Five Things We Must Understand (But Often Don't) about the New Testament (3)

3. Did You Know You Are a Royal Priest?

I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet but I know who you are, all of you, and what you are to be doing in the world. It’s true. I do. Not because of my wisdom or insight, mind you, but because the Bible teaches it though we’ve often forgot or ignored it.

Yes, it’s right there in Genesis 1-2 if we read them in the light of their cultural context. When people of nations surrounding Israel wrote up their creation stories they did not do so provide what we would consider a “scientific” record of their origins. They did so to announce to readers whose they were, who they were, and what they were to do in the world. Gen.1-2 do the same thing.

-First, their creation story narrates God’s building a temple for him to dwell on his creation in (as do those of the surrounding nations). And where else would God dwell but a temple (which also is a palace, a dwelling for the Great King)? So Israel’s God is present amid his creation (remember God’s “big picture” we discussed above). He is God and King over his creational temple. This temple building, palace dwelling God is the one to whom Israel belongs.

-Second, the rivers flowing out of Eden watering the rest of the as yet uninhabited earth suggest God intends his temple, limited at the beginning to Eden, to encompass the whole of his creation, indeed, to be that temple.

-That, thirdly, leads to who humanity is in God’s purpose. The answer is clear when God places Adam (the as yet undivided-into-male-and-female-humanity) in the garden to “keep and till” it. This word pair only occurs elsewhere in reference to priestly work in the temple. Adam is often thought to the first great high priest. Humanity, then, serves God in his creational temple as priests. Both male and female serve him so, it should be noted. This is who we/you/me are! Priests, and because children of the great King, royal priests! This is our primal calling and vocation as human beings.

-Fourthly, our calling entails the care for and extension of God’s creational temple. He intends to be present through his temple/palace spread over all the earth. His temple must fill the earth so his presence may fill the earth (remember God’s “big picture” plan). As God’s children we represent him as royal ambassadors reflecting his will and way wherever we go. As his priests we are to protect, nurture, and expand God’s creational temple and mediate God to his world and the world to God. And since the temple is (intended to be) the creation, earth-care is an intrinsic and essential part of our vocation. And the way God wants his people to live is akin to the later priests having to live as Israel should be while at the same time they had to deal with how it was. Same for all Christ’s followers living as God’s priests in his temple creation. As we read the Bible, then, we must ask how the passage we are reading speaks to (encourages, equips, challenges, critiques) our practice of royal priesthood.

The impact of keeping a proper biblical sense of who we are and our proper vocation foremost in mind and heart can be seen in the lyrics of Tenth Avenue North’s song “You Are More.” A girl has fallen far away from Christ, hit bottom, and is reflecting on her situation. The narrator relates her thoughts:

“She says, how did I get here?
I'm not who I once was.
And I'm crippled by the fear
That I've fallen too far to love

But don't you know who you are,
What's been done for you?
Yeah don't you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.”

“But don’t you know who you are?” Many of us don’t. Whatever we think being created in the “image of God” means (if we think of it at all), it’s likely not that you are a royal priest in God’s creational temple and that you are called to live as such a priest in whatever you do and wherever you go.

“That I’ve fallen too far to love.” This is the great lie that cripples many  North American Christians. What I call the “God with a Scowl,” a perfectionistic and vengeful moral scorekeeper who watches us incessantly unseemly eager to punish our every misstep is the default deity too many of us believe in. But it is as a lie. A damnable lie.

Far from keeping score on you, God has “remade” you into the person he intends you to be- that royal priest we have been talking about. And he all about you being the best such priest you can be. One who bears the image and character of our great High Priest Jesus Christ. The love the Father lavished on that priest in his unique ministry, he lavishes on us priests as well. And every time we are tempted to doubt this, and it’s the enemy’s chief tactic in assaulting us (Rev.12:10), we need to hear those words from this song:

“Yeah don't you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.”

This is essential to reading and internalizing the Bible well. We must understand this!