His Kingdom of Priests

His disciples reign with Jesus as priests who render service in the True Tabernacle and minister his light and message to the world.

The present sovereignty of Jesus is based on his past Death and Resurrection, and His disciples participate in his reign. Like him, their royal position is paradoxical. It is characterized by self-sacrificial service rather than the suppression and destruction of their human enemies. The shedding of Christ’s blood is what consecrates them as “priests,” and priestly service for others is how they rule with him.

[Lantern Twilight - Photo by Julia Florczak on Unsplash]

The mission given to the nation of Israel is now being fulfilled by the followers of Jesus, his Church. “You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” This theme is especially prominent in the Book of Revelation - (Exodus 19:6. Compare 1 Peter 2:5-10).

• (Revelation 1:5-6) – “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto him who loves us and loosed us from our sins by his blood; and he made us a kingdom, priests for his God and Father.”

In the Greek text of the preceding passage, the term “kingdom” is placed in apposition to “priests.” The latter term defines the former. The realm inaugurated by Christ’s Death is a priestly kingdom, therefore, its members execute their royal duties as “priests.” There is one group in view here, not two: “priestly kings,” not “priests” and “kings.”

In the first vision of Revelation, Jesus is the glorious “Son of Man,” a high priestly figure who serves in the Sanctuary and walks among the “Seven Golden Lampstands”– (Revelation 1:16-20).

Especially in view is the image of the Aaronic High Priest ministering before God in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. The ancient Tabernacle featured a seven-branched lampstand. Like Aaron and his sons, the “Son of Man” is clothed with the full-length linen robe of the High Priest of Israel held in place by a “golden girdle.”

• “Yahweh said to Moses, Speak to Aaron your brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil, before the mercy-seat, which is upon the ark, that he dies not, for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy-seat. <…> He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh and shall be girded with the linen girdle…” – (Leviticus 16:2-4).

• “And you will make a lampstand of pure gold: of beaten work will the candlestick be made <…> and there will be six branches going out of its sides…” – (Exodus 32:31).

The priestly Son of Man tends the seven “lampstands,” trimming their wicks and replenishing oil as needed. The “Seven Golden Lampstands” represent the “Seven Assemblies of Asia” overseen by the “Son of Man” from the Heavenly Tabernacle – (Revelation 1:12-20).

To the saint who “overcomes,” Jesus Christ, the “Amen, the Faithful and True Witness,” promises to “grant him to sit with me in my throne, just as I also overcame and sat with my Father on his throne” – (Revelation 3:21, 5:6-9, 7:17 – “The Lamb that is in the midst of the throne…”).

To rise to such a high position, we as his disciples and “priests” must “overcome” in the same manner that Christ did, the same “Faithful Witness” who “loosed us from our sins by his blood” poured out to purchase us for his “God and Father.”

Disciples do not attain this regal status by conquering their persecutors through violence or by enslaving men, but by overcoming Sin and Satan, persevering in tribulation, martyrdom, and by bearing faithful testimony as Christ’s “priests”:

• “They overcame the Dragon by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and because they loved not their life even unto death”– (Revelation 12:11).

THE REIGNING LAMB

In the vision of Chapter 5, only the “slain Lamb” is declared “worthy” to open the “Sealed Scroll.” Heaven and Earth declare him worthy to receive all authority and power because he purchased men for service in God’s priestly kingdom “by his shed blood” - (Revelation 5:9-12).

The men from every nation redeemed by the “Lamb” become a “kingdom and priests.” Therefore, “they reign on the Earth.” The Greek verb translated as “reign” is in the present tense.

In the vision of the “Innumerable Multitude” in Chapter 7, John sees men “clothed in white robes” coming out of the “Great Tribulation,” having washed their priestly robes and made them white “in the blood of the Lamb.” They are standing before the “Lamb” in the Sanctuary, and “He that sits on the Throne will spread his Tabernacle over them.”

The “white robes” worn by the redeemed are based on the priestly robes worn by Aaron and his sons when they were installed as priests to serve in the Wilderness Tabernacle. Overcoming saints are pictured as priests serving and worshipping in the Tabernacle of New Jerusalem – (Leviticus 8:6-7, Revelation 7:9-17, 11:1-2, 21:22 – “The Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are its sanctuary”).

This “innumerable” priestly company “renders divine service” before the “Throne.” This clause translates the Greek verb ‘latreuô’ the same term applied to the service of the Levitical priests in the ancient Greek version of the Book of Leviticus, the Septuagint. Moreover, present-tense verbs are used. These saints “are serving him day and night” in the Tabernacle.

The priestly role of the saints becomes clear when John “measures” the “Sanctuary,” the “Altar,” and “those who were rendering divine service” in it (‘latreuô’). They conducted their duties before the “Altar.” After John “measured” the “Sanctuary,” the entire “holy city” was delivered to the nations and “trampled underfoot forty-two months” – (Revelation 11:1-2).

The same reality is portrayed in the vision of the “Beast from the Sea” when it was given a “mouth speaking great things” with which it “slandered the Tabernacle, those that dwelt in the heaven.” In the Greek clause, there is no conjunction between “tabernacle” and “they who tabernacle.” The two terms are in apposition and the latter defines and identifies the former. This Beast is authorized to operate for “forty-two months,” the same period described in Chapter 11 when the “holy city” was trampled by the nations – (Revelation 13:1-10).

“It was given to the Beast to make war with the saints, and to overcome them.” The “Beast from the Sea” waged war on the priestly company of saints that was “rendering divine service” (‘latreuô’) before the “Lamb.” This is in deliberate contrast to the “Inhabitants of the Earth” who were “rendering homage” (‘proskeneô’) to the “Beast” – (Revelation 13:7).

The “Kingdom of Priests” is also found in the period of a “thousand years.” After Satan is banished, judgment is given for the martyrs who died because of their “Testimony and the Word of God, and such as did not render homage to the Beast” – (Revelation 20:1-6).

The overcoming saints “lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years <…> Over these, the Second Death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and reign with him a thousand years.” They qualify to reign with the Lamb because they give their lives in service to his cause and remain faithful in the “Testimony of Jesus.”

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus is a high priestly figure and sacrificial lamb whose death redeems men, and he reigns over them as their High Priest. In turn, his lifeblood consecrates his saints as “priests” who rule with him, and they do so in the same manner that he did – by self-sacrificial priestly service. This is what it means to reign with Jesus on the Earth, and to follow the Lamb “wherever he goes.”

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SEE ALSO:

• Jesus Reigns Now! - (Jesus triumphed over Satan and Sin through his Death and Resurrection, therefore, he now reigns from the Messianic Throne)

• Shepherding the Nations - (Jesus is the promised King from the Line of David who guides the Nations of the Earth to the Holy City, New Jerusalem – Revelation 12:5)

• The Ruler of Kings - (The faithful witness, Jesus, now reigns supreme over the Kings of the Earth and even over his enemies, and he is shepherding the nations)

• Salvation for All - (The Good News announced by Jesus of Nazareth offers salvation and life to men and women of every nation and people)