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f v A 0 6 £ k l S W ^ //iVvM» The P riestly Service of the Evange lis t C( a v \ f^THE i MAIN theme in the Epistle to the Hebrews is the Priesthood of Christ in His Heavenly Temple. In the Apocalypse John describes Christians as “priests unto his God and Father.” The Apostle ;Peter addresses them as a “holy and a royal priesthood.” Paul, however, does not use either term, whether of Christ or of the Christian. From these facts it has been deduced that to the Christian, the believer of this present calling, Christ does not sustain the office of Priest, neither has He made us priests; and that the whole idea of priesthood, and of the discharge of priestly func tion, is inconsistent with that calling. And further, that all such passages as those,alluded to, are appropriate only to believers from among Jews in some future day. It may be noticed, however, that whereas Peter superscribes his letter to “sojourners o f the dispersion,” yet in the letter itself he uses language appropriate only when Gentile believers are addressed. This is quite plainly indicated in 2:10, for example, “which in time past were no people, but now are the people o f God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy,” words which Paul also cites from Hosea’s prophecy, and understands of the Gentiles (Rom. 9 :25, 26 ). Further evidence will be found in 1:18 and 4:3 (R . V .). I f the Apostle to the Gentiles does not speak cate gorically of Christ as Priest and of Christians as priests, he does, nevertheless, ascribe to both the exercise of priestly functions. I f in Hebrews ( 7 :27) we read that Christ offered up Himself once for all in the behalf of His people, so also do we read in Ephesians (5 :2) that “Christ . . . . gave himself up fo r us, an offering and a sacrifice to God fo r an odor o f a sweet smell.” And if in Hebrews (7 :25 ) it is written that, since He has been raised from among the dead, He ever liveth to make inter cession for us, it is also written in Romans (8 :3 4 ), “Christ Jesus . . . was raised from the dead, who is at. the right hand o f G°d, who also maketh intercession fo r us.” In like manner Paul calls Christians to intercession (as in 1 Tim. 2 :1 ), and they, too, may offer to God odors of a sweet smell, sacrifices acceptable, well-pleasing unto God (Phil. 4 :1 8 ), and these are certainly priestly func tions. Latreia, which is used of the service of the Temple in Heb. 9:1 and 6 (it is translated “divine service” in the former verse) is the service to which Paul exhorts us in Rom. 12:1, though he has. already used it of the worship of Israel in 9 :9. This is the word he uses of himself when he says , “God . . . whom I serve” (Acts 2 7 :23) and of Christians who “worship by the Spirit o f God” (Phil. P aul A P attern in P riestly S ervice In addition to these more general references to the functions of priesthood, there are two other passages in the Epistle to the Romans in which Paul speaks of him self as discharging such functions in his Gospel ministry, and that in such a way that in this respect also we may make him our pattern. The first of these is to be found in chapter 1, verse 9, “God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel o f his Son.” To the Apostle, then, the preaching of the Gospel was not merely an attempt to instruct men in the way of life and to present to them a Saviour. Consciousness of God was more immediate than consciousness of men. Whether he secured the interest of his hearers or no, he was assured that One heard his testi mony with delight (Isa. 42 :1 ). However slow the priests of Israel may have been to apprehend the meaning, even dimly, of the sacrifices they offered, this was the value they had for God, that they spoke of Christ. So with the Gospel ; not only may the casual hearer have little or no appreciation of the words to which he listens; the preacher himself may have but a poor and feeble conception of the significance of the words he speaks, of the Saviour to whom he points, for “no one knoweth the Son, save the Father,” and He alone can value at its true worth His own “gospel '. . . concerning his Son” (Matt. 11:27; Rom. 1 :1, 3 ). The knowledge that while he is serving men with his tongue he is a priest in his spirit before God, lifts the preacher’s soul into an atmosphere made holy and serene by the sense of the presence of God. Let them hear or forbear to hear, has he not the ear and the heart of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom he speaks? Nor will his advo cacy of the Gospel be the less sincere, the less earnest, the less full and intelligent, but the more, because he realizes that, while he is preaching to men with his heart, his mind and his lips, he is rendering priestly service to God in the sanctuary of his spirit. The sense of his priestly relation to God, and of the priestly function he is discharging, will lift him above the pettiness and folly that often mar the preacher’s testimony. It will, indeed, vest him with the sacred dignity that becomes those who, while they stand before man in the flesh, know themselves to be standing before God in the spirit. In the biographical section, toward the close of the Epistle, Paul wrote these words: “ . . . the grace that was given me o f God, that I should be a minister o f Christ Jesus unto the Gentiles, ministering the gospel o f God, that the offering up o f the Gentiles might be made accep table, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (15:15, 16). Once more the language in which he describes his ministry is that of the service of the sanctuary, for while the word he uses here and in 11 :3 ( leitourgos ) has the general meaning of public service, and is wide enough to cover the civil magistrate ( 1 3 :4), it is also used of the priesthood of Israel, as, for example, of Zechariah in Luke 1 :23, and of “every priest” in Heb. 10:11, and Christ Himself is de clared to be “a minister o f the sanctuary and o f the true tabernacle ” (Heb. 8 :2 ). But the sphere of Paul’s priestly service was neither tabernacle nor temple; he “ministered in sacrifice [hierourgeo] the gospel o f God.” Neither does he pretend to offer “the body and blood of the Lord,” for that sacrifice is never mentioned in the New Testa ment save in the past tense, and as having been offered “once fo r all” (1 Cor. 5 :7 ; Heb. 10:10, 12). His offering is of living men! He realizes that while he proclaims the Gospel he is not merely bringing God to men, he is also bringing men to God. The preaching of the Gospel is thus a sacred rife, and the preacher a ministering priest.* *The thought may well have been suggested to the Apostle by the similar language o f Isaiah (6 6 :2 0 ): "They shall bring all your brethren out o f all the nations fo r an offering unto Je h o vah.” Psalm 110:3 may be compared.
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