In this message we shall cover further aspects of the believers’ status after they are saved.
It is a great matter that we, who once were sinners, sons of disobedience, children of wrath, children of the Devil, enemies of God, and sons of Gehenna, are now priests of God serving Him. As to our person, we are sons of God. As to our spiritual occupation, we are priests of God (Rev. 1:6; 5:10). Some of us may be teachers, doctors, or lawyers, but our real occupation is that of priests. In the Old Testament only certain men were priests, but in the New Testament all believers are priests.
When Peter received the revelation from the Father concerning the Lord Jesus, he said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). In His person the Lord Jesus is the Son of God, and in His work He is the Christ, the One anointed by God to carry out God’s commission. Even as the Lord Jesus is the Son of God in His person and the Christ of God in His work, we, the believers in Christ, are sons of God in our person and priests of God in our spiritual occupation. Since we are priests, we should be serving the Lord all day long in whatever we do.
In the Old Testament the highest ministry is the priestly ministry. This ministry came before the kingship and the prophethood. Actually, the highest ministry in the universe is the ministry of the priesthood. How marvelous, then, that we are sons of God to be priests of God!
Revelation 1:5 tells us that Christ “has loosed us from our sins by His blood.” This indicates that, as priests of God, we have been loosed from our sins by the blood of Christ. In the past, our sins were holding us, but the blood of Christ has released us. Because the blood of Christ has defeated sins, we have been released.
The word “loosed” in Revelation 1:5 implies a fight or a struggle. This fight was caused by the fact that Satan was using our sins to hold us. But in this matter Satan has been defeated by the redeeming blood of Christ, the blood that loosed us, released us, from the hold of our sins.
The redemption through Christ’s blood has made us priests to Him (1 Pet. 2:5), those who express God’s image. This is the kingly, royal priesthood (1 Pet. 2:9) for the fulfillment of God’s original purpose in creating man (Gen. 1:26-28). This kingly priesthood is being exercised in today’s church life (Rev. 5:10). It will be intensively practiced in the millennial kingdom (Rev. 20:6), and it will be ultimately consummated in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:3, 5).
Revelation 5:9 says, “You were slain and did purchase to God by Your blood men out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” Here we see that, in order to make us priests (v. 10), the Lord Jesus purchased us to God by His blood. On the negative side, the blood of Christ has released us from the usurpation of Satan; on the positive side, His blood has purchased us back to God to be His possession. As those purchased to God by the blood of Christ, we are now priests of God.
Home | First | Prev | Next