PRIESTHOOD

PRIESTHOOD

For generations, we have learned to see the Body of Christ through an established structure.

Clergy and laity.Those who minister and those who are ministered to. Those who stand at the front and those who sit before them. Without realising it, this can become the lens through which we understand our relationship with God.

But the New Covenant gives us another picture.

Peter writes:

“You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood…”— 1 Peter 2:5

And again:

“You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood…”— 1 Peter 2:9

Peter was not describing a special religious class within the Body.

He was describing the people of God.

Under the Old Covenant there was separation.

There were the people, priests and sanctuary.

And within the sanctuary was the presence of God.

The priesthood stood between the people and the place of God's presence.

But Christ changed the picture.

Through Christ, the way into the presence of God was opened.

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus…”— Hebrews 10:19

The people were brought near.

And then something extraordinary happened.

The people did not simply receive access to the house of God.

They became the house.

They became the priesthood.

He came to dwell within them.

Paul writes:

“You are the temple of God and…the Spirit of God dwells in you.”— 1 Corinthians 3:16

Suddenly the New Covenant picture becomes very different.

We are the stones. Together we are the house. Within that house, we are the priesthood. Jesus is the High Priest, and He dwells in the house.

There are still different gifts and responsibilities within the Body.

Some teach, shepherd, evangelise and lead.

But different functions do not create different levels of spiritual access or spiritual worth.

Christ alone is our Great High Priest.

His people are a royal priesthood.

And within that priesthood, the Spirit distributes different gifts and functions.

Perhaps this is another place where our minds need to be renewed.

Renewing the mind includes learning to see the Body through the New Covenant rather than through the institutional structure we inherited.

That does not require us to attack institutions, leadership or titles.

It simply means the institution cannot be allowed to define what Scripture says the Body is.

The institution can give someone a title.

The Spirit gives gifts.

But Christ has made His people a priesthood.

The old mind can find itself looking for the sacred person or the next revival to bring us closer to God, only to find that the experience passes and we begin looking again.

The New Covenant reveals something far greater.

We are not a people trying to get closer to God through somebody else's position.

We are a people who have already been brought near through Christ.

The people are His dwelling place.

The people are His priesthood.

And God dwells among and within His people.

You are the temple of God.