Kingdom of Priests

The disciples of Jesus reign with him as priestly kings who mediate His light and proclaim His Good News to the world.

At Mount Sinai, Yahweh summoned Israel to become His priestly kingdom that would reflect His light and holiness before the nations of the Earth. If the Nation of Israel kept God’s covenant, she would become “my own possession from among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” - (Exodus 19:5).

God never intended for His people to be isolated from the rest of humanity. His holy nation was called to mediate His light in a very dark world.

[Photo by Isaac Davis on Unsplash]

However, Israel failed to keep the covenant and never lived up to its righteous requirements. Now, with the arrival of the Messiah, the Church has inherited this holy mission – (“Therefore, I declare to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth its fruits” – Matthew 21:43).

The Apostle Peter is explicit in his first epistle. When writing to largely Gentile congregations, he exhorts the saints to eschew all “wickedness, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and defamation,” and to abstain from the “fleshly lusts that war against the soul.” Separation from the uncleanness of this world is vital since Jesus summons us “to be a holy priesthood and to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Quoting the passage from Exodus 19:5, Peter declares the Church to be the “chosen race, the royal priesthood, and a holy nation, the people for God's own possession.” As His holy people, his followers are tasked with “showing forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” The basic idea of holiness is separation - A person or thing set apart from the surrounding society and dedicated wholly to the service of God - (1 Peter 2:1-11).

The passage from 1 Peter combines the ideas of priesthood, royalty, holiness, and kingdom. In this way, Scripture redefines the nature of government and how it is implemented on the Earth by Jesus and his followers. The Kingdom of God is a priestly realm, and its citizens are characterized and recognizable by their holy conduct.

While the Apostle Paul does not apply the term “priest” or “priesthood” to the Church, he certainly employs language from the Levitical system when describing correct conduct. For example, believers are to “present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is their logical service” – (Romans 12:1-2).

The force of Paul’s language is lost in many English translations. “Service” represents the Greek noun ‘latreia’, and it means “worship, divine service, ministration.” This noun is applied to the service of the Levitical priests in the Ancient Tabernacle by the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible.

Previously, Paul used the same Greek term for the “divine service” performed in the sacrifices of the Levitical system (“Whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the divine service, and the promises” - (Romans 9:4, Hebrews 9:1-6).

Paul provides practical examples of what our “logical divine service” includes. We must not “think of ourselves more highly than we ought.” We are to use the gifts provided by God for service in the Assembly and for others. It is through such service that we render priestly service for God’s Kingdom in this fallen age - (Romans 12:3-8).

FAITHFUL WITNESS

The idea of the priestly kingdom is used by the Book of Revelation, beginning with Jesus, the “Faithful Witness and the Firstborn of the Dead.” By his shed blood, by Christ's sacrificial death, he made us “a kingdom, priests for his God and Father.”

In the Greek sentence, the term translated as “kingdom” is set in apposition to “priests” - the latter term defines the former. It is a priestly kingdom, and its members execute their royal duties as “priests” rather than warriors or tyrants.

The term “Faithful Witness” refers to the witness that Jesus gave in his sacrificial death and the “Firstborn of the Dead” to his resurrection. This understanding is confirmed by his declaration, “I am the Living one, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” Jesus conquered and gained absolute authority through his death, not despite it, and certainly not apart from it - (Revelation 1:4-6, 1:18).

In his opening vision, John saw Jesus as “one like a Son of Man” who was “clothed with a robe, reaching to the feet, and bound about the breasts with a golden belt,” and he was walking among the “Seven Golden Lampstands.”

The Sanctuary in the ancient Tabernacle featured a single gold-plated lampstand with seven branches. Similarly, John sees seven individual “lampstands,” representing the “Seven Churches of Asia.” The “robe” and “golden belt” of the “Son of Man” correspond to the vestments worn by the High Priest under the Levitical system - (Exodus 25:31-40, Leviticus 8:1-13).

In short, John sees Jesus in a Temple setting where he serves as the High Priest of his people. He is the model that his priestly servants imitate. He is the “Ruler of the Kings of the Earth,” but priesthood defines how he reigns.

Jesus overcame, but he did so as the “slain Lamb.” He now summons us to “overcome” and reign with him in the same manner that he did - (Revelation 3:21, 5:6-12).

• “He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches” – (Revelation 3:21-22).

This understanding of how he conquered is confirmed by John’s vision of the “Sealed Scroll” in which he heard one of the “twenty-four elders” declare that the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” overcame. However, when John looked, he saw the “slain Lamb” approaching the “Throne” to receive the Sealed Scroll, not the figure of a lion – (Revelation 5:5-12).

Jesus fulfills his messianic role through his sacrificial death. It is the “Lamb” who opens the “Sealed Scroll.” The men and women “purchased for God” by the Lamb’s sacrifice join his “kingdom of priests.” The Greek text uses a present tense verb to signify that the men redeemed by him “are reigning” as “priests.” Their reign is a present reality:

• “And they sing a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals, for you were slain, and purchased for God with your blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and you made them a kingdom and priests for our God, and they are reigning upon the earth” – (Revelation 5:9-10).

Jesus of Nazareth is both priest and sacrificial victim, and by his sacrifice, he has “purchased” men and women for God whom he sends to the nations as his “priests.” We as citizens of his priestly kingdom are to mediate his light to all men and women, and thereby we begin to reign with him over the peoples of the Earth.

Like the Lamb, we “overcome” our enemies and conquer territories for our God by the “blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and because we love not our lives unto death” – (Revelation 12:11).

It is through our priestly service and faithful “testimony” that the Kingdom of God expands on the Earth and rescues others from the tyranny of sin, Satan, and the ideologies of this fallen world. Only by embracing the Gospel proclaimed by Jesus Christ can anyone be truly liberated. But this will not be the case if, like Ancient Israel, we choose not to become God’s “holy nation” and “kingdom of priests.”

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SEE ALSO:

• His Kingdom - (Jesus proclaimed a unique political reality, the Kingdom of God, one that differs radically from the governments and ideologies of this present age)

• His Priestly Kingdom - (The present sovereignty of Jesus is based on his past Death and Resurrection, and His disciples participate in his reign on the Earth)

• Ransom for Many - (After predicting his death, two disciples began jockeying for high-status positions in his coming Kingdom)

• The Suffering Servant - (Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the role of the ‘Suffering Servant’ described in the Book of Isaiah. Unlike Adam, he did not attempt to grasp the “likeness of God”)