We have seen that the Lord’s ordained way always matches the economy that He is after. We have also seen that God’s New Testament economy is to have every saved person be a priest. The New Testament priesthood is universal. There should not be only a group of people who are priests while the others are not. Instead, everyone should be a priest. It does not matter how young you are. As long as you are a saved person, having the Lord’s life, you are a member of the Body of Christ and therefore a priest. To the Lord, you are His member. To God, you are His priest. Also, a priest is one who is joined to God as one. God has entered into us and has brought us into Him. We mutually abide in each other. We and God and God and we have become one. By this, we become a people who belong to God and who serve God.
A priest is one who serves God, and to serve God is to offer up sacrifices. The word priest carries the sense of one who is managing. A priest is one who manages the offerings. He is one with God and receives a commission from God. He is not only sent from God but is one who serves with God. His specific work is the managing of the offerings of God.
In the Old Testament, the offerings were the bulls and goats. We know that the Old Testament priests and offerings were all types; they were not the reality. The reality had not yet come. Not until four thousand years after the creation of Adam did Christ come in the flesh. Only then was the time fulfilled. At that time, the reality came. Hence, the angel announced to Mary that she would conceive a child, who was Christ. When Christ came, all the types in the Old Testament were fulfilled and realized. There is no more need for the types. Now Christ is everything.
Hebrews 10:7 says, “Behold, I come...to do Your will, O God.” From the context we see that God’s will here is that Christ fulfill and replace all the Old Testament sacrifices. From now on, there are no more sacrifices. There is only one true sacrifice left, which is Christ Himself.
Hence, the New Testament priests no longer offer bulls and goats for sacrifices. Rather, they offer the fallen sinners treasured and chosen by God before the foundation of the earth as sacrifices (Rom. 15:16). However, these sinners cannot in themselves become the sacrifices, for they have all sinned. We know that the sacrifices are for the dealing with, the removal of, and the redemption from sin. Thank God for His salvation. After He saved us, He put us into Christ so that we have a change in position. We are no longer in Adam; we are now in Christ. Once we are in Christ, God can justify and accept us. While we were yet sinners, we were not the sacrifices. But when we are in Christ, we are the sacrifices acceptable to God.
For this reason, many times in Paul’s Epistles he mentions us being in Christ. For example, Colossians 1:28 says, “Warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man full-grown in Christ.” When we are in ourselves, we are not qualified to be offered up. But whenever we are in Christ, we can be offered up to God. We can even be presented full-grown.