God Calls us a Holy Priesthood

Metaphor: Holy Priesthood

Concept:  The Priesthood in the Old Testament was a select and set aside group whose only job was to serve God in the Temple day and night. Today we do have a building to go to in Jerusalem, but God lives in us and we are His Temple.

1 Peter 2:5[Come] and, like living stones, be yourselves built [into] a spiritual house, for a holy (dedicated, consecrated) priesthood, to offer up [those] spiritual sacrifices [that are] acceptable and pleasing to God through Jesus Christ. AMP

 Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament gives us the following material. Believers are lively or living stones (the same Greek word is used for both Christ and the believer) because their life is Christ. This spiritual house is not the local church nor even a group of saints, but the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church Universal, for Peter is addressing believers in five Roman provinces. The words "holy priesthood" in the Greek text are preceded by a preposition showing purpose. Thus we translate, "to be a holy priesthood." The words "to offer up" are the translation of a word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament of the act of the priest bearing the sacrifice up to the brazen altar. The latter was four and one-half feet high and was approached by an incline up which the priest carried the sacrifice. The word itself means literally, "to carry up." Thus the Church is an unlimited priesthood to offer upon the altar of the consecrated, dedicated heart of the believer, spiritual sacrifices, not animal sacrifices as in the case of the Levitical priests, but the activities of the human spirit of man energized by the Holy Spirit. The word "acceptable" in the Greek text means literally "to receive to one's self with pleasure."

      What a blessing it is to think that God is pleased with the spirituality He finds in the life of a Christian. He was pleased with the sacrifices offered up in Old Testament times in that they spoke of the Lord Jesus. He is pleased with the spiritual sacrifices of the believer because He sees in them a reflection of the Lord Jesus.