A priest in the New Testament is a priest of the gospel. 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, this priesthood is borne by the millions of saved saints. Revelation 5 says, “For You were slain and did purchase to God by Your blood men out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and made them to our God a kingdom and priests” (vv. 9-10). First Peter 2 also says, “But you 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, everyone is included in this responsibility. As a result, it becomes a priesthood. The number of saved ones far exceeds the number of Israelites in the Old Testament. The number then was further restricted to males only. In the New Testament all saved persons, whether male or female, young or old, are priests. Because there is a great number of them, they become a priesthood.
What these priests do in their priesthood is to offer up sacrifices to God. 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. In the New Testament, according to Hebrews chapter thirteen 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. During the past twenty years, I have released many messages in America concerning the New Testament priests offering sacrifices to God. I indicated that this is to offer up the Christ whom we enjoy in many aspects as offerings to God by bringing them to the meetings. In other words, the sacrifices presented to God by the New Testament priests are the Christ that is offered up, that is, the Christ experienced by us and brought and offered up to God.
During the past month, the Lord has shown us that the light concerning the priest of the gospel is not small. This is a great matter in truth. Expositors of the Bible throughout the ages have seen something concerning this matter. Actually, as early as the first century when Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, especially in chapters nine and ten, he was expounding Leviticus already. After the time of Paul, in every age there were people expounding the Bible. This Bible has gone through nineteen hundred years of exposition. Today, we are standing on the shoulders of these expositors. Praise the Lord. Today the revelation concerning the priest of the gospel comes to us. We can say that we have inherited from the past, and we are opening up a way for the future.
We see clearly in John the Baptist that what he offered up was the repentant men. We see this clearly also in the Apostle Paul. The offerings he offered up were the sinners saved through him. We all know that the Bible is divided into the Old and the New Testaments. Most of what is recorded covers the service of God by His people. The Bible says that we are created, selected, and redeemed by God. We are also regenerated and transformed by God. The reason God brings man through all these processes is that man would serve Him. Hence both the Old and the New Testament tell us man’s obligation to serve God. He must be a priest. In both Testaments, the people of God are the priests. The difference between the two Testaments lies in the offerings that the priests in the two ages offer.
The turn of the priesthood from the Old Testament to the New happened with John the Baptist. According to the record of Luke chapter one, John came from a priestly family of the Old Testament. His father was old and had no child. The husband and wife prayed to God, and God answered their prayer. A son was given to them, who was John the Baptist. Officially speaking, John was a born priest. Not only was he a priest born of a priestly family, he was a genuine priest born through the power of God. The last Old Testament priest who counted in God’s eyes was Zachariah. Outwardly speaking, John was born into a priestly family. Being born a priest of the Old Testament, he should have lived in the priestly home, walking in and out of the temple. He should have been eating the priestly offerings and wearing the priestly garments. But strangely enough, John went to preach in the wilderness. He rejected the priestly family, turned away from the temple, and would not even slaughter the bulls and goats for offerings. He rejected everything that the Old Testament priests did.
He did not put on the priestly garments. Instead, he put on camel’s hair. He did not eat any offerings. Instead, he ate wild locusts and honey. He did not live in the temple; he lived in the wilderness. His ways were fully free from the traditions of the Old Testament priests. He dressed wildly, ate wildly, lived wildly, and even preached wildly. He told those who came out to him to be baptized, “Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” He cried in the wilderness: “Repent!” After men repented, he baptized them into the water. All of what John did was fully free from any cultural or religious background. He rejected entirely the priesthood of the Old Testament. He turned away from the old and turned to the new. Through such a turn he was brought into the function of the first priest of the gospel in the New Testament.
When John turned to become the first gospel priest of God in the New Testament, he did not offer bulls and goats for sacrifices. Instead, he offered the repentant sinners as sacrifices. He did not offer individual bulls. Rather, he offered the saved souls one by one. He replaced the bulls and goats with men.
All the believers after John the Baptist including Peter, James, John, and the three thousand and the five thousand added during the time of Pentecost were priests of the gospel. Every one of them offered up sinners as sacrifices. The first group of apostles set up by the Lord were the first group of priests of the gospel. After them, the most outstanding one was the Apostle Paul. In Romans chapter fifteen he said that he was “a minister of Christ Jesus to the nations, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, that the offering of the nations might be acceptable, having been sanctified in the Holy Spirit” (v. 16). Paul saved the Gentile sinners one by one, and offered them up to God. This was the first step.