Credo Book Highlight: Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung

The following is an excerpt taken from Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung. Daily Doctrine was given the “Theology for the Christian Life” book award by Credo in 2024.

In the life of a local church there are many priorities. Preaching. Biblical theology. Pastoral theology. But systematics? Systematic theology requires robust precision on the part of the writer and patient, quiet contemplation by the reader. So many churchgoers and pastors grow impatient. And yet, systematic theology is critical to the soul of the church. For we are nothing if we do not know God. Kevin DeYoung’s Daily Doctrine meets an overdue need. He translates systematic theology for the churchgoer, but without forfeiting depth. The reader is tasked with one to two pages of doctrine a day, which can be read in ten minutes or less. Yet rather than presenting doctrines at random around the calendar year, DeYoung guides the reader each day across the landscape of theology, each day building on the last. This book deserves to win because writing deep doctrine in an accessible way, let alone providing an extensive treatment of doctrine across the Christian faith, is extremely hard to do.

See the 2024 Book Awards by clicking here.

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Christ as Prophet

Since at least the time of Calvin, theologians have spoken of Christ’s work as fulfilling three offices. Christ simply means “anointed one,” and in the Old Testament three types of office bearers were anointed with oil: prophets, priests, and kings.[1] For example, Elisha the prophet was anointed (1 Kings 19:16), as was Aaron the high priest (Ex. 29:7), and David the king (1 Sam. 16:13).

Jesus, for his part, was anointed not with oil but with the Holy Spirit beyond measure (John 3:34).

The three offices have other theological resonances as well. One can argue that man in his original state was a kind of prophet (endowed with knowledge and understanding), a kind of priest (set apart in righteousness and holiness), and a kind of king (meant to cultivate the garden and to exercise dominion on the earth). Likewise, Turretin argues that man in his fallen state has a threefold misery: ignorance (for which he needs a prophetic word from the Lord), guilt (for which he needs a priestly sacrifice), and tyranny (from which he needs a benevolent king to set him free).[2]

The prophetic office combined a passive and an active function. Passively, the prophet received divine revelation (in dreams, angelic visitation, and verbal communication). Actively, he revealed to others what God had given to him. The prophet’s role was broad: he warned and admonished, he comforted and encouraged, he rebuked, he called for repentance, he gave assurance of grace, he made known God’s will, he announced God’s commands, he spoke of coming blessing and threatened coming judgment.

Although Christ is not wholly unlike the prophets of old, he exercises his office in three unique ways. (1) Christ exercises the prophetic office infallibly as one having total authority and unerring speech. (2) Christ exercises the prophetic office immediately with an authority that is direct and personal. (3) Christ exercises the prophetic office unceasingly by his Spirit through the teaching ministry of the church.

In fulfilling all these functions, Christ showed himself to be the prophet God’s people had been waiting for (Deut. 18:18). During his earthly ministry Christ exercised a prophetic ministry by teaching the truth, preaching the gospel, and predicting the future. One of the marks of these last days is that God now speaks to us by his Son (Heb. 1:2). The fullness and finality of his redemption are connected to the fullness and finality of his revelation. We need no more prophets because Christ continues his work as the prophet par excellence. “Christ executes the office of a prophet in revealing to the church, in all ages, by his Spirit and word, the whole will of God in all things concerning edification and salvation” (WLC Q/A 43).

Christ as Priest

Priests in the Old Testament were mediators. If prophets represented God to the people, priests represented the people to God. The Levitical priests were taken from among men and appointed by God. They were given the task of acting on behalf of men. Their work was to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins (Heb. 5:1–9).

Although Christ fulfilled the work of the Levitical priesthood, the New Testament stresses that Christ was a priest after the order of Melchizedek (Ps. 110; Heb. 7). Turretin highlights several differences between the two priesthoods. One came from Aaron, the other from Melchizedek. One was associated with the Mosaic administration, the other with Abraham. One had a derivative power, the other had power in itself. One was temporal and of finite value, the other eternal and of infinite value. In short, the two differ in persons, in institution, in efficacy, in perfection, and in duration.[3]

The aim of Christ’s ongoing priestly intercession is not for Christ to continue to participate in the life of suffering on earth, but for believers to participate in the life of God in heaven. Share on XChrist’s work as priest chiefly consists of two things: atonement and intercession. “Christ executes the office of a priest, in his once offering himself as a sacrifice without spot to God, to be a reconciliation for the sins of his people; and in making continual intercession for them” (WLC Q/A 44).

The nature of Christ’s ongoing intercession is manifold. Christ not only prays for us; his perpetual presence in heaven is itself part of his mediatorial work (Heb. 7:25; 8:1–4; 9:24). Christ is also in heaven in a judicial capacity to be an advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1) and to turn away the accusations of the accuser (Zech. 3:1–2; Rom. 8:33–34). In all this, Christ’s atonement and his intercession are inextricably linked. The suffering and death of Christ were “preparatory and antecedent to his intercession.”[4] Suffering was the part of his priestly work done on earth; intercession is the part of his priesthood to be performed in heaven. Christ procured salvation by his suffering; he continues to apply it by his intercession.

Christ also ministers to us as a sympathetic high priest (Heb. 2:18; 4:15). We should not equate Christ’s sympathy with the notion that the Son of God is weeping in heaven for our sakes. Any notion of Christ’s continued suffering undermines the completed nature of his atoning work and confuses the state of exaltation with the state of humiliation. The sympathy of Christ is not the same as contemporary notions of sentimentality.

Interestingly, Hebrews doesn’t actually say Christ sympathizes with us, but with our weaknesses. The point is that because of the Son’s identification with his brothers, he can help us. The emphasis is not on Jesus feeling the right thing in heaven. Rather, the good news is that because he has felt what we feel, he will surely come to our aid.

Our comfort is not that Christ is still bound up in our sorrow, but that because he suffered for our sake we can be caught up into his glory. Suffering itself is not sacred. Christ sanctified suffering because he suffered with a purpose. He suffered to save the lost. The aim of Christ’s ongoing priestly intercession is not for Christ to continue to participate in the life of suffering on earth, but for believers to participate in the life of God in heaven.

Christ as King

Life in the church looks forward to the eternal life where God’s redemptive presence will be enjoyed to the fullest. Share on XJesus Christ is the only king and head of the church. That is to say, there is no earthly magistrate and no supreme pontiff who rules over the church as sovereign, not even in a derivative sense. Christ is King, and there is no room on the throne for any other.

Christ exercises his kingly office in three ways: by establishing and governing the church, by saving and sustaining his elect people, and by taking vengeance upon those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel (WLC Q/A 45). Christ rules as a king of law, of love, and of lordly recompense. He calls the church out of the world, giving them officers, rules, and censures. He saves the elect, rewarding their obedience, correcting their faults, and restraining their enemies. And he judges the rebellious, executing his just wrath upon those who should have been his loyal subjects.

We should say something here about the relationship between the kingdom and the church. The two are not identical, but they cannot be separated.

We can think of the church as a kind of outpost or embassy of the kingdom. An embassy is a national outpost dwelling in a foreign land. The embassy, while it wants to dwell peacefully in the foreign land, exists to advance the interests of another country. So the church, dwelling on earth in various nations around the world, exists to advance the interest of another kingdom, a heavenly kingdom.

The church is the place where you expect to see the values and rules of the kingdom honored and upheld. The church is supposed to be the outpost of heaven on earth, which is why the poor should be provided for in the church, and why the wicked and unbelieving don’t belong in the church. The reason the church is not mainly about societal transformation is the same reason the church does not throw sinners into the lake of fire. The heaven on earth we seek to create is the heavenly reality among God’s people in the church.

Life in the church looks forward to the eternal life where God’s redemptive presence will be enjoyed to the fullest. In the age to come, the kingdom will no longer be something that has broken in here or there; it will be all in. Think of the good news from Revelation 11:15: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” The kingdom of God is the heavenly world breaking into the our earthly existence. Do not think of the kingdom as a realm to which we are going as much as a reality that is coming to us. Both now and in the future, the kingdom comes when and where the King is known.[5]

Content taken from Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung, ©2024. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, crossway.org.

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Notes:

[1] Calvin, Institutes, 2.15.2.

[2] Turretin, Elenctic Theology, 2.393.

[3] Turretin, Elenctic Theology, 2.406–8.

[4] Turretin, Elenctic Theology, 2.406.

[5] These last few paragraphs are adapted from DeYoung, The Lord’s Prayer, 40–41. Used by permission.