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God’s Family, God’s Priesthood

In Hebrew scripture, priests represented man to God: they asked forgiveness and prayed for others, and offered sacrifices on others’ behalf. But priests also represented God to man: they heard confessions, pronounced blessings, and accepted sacrifices on God’s behalf. “New Testament priests” (that’s us!) do some of the same things: according to Peter’s words above, we “proclaim the excellencies of” God to others. Paul calls us “ambassadors of Christ,” and says that we join God in “reconciling the world to himself” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). The simple, weighty truth is that if you are a follower of Jesus, you are a priest, with a high calling to represent God – and equally simple and weighty is that you live out your priesthood with others: look above at the texts that speak of God’s priesthood – they’re all communal! The truth is that in the gospel, we’re a “family of priests.”

What’s it look like to live as God’s priest together? Not everything from Leviticus 8-10 relates to you (for example, you don’t get to wear an ephod. Sorry). But by looking at God’s calling, installation, grace, and sobering standard of holiness toward his first-ever priests, found in these 4000-year-old words, we learn much about how we live our lives today, as God’s family, God’s priesthood.