to the world on its own terms, maintaining sight of the Bible’s overarching narrative and Christocentric focus.”[2]
In the latter definition, I want us to focus on these two concepts, overarching narrative and Christocentric focus. Christ told his disciples that he is the fulfillment of everything within the Scriptures (Luke 24:44-45). Thus, we can say that Scripture is a consistent narrative with Christ at its center. In this short piece, we will do a biblical theological survey on the category of priest-king. We will look at Adam and show how he was given this role, how he failed, and how Christ fulfilled it; then we will comment how this affects our understanding of membership in the body of Christ and how this serves as a backdrop for healthy church ministry.
Adam to Christ
Scripture begins with the creation narrative. God created everything and man and women were his chief creation made in His image. God made Adam and gave him a duty to fulfill. He was to, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28). In Genesis 2, greater clarity is given concerning the duties which God gave to Adam. Scripture reads, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Gen. 2:15; italics mine). Following this, God explained to Adam what he can and cannot eat (vv. 16-17) and his duty to name the animals (Gen 2:19). We also see that God walked freely in the garden (Gen 3:8), signifying that the garden is a holy place, or temple, in which God dwells and where there is peace between Creator and creature.[3]
Now as we look at Adam’s job, we see three aspects to it. First, he was to be a representative. Adam was made in God’s image and was to be God’s representative to creation. He was given authority to rule in such a way that represents and points to the good and just rule of the Creator. Second, he was to expand and cultivate the garden. Adam was to spread the glory of God. He was to spread the borders of the garden and fill the earth with image bearing progeny. Third, he was to guard and keep/watch the garden. Adam was to ensure that the place consecrated to God would remain so. He was to teach what God had commanded and identify and name the things within it.[4]
Consequently, we know Adam’s story of how he failed to be an obedient son. Instead of representing God, spreading his glory, and protecting the garden he failed and as a result sin corrupted creation. Thus, the rest of Scripture begins to detail God’s redemptive plan from eternity past. It starts immediately after the fall with the promise of a seed who would come from the woman, and he would deal a deadly blow to the serpent, ultimately reconciling the fall of humanity (Gen 3:15).
Now how does all this relate to the subject of a priest-king? Even though Genesis does not say that Adam was a priest or a king, we identify his role as a priest-king because it describes the duties given to him. The narrative in Scripture unfolds and we get more clarity concerning the function of priests and kings and embedded as the backbone of the narrative of Scripture are the covenants which God makes. [5] He establishes these covenants with the following respective covenant heads and we examine that Adam’s role is perpetuated and developed with the respective covenant heads, Noah, Abraham, the nation of Israel, and David, as they are given their roles, obligations, and duties. Upon closer observation, their duties and tasks are a perpetuation of the task given to Adam in the garden. [6]
However, like Adam, these sons would be disobedient as well. They did not represent God, spread his glory, nor guard that which was set apart for His glory. Even though God would raise faithful servants such as Noah, Abraham, the nation of Israel, and David, none were obedient. Thus, the Old Testament speaks of a better, everlasting, covenant.[7] One where peace will be accomplished (Ezek. 17:26), where obedience will be fulfilled (Jer 31:33), and which God would accomplish through his anointed one (Isa 53). This new covenant finds its fulfillment in the coming of Christ. The role first given to Adam is fulfilled in Christ. Unlike the previous representative sons, Christ the true Son, was obedient to the will of the Father (John 6:40).
Christ and the Church
Now how does this relate to us? Well, we, the church, have been justified through the atoning death of Christ on the cross. God the Father has reconciled creation back to himself, through the person and work of the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ is the true Son, the true Israel, and the second Adam (Rom 5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:45). The New Testament authors, whether from the gospels to the letters, present Christ’s mediatory and priestly sacrifice as the apex and proof of his kingly rule.[8] Thus, Christ as the true prophet, priest, and king has established God’s kingdom and the new nation, the church, is united in him.
The reality that we are in Christ has world shattering implications. We are his body; he is our head. The church of Jesus Christ identifies with our Savior, he is our Lord. Greg Beal says it well when he writes, “Jesus’s titles “Son of Man” and “Son of God” reflect respectively both the OT figures of Adam and Israel. This is because … Adam and Israel are two sides of one coin. Israel and its patriarchs were given the same commission as was Adam in Gen. 1:26–28 … the church is also identified with what it means to be the true Adam, especially in its identification with Jesus, the true Israel and last Adam.”[9] To drive this point home, Leeman is helpful when he writes, “becoming a Christian means being re-deputized [10] with Adam’s office (identity, authority, work) as priest-king.”[11] Therefore, members of Grace Covenant Church, if you are in Christ, then you have been given the task of a priest-king by way of Christ.
How does this office play itself out in the life of the new covenant community? First, we, the church, now represent the Father in Christ. We represent Christ’s good reign, rule, and image by way of our lives. If anyone wants to know what God looks like, they can look at the church, who are in Christ and are being conformed into his image. Secondly, we are to spread the glory of God, through the preaching of the gospel of Christ. The gospel is going out to the nations and the church is the primary agent tasked with the order to preach it. Thirdly, we guard the gospel of Christ by affirming the content of the gospel and the confessors of the gospel, through Word and ordinances (baptism and the Lord’s supper). As the temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells, we teach, discipline, and admonish one another through the Scriptures to walk and live in a way that is consistent with our profession of faith in Jesus.
Hear from Leeman one more time,
God deputized Adam as a priestly king. But Adam got himself fired. This employment offer was repeated for all humanity again through Noah, and then passed on to Abraham, Israel, David, and finally the beloved Son, the last Everyman. Jesus, this last Everyman and federal head of God’s new covenant people, fulfilled the office perfectly, both for his own sake and on behalf of his people. These people have now been hired and deputized to fulfill the same Adamic office of priest-king. This involves representing Christ, seeking to expand the reach of Christ’s kingdom, and guarding the people of God in holiness, which includes watching over both the what of the knowledge of God in the gospel and the who of the knowledge of God in the gospel. Every Christian has this job assignment by virtue of his membership in the new covenant and baptism.[12]
Church, whether you know it or not, when you become one with Christ and a member of his body you have been given a task. It is a grand task, so grand that it takes a whole covenant community to fulfill. As we reflect on our priest-king role, there are outward and inward aspects to it. Outwardly, we are to spread the glory of God in Christ. Inwardly, we are to affirm, to build up and to guard those who belong to God. However, the context in which the believer is prepared to engage outwardly and sanctified inwardly is the local church. That is why this is so important as the backdrop of a biblical foundation for ministry. Because every believer is a vital piece to the life of the local church and the New Testament is crystal clear in calling every believer to the work of ministry (Eph 2:10, 21-22; 4:11-16). What does that look like? Well, we will explore that in the following weeks.
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Footnotes
1. Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants: A Concise Biblical Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 22.
2. Brian Rosner, “Biblical Theology,” in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, ed. T. D. Alexander, Brian S. Rosner, D. A. Carson, and Graeme Goldsworthy (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 10.
3. We will not have time to touch on this topic of temple, however if one wants to study more see G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God, ed. D. A. Carson, vol. 17, New Studies in Biblical Theology (Downers Grove, IL; England: InterVarsity Press; Apollos, 2004).
4. I have adopted these three categories and language from, Jonathan Leeman, Don’t Fire Your Church Members: The Case for Congregationalism (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2016), 39.
5. Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants, 51.
6. For further treatment on this topic read chapter 2, “A Covenantal Job Assignment” in Leeman, Don’t Fire Your Church Members: The Case for Congregationalism, 33-58.
7. For more information on the new covenant and its relation to the meta-narrative of Scripture read chapter 10 “The New Covenant” in Gentry and Wellum, God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants, 207- 238.
8. See Jeremy R. Treat, The Crucified King: Atonement and Kingdom in Biblical and Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014).
9. Greg Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology, (Grand Rapids:Baker Academic, 2011), 652–53.
10. Deputized as defined in, Leeman, Don’t Fire Your Church Members: The Case for Congregationalism, 47–48: A CEO can delegate authority, say, to his vice president of marketing to perform certain marketing functions. But he can also deputize, say, a lawyer to act on his behalf or in his name, such that the lawyer can sign his contracts in his absence. What the lawyer does more directly binds, obligates, and impinges upon the reputation of the CEO than what the vice president of marketing does. So with an ambassador acting on behalf of his king. While God has delegated various authorities to his common covenant institutions (e.g., civil governments, parents), he has deputized his special covenant people and institutions to speak and act for him in a unique way. This distinction, which divides one kind of representation from another, is necessary as a property of the fact that God’s special covenant people bear his name: “I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
11. Leeman, Don’t Fire Your Church Members, 54.
12. Ibid., 58-59.