Priestly Kingdom
At Sinai, Yahweh summoned Israel to be a “kingdom of priests, a holy nation.” If she kept His covenant, the nation would become “my own possession… for all the earth is mine.” He never intended for His people to be isolated from the rest of humanity. Instead, Israel was to reflect His light in a dark world.
But Israel failed to keep the covenant and never lived up to her
calling. And now, with the arrival of the Messiah, the church has inherited this
mission.
The Apostle Peter is explicit.
When writing to largely Gentile congregations, he exhorts Christians to eschew
all “wickedness, guile, hypocrisy, envy,
and defamation,” and to abstain from the “fleshly lusts that war against the soul.”
Separation
from the world is vital since Jesus calls his followers “to be a holy priesthood and
to offer up spiritual
sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
ROYAL PRIESTHOOD
The
church is the “chosen race, the
royal priesthood,
and a holy nation, the people for God's own possession.”
As His holy people, she is tasked with “showing forth the excellencies of him who called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light” - (1 Peter 2:1-11).
These
passages combine the ideas of priesthood, royalty, and kingdom.
In this way, Scripture redefines the nature of government and how it is implemented.
In other words, the kingdom of God is a priestly
realm.
While 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.”
Unfortunately, the force of the language is lost in English translations. “Service”
represents the Greek noun latreia, and it means “worship, divine service,
ministration” (Strong’s - #G2999).
Previously, Paul used the same term for the “divine
services” performed in the sacrifices in 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).
And Paul provides practical examples of what our “logical
divine service” is. The believer must not “think of himself more highly than he
ought.”
He is to use the gifts provided by God for service in the church and for others.
It is through such service that the body of Christ renders priestly service
in this fallen age - (Romans 12:3-8).
IN REVELATION
The idea of the priestly kingdom is developed
further in Revelation, beginning with Jesus, the “faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead.” By his shed blood, he constituted his
followers “a kingdom, priests for his God and Father.”
In the Greek sentence, “kingdom” is in apposition to “priests” - the latter term defines the former. It is a priestly kingdom, and its members execute their royal duties AS “priests.”
The
term “faithful witness” refers to the witness that he bore 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” - (Revelation 1:4-6, 1:18).
In
his opening vision, John sees him as “one like a Son of Man” who is “clothed with a robe, reaching to the
feet, and girt about the breasts with a golden belt,” and he walks among “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” correspond to the vestments of the Aaronic high priest -
(Exodus 25:31-40, Leviticus
8:1-13).
In
short, Jesus is seen in a Temple setting as the high priest of his people, and
he is the model that his priestly servants emulate. He is the “ruler of the
kings of the earth,” but priesthood
defines HOW he rules.
Jesus “overcame” and acquired all power and authority, but he did so as the “slain Lamb.” And he calls his disciples to “overcome” and reign in the same manner - (Revelation 3:21).
This understanding of how
he conquered is confirmed by John’s vision of the “sealed scroll.” In
it, he hears one of the “twenty-four elders” declare that the “lion
of the tribe of Judah” overcame, but when he looks, he sees the “slain
Lamb” approaching the “throne” to receive the scroll.
Jesus fulfills his messianic
role through his sacrificial death – It is the “Lamb” and not the “Lion”
who opens the “sealed scroll.” And the Greek text uses a present tense verb to signify
that those redeemed by him “are
reigning” as “priests” on the earth – (Revelation 5:5-12).
Jesus
is both priest and the sacrificial victim, and by his sacrifice, he “purchased”
men and women for God. And now, he is sending his “priests” into the world
as his envoys. They mediate his light and thereby reign with him over the nations.
And like
him, his saints “overcome” their enemies by the “blood of the Lamb, the word of
their testimony, and because they love not their lives unto death.” It is through
their priestly service and faithful “testimony” that his kingdom is expanding
throughout the earth.
