Category Archives: NT Priesthood

The Priesthood as Guards

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Priests as Guards

Elsewhere, I have noted that Adam though not a ‘priest’ in the technical sense (of the Mosaic law) nevertheless functions as a priest in the garden. His dual role was to work the land and take care of it (Gen 2:16). The choice of words here is very significant. In v15, the word ‘work’ (Hebrew ‘avad – ‘serve, till’) was used of cultivating the soil but was also commonly used in a religious sense of serving God (cf Deut 4:19) and of the tabernacle duties of priests (cf Num 3:7-8; 4:23-24, 26, etc). Similarly, to ‘take care of’ the garden (Hebrew shamar – ‘guard, keep’) was used particularly of Levitical responsibilities for guarding the tabernacle from intruders (Numbers 1:53; 3:7-8).[1] These two words are only used in combination elsewhere of the duties of the Levites in the sanctuary. Eden is thus a prototype of later sanctuaries, and Adam is its prototype ‘priest’ with the function of serving God. By working the land and taking care of it Adam also serves God. He is called to look after the sanctuary according to divine instruction just like the later Levitical priests did under Moses. To ignore God’s Word or deviate from it would result in death (eg Gen 12:17; cf Num 3:10).

Priestly responsibility was given first to Adam before Eve was created (Gen 2:15). He acts therefore as a kind of head or representative priest. Eve is conjoined to Adam to assist him in this work as a suitable helper. [Did the Levites who were 'attached to' or 'joined to' Aaron function in a similar way?] The language of “suitable helper” implies that together they functioned together as a ‘priesthood’, yet with differentiated roles.

And so Adam and Eve were more than farmers or gardeners. They had a high calling to serve and guard the sanctuary in which man was made to enjoy fellowship and peace with God. Thus, Adam is a “priest-king” who rules the creation under God’s rule through his obedient service.

One of Adam’s primary priestly responsibilities was to guard the conditions whereby mankind could enjoy abiding friendship with God. This was also the case for the Levitical priests. For Adam it meant keeping God’s one word of command; “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”  (Genesis 2:16b-17).

This is a key verse of the Bible. It describes the great degree of freedom Adam had to enjoy in the wide provisions of the Garden. But it also puts them on probation. If Adam kept (guarded) God’s word, he would also guard the conditions whereby mankind would enjoy abiding friendship with God.[2]

Adam’s role as a priest was thus to guard God’s Word and His moral autonomy. To disobey God’s word was to rob God of his autonomy and declare moral independence. Thus, a biblical priest guards the sanctuary in which he has been placed by guarding the Word of God. Indeed, guarding God’s word must be understood as the primary means of guarding the conditions of lasting friendship with God, since the conditions of lasting friendship with God are always ultimately conveyed through the Word of God (whether spoken or written). If you  tamper with his Word you tamper with salvation.

It is notable then that, when Adam failed to guard the sanctuary, their role as primary guardians of the Eden-sanctuary was given to others. God instead placed Cherubim (human-headed winged lions) on the East side of the garden to guard the way back to the tree of life. These cherubim were later depicted on the walls of the temple and a large pair of Cherubim guarded the Most Holy Place of the temple.

[1] G.J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, WBC, (Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 1987), p67

[2] G.J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, WBC, (Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 1987), p63-64.

The Meaning of the Ascension

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About 10 years ago now a good friend of mine, J-P Aranzulla, got me excited about the Ascension of Jesus and its significance. When Jesus ascended and went into heaven, he was fulfilling the role of Aaron and the High Priests of Israel. He put it like this. If you imagine a model of the temple with its Holy Place and Most Holy Place separated by a curtain, and the High Priest who (alone) entered the Most Holy Place to make atonement for the sins of the people, by offering the blood from the sacrifice. Then in your mind’s eye, take the model and lift it 90 degrees so that the Most Holy Place is up in the air… then imagine Jesus moving upwards into the air and disappearing behind a cloud. The picture becomes very clear. The curtain in the temple is the barrier that separates sinful man from the eternal dwelling-place of God. Jesus has now entered, bearing his own blood to atone for our sins. And there he intercedes for us today.

John Calvin neatly describes him going through “a fold in space”.

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest for ever, in the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:19-20)

The Bronze Sea and baptism

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The “Bronze Sea” or “laver” in Solomon’s temple was a large bronze basin in which the priests who entered the temple had to wash to make themselves ceremonially clean (cf 2 Chronicles 4:6). This “Sea” seems to have represented either (or both) the Red Sea – across which the Israelites passed in their flight from Egypt and the Jordan – across which they passed to enter the Promised Land. The priests entering the tabernacle or temple thus appear to be ceremonially re-enacting (on behalf of the people) the redemption of Israel when they washed in the “Bronze Sea”. Crossing from unholy to holy places seems to require ceremonial washing.

We could say, therefore, that in order for a person to approach God in worship and enter the Holy Place, one must “cross the Sea”. For Christians, water baptism is the moment when a person “crosses the sea” and (outwardly and ceremonially) enters God’s true Dwelling-Place to become a member of Christ and the Church. Understanding our baptism in this way increases our awareness of the high calling and responsibilities which baptism implies.

Wearing our priestly garments with pride

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Another way of understanding baptism as our ordination service is to see that being clothed with Christ is a typological fulfilment of Aaron’s priestly garments (cf Exod. 28:2). Paul says this;

“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:26)

Baptism, as believers, is baptism “into Christ”. And this passage in Galatians suggests that we are united with Christ as priests. For we have been clothed with Christ. If Jesus was the priest par excellence, and if we ‘wear’ Jesus Christ, or “put on the new self” then we wear the garment that qualifies us as NT priests.

Where do we go to worship?

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One of the possible objections being raised by the second generation Jews (which the author of Hebrews seeks to answer) was this: “Where do we go to worship if there is no temple?”

The author answers this question by saying that the sphere of worship under the new covenant is no longer inside a holy place (or temple) but outside in the ungodly places.

 11The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. (Hebrews 13:11-14).

Those who would mediate God’s blessings to the world (as New Testament believer-priests) will suffer as Christ suffered. We go into the world to bear Christ’s disgrace. But we go to Christ for refuge. True Christian worship is shaped by Jesus’ moment of self-sacrifice which happened outside the camp and outside the city gate.

Ordination to Believers’ Priesthood

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In his book The Priesthood of the Plebs, Peter Leithart argues that Christian baptism fulfils and replaces Levitical ordination. I find this a most wonderful truth that will transform the way we think of ourselves as Christians. Let me quote a paragraph from his book that summarises why he makes such an important link:

“Like Christian baptism, the washing at the beginning of the ordination rite was an administered initiation, and in these respects the ordination bath was unique in the Levitical system. While most Old Testament ablutions were self-washings, Moses washed Aaron and his sons (Exod. 29:4; Lev. 8:6; cf. Lev. 14:8; 15:16-18, 27); while most cleansing rites were repeated as often as one became unclean, the ordination washing was once-for-all. Though priests washed their hands and feet before approaching the altar or approaching the tent (Exod.30:20), this self-washing was not a repetition of the ordination bath since it was partial and not administered. Similarly, when the Levites were set apart to help the priests in tabernacle service, Moses sprinkled them with water, then they shaved themselves and washed their clothes before being installed through a sacrificial rite and the laying on of hands (Num. 8:5-15). The ordination bath and the closely related sprinkling of the Levites were the only administered initiatory water “baptisms” in the Levitical system. [Italics his].” (The Priesthood of the Plebs, (Eugene, Wipf and Stock, 2003), p95)

Thus in baptism, Christians are ordained as priests into the New Testament Priesthood and our whole life is dedicated to the service and guardianship of Christ, the Gospel and the Temple (ie the Church).

A Reformed Biblical Theology of Priesthood

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The Doctrine of the Priesthood of All Believers

I delivered this paper in March 2011 at the Chester Association: a first stab at trying to give biblical theological content to the doctrine of the Priesthood of all Believers. Click on the title below to read…

“Chester Association A Biblical Theology of the Priesthood March 2011”

 

 

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Does every believer have authority to baptise?

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The question of the kind of authority invested in individual believers and ordained clergy is much-debated. The title of this post is not really about baptism, but about the relationship between ‘clergy’ and ‘lay’ (or ‘pastors’ and ‘flock’), what authority looks like and where it lies.

The Reformers seem to be clear that the authority of Christ was invested in the whole church. But this was understood by theologians like John Owen to be a corporate authority, and that there were privileges and responsibilities that could be applied to the church corporately that could not be applied to individual believers.  He wrote,

“That this power under the name of the ‘keys of the kingdom of heaven’, was originally granted to the whole professing Church of believers, and that it is utterly impossible it reside in any other, who is subject unto death, or if so, be renewed upon any occasional intermission, is fully proved by all Protestant writers”. (The True Nature of a Gospel Church, XVI, 15).

Perhaps the best summary of his view is expressed thus:

“But as the whole Church-power is committed unto the whole Church by Christ, so all that are called unto the peculiar exercise of any part of it, by virtue of office-authority, do receive that authority from him by the only way of the communication of it – namely, by his Word and Spirit, through the ministry of the Church.” (ibid.)

In short, it seems that all believers have all Christ’s authority, but not all are called to exercise that authority publicly. It is thus a matter of Church order that we see some people exercising public authority within the church, while others do not. Not all have all the gifts. Not all are teachers.

Levi P. Cuir in his article “Priesthood of all Believers” rightly stresses the corporate nature of our priesthood, but extends the priestly authority of the individual to every area of church life even in public ministry. Thus he concludes that the entire church is given the authority to baptize, without qualifying it as the Reformers would have done. Let me quote part of it here, picking up at his chapter on Corporate Responsibility:-

“God’s calling for the community of believers is always a corporate concept.  It has an intensely personal element, but it is never isolated individualism.  Every believer is expected to function as a faithful and responsible part of the community (Eph. 2:19f, Rom. 12:4).[139]  This speaks of a personal implication of God’s call to the entire people of God. Evidently, what is true of the entire people of God as a community is equally true to all its members.[140]   With this regard, the significance of the responsibility is reduced when the community diminishes the privileges of each member.[141] [So far, so good (JB)] In the same way, the effect of the privilege is hindered when the responsibility is not emphasized. …  Each believer is a priest and thus, each one is called toward the ministry.[142]The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to the whole people of God as priests for the ministry.[143] … The entire church is given the authority to baptize [italics mine (JB), not Cuir's].  Thus, every Christian has the power to baptize.  Even the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is a charge given to the whole church.  Every Christian is empowered to take an active role in serving the meal.[144]

For what it’s worth, I think Cuir’s view helpfully calls Christians to their priestly responsibilities, but ultimately ends up flattening the distinctions (of authority) that we find in the New Testament. In other words, if every Christian has authority to do everything (in public as well as in private), then why did Paul think it fit and necessary to instruct Titus to appoint elders? Whenever you appoint a person within the church authority is present. The Reformers understood this.

The impact of faith union with Christ

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By faith-union and through baptism in Christ we are ordained into Christ’s priesthood. Martin Luther says that “Through baptism we have all been ordained as priests.” Luther’s Works Volume 6. Thus we participate in Christ’s priesthood, serving God offering spiritual (non-bloody) sacrifices and prayer in several ways:

a)        We offer our bodies as living sacrifices           (Rom 12:1-2)

b)       We offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God    (1 Peter 2:5)

c)        We offer a sacrifice of thanks and praise         (Heb 13:15)

d)       We offer good works and share with others     (Heb 13:16)

e)        We offer the ‘incense’ that is prayer                 (Rev 8:3)

f)        Priestly ministry of proclaiming gospel              (Rom 15:16)

g)        We receive “food of grace” from spiritual altar (Heb 13:9-10)

Our priesthood is nothing less than our whole Christian lives. Let us rejoice in the royal priesthood to which God has called us.

“You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5)