The Priesthood Of Believers

Exodus 19:

5  Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;

6  and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel."

Psalm 132:

1  A Song of Ascents. Remember, O LORD, in David's favor, all the hardships he endured,

2  how he swore to the LORD and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob,

3  "I will not enter my house or get into my bed,

4  I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids,

5  until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob."

6  Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of Jaar.

7  "Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool!"

8  Arise, O LORD, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.

9  Let your PRIESTS be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy.

10  For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one.

11  The LORD swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: "One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.

12  If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on your throne."

13  For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place:

14  "This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.

15  I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.

16  Her PRIESTS I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy.

17  There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed.

18  His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine."
(Romans 9:33 and 11:26; Hebrews 12:22;1 Peter 2:6; Rev 14:1)

The error of dispensational ideology is that it divides the word of God into two separate covenants. It creates two ways of salvation, one for jews, and one for gentiles. It makes Father and Son a dysfunctional duo of half measures and in need of our assistance to “complete” the work.
This is not “rightly dividing” (that is correctly dissecting, the proper expounding of) the Word, which Paul exhorts us to do. (2 Timothy 2:15).

 
From the beginning, Christ the obedient Son of God, and His death, satisfying the righteous requirement of both the law and the Creator of that Law, on behalf of the elect, is presented as the only way to salvation. His righteousness imputed to the saints. (Genesis 3:15; John 5:39 and 46-47)

So it is with the priesthood of the righteous. It was foretold by Moses, the prophets and the Psalms. (Luke 24:44)

God set forth a plan and never deviated from it. Even when we see Him allowing certain things to be, it is not Him making a “course correction” due to unforeseen circumstances. It is the Lord in His sovereignty and foreknowledge (foreknowledge which comes from His having already decreed it to be), causing all things to work together for good to those whom He has effectually called, and for His glory.

 1 Peter 2:

4  As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,

5  you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

6  For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."

7  So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,"

8  and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

9  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

10  Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Rev 5:

6  And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

7  And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.

8  And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

9  And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,

10  and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."

The apostles define this priesthood which is under the new (and final/eternal) covenant of His

blood.

(Luke 22:20)

1 Peter 2: 5  you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:

20  built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,

21  in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

22  In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Romans 12:

1  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

2  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (All of Romans12 describes what it means to be a “living sacrifice.)

Romans 15:

15  But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God

16  to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles (the nations) may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

The gospel is the essence of our priestly service, and these are the spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ, of which Peter wrote.

We are His dwelling place, His temple, the body of Christ, and we serve Him as priests in His

dwelling place. (Colossians 1:18-20; Rev 7:13-15; Acts 17:24; John 2:14-22)

That which is called “new” reveals and fulfills the “old”.

That which is called the new, is the fulfillment and consummation, in Christ, of the old.

(Matthew 5:17)

Numbers 23:19  God is not man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change his mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

James 1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Hebrews 13:8  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

There are not two destinies for mankind, one jewish and one gentile. There is only the destiny of

the one new man (the Israel of God), the great high priest, presiding over the priesthood of all

the saints.

Ephesians 2:

11  Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—

12  remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

13  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

14  For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

15  by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,

16  and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

17  And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

18  For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

19  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

20  built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,

21  in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

22  In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.