A Kingdom of Priests (1)

 

“To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood – and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father – to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (Revelation 1:5b – 6, NASB).

 

“And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” (Revelation 5:9 – 10; see also 1 Peter 2:4 – 10).

 

I want to explore what it means to be a kingdom of priests, or as Peter styles it in 1Peter 1:9, “a royal priesthood.” What does it mean for the individual, and what does it mean for us as a people?

 

The terms “priest” and “priesthood” are loaded with meaning, meaning that we tend to overlook if we are from certain Christian traditions; for while those of us who are in traditions that have vocational ministers called “priests” may indeed miss some elements of the idea that we are a Kingdom of Priests; those of us from traditions that do not have priests can miss the force, beauty, and calling of the image of Christ making us “a kingdom and priests to God.”

 

The notion that the priesthood of the believer means that we all have direct access to God and His Word, and that this is pretty much what the Bible means when we read that we are a royal priesthood, falls short of the image of the priesthood. In fact, if the idea of direct access to God and His Word is the primary idea behind the priesthood of the believer then we can wonder why use the image at all, since this reality of our union with Christ is taught throughout the New Testament, and indeed throughout the entire Bible.

 

In its Biblical context, the idea of priesthood is primarily that of a mediator between God and man, offering service to God according to God’s due order grounded in Yahweh’s Levitical sacrificial system. While priests in the Bible could certainly convey the Word of God to the people, the primary conveyors of God’s Word in the Old Testament were prophets such as Moses, Elijah, and Isaiah. The role of prophets overlapped with the role of priests in that prophets were intercessors, we see this especially in Moses and Daniel – as intercessors they stood in the gap between Yahweh and God’s covenant people, and indeed between God and the world. Jesus Christ exemplifies this calling as our High Priest and He calls us to participate with Him in His Priesthood – which is after the Order of Melchizedek (more on Melchizedek in the future).

 

Of course in David we see the coming Prophet, Priest, and King – Jesus Christ. (Perhaps more on this in the future).

 

When Protestants use the Reformation as the backdrop of their thinking about the Royal Priesthood, and when they use the Roman Catholic Church as their foil, they fail to engage the Biblical context of the priesthood of the believer, a term that may be problematic in itself. For it is Christ who has made us a Kingdom and Priests unto the Father, and not our belief (yes, yes, I know we can say that our belief comes from Christ, but I still think that lessens the impact of the Biblical language).

 

Also, when we teach the notion that we do not need the Church to interpret the Bible because we are all priests, that flies in the face of the Bible, the Fathers, and common sense. The transmission of Dominical and Apostolic teaching, and obedience thereto, is the basis of much of the New Testament; consistency, origin, and witness thereto is also the foundation of the New Testament Canon established by the Church. While I do not use the word Church in a strictly institutional sense, the fact is that the Church manifested itself through institutions…thankfully those early institutions had new wine more often than not. Furthermore, consider the formulation of the creeds, especially Nicaea and its descendants – forged in the fires of the Church. How foolish to think that an individual should go off willy-nilly and set up his or her own theological franchise. And let us not forget, that while Luther had problems with elements of Rome, that he was an Augustinian monk, rooted in Augustine – I am not aware that Luther repudiated the great Latin Father.

 

Protestants who view the Royal Priesthood in the context of the Reformation, and who use the Roman Catholic Church as a foil, do a disservice to Biblical texts on the priesthood. This is not to say that we ought not to learn from history, but it is to say that if we are not engaging the Biblical text first as the Biblical text, as the Word of God in its Biblical context, that we are falling into a trap and missing the glory, in this case, of the Royal Priesthood.

 

When I was in seminary a fellow student preached at a Presbyterian church where he was doing his mentored ministry. At the conclusion of the service he raised his hands and pronounced the benediction. Before he left the church the pastor took him aside and told him that because my friend was not ordained that he should not raise his hands in benediction. Now I ask you, is this thinking not the equivalent of maintaining a priestly caste that sits above the people? If ordination is the entrance into such a caste, then is not a Protestant (and Reformed!) duck much the same as a Roman Catholic duck?

 

I have met brothers who think that the “workman” of 2 Timothy 2:15 and the “man of God” that Paul writes of in 2 Timothy 3:17 are limited to those who are ordained – if this is so, then these verses are not for everyone, and if they are not for everyone then what about the Royal Priesthood? Do we not have a Protestant duck that looks much the same as the Roman Catholic duck?

 

If we can recover the Biblical vision and meaning of Jesus Christ making us a kingdom and priests to His Father, if we can establish a high view of this priesthood in Christ, then our sense of calling and mission will hopefully be elevated and empowered; I write “hopefully,” for then we will have a decision to make, whether to live as priests before God and man…or not.

 

In closing, one of the finest books on ministry I have ever read is by the late Bishop Fulton Sheen, The Priest Is Not His Own. While the good Bishop is, of course, writing to Roman Catholic priests, his Biblical wisdom is not only for all called to vocational ministry, but for all Christians of whatever tradition they are in. One of the central thoughts in the book is that the priest is both priest and sacrifice. Is not this a picture of our dear Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God? He is both our High Priest and our Sacrifice.

 

This was the calling of Jesus Christ, and it is also our calling in Him.