Revelation 5:9-10 goes on to say of Christ, “You were slain and have purchased for God by Your blood men out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made them a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign on the earth.” Christ’s purchasing men out of these four sources indicates His purchasing them from the entire earth. The apostle John, who wrote Revelation, was Jewish, but He confirms that Christ died on the cross to redeem men not just from the Jews but from different tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations. God’s chosen people are not only from one race. All the different races and people with all different ranks have been put into the Spirit so that they all may be one Body (1 Cor. 12:13). Now in the Spirit as the source, element, essence, and sphere of love, we can love all the believers from different tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations, whom the Lord redeemed through His death (Col. 1:4, 8).
Christ made men out of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation a kingdom and priests to God by perfecting them to be priestly kings—kings to reign on the earth and priests to serve God. The kingdom is for kingship, for the exercising of God’s authority, and the priests are for the priesthood, for the accomplishing of the divine ministry.
The priesthood is for the expression of God. The priests enjoy the Lord, and they become His expression, manifestation, habitation, and dwelling place. On the one hand, God fully gains His image and expression through the priesthood. The kingship, on the other hand, is for authority and dominion. The kings represent God to deal with His enemy.
The priesthood and kingship are related to the two items of the original intention of God. There are two main aspects in the creation of man: image and authority, or dominion (Gen. 1:26). Image refers to the expression of God, and dominion is for the representation of God to deal with His enemy. These two aspects were in God’s original intention. From the beginning God intended to have His expression and His representation. He created man with His image that man may be His expression, and He committed His authority to man that man may be His representative. From the beginning to the end of the Bible there are these two lines, the line of image and expression and the line of dominion and representation.
We all are born again as priests. Therefore, we need to learn how to enjoy our birthright. We must learn how to live as priests enjoying Christ, contacting Him, feeding on Him, living by Him, putting Him on as our clothing, and taking Him as our dwelling place. When we enjoy Christ in such a way, we will have the priestly function of always ministering Christ both to God and to man. Then our church life will be very healthy and normal, and spontaneously out of this situation the authority of God will be realized. It is by the priesthood that we have the kingship. In the proper church life, God is expressed and His authority is exercised. This is the priesthood plus the kingship.
We need to see that, in order to make us priests, the Lord Jesus purchased us for God by His blood. As those purchased for God by the blood of Christ, we are now priests of God. The redeemed ones are all priests of God. According to the New Testament, the goal of God’s salvation is to make all those who believe in Christ priests of God. Therefore, if a person is saved but fails to become a priest to serve God, he cannot fulfill God’s purpose or satisfy His desire.
A priest in the New Testament is a priest of the gospel (Rom. 15:16). The Old Testament priests were mainly confined to the house of Aaron, that is, to Aaron and his sons. But the New Testament priests are not confined to a family. Rather, the New Testament priesthood is borne by all the believers. First Peter 2 tells us that the believers “are a chosen race, a royal priesthood” (v. 9). Since the priests form a priesthood, it is no longer the responsibility of a few people. Rather, every believer is included in this responsibility. The number of the New Testament believers far exceeds the number of Israelites in the Old Testament. The number of the Old Testament priests was further restricted to males only. In the New Testament all saved persons, whether male or female, young or old, are priests. Because there are a great number of them, they become a priesthood.
What these priests do in their priesthood is to offer up sacrifices to God (v. 5). In the Old Testament there were mainly five kinds of offerings: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering (Lev. 1:1—6:7). In the New Testament, according to Hebrews 13, the sacrifices offered by the New Testament believers include the sacrifice of praise, the sacrifice of good works, and the sacrifice of material giving. These sacrifices are well pleasing to God. To offer sacrifices to God in the New Testament sense is to offer up the Christ whom we enjoy in many aspects by bringing them to the meetings as offerings to God. In other words, the sacrifices, which are presented to God by the New Testament priests, are the Christ that is offered up, that is, the Christ experienced by us and offered up to God.
According to Revelation 5:12, Christ is the Lamb who is worthy to receive the power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing. When the Lord Jesus took the scroll and was about to open its seals, two hosts in the universe worshipped and praised Him. The first host is the angels represented by the twenty-four elders who take the lead to worship Him. The rest of the creation is represented by the four living creatures who also take the lead to worship (vv. 7-8). The praise from the twenty-four elders contains the seven items of power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing, while the praise from the four living creatures includes blessing, honor, glory, and might (vv. 12-13). This scene in the heavens reveals the One who is worthy to open the scroll and its seals, who is the overcoming Lion and the redeeming Lamb.
According to Revelation 5, Christ as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the conquering Lion, is not only worshipped in the heavens but also enthroned and crowned with authority (v. 12). This corresponds to Genesis 49:10 which says, “The scepter will not depart from Judah.” The scepter signifies royal authority. He is the King of kings! After His ascension, Christ is worshipped as the conquering Lion and has been enthroned with royal authority as the King of kings. This is the position He holds today.