In Old Testament times, the idea of a “royal priesthood” would have been inconceivable – whoever could have imagined that the offices of king and priest would one day be joined together in the person of the Messiah?
Yet just such a merging of ministries had been portrayed by Joshua the High Priest. At God’s command through the prophet Zechariah, he was enthroned and crowned – an act unprecedented in the history of Israel. (Zechariah 6:9-15) This merger clearly portrayed, prophetically, the ministry of Jesus Christ, the Priest/King. Jesus would not only “rise to reign over the Gentiles” but would also mediate between God and Man. (Romans 15:12; I Timothy 2:5)
Christ’s heavenly Coronation – one that the prophet Daniel had foreseen (Daniel 2:44 & 7:13,14), is recorded in Acts 2:30-36. The writer of Hebrews describes Jesus as “crowned with glory and honour” – an appropriate metaphor for an exalted and glorified King/Priest.
The term “royal priesthood” strongly suggests a priesthood called to royal dominion; an order of governing priests, ministering the things of God to imperfect people. It follows that the conduct of a royal priesthood should be appropriate to that of persons occupying a position of high office and privilege – exercising power, yet remaining humble; willing to act with authority toward men, while accepting accountability to God for their deeds.
It’s one thing to know that Jesus Christ, “the prince of the kings of the earth” has made us “kings and priests unto His God and Father.” (Revelation 1:5,6) But it’s another thing again for those who are “called into His kingdom and glory” (I Thessalonians 2:12) to “walk worthy” of their high calling.
“You have a few names, even in Sardis, who have not defiled their garments: and they shall walk before Me in white: for they are worthy.” (Revelation 3:4)
What made these believers “worthy”? They “kept their garments” – in other words, the righteousness that their Saviour had “clothed” them with had not been defiled by unclean contact with the world. These Christians were never “worthy” to be saved in the first place – none of us are. But their upright conduct as Christians made them “worthy” of their holy calling. They had conquered their spiritually unclean environment!
“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.” (Revelation 3:5)
There are some important matters we need to be very clear about, if we are to see ourselves as a royal priesthood – not as a special category of people performing religious rites or spiritual social workers trying hard to meet the needs of church members. These matters relate to the nature of God, why He has appointed us a royal priesthood, and the privileges that accompany that office.
The first is that God doesn’t need us – He wants us. If God needs us, then all those memorial notices which state that He takes loved ones Home early because He is “lonely” in Heaven, are right. But can God have needs?
“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.” (Acts 17:24,25)
In the original Greek, the word translated “worshipped”, means “to minister” (as a servant). So our ministry to God, whatever form it takes – thanksgiving, praise, worship or the like, is not offered because He has needs – He hasn’t! God is complete in Himself.
The wonderful thing is that God draws us to Himself only because He loves us! We are loved – not because we “fill a gap” in His heart, but because He has chosen to bestow His perfect love on us.. We are loved by a complete Person, not by one who needs us to make Him complete! Think of today’s Ideal Family – father, mother, two children (a girl and a boy). Think of this family as being as secure and as loving as any family could ever be.
So loving and so secure, in fact, that the family adopts a child – not because “something is missing” in the home, but because its members have more than enough love to go around! Imagine what it would be like for an orphaned child to be accepted into this family, and loved unconditionally!
Now magnify that beyond imagination: that’s how it is to be wanted – not needed, wanted – by the God of heaven and earth!
Our security in Christ means that we also love because we have more than enough love to go around. Not because our need of love is so great that we will do anything in order to receive it – that would make us vulnerable to emotional manipulation.
Many Christians who travel from prosperous nations to the Third World are overwhelmed on arrival by the love and acceptance they receive. Quite often this comes from persons living in terrible poverty.
It is not uncommon for individuals who have experienced such love to return again and again with a desire to minister to the needs of such people – little realising that the people had in fact ministered to their needs. The amount of love within an extended family in the Philippines is more than sufficient to encompass a few visitors! Who had really been ministered to? More than likely it was the relatively prosperous but love-starved visitor!
In order to minister effectively as a royal priesthood, we need to be certain that we are reaching out to help others – not to heal our own inner hurts. “Wounded healers” are easily exploited by chronic attention-seekers – persons who have learned to identify and to manipulate personal failure or guilt in the life of those ministering.
Knowing that “we love Him because He first loved us” – that our love for God is a responsive love, and that we need no love from others in return for the love we give them, is an important requirement for all who would serve in the royal priesthood.