REV. LYNN’S BLOG

Whenever a group is defined, that group will have certain things which bind them together and make them a group, whilst at the same time separating them from others who may have some superficial similarities but are not part of the same group. Thus the priests of the Lord in the Old Testament formed a priesthood, but that priesthood excluded those who were priests of the false gods of the surrounding nations.

Over the next few messages we are going to look at some of the things that define the Royal Priesthood which is the Church. The first of these is the sacrifice.

Every priesthood has a sacrifice, and in fact sacrifice is one of the chief reasons why priesthood exists. The priests of false religions, both in the days of the Old Testament and even through to modern times, offer many sacrifices, some of them very strange and even bizarre, in an attempt to appease the gods they serve. These sacrifices of false religions have not been prescribed by God, but are the attempt of man to come to their understanding of God, and reflect a “racial memory” going right back to the Garden of Eden, that man must bring something when he approaches the deity.

As we saw in last week’s message, when God created Adam and Eve they had free access to Him, and were supposed to represent Him to the rest of the material creation. When they chose to step out from God’s rule, however, and become “gods” unto themselves instead of “priests” unto God, they lost that access. They were driven from the garden, and a huge angel with a flamings sword was stationed at the entrance to bar their return.

Before that happened, however, God did something rather wonderful. Stripped of the glory of God which had covered them in their innocence, Adam and Eve had realized that they were naked. Now God took one of the animals He had created – an innocent victim – and killed it, using its hide to make a covering for His rebellious children which was more effective than their own flimsy efforts to string together leaves. From the outset He had told them that disobedience would lead to death. What they now saw was the death of another, a sacrifice, to provide a covering for their sin. So the memory was born in the heart of mankind, that only the shedding of blood can bring the forgiveness of sins.

The principle was passed on to their children, and we see Abel bringing an acceptable blood sacrifice, whilst the rebellious and self-righteous Cain considered his vegetables to be good enough. God, however, was not pleased with the fruit of self-righteousness, and rejected Cain’s offering, with the result that his true nature came to the fore.

From that time on, man always approached God with sacrifices. When the Law was set in place through Moses, God went into great detail about what sacrifices the people were to bring, when they were to bring them, and how they were to be offered. Always, there was the principle of the necessity of the shedding of blood for the covering of sins. The priesthood of the Old Testament was bound together by the sacrificial system. They existed to offer the sacrifices. Rivers of blood flowed from the altar of the Temple, and all to one purpose: to drive home to the people that sin is deadly, and that sinners can only approach a holy God through shed blood.

Yet all of it was only temporary. Hebrews tells us clearly that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb 10:4). The sacrifices of the Old Testament priests, even though they were prescribed by God, could only ever provide a temporary “cover” for sins, whilst pointing to the One whose blood would not only cover, but would pay the price of sin and remove it for all time.

That One, of course, was the Lord Jesus Christ. When He shed the only sinless human blood that had ever been shed, He offered the one sacrifice which was really able to take away sin. Not only that, but because it was effective, it only had to be offered once. There are some who think that Jesus’ sacrifice must be “offered” every day, but to believe this is to totally misunderstand the effectiveness of calvary. That which achieves its purpose only has to be done once. When we partake of the Communion, we are not re-offering Christ’s sacrifice, but reminding ourselves of what He has done for us.

This means that for the New Testament priesthood, that “Royal Priesthood” which the Church is rather than has, the whole concept of sacrifice is changed. The sacrifice which binds this priesthood together is not one that we bring to God, but one that He brings to us. He has done what we could not do: He (the Son) has offered and effective sacrifice and He (the Father) has accepted it. There is no further sacrifice we can bring to Him. His sacrifice has given us access to the Throne. His sacrifice has made us priests.

Now our role as priests is not to bring the sacrifices of the people to God, but to bring the sacrifice of God to the people. There is a world of people out there who don’t know that the perfect sacrifice has been offered on their behalf. They are still trying to bring their own sacrifices. Some are still vainly trying to cover themselves with the fig leaves of their own effort, or self righteously bringing whatever they consider to be suitable to God. Others have grasped the principle of costly sacrifice, but think that it is they who must pay the cost, and try by flagellation or self mutilation or asceticism. They need God’s Royal Priesthood to come to them, pointing them to the sacrifice that God has made for them, and offering them the life and forgiveness that it has bought.

This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.

There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

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