Answer
The Bible teaches that all believers in Christ are priests in their own right. The main passage that deals with the priesthood of all believers is 1 Peter 2:5–9: “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. . . . But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (ESV).
Old Testament priests were chosen by God, not self-appointed, and they were chosen for a purpose: to serve God with their lives by offering up sacrifices. The priesthood served as a picture or “type” of the coming ministry of Jesus Christ—a picture that was no longer needed once His sacrifice on the cross was completed. When God tore in two the temple veil that covered the doorway to the Holy of Holies at the time of Christ’s death (Matthew 27:51), He indicated that the Old Testament priesthood was no longer necessary. Now people could come directly to God through the great High Priest, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:14–16). There are now no earthly mediators between God and man as existed in the Old Testament priesthood (1 Timothy 2:5).
Christ our High Priest has made one sacrifice for sin for all time (Hebrews 10:12), and there is no more sacrifice for sin that can be made (Hebrews 10:26). But as priests once offered other kinds of sacrifices in the temple, so it is clear from 1 Peter 2:5, 9 that God has chosen Christians “to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (verse 5, NKJV).
First Peter 2:5–9 leads us to understand at least two things about the priesthood of believers. The first is that believers are privileged. To be chosen by God to be a priest was a privilege. All believers have been chosen by God: a “chosen people . . . God’s special possession” (verse 9). In the Old Testament tabernacle and temple, there were places where only the priests could go. Into the Holy of Holies, behind a thick veil, only the high priest could go, and that only once a year on the Day of Atonement when he made a sin offering on behalf of all the people. What a privilege we have now: direct access to the very throne of God! We who were once “not a people” and “had not received mercy” (1 Peter 2:10) are the people of God who serve as holy priests because of the mercy of God.
The second thing to know about the priesthood of believers is that we are chosen for a purpose: to offer up spiritual sacrifices (cf. Hebrews 13:15–16) and to “declare the praises of him who called [us] out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:10). Thus, both by life (1 Peter 2:5; Titus 2:11–14; Ephesians 2:10) and by word (1 Peter 2:9; 3:15), our purpose is to serve God. As the believer’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19–20), so God has called us to serve Him. We offer our lives as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1–2). One day we will be serving God in eternity (Revelation 22:3–4), but not in any temple, for “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Revelation 21:22). As the Old Testament priesthood was to be free of defilement, so has Christ made us holy positionally before the Father. He calls on us to live holy lives that we might also be a “holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5).
In summary, believers are called “a royal priesthood” as a reflection of their privileged status as heirs to the kingdom of the Almighty God and of the Lamb. In Christ, our High Priest, we have a closeness to God, and no earthly mediator is necessary. As priests in God’s kingdom, we recognize that salvation is not merely “fire insurance” but an opportunity to serve God in offering spiritual sacrifices. The royal priesthood is comprised of people “eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:14). As priests of the living God, we give praise to the One who sacrificed Himself on our behalf, and we share the wonderful news of this grace with others.
