Every believer, indwelled by the Spirit of Christ, is being anointed with gifts and graces in order to serve, together with the whole church, as Christ’s prophets, priests, and princes in the world today. Bearing witness to Christ in this way is the identity and calling of all believers. We all have the profound privilege and responsibility to share in Christ’s three-fold ministry of Christian witness.

Everyone who knows Christ experientially has a calling and passion to make him known. Christian believers desire to testify to everyone everywhere “that which we have heard” and “have seen” and have experienced for themselves to be true about Christ (1 John 1:1). Christian witness is the identity and calling of the church. The risen Christ commissioned his people to be his witnesses (Acts 1:8; cf. Isa. 43:8–13), and the apostle Peter described public witness as an essential task of the church (2 Pet. 2:9–12; cf. Ex. 19:5–6). Furthermore, the following two crucial Reformed doctrines give us a biblically faithful framework to explain the identity and calling of all believers as Christ’s witnesses.

The Priesthood of All Believers

The Protestant Reformers taught that all believers in Christ have received a holy calling and all share in his priestly status. As Calvin wrote, Christ is the perfect office bearer and he “also admits us into this most honorable alliance.” The risen Christ makes all believers “a kingdom, priests to his God and Father” (Rev. 1:6). Indeed, God’s people have always been “a kingdom of priests” among the nations (Ex. 19:6), and his church is still “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” that declares, displays, and defends his gospel light “among the Gentiles” (1 Pet. 2:9–12). This doctrine is not a license for the radical individualism of believers, now common within some expressions of Western Christianity. Yet this Reformed doctrine remains foundational for understanding the official spiritual function of all believers as witnesses of Christ to everyone everywhere.

The Three-Fold Office of Christ

A second doctrine describes Christ’s three-fold office as Prophet, Priest, and King. The European Reformers, following Eusebius and other early church leaders, used this framework to explain Christ’s work and ongoing ministry. The Heidelberg Catechism gives us a classic statement of this teaching:

Question 31: Why is he called “Christ,” meaning “anointed”?
Answer: Because he has been ordained by God the Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our chief prophet and teacher . . . our only high priest . . . and our eternal king . . . .”

Christ’s mediatorial ministry as Prophet, Priest, and King is central to Scripture and our faith. His three-fold ministry was anticipated and foreshadowed in the Old Testament. This ministry was perfectly performed on earth in his state of humiliation. Now in his state of exaltation, Christ’s three-fold ministry continues globally, through his word and Spirit, not only within each believer spiritually and individually but also publicly and corporately through the witness of all believers in the world.

Why Are You Called a Christian?

The next question of the Heidelberg Catechism takes us further, personally applying these doctrines to each believer.

Question 32: But why are you called a Christian?
Answer: Because by faith I am a member of Christ and so I share in his anointing. I am anointed to confess his name [prophet], to present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks [priest], to strive with a free conscience against sin and the devil in this life, and afterward to reign with Christ over all creation for eternity [king].

This answer overflows with precious and profound truths, synergistically expanding upon each other! Spiritual union in Christ: by faith, all believers are made a “member of Christ” and “have fellowship with him in his graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory” (WCF 26.1). Spiritual unction by Christ’s Spirit: all believers “share in his anointing” (cf. 1 John 2:20, 27).

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