Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King Quotes

“Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? (Acts 2:5-8). Verses 11–13 again say that they were all “amazed,” but this second amazement was because of what they heard. It was not merely hearing in their own language, but it was the content of the message that they heard that amazed them. Verse 11 says they heard the “wonders of God in [their] own tongues!” They heard the Gospel. However, they were amazed because they were hearing the “wonders of God” not in the sacred Hebrew language but in Gentiles’ languages. This is the heart of the message of the miraculous sign of tongues. As we shall see, God speaking the gospel in Gentile languages instead of the sacred Hebrew language was a deliberate rebuke by God and signaled that God was turning from the Jews to the Gentiles. The Jews heard the gospel in Gentile languages. They were not drunk, but they were confused. They were witnessing the unthinkable. God was showing grace to the Gentiles and was giving the Gentiles the same privileges as the Jews.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“The Mount of Transfiguration (Matt.17:1-6) is the object lesson that shows the new Prophet has replaced Moses as Prophet and Lawgiver. The new Prophet also replaced all of the old covenant prophets as God’s spokesmen. The message from heaven saying, “Listen to my Son” is the Father showing the change from the old authority to the new and final authority. This is the same message proclaimed in the Book of Hebrews (1:1-3). Christ is the last and final prophet. He has given us the full and final message of God. God has said all he has to say in his Son.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“Men put Christ to death but God raised him from the grave and gave him all power and authority. Christ also was given a new name (cf. Philip. 2:9-11). The Father made his Son to be Lord. The real question is not what sinners will do with Christ, but the question is what will Jesus do with the sinner? He is not in our hands; we are in his hands. All men are in the hands of God’s appointed Redeemer to do with as he chooses.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“The old priesthood, and everything associated with it, had to be discarded and totally replaced. It was not just altered, or updated, or even revised just a bit. It had to be totally done away with and replaced by something “better.” It had to be done away because it was ineffective in bringing sinners into the most holy presence of God. The Aaronic priesthood could not offer a sacrifice that could pay the debt our sin incurred. Hebrews 2:17 is telling us that Christ is the first High Priest that could successfully make a true atonement for sinners. He is the first High Priest who could open the veil and give us assurance to “come boldly” into the presence of God.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“Why is Melchizedek so Important?
Hebrews 7:4 raises and answers that very question. The main purpose of this section in Hebrews is not to show that Melchizedek is greater than Aaron. It does that very clearly, but it does it in a way designed to show that Melchizedek is also greater than Abraham himself. The main purpose of the writer of Hebrews in this section is to show that the gospel of grace not only predates both Moses and Aaron, but it also predates the patriarch Abraham himself. The religion that we espouse was in existence long before Israel and Judaism existed. The gospel of sovereign grace is not integrally connected to anything that is Jewish. This is a masterful argument. What is essential to see is that everything in the old covenant, including the basic covenant document itself, is finished, and in each case something much better has taken its place.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“Before the better things of the new covenant could be established, the old covenant things had to be perfectly fulfilled and done away with. Our kinsman redeemer was born under the covenant written on the stone Tables of the Covenant in the ark. He perfectly kept all of that covenant’s terms and earned the life and righteousness that it promised. He earned every blessing it promised because he kept every precept it demanded. He literally brought to the Tables of the Covenant the holy, sinless and obedient life it demanded. Every precept must be fulfilled. Every term had to be obeyed just as every prophecy had to be fulfilled. Not a jot or tittle could be left unfinished. On the cross our Lord’s mind went down through the Old Testament, and he saw one thing in Psalm 69:21 not yet finished (“They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.” Psalm 69:21). Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit (John 19:28-30).
The moment the last old covenant prophecy was fulfilled, our Lord cried out, “It is finished” and gave up his spirit. The rending of the veil was the evidence that the old was finished and the new had come.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“The liberal’s problem is his misunderstanding of the true nature of God. He begins with love instead of beginning with holiness. The death of the “Lord’s goat” shows the necessity of a death to pay for sin. I used to say, “God owes no man anything,” but I was wrong. God owes every sinner the wages of sin, namely death as the penalty for sin. God is honest and will pay the earned wages.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“It is quite clear to me that the new covenant was not in any sense made with Israel; it was made with the church. It was made with the people for whom Christ died; it was made to replace the old covenant; and it was to be remembered by the church in this gospel age (1 Cor. 11:23-26). Jewish believers living in the gospel age are part of the group redeemed body of Christ. Christ is their Prophet; Priest and King, just as he is my Prophet, Priest and King. There is not a Prophet, Priest and King for saved Jews and another Prophet, Priest and King for the church. We simply must understand that when Christ fulfilled the Old Testament promises of the new covenant, all the distinctions between Jew and Gentile were forever abolished. There was a very clear difference between Jew and Gentile under the Old Covenant, but all of those distinctions are done away in Christ.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“Covenant Theology insists that the covenant at Sinai was a gracious covenant made with a “redeemed” by which they mean “justified” people. It totally ignores the big “if” and the “then” in verse 5.30 They fail to see the covenant at Sinai was a conditional covenant. Israel was indeed a people redeemed by blood, but it was not spiritual redemption by Christ’s blood. It was a physical redemption from Egypt by animal blood. Israel becoming a “kingdom of priests” and a “holy nation” was totally dependent upon their keeping the covenant terms of Exodus 20, which they never did. The covenant at Sinai was without question a legal covenant of works conditioned on Israel’s obedience to the covenant terms. The words “if you will obey” and “then I will” cannot be made to mean “I will whether you do or not.” The covenant at Sinai was without question a conditional covenant. Language cannot be more explicit. God said, “If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then [and only then] … you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” They did become a “holy”31 (meaning separate) physical nation, but they did not become a “holy,” (meaning spiritual) nation where all of the members in the nation were regenerate saints.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“The foundation of the old covenant was based on law and said “do or die.” The new covenant is based on grace and says, “It is finished, only believe.” That is not a better version of the same covenant; that is a radical and new covenant based on different and better promises.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“I agree that Christ often refutes the Pharisee’s distortion of the law of Moses (Matt.15:1-20; 23:1-36). However, he also clearly demonstrates the great difference between the law of Moses that established an earthly theocracy and the laws of grace that govern the body of Christ. Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, is doing something other than just giving the “true interpretation” of Moses. All of the contrasts he makes are with specific statements recorded in the Old Testament. There is not a single mention in the Sermon on the Mount of any distortion of Moses by a Pharisee. Every statement of contrast is between specific statements by Moses with specific statements of contrast by Christ.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“With whom is Christ contrasting himself in the Sermon on the Mount when he says, “But I say unto you”? I would answer, “He is contrasting himself with Moses and the old covenant.” However, remember we have kept insisting that contrasting is not contradicting! I would say that Christ is speaking as the new Lawgiver who replaces Moses in his role as “that Prophet” promised in Deuteronomy 18. Our Lord is laying out the rules for the new kingdom of grace and is contrasting those new laws, based on grace and redemption, with the laws of Moses, based on pure law, for the theocracy of Israel.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“The laws that God gave to hard-hearted sinners under the old covenant in order to convict those sinners of their need of grace are not of the same nature as the laws given to regenerate saints with new hearts under the new covenant. The laws, or rules, that govern a child of God living under grace will always make higher demands than the law or rules that govern hard-hearted sinners living under a covenant of law.8”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“The laws that God gave to hard-hearted sinners under the old covenant in order to convict those sinners of their need of grace are not of the same nature as the laws given to regenerate saints with new hearts under the new covenant. The laws, or rules, that govern a child of God living under grace will always make higher demands than the law or rules that govern hard”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“No one questions that the laws God gave to Moses to govern the nation of Israel are “holy, righteous and good” (Rom. 7:12). Those laws fulfill God’s primary intention to convict a rebellious nation of its guilt and push them to believe the gospel promised to Abraham. Those same laws are not high enough to govern saints of God indwelt by the Holy Spirit.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“Our Lord never says, or in any way implies, that Moses was wrong. He does contrast his teaching with that of Moses and clearly claims the law of his kingdom of grace is a higher law than that given to Moses for Israel.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“In the book of Hebrews the Holy Spirit is not contrasting two kinds of Christianity. He is not contrasting immature Christians and mature ones. He is contrasting Judaism and Christianity …. He is contrasting the substance and the shadow, the pattern and the reality, the visible and the invisible, the facsimile and the real thing, the type and the anti-type, the picture and the actual. The Old Testament essentially is God’s revelation of pictures and types, which are fulfilled in Christ in the New Testament. The book of Hebrews, therefore, compares and contrasts the two parts of God’s revelation that our division of the Bible reflects.6”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King

“The New Testament Scriptures showing the fulfillment of the three offices prophesied in Old Testament Scriptures clearly demonstrate the failure and end of the old covenant and all it brought into being. A totally new covenant has fulfilled the promises of the old covenant and completely replaced it. The church has a new Prophet, a new Priest, and a new King.”
― John G. Reisinger, Christ, Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest and King