Royal Priesthood

Royal

Priesthood

A series of studies on the priesthood of the believer

By Ken Chant

ISBN 9781310155215

Copyright © 2015 Vision Christian Colleges

All rights reserved worldwide.

Published at Smashwords by

Vision Colleges

P.O. Box 84 Macquarie Fields

NSW 2564, Australia

Ph 029603 2077

Fx 02 9603 3277

Email: registrar@visioncolleges.net

http://visionchristiancollege.com.au

Table of Contents

Dazzling Truth

Chapter One: Draw Near To God

Chapter Two: Royal Priests

Chapter Three: Clerical Priests

Chapter Four: Belief And Practice

Chapter Five: Bishops And Bakers

Chapter Six: Behaving Like Priests

Chapter Seven: Living Sacrifices

Chapter Eight: Into The Holiest

Chapter Nine: Falling Into Peril

Chapter Ten: Rhyme And Reason

Chapter Eleven: Patience And Faith

Chapter Twelve:"Enthroned With Christ

Bibliography

End Notes

Abbreviations

More Books by Vision Colleges

College Information

DAZZLING TRUTH

My wife thinks I should not start my book with John Donne's 16th century poem, and she is probably right. Undoubtedly the metaphysical Donne does have a soporific, or at best bewildering effect upon many readers. You may think he deserves the satirical description -

" ... pensive poets painful vigils keep, Sleepless themselves to give their readers sleep.¹"

Yet he remains my favourite poet, and the following lines from his satire Kind Pity wonderfully set the right frame of mind for the study of an exalted theme. If poetry wearies you, then skip ahead to my next paragraph. But you may find it worth the effort to meditate on the poet's wisdom. My endnotes will help you to catch the meaning of his closely packed ideas -

Careless PhrygiusA doth abhor

All, because all cannot be good, as one

Knowing some women whores, dares marry none.

GracchusB loves all as one, and thinks that so

As women do in divers countries go

In divers habits, yet are still one kind,

So doth, so is religion; and this blindness

too much light breedsC; but unmoved thou

Of force must one, and forced but one allowD;

And the right; ask thy father which is sheE,

Let him ask his ...

... On a huge hill,

Cragged and deep, Truth stands, and he that will

Reach her, about must, and about must go;

And what the hill's suddenness resists, win so;F

Yet strive so, that before age, death's twilight,

Thy soul rest, for none can work in that nightG.

To will, implies delay, therefore now doH.

Hard deeds, the body's pains;I hard knowledge too

The mind's endeavours reach,and mysteries

Are like the sun, dazzling, yet plain to all eyes.

Some truth, as the poet said, is like the sun, too dazzling to penetrate; some mysteries are too fathomless to plumb. Yet their very brilliance compels every looking eye to see them. So is the doctrine that occupies the pages of this book: the splendid and pivotal truth of the priesthood of every believer. It is perhaps the most important doctrine in the New Testament, and certainly the most revolutionary. Yet it has this anomaly: although it stands plainly written on every page of the gospel it remains one of the most difficult truths to penetrate. That is because it defies the common ideas most people have about religion, and it calls for a breathtaking boldness of faith in approaching the throne of God.

Yet just as "hard deeds are done through bodily pain so, if you apply your mind and soul to scripture, giving your best endeavour" to gaining an inner revelation of the word of God, you will surely emerge transformed by recognition of the royal priesthood God has given you in Christ.

A word more. Because of its hardness, this doctrine has aroused many rending quarrels in the church. I cannot avoid taking a side in the argument; but I hope to do so with grace, following the generous and worthy example of Sir Thomas Browne-

I could never divide myself from any man upon the difference of an opinion, or be angry with his judgment for not agreeing with me in that from which perhaps within a few days I should dissent myself. I have no Genius to disputes in Religion, and have often thought it wisdom to decline them, especially upon a disadvantage, or when the cause of truth might suffer from the weakness of my patronage. ... Every man is not a proper Champion for Truth, nor fit to take up the Gauntlet in the cause of Verity. Many, from the ignorance of these Maxims, and from an inconsiderate zeal unto Truth, have too rashly charged the troops of error, and remain as Trophies unto the enemies of Truth. A man may be in as just possession of Truth as of a City, and yet be forced to surrender. 'Tis therefore better to enjoy her with peace, than to hazard her upon a battle.²

I feel the weight of the good physician's words: I have no Genius to disputes in Religion, and have often thought it wisdom to decline them especially ... when the cause of truth might suffer from the weakness of my patronage. I am perhaps more willing to throw myself into the fray than Browne was, and he might therefore wish to number me among those who too rashly charge the troops of error. Nonetheless, I do feel the inadequacy of my resources. So I must leave you to judge for yourself whether my patronage of the royal priesthood has enhanced or hindered your proper understanding of its splendour.

At least I hope that our Great High Priest is not too displeased with my efforts, and may perhaps even approve them.

End Notes

A. Because a succession of conquerors had imposed upon them so many different religions the Phrygians were renowned for scorning them all.

B. The Gracchi were a Roman patrician family who flourished during the 2nd century B.C. They were famous for their liberal philosophy, and their willingness to tolerate and respect a wide variety of opinions on morals, religion, and philosophy.

C. Those who are too willing to see truth in every religious dogma, or to allow that there is value in every creed, will be blinded by an excess of light.

D. Of necessity, only one religion can be true; therefore even under duress that religion, and that alone, must be proclaimed as truth.

E. Before anyone can threaten you with violence, make sure you have settled upon the right religion. How can you be sure? Ask your father's father - that is, go back to the original gospel, and to the apostles.

F. The sensible way to climb to the top of a steep hill is to work your way around it, not try to go straight up. So truth must be won by patient and comprehensive study.

G. Give yourself to study while you are young, before old age makes such toil too wearisome.

H. Good intentions are not enough; they may just lead to endless delay. Start now in your quest for truth

I. Just as great deeds require physical exertion, and nothing worthwhile is done without pain, so knowledge is gained by hard mental endeavour.

Chapter One

DRAW NEAR TO GOD

(Return to Top)

Greek mytholngy tells the story of the fifty daughters of Danaus, who were called the Danaids. Danaus was the king of Argos, and he was at war with his brother Aegyptus, who had fifty sons. The young men gathered an army, laid siege to Argos, and overcame it. Among the terms of surrender demanded by Aegyptus was a pact for Danaus to give his fifty daughters in marriage to their cousins. The night for the wedding celebration was fixed, the festivities began, and the people rejoiced, believing that the union of the two families would bring peace to them all. But bitter in defeat, Danaus instructed each of his daughters to conceal a long pin in her hair and on the wedding night to plunge it deep into the heart of her groom. This was done, and in one night all fifty of the young men perished. The Danaids and their father were delighted by the triumph; but (says the myth) the gods of Olympus were not pleased. The Danaids were called into judgment and a terrible doom passed upon them: they were condemned forever to carry water in jars perforated with many holes!

That scene of the despairing maidens endlessly repeating their futile task became a favourite of many artists. They saw in it a metaphor of the frustration of ordinary life - the dreary round of repetitious actions, seemingly without purpose; the mindless fluctuations of fortune; the treadmill of remorseless destiny that many people feel has imprisoned them.

Is that how you feel about yourself? Do you feel condemned to a fate as remorseless as the mythical one suffered by the Danaids. Do your days seem empty of hope, possessing no purpose beyond the grave, no destiny past death, locked into a monstrous cycle of futility? Is life a dreary succession of vain struggles, like carrying water in buckets without bottoms?

How stunningly the Bible reverses that bleak prospect! In our hopelessness we turn to scripture and at once find boundless hope! Consider for example this passage:

"Let us come boldly to the throne of grace and there receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (He 4:16)

Here is a promise of limitless access and limitless help; here is a declaration of the astonishing privileges God has given to every person who truly believes in Christ.

The apostle expresses it in five stunning invitations -

COME TO THE THRONE

We can hardly imagine how revolutionary this invitation seemed to the people who first heard it. The idea that ordinary people could freely approach the Lord God of all heaven and earth was quite incredible to them. Their first instinct was to reject it with scornful disbelief - much as you would do if you heard that the doors of Buckingham palace were being thrown open to all and sundry. Imagine anyone who had a fancy for it wandering in at any time, sauntering up to the throne, sitting on it, and chatting with the Queen! Even if you saw such an invitation printed in the newspapers you would not believe it. You really could not imagine the way to the throne being so open.

If you have you ever stood with the crowd, pressing your nose between the wrought iron bars of the fence around the palace, watching the Changing of the Guard, then you know how unlikely such an open-house policy would be. Warriors everywhere! Anyone foolish enough to amble through the splendid gates, and across the quadrangle toward the massive doors of the palace, could expect swift arrest and expulsion!

Alison and I were once invited to a royal garden party and had an opportunity to meet briefly with the Queen and Prince Philip. But the number of guests was strictly limited, and we ourselves were invited only once. Then, some years later, when we were in London, we did stand with mobs of tourists gawking through the fence railings at the troops marching back and forth. Although the great iron gates to the palace grounds and the splendid palace doors all stood enticingly open, we dared not walk through them. One invitation to a garden party gave us no access to the throne! We remained banished to the outer fence!

So the ancients thought about God. He is a Mighty Lord. He is a Great King. Only the most noble had unhindered access to this throne. They deemed it unthinkable that common people could speak with him whenever they pleased. So the assertion that anyone could come to the throne of God whenever they wanted to was startling. No one had ever dared to imagine that such an open path to the heavenlies was even possible, let alone actually existed.

But surely religion had opened the way to God? Did not the priests in the various temples and shrines of the Greeks and Romans encourage the people to pray, and to draw near to whichever deity they worshipped? The answer, in fact, is NO! Why? Because across the entire span of human history, the purpose of religion has never been to bring people to God, but rather to keep them away from him!

Religion found its very origin in that purpose. A people aware of their own sin and of heaven’s holiness, in terror of divine judgment, chose some men to be priests, and commanded them to create whatever religious structure was necessary to create a safe barrier between earth’s fault and heaven’s fury.

So religion has always existed solely to protect people from getting too close to a god who would surely destroy them in a moment were they to profane him by their presence. All the apparatus of religion across the centuries - the altars, sacrifices, ceremonies, priesthoods, temples, and the like were designed with one purpose: to keep the god safely in heaven, where he belonged, and to allow the people to keep their distance while they got on with their lives. Bringing God and man together was not the religious task; rather, it was to keep them as far apart as possible!

So here were two absolute opposites: the ancient faiths, which we could summarise as the religion of barriers; and the new faith of Christ, the gospel of invitation.

THE RELIGION OF BARRIERS

Despite what you may have thought, even the religion God established in Israel by the hand of Moses was not intended to open a path between heaven and earth, but to place as many protective barriers as possible between a fallen nation and their infinitely holy Deity.

The Hebrews lived in dread of any personal encounter with Yahweh - see Jg 6:22-23; Ex 19:12-13; 20:18-21; plus many similar references. When Moses built his tabernacle in the wilderness, and Solomon the temple in Jerusalem, the controlling principle was that of keeping the people distant from God. That rule remained unchanged for centuries and still governed Israel’s religious life when the letter to the Hebrews was written. Even as the apostle gave the invitation, come to the throne, the temple was still standing in Jerusalem, with wall after wall barricading the holy place from the surrounding city.

Thus from the very beginning the people were fenced off from God. When the law was being given to Moses they were forbidden to set foot even on the base of the mountain -

"You have not been brought to a mountain you can touch, like Sinai, with its blazing flames, its gloomy darkness, its howling winds, its clamorous trumpet, its thunderous voice. When the people heard the sound, they begged the voice to speak no more, for they could not