You are a Royal Priest
I Peter 2:5 “You also as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”
I Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
The priesthood was ordained by Jehovah God and given to Moses when He established the Tabernacle as a place for Him to dwell among the Children of Israel, and for them to gather around to worship Him as their Creator. Out of the multitude of the Nation of Israel, God chose Aaron and his sons to be the High Priests; and out of the twelve tribes of Israel, God chose the tribe of Levi to be the ordinary priests.
The High Priests were responsible for ministering inside the Tabernacle, and the ordinary priests were responsible for taking care of the tabernacle itself. They both stood between the Children of Israel and the things of God. The High Priests stood between God and the ordinary priests and the rest of the children of Israel. The Nation of Israel was to be an example to all the nations surrounding them.
God is Holy and without sin. Before the High Priests could enter into the tabernacle to minister, they had to perform washings and rituals to purify themselves. If they failed to do these properly, they would die.
The total purpose of the Law and the Tabernacle was to show Israel and all of mankind how sinful human beings are after the Garden of Eden, and how Holy God is. There had to be a mediator to stand between Him and His people. He chose Moses, then his brother Aaron and Aaron’s sons, to be those mediators, so that Israel could have their sins forgiven and be able to see the Glory of God as He manifested Himself before them in a Pillar of Fire and the Cloud of His Glory.
Man’s sin convicts his conscience and causes him to cry out for someone who can stand between his conscience and his God. The conviction of that sin causes man to hide from God, as Adam and Eve did in the garden after their disobedience to God’s Word.
When Moses was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, the people were afraid of approaching the smoke and fire that accompanied Jehovah as He stood with Moses. God gave Moses the Priesthood to be the means of being able to approach Him without being consumed, having their sins forgiven with sacrifices offered by Priests who had purified themselves.
Jesus Christ became the perfect High Priest, as the Lamb of God, without sin or blemish. The book of Hebrews teaches us that He ever lives to make intercession for us that we may be able to have our sins forgiven and to approach the very throne of God. (Hebrews 4:15, 16, & 7:25-28)
Jesus fulfilled the Law and He fulfilled the Old Testament Priesthood; and as believers in Christ, Peter says that we have become a Holy and a Royal Priesthood for a reason.
Two main Purposes of Believers as the Priesthood:
1 – to be lively stones in a spiritual house
2 – to offer spiritual sacrifices and show forth praises of God
God dwelt in the Tabernacle, on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant, in the Holy of Holies, between the two cherubim. Paul says that we as believers have become the Temple of God. (I Corinthians 3:16) The Tabernacle was replaced by David’s and Solomon’s Temple. It was built from fitted stones and patterned after the sections of the tabernacle. Solomon’s Temple and the temples that followed were all torn down by the enemies of Israel. Israel, today, longs to build their final temple in Jerusalem, but they are hindered by the Islamic Mosque sitting where they want to build.
Paul is saying that all believers around the world, of all nations, tribes and tongues, have become the living stones of God’s Spiritual House.
I Corinthians 3:16 in New American Standard Bible reads, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
I Corinthians 3:16 in the New Living Translation reads, “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?”
Individually and corporately, believers in Christ as their Lord and Savior become spiritual houses, or temples, for God’s Holy Spirit.
Jesus said in John 14:16-17, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
Peter tells us that God dwells in believers for the purpose of offering sacrifices and praises unto Him who has saved us out of the darkness of this world into the marvelous Light of God Himself.
God dwells in the Praises of His people. Psalm 22:3, “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.”
The prayers of His saints ascend to the throne of God. Revelation 8:1-5, “When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.”
Colossians 4:2, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
The Royal Blood of Christ covers your sins daily as you ask Him and obey His teachings. His Holy Spirit dwells in you to enable you to approach His Holiness in praise and worship with thanksgiving. God is collecting these prayers, worship and thanksgivings at the heavenly altar of Incense and will send angels to minister to His children around the world and to judge the devil for deceiving those who do not believe.
What if this was your real purpose for being on this planet? What if the salvation of others depended on your faithfulness to offer thanks to God for their eternal destiny?
Billy Graham said, “Tears shed for self are tears of weakness, but tears shed for others are a sign of strength.”