Priests With Purpose

but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. I Peter 2:9

Priesthood – Protestants love Luther’s proclamation of the priesthood of all believers.  Each one of us may come boldly before the throne of the Almighty.  We have direct access to God through the torn veil provided by Yeshua.  It’s very cool.

Of course, that provision didn’t begin in the first century.  It began before God established His covenant with Moses and the people of Israel.  When Peter tells the New Testament church that they are chosen of God, he quotes a passage from Deuteronomy.  The priesthood of the believer is a very old concept.  The Greek hierateuma is really the Hebrew kohenim.

Since the provision was articulated by God through Moses (actually it is older than that, as we will see later), we need to look to the torah in order to understand what priesthood means.  The purpose of a priest is to act as an intermediary for someone else.  The Levites acted as intermediaries for the people of Israel.  The priest was a go-between for God and His people.  But God says, and Peter re-iterates, that all of His children are priests.  Priests for whom?  It’s obvious, isn’t it?  Just as the Levites acted on behalf of the people, so the people act on behalf of the nations.  It’s true that every believer is a priest, but that doesn’t mean that we are our own priests.  It means that each of us has the ability to stand in the gap for those who are not in the family of God.  You and I do have access to the Father, but the purpose of our access is not to plead our own woes and cares.  It is to bring before God someone who is not yet part of Israel.  You are a priest for another!

Here’s the big picture.  Yeshua, the Son and Messiah, is the perfect high priest.  He is the only one able to offer unblemished sacrifice on behalf of all men.  Therefore, His offering opens the way for each follower to access the grace of the Father.  His offering removes our guilt in order that we may act on behalf of another.  Yeshua covers the priests of Israel who could not offer a perfect sacrifice because they too were sinners.  But the perfect sacrifice has been offered.  It is the death of the Son.  Therefore, everyone who is part of the house of Jacob now plays the role of priest with those who are not part of the house of Jacob (yet).  Does that mean that every believer can act as the forgiver of sins?  Of course not, on his or her own merit.  We are priests of purpose only under the banner of the High Priest, Yeshua.  Our priesthood is found in the function of bringing others into the household of God.  We live so that others might discover the truth.

Every believer is a priest, but far too often we think that this means we act for ourselves.  That is not the role of a priest.  A priest acts for another.  Jesus exemplified precisely that role as High Priest.  We are to do the same.  We are granted access for a reason, and that reason is not about your needs or mine.  It is about all those who are still outside the fold.

Go be a priest today.  That’s why God rescued you.

Topical Index:  Priesthood