Worship: The Priesthood / Part 2 | Grace & Truth, Inc

Worship: The Priesthood
PART 2

All Christians are priests, and members of two orders of priesthood with two purposes. Peter wrote that we are both a “holy” and a “royal” priesthood (1 Pet. 2:5,9).

Holy And Royal
The purpose of the holy priesthood is “to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5 KJV). It is not by chance that Peter mentions the holy priesthood first. Before we do anything else, we have to spend time in the sanctuary. Among the sacrifices we offer are the living sacrifice of our bodies (Rom. 12:1) and “the sacrifice of praise ... the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His Name” (Heb. 13:15).

The purpose of the royal priesthood is a glorious one: “To show forth the praises (virtues) of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). We are disciples who are called to be like Jesus. “Follow Me” is a command that is to be observed in every way. It is God’s purpose that we grow to be like the Lord. One day we will be physically like Him. Paul wrote: “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29).

We worship wherever the Lord is present, because where He is there is the sanctuary. Whether it is “where two or three” or more are gathered to His name (Mt. 18:20), or in the sanctuary of our own heart where He dwells in love – wherever it is, we “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Ps. 29:2).

By growing “in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” we make our “calling and election sure” (2 Pet. 3:18; 1:10). At the same time, we witness to a changed life and glorify God and our Savior. We are following in His triumphal procession witnessed by the world and also by the angelic beings (2 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 3:9-10; Col.2:15).

Being human, and therefore flawed and fallen, we have nothing to offer to God that could possibly please Him. We have nothing of ourselves to offer to Him, which He can accept. Only the Lord Jesus is acceptable to God, in that He perfectly carried out the Father’s will in life and in death. Here we see the burnt offering with its accompanying meal and drink offerings. All we have to offer is our appreciation of Him.

Priest And Offering
When Aaron and his sons were consecrated as priests we see how this principle might work. The ram of consecration was killed and the blood applied to Aaron’s right ear, the thumb of his right hand and the great toe of his right foot. After Aaron, his sons were treated in the same way (Lev. 8:22-28). This signifies that what we hear, what we do and where we go are all sanctified by the blood of Jesus. We must not assume by this that we can indulge in sinful pleasures. We are washed and sanctified, so God’s instruction is for us to be holy because He is holy (Lev. 20:7; 1 Cor. 6:11).

As God’s representative, Moses filled Aaron’s hands and his sons hands with the pieces of the sacrifice. He then took them back from Aaron and his sons to be burned upon the altar. So it is with us. Our hands are filled, as it were, not with the pieces of a ram but with our appreciation of the person and work of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Himself then presents what we have to offer in worship to the Father. So it is that we worship in spirit and in truth. So it is that our worship is the fulfillment of the sacrifices of old, themselves fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ashes And Altar
In Israel’s economy, a morning and evening burnt sacrifice ensured that a sweet savor from the burning sacrifice was continually ascending to the Lord (Lev. 6:8-13). Again, it is so with us in this present age. We should be a continual savor of the Lord Jesus to God (2 Cor. 2:15-16). The work of the priest in removing the ashes into a clean place after the sacrifice has been burned, indicates how we, in this world, yet bear about the person of the Lord Jesus and the fact of His death and resurrection.

While we worship together when gathered to His name, we are also worshipers when we witness to others in the world. When engaged in corporate worship it may be said that we are wearing our priestly clothes. We wear ordinary clothes in our day-to-day occupations though we are no less priests for all that. The priest who, in ordinary clothes, carried the proof of an accepted sacrifice outside the camp of the Lord’s people, is a picture of the witness of the believer today among the people of the world (Lev. 6:10-11).

First we are holy priests, and then royal priests as we go about our daily work. In both cases we are a priesthood and we send to God that which pleases Him. Paul made reference to this when he wrote to the Corinthian church that we are “always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (2 Cor. 4:10). And again to the Philippian church he wrote, “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death” (Phil. 1:20).

By Roger Penney

Next month look for the conclusion to this three-part series.