His Priestly Kingdom
At Mount Sinai, Yahweh summoned Israel to be His “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” If the nation kept His covenant, Israel would become “my own possession… for all the earth is mine.” He never intended for His people to be isolated from the rest of humanity. Instead, Israel was to reflect His light in a dark world. But Israel failed to keep the covenant and never lived up to her calling. And now, with the arrival of the Messiah, the church has inherited this mission.
The Apostle Peter is explicit. When writing to largely Gentile congregations, he exhorts the saints to eschew all “wickedness, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and defamation,” and to abstain from the “fleshly lusts that war against the soul.”
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Separation from the world is vital since Jesus calls his followers “to be a holy priesthood and to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
ROYAL PRIESTHOOD
The church is the “chosen race, the royal priesthood, and a holy nation, the people for God's own possession.” As His holy people, she is tasked with “showing forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” - (1 Peter 2:1-11).
These passages combine the ideas of priesthood, royalty, and kingdom. In this way, Scripture redefines the nature of government and how it is implemented on the Earth. In other words, the kingdom of God is a PRIESTLY REALM.
While Paul does not apply the term “priest” or “priesthood” to the church, he certainly employs language from the Levitical system when describing correct conduct. For example, believers are to “present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is their logical service.”
Unfortunately, the force of the language is lost in English translations. “Service” represents the Greek noun latreia, and it means “worship, divine service, ministration” (Strong’s - #G2999).
Previously, Paul used the same term for the “divine services” performed in the sacrifices in the Levitical system (“whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the DIVINE SERVICE, and the promises” - (Romans 9:4, Hebrews 9:1-6).
And the Apostle to the Gentiles provides practical examples of what our “logical divine service” is. The believer must not “think of himself more highly than he ought.” He is to use the gifts provided by God for service in the church and for others. It is through such service that the body of Christ renders priestly service in this fallen age - (Romans 12:3-8).
FAITHFUL WITNESS
The idea of the priestly kingdom is developed further in the Book of Revelation, beginning with Jesus, the “Faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the Dead.” By his shed blood, he constituted his followers “a kingdom, priests for his God and Father.
In the Greek sentence, “kingdom” is in apposition to “priests” - the latter term defines the former. It is a priestly kingdom, and its members execute their royal duties AS “priests.”
The term “faithful witness” refers to the witness that he bore in his sacrificial death and the “firstborn of the dead” to his resurrection. This understanding is confirmed by his declaration, “I am the Living one, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades” - (Revelation 1:4-6, 1:18).
In his opening vision, John sees him as “one like a Son of Man” who is “clothed with a robe, reaching to the feet, and girt about the breasts with a golden belt,” and he walks among the “Seven Golden Lampstands.”
The Sanctuary in the ancient Tabernacle featured a single gold-plated lampstand with seven branches. Similarly, John sees seven individual “lampstands,” representing the “Seven Churches of Asia.” The “robe” and “golden belt” correspond to the vestments worn by the High Priest under the Levitical system - (Exodus 25:31-40, Leviticus 8:1-13).
In short, John sees this “Son of Man” in a Temple setting serving as the High Priest of his people, and he is the model that his priestly servants emulate. He is the “Ruler of the Kings of the Earth,” but PRIESTHOOD defines HOW he rules.
Jesus “overcame” and acquired all power and authority, but he did so as the “slain Lamb.” And he calls his disciples to “overcome” and reign in the same manner - (Revelation 3:21, 5:6-12).
This understanding of how he conquered is confirmed by John’s vision of the “Sealed Scroll.” In his vision, he hears one of the “twenty-four elders” declare that the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” overcame, but when he looks, he sees the “slain Lamb” approaching the “Throne” to receive and then begin opening the scroll.
Jesus fulfills his messianic role through his sacrificial death – It is the “Lamb” and not the “Lion” who opens the “Sealed Scroll.” And the Greek text uses a present tense verb to signify that those redeemed by him “ARE REIGNING” as “priests” on the Earth – (Revelation 5:5-12).
Jesus is both priest and sacrificial victim, and by his sacrifice, he “purchased” men and women for God. And now, he is sending his “priests” into the world as his envoys. They mediate his light and word, thereby reigning with him over the nations.
And like him, his saints “overcome” their enemies by the “blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and because they love not their lives unto death.” It is through their priestly service and faithful “testimony” that his kingdom is expanding throughout the earth.
