Our Calling to Be a Kingdom of Priests, What Everybody Ought to Know

In order to truly become a kingdom of priest we must first have a clear picture of what God expects from His representatives. This is why God has given us His Torah. His Torah was originally intended to teach Israel how to stop thinking like slaves and how to start thinking like God Himself.

There are many people today who think that because they call themselves Christian their actions are automatically pleasing to God. Nobody likes to think of themselves as falling short of a certain standard or not measuring up. To avoid this with God we don’t look at the standard He has given us.

We play the “comparison” game.

Here’s how you play: You look at your life. Next you look at another person’s life. Finally, you look at what they do wrong and say, “I don’t do that so that proves that I’m a good person.”

God doesn’t play that game.

God desires that those who want to be part of His people would become “holy as He is holy”

You see, Torah is not just a set of rules or laws. Torah is how God chose to reveal His nature to the world. Growing up in Egypt the Israelites did not know how to please God. They had been slaves all their lives and now God was calling them to something greater. God was calling them to be a special people, set apart and holy unto Him. He wanted to have them be a kingdom of Priests to display His holiness and righteousness to the world.

Here are a few reasons God’s people need His Torah to be a proper kingdom of priests:

1. God wanted to set them apart from the pagan nations. When He removed them from Egypt it was a dramatic picture of what he does for each and every one of us who comes into relationship with Him. We are called to separate ourselves from the world and our old ways.

Romans 12:1-2 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

2. He taught them His law so that they could learn His holy and righteous nature. God does everything for a reason. His giving of Torah was so that the people who represent Him on earth would behave according to His nature and not the nature of the world.

1 Peter 1:14-16 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”

3. He did this so they could emulate His character and show the lost nations how good He is. God’s people have always had the privilege of being His ambassadors here on Earth. This is made most clear when we do not keep His commands or a minister falls into some public sin. Few people care when we are doing good but there is always a huge fallout when one of God’s people does something wrong. Whenever we sin, we cause people to have a wrong understanding of who God is.

Romans 2:22-24 You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For “THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,” just as it is written.

4. This would make Israel (And those of us grafted into Israel) God’s kingdom of priests to the world.

1 Peter 2:9-12 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Our call to holiness is clear and our assignment is set before us: We are to keep God’s commands and live as a devoted kingdom of priests to our God.

As priests we are the representatives of Him here on earth. Let us do that according to His standard and not our own. Let us no longer bring shame to the name of the God we serve through our sin. Let us always live according to His character and His holy nature as He has revealed it in His Torah.

Anything less is a misrepresentation of His nature and His goodness.

Question: As God’s representative here on earth what can you do today to make your life look more like the standard He has given us?