By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
My wife asked me the other day what I thought it meant that we are ”a royal priesthood.” I had some thoughts but decided to do a little study on the topic as well. The concept comes from several places, primarily.
2 Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light,” and in Rev 1:6 “and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.”
First, let’s examine what it means to be a priest. In the Old Testament, the office of priest is mentioned over 700 times, so we can imagine it is a pretty important post.
The priests had two main functions in the OT. The first was to represent man to God, to stand in the gap between men and the Holy One.
Think Moses going up to see God. And, secondly, to represent God to man. Again, think Moses bringing down the 10 commandments and the other laws the Israelites were to live by.
In the OT, God’s presence was hidden behind 2 veils…both very thick and not accessible to anyone but selected priests and in one case, only the High Priest.
But Jesus’ death and resurrection changed that. He tore that veil in two. He removed it. Now, we can all approach God. “So let us boldly approach the throne of grace.
Then we will receive mercy. We will find grace to help us when we need it.” (Heb 4:16). So, we no longer need a priest to go before God for us. Why, because we are all priests…a Royal Priesthood even.
But that doesn’t mean that the intercessory function of the priesthood for others has completely disappeared. Not everyone is a member of that chosen priesthood, so they still need others to intercede for them. Intercession is primarily about praying for the needs of others and the advancement of God’s kingdom.
It can be a form of spiritual warfare, where believers engage in prayer to counter the influence of the enemy and release God’s power. It also often involves identifying with the struggles and needs of others, even if those struggles are different from one’s own.
Many people still need us to stand in the gap before God for them so that they will eventually be able to hear God’s calling. Then there is the other side of the function of the priest: to represent God to man.
This includes representing him to other Believers as well as to the unbelievers. 1 Pet 2:12 explains it: “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” We are God’s Ambassadors and as such, we represent him to the world we live in.
The world often looks at God through the lens of what they see in Believers’ lives. We do live in glass houses, regardless of whether we want to or not.
It’s actually part of our calling to live such good and holy lives that others are drawn to Him. God desires us to be the same person at work as we are at home, as we are at church, living pure and holy lives.
There is another function we have as a Royal Priesthood. We saw it above: ”that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
People around us ought to see the differences our relationship with Jesus has brought, and we ought to be not just willing to talk about it, but unable to not proclaim our joy. Our joy in this relationship should pour out of us. Our cup should be so full, it overflows.
Think how excited we get when our favorite team makes a great play or scores a touchdown. We’re jumping up, “Did you see that? That was incredible!” We want to rehash the play with everyone in the area.
How much greater is the joy in seeing one brought into the Kingdom? How much greater is the joy of seeing a life transformed? How much joy is there in knowing that God goes before us and surrounds us? Our joy should be uncontainable!
Our lives ought to be focused on the worship of God for all the great things he has done. That’s part of our response to being “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession…”
How are you doing in your responsibility as a Royal Priest?
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.