Royal Priesthood of Believers

As members of the Royal Family of God, every believer in this age is appointed as a royal priest. This appointment is a grace function and therefore does not depend on spiritual advance. All believers, male, female, old, young, spiritually mature or spiritually immature, are members of the Royal Priesthood. However, this does not mean that all priests are equal. It means that they have equal privilege to perform the duties of a priest. (Revelation 1:6)

As believer-priests, we represent ourselves before God. We do not need to confess our sins to a member of the clergy; we confess our sins directly to God. This is to be done in private. We do not need someone else to pray for us, though we always appreciate the prayers of others on our behalf. As priests, we are to come boldly before God and offer prayer for ourselves. Unlike the Levitical priesthood in Israel, which was based on physical birth, the priesthood of believers is based on the “new birth” (salvation). We actually share Christ’s priesthood because we are in union with Him, our High Priest. (Hebrews 3:1; 4:16)

Since we represent ourselves before God, it is our individual responsibility to grow spiritually through the perception and application of Bible doctrine.

and functions as a part of your Royal Priesthood. Until such time as your spiritual life is developed by consistent study and application of Bible doctrine, you will be unable to fulfill your responsibility as a priest. (Ephesians 4:12-15; II Peter 3:18)

One aspect of your function as a priest is worship. Often misconstrued as some form of emotionalism, true worship is always based on the filling of the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine. (John 4:24) Worship may be in the form of ritual, such as the Communion service or it may be a non-ritual activity such as singing doctrinally-correct songs. Whatever the form of worship, it must always be doctrinally correct if it is to honor God.

The highest form of worship is the study and application of the Word of God. Other forms of worship can be the offering of prayers of thanksgiving and the giving of money. Worship always involves “giving back” to God that which He has already given to us. For example, you cannot give God thanksgiving, if you have not learned to be thankful. Application of Bible doctrine is a form of giving back to God what the study of His Word has given to you. (Ephesians 5:16; I Timothy 4:12-16)

Any activity that draws attention away from God and towards self is a form of arrogance and is not worshipping God. Neither is sincerity a substitute for truth. A person may be sincere in their attempt to worship God and be sincerely wrong. True worship must always be done God’s way in order to be honoring to Him. When self, others, or overt activities (including singing) are elevated above learning Bible doctrine, worship is distorted into legalism or religion, and both are the enemies of Christianity.

Jesus Christ, Our Great High Priest

Jesus Christ is our royal High Priest, forever. (Hebrews 5:6,10) In order to become our High Priest, Christ had to become true humanity. Jesus Christ represented us before God, first on the “altar” of the Cross, and now in Heaven before the throne of God. By becoming our High Priest, Jesus Christ became our mediator to God. (I Timothy 2:5-6) As believers in this age, we belong to His priesthood (the Royal Priesthood). This priesthood is far superior to any other that existed in the past. (Hebrews 7) As our High Priest, Christ won the strategic victory over Satan in the Angelic Conflict. (Hebrews 4:14-16; 6:17-20)

The priesthood of Christ is the reality of those priesthoods that previously existed in the Old Testament. Just as the rituals and the sacrifices were types of the real things which were to come in the future, the Royal Priesthood of Christ is the realization of those types. (Hebrews 8)

The Spiritual Life of Believers

The true function of a believer-priest’s spiritual life is the development of a relationship with God. This relationship is your unseen, private life with God. You and you alone know what that relationship is like. (I Corinthians 2:9-16)

There are many counterfeits to the spiritual life. It is therefore extremely important for each of us as believers to learn, understand, and execute the true spiritual life. Without a correct understanding of the Biblical spiritual life, believers will go through life executing some form of legalism that will lead to misery and unhappiness. The true spiritual life is so much more than just being a good person, performing good deeds, or keeping the Ten Commandments (all of which we should do).

The true spiritual life of believers is based on having the integrity of God operating in their lives. Before God’s integrity can be operational, it must be developed. The question we must ask is “How is the integrity of God developed?” As Christians, we should know the source for discovering the answer: the Bible. The answer to spiritual questions can be found only in God’s Word. Therefore, the study of His Word will give us the answer to this question regarding the true spiritual life. Please set aside all preconceived ideas regarding the spiritual life and examine only what God’s Word has to say. (Hebrews 4:12)

First, we must understand that there is a difference between our function as priests and our function as ambassadors. As priests, we represent ourselves before God (invisible) but as ambassadors we represent God before others (visible). Before a believer can be an effective representative for God, they must have a maturing relationship with God, which develops Christian integrity.

Developing Christian Integrity

Integrity is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as a state or quality of being complete; an unimpaired state of honesty and purity; a soundness of moral principle; the character of uncorrupted virtue, especially in relation to truth and fair dealing. In the case of Christians, integrity is loyalty to the absolute truth of God’s Word. (John 1:14; 8:32; 14:6; 16:13)

Therefore, in order for believers to develop Christian integrity, they must know God’s Word. The development of this kind of integrity does not happen overnight; it is an on-going process that takes consistent study and application of Bible doctrine. When Bible doctrine is taught accurately and systematically by a man with the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher, over a period of time, believers have the potential to develop Christian integrity. (II Timothy 2:15; 3:16-17; Hebrews 5:11-14)

The first step in developing integrity is to learn about God’s integrity. Christian integrity is the character of Jesus Christ developed in the life of a believer. It is manifested as the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It develops the right motivation from your love for God. Integrity exhibits impersonal love for all mankind. It is thinking the mind of Christ, which is divine viewpoint thinking. (Galatians 5:22-23; I Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5)

The integrity of God is never compromised by what man does or does not do. Therefore, developing God’s integrity is not accomplished through overt activity, but through thinking truth. You cannot think truth unless truth is resident in your soul as your spiritual frame of reference and your spiritual vocabulary. God is truth and He has always had integrity, as a part of His character. God never veers from the truth, and as royal priests, in union with Jesus Christ, we are commanded to know the truth and stay loyal to the truth. (Romans 12:1-2; Philippians 2:5-13)