A Royal Priesthood

We are called to maturity and discipleship as part of being a member of ‘the priesthood of all believers. None are exempt from this holy calling and all are called to a pilgrimage which leads us deeper into God’s presence as beloved children and a ‘priesthood of all believers’. Psalm 84

Ephesians 1:1-6 NKJV

‘Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.’

My heart, like the heart of the orphan cried out for a place to feel ‘love and connection’, without which our soul withers. As the late Selwyn Hughes would say ‘we don’t know who we are until we know whose we are’. You and I are indeed wired for love and connection and our soul is restless until it finds that place of belonging.

It should be no surprise that our sense of self, well-being and worth is first developed within the context of the relational climate of the family we grew up in, (this is true for both our natural birth and our spiritual birth).

Science is only now catching up with God’s reality, which is… not only are we created for relationships, but our soul and worldview are shaped by the reality of the relationships that nurtured us as children. It is therefore within the context of relationships that we are not only welcomed into the ‘family of God’ as beloved children, but the focus of the apostle Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:19 – 21 is that we should grow in the knowledge of that relationship and the depth of love found there.

Sky and sea bear witness to the heart of its creator. If we still our anxious hearts long enough to see the beauty on display, we are reassured that we were created to enjoy both our maker and His creation. We (mankind) are the only ones in the whole of the creation who are able to appreciate the aesthetic beauty of God’s creation.

We are invited through Christ to be restored to the Father/child relationship we were never intended to live without. It is through ‘New Birth’ alone that this relationship is re-established, and now with the perfect Father who loves us perfectly, we can begin the journey as a much-loved child to be re-parented and re-nurtured.

When God says through the writer to the Hebrews 13:5, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’, our adoption into Father’s household, then begins to address the soul’s insecurity which in its fallen state, fears rejection and ultimately abandonment.

Now, because we are accepted into His family, this new relationship with Abba Father provides an anchor of unconditional love and His commitment to ‘permanency’, becomes the assurance which allows us to wrestle (in God), with the difficult issues of the sin nature without the fear of losing the relationship. The sin nature, with all its attitudes, conduct and self-protective patterns, can be safely brought out into the light of God’s amazing love and grace without the fear being abandoned.  

This provides us with a safe ‘space’ to work out the difficult issues of living and growing up as a child of the Kingdom, without fearing, as we have in this world, being shamed, humiliated, and ultimately discarded.  This Godly assurance is indeed ‘grace’. as the Apostle John reassures us in 1 John 4:18 that ‘perfect love cast out all fear’. We are being perfected in knowing and growing in that kind of love, as those called to live as His imagers, we too are pilgrims on a journey deeper into the relational heart of God as we pursue Him who calls us to ‘come, follow me’.

Those within the family of God, are to welcome the ‘newborn’ and model the culture of the Kingdom, in their own personal lives, in attitude, action, and integrity, not merely words. Believers are mandated to fulfill the priestly role of ‘all believers’, and do so, as those representing (imaging) God as a part of His royal household. The role of this New Testament priesthood is to stand before man on behalf of God and, before God on behalf of man.  Discipleship then becomes a matter of relational integrity, and the modelling of Kingdom values as correct theology and sound doctrine are taught. 

It is well known in the social sciences that children learn far more from what is modeled than what is simply taught. As in the natural, so in the spiritual:  modelling shapes both the identity and the character of the developing infant.  Therefore, it requires the commitment of every disciple in Christ to, not simply practice what they preach but continue their own spiritual journey as disciples who are being ‘conformed to the image of the Son’ Romans 8:29, in ever increasing measure.

Sylvia Fraser. (Poet, Author, and Itinerant speaker)