Before turning to the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Leiden professors have two final theses worth catching. Both concern how Christ’s rule differs now from how it will be.

The four Leiden professors offer a summary of the Bible’s teaching on the office of Christ, with corrections to misunderstandings still with us today. The Synopsis frames Christ’s mediatorial work not as three separate offices but as one office with three integrated features.

The pattern of spiritual conquest is nothing new. It’s what the church has exhibited from its very beginnings, and Jonathan Edwards traces its outworking through the early centuries with characteristic verve:

Christ’s universal government, vast as it is, has its most intimate expression in the life of the individual believer.

Christ’s kingly enthronement does not leave his priestly sacrifice behind. The two remain fused in a single image.

Christ’s intercession has two components, and they belong together.

Jesus is both the only-begotten eternal Son of God and the only perfect human being.

The words for ‘priest’ in Scripture (Hebrew kōhēn; Greek hiereus, archiereus) occur almost 900 times — 740 in the Old Testament, 151 in the New.

Alongside the ongoing preaching ministry, the New Testament names a number of individuals who function as prophets. Caiaphas (John 11:49-52). Agabus (Acts 11:27-30; 21:10-11). Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen and Saul — who are also called ‘teachers.’ And the four unmarried daughters of Philip the evangelist (Acts 21:9).

Christ is the decisive and ultimate Mediator of Divine speech. He does not merely speak truth; he is ‘the truth’ in Person (John 14:6).

Before turning to the prophetic office, one further question deserves a hearing: should there be a fourth? It can be suggested that a four-fold office would be a more balanced way of approaching the work of Christ, complementing Prophet, Priest and King with ‘Servant.’

Before turning to Prophet, Priest, and King individually, it’s important to grasp how they hold together. Calvin’s concern was not to catalogue three discrete jobs Christ performs, but to describe the Mediator’s single identity seen from three angles.