Christ the Prophet of the Covenant

Christ’s administration of the covenant, as the prophet thereof, may be taken up in these three things:

1. His intimating and offering the covenant to sinners, by His Word, for bringing them personally into it. This He did from the time of Adam’s fall, is now doing, and will do even unto the end of time, that the mystery of God shall be finished.

He began the Old Testament dispensation of it in person. Appearing in human shape, with His own mouth He gave the first notice of the covenant that ever there was in the world, and made the first offer of it in Paradise (Genesis 3:8 and 15). He carried it on by prophets and ordinary teachers, whom He commissioned for that effect and furnished with gifts for the work. The former of these He employed to write in His Name, as well as to speak therein, in that matter; and by both He spoke to sinners, intimating and offering the covenant unto them, by their means, whether through the Word written or spoken. And thus He managed that work to the salvation of those who believed in the patriarchal ages before and after the flood and all along the time of the Jewish church, from Moses to the end of that dispensation.

Then He also began the New Testament dispensation in His own person. Having by His incarnation become man, He applied Himself to this work. Though He was born “King of the Jews” (Matthew 2:2), and many of them would have bid Him to have mounted their throne (John 6:15), yet He chose rather to appear in the character of a prophet and betake Himself unto the work of the ministry, for to preach the gospel, and intimate and offer the covenant to perishing sinners; and so He was a minister of the circumcision (Romans 15:8). Of Him in this capacity particularly, Solomon, that king-preacher, was a type (Ecclesiastes 1:1). And this also He did, and still does carry on mediately and by proxy, especially after His ascension into heaven; and that partly by His apostles and other extraordinary officers, whom He employed to write, as well as to speak, in His Name, and partly by ordinary ministers of the gospel, to be continued in the church to the end of the world (Ephesians 4:11-13).

Thus He is now administering the covenant unto us by putting His written Word of the Old and New Testaments in our hands, and sending men in His Name to preach the gospel unto us. By these means He speaks to sinners, intimating and offering them the covenant; and so He carries on the work to the salvation of those that believe, and rendering unbelievers inexcusable (2 Corinthians 5:20; Revelation 3:22; Luke 10:16). Wherefore the offer of the covenant made to us in the gospel is His offer; and though the Word is sent to us by men that are but His voice in the matter, He is the speaker. Then “see that ye refuse not Him that speaketh” (Hebrews 12:25).

2. His making the intimation and offer of the covenant effectual to the elect, by the Spirit, “By them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven” (1 Peter 1:12). The great Prophet of the covenant can effectually teach the most unteachable sinners of mankind, causing light not only to break forth in a dark world, by His Word, but in dark hearts, by His Spirit, for the fullness of the Spirit of light is in Him, and He has eye-salve for the spiritually blind (Revelation 3:18). He knows who are His, in whose name He contracted with the Father and received the promise of the Spirit. Sooner or later, He so enlightens them, that He rescues them from under the power of their spiritual darkness and renders the administration of the covenant effectual to them, however ineffectual it be to others (Colossians 1:13).

This He does by bringing His Word to them with power, through the efficacy of His Spirit opening their eyes. In the first place, by His Spirit acting upon them as a Spirit of bondage, He sets home on their consciences the holy law in the commands and curses thereof, as of divine authority, and binding on them in particular. Hereby they are convinced of their sin and misery, seeing their sins as heinous in the sight of God, and His wrath due to them for their sin. They are filled with remorse, terror, and anxiety; they are made to pant for relief, to feel an absolute need of Christ and His righteousness, and to despair of relief by any other way (Acts 2:37; 16:29-30).

And then, by the same Spirit acting within them as a Spirit of life, and communicated unto them from Himself in the Word of the gospel, He sets home on their hearts and consciences the glorious gospel in its free promise of life and salvation to sinners through Jesus Christ, as it stands in the Holy Scriptures; clearing and demonstrating the same unto them to be the infallible Word of the eternal God, and His Word to them in particular: “Ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13); “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance” (1 Thessalonians 1:5).

This demonstration of the Spirit is that which immediately clears to them the ground of their believing in particular, as says the apostle, “My preaching was ... in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). And it is an internal attestation of the Word of the gospel unto them, distinct from the clearest external or ministerial attestation of it, according to the saying of our Savior, “The Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me” (John 15:26); “And ye also shall bear witness” (verse 27).

By the power hereof, getting, by way of spiritual sight, a knowledge of Christ in His transcendent glory and excellency, exhibited to them in the free promise of the gospel, they are infallibly brought to believe (John 6:40). The Spirit thus applying the Word of the gospel to them, they greedily embrace it and apply it to themselves by faith, as may be seen in these converts, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins”; “For the promise is unto you”; “Then they that gladly received His word were baptized” (Acts 2:38-39, and 41).

3. Lastly, His teaching and instructing them by His Word and Spirit, from thenceforth, as children of the covenant, His own disciples. The whole plan of salvation is laid down in the covenant, being a mystery of the manifold wisdom of God, whereof there is still more and more to be learned. And Christ is the great Prophet to teach it. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will shew them His covenant” (Psalm 25:14). The saints, by reason of the remains of darkness in their minds while here, are apt to lose sight of the parties in the covenant, but the great Prophet is to show them the Father and to manifest Himself unto them by the Spirit.

The condition of the covenant, the Mediator’s own righteousness, the sole ground of all their hopes, cannot be kept in view but by means of the light of life from Himself. And in His light only can they have a believing view of the promises and privileges of the covenant. The duties of the covenant, whereof the exceeding broad law of the ten commandments is the rule, are many; and though they be clear in themselves, yet are they often so dark and perplexing to us that we cannot distinguish between sin and duty. But the children of the covenant have an infallible Teacher, whom they may consult in all cases, and of whom they may learn how to steer their course in every point. “The meek will He guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach His way” (Psalm 25:9).

The darkness brought on mankind by sin, nothing but the grace of the new covenant can effectually dispel. The true light is a benefit of that covenant, purchased by the blood of Christ, and lodged with Him among the rest of the benefits of His great trust. He has the dispensing of it, as the great Prophet of the covenant. To Him then must we have our recourse for light in all cases, whether we be under the midnight darkness of a natural light, or under the twilight darkness of the present imperfection of a state of grace. Yea, in the midday light of glory, the Lamb is the light of the heavenly city (Revelation 21:23). And thus Christ is the Prophet of the covenant.

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