Spiritual Growth Lessons · Lesson 002
The Royal Priest
What Christ Has Made You — and What to Do With It
Part 1 of 2 · Royal Commissions Series
Every Church Age believer is a priest. Not by ordination, not by training, not by moral achievement — by union with Jesus Christ at the moment of salvation. That position is permanent, it is royal, and it carries responsibilities and a destiny that most believers never fully grasp. This lesson establishes what that means from the ground up.
Two Questions That Drive This Lesson
What has Christ made you?
What are you to do with it?
Before we can understand what the believer is as a priest, we have to understand the order of priesthood Christ holds. He is not a Levitical priest. He belongs to an older, higher, and eternal order — the order of Melchizedek. Everything the believer receives in the priesthood flows from union with Him.
Hebrews 5:5–6
"So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you'; as he says also in another place, 'You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.'"
Christ did not appoint himself. The Father appointed him. The priesthood is by divine appointment — and it is forever. Not for a lifetime, not for a dispensation. Forever. That word will matter when we reach Phase VI.
Hebrews 6:17–20
"So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath… We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."
The anchor of the soul is not a feeling. It is a person — the High Priest who has already entered behind the curtain. He is there now. And He is there forever. His priesthood is the ground of our certainty.
Hebrews 7:1–3
"For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God… He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever."
The Levitical priesthood was hereditary — you had to be born into the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron. Melchizedek's order is different. No genealogy. No beginning. No end. It is a priesthood that cannot be terminated by death or disqualified by bloodline. Christ holds this priesthood in its fullness.
Hebrews 7:24–25
"But he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them."
He always lives to make intercession. Right now, at the right hand of the Father, Jesus Christ is your High Priest. His intercession for you never stops. That is the order you have been brought into.
Union with Christ is the basis of everything the believer receives
Because every Church Age believer is in union with Christ, every believer shares His priesthood. This is not a position earned by spiritual achievement. It is conferred at the moment of regeneration — the new birth — to every believer without exception.
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."
Peter is writing to believers scattered across the Roman world — not to clergy, not to a special class. Every believer is a living stone. Every believer is part of a holy priesthood. The priesthood is not institutional. It is organic, built from regenerated individuals in union with Christ.
1 Peter 2:9
"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."
Royal priesthood. Not simply a priesthood — a royal one. The royalty comes from union with the King of kings. Peter reaches back into Exodus 19:6, the language God used for Israel at Sinai, and applies it with full force to the Church Age believer. What Israel was called to be nationally, the believer is individually and actually.
Revelation 1:6
"…and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."
John's doxology confirms what Peter declared. Christ has made us — past tense, accomplished fact — a kingdom of priests. This is not a future aspiration. It is a present reality established at the cross and resurrection.
Hebrews 7:26–28
"For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens… For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever."
The contrast is total. The Levitical priests were weak men offering repeated sacrifices. Our High Priest is the sinless Son of God, perfected forever. Our priesthood rests on His — and His cannot fail.
The priesthood is universal among believers — but not all priests function equally
The royal priesthood is not hereditary. It is not based on gender, age, ethnicity, or spiritual maturity. It is based on one thing: regeneration. Every believer — mature or immature, growing or stalled — is a fully ordained priest before God from the moment of salvation. The position is permanent. What varies is how effectively it is exercised.
Revelation 5:9–10
"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, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.'"
The new song of heaven is sung over the ransomed. From every tribe, language, people, and nation — the priesthood is as universal as the atonement. And it already carries the seed of what it will become: they shall reign on the earth. The priesthood is the foundation of the reign.
Romans 5:2
"Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
Access. Standing. Hope. These are priestly realities. The believer does not petition for access — he has it. He does not hope for standing — he is in it. Paul's language here is the language of the priest who has already been brought inside the sanctuary.
Position established — now what does the priest do with it?
Under the Levitical system, only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies — and only once a year, with blood, under strict ritual conditions. One wrong move and he died. The veil separated the people from the presence of God. At the cross, that veil was torn from top to bottom. The Church Age believer approaches the throne of God directly, boldly, and at any time. That is what the priesthood provides.
Hebrews 4:14–16
"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
The command is to draw near — with confidence. Not timidity. Not ritual preparation. Not clerical mediation. The High Priest who has passed through the heavens is not distant or indifferent. He has been where you are. He knows what weakness feels like from the inside. Draw near.
Hebrews 10:19–22
"Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh… let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith…"
The curtain has been opened. The way is new — not the annual ritual of Yom Kippur — and it is living, because Christ lives. Full assurance of faith is the posture of the believer-priest approaching God. Not uncertainty. Not unworthiness that paralyzes. Full assurance — because the access rests on His blood, not on our performance.
Access is the right of the priest — the offerings are his responsibility
The Levitical priest brought animal sacrifices. Those sacrifices pointed forward to Christ and were fulfilled at the cross. The Church Age believer-priest brings a different kind of offering — spiritual sacrifices that flow from a life oriented toward God. These are not rituals. They are the genuine expressions of a soul that knows who it is before God.
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."
Paul's appeal is priestly language applied to the body. The believer is both priest and sacrifice. The offering is the whole life — presented to God, not consumed by fire, but alive and set apart. This is the priestly function of the Church Age: not a physical altar but a living one. Note that Paul grounds this in the mercies of God — the offering flows from what God has already done, not from what the believer is trying to earn.
Hebrews 13:15–16
"Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God."
Two offerings named: the sacrifice of praise — the fruit of lips that confess His name — and the sacrifice of doing good and sharing. The first is directed toward God. The second is directed toward man. The priesthood produces both. And both are offered through Him — through the High Priest who makes our offerings acceptable.
What the priesthood produces in the inner life — and where it is going
The priesthood does not end at death. It does not terminate at the Rapture or the Bema. It is the permanent relational identity of the Church Age believer before God — and it carries into the Kingdom and beyond. How the believer-priest grows in his invisible life before God now determines the role he will hold in the Kingdom then. The faithful priest becomes the trusted aide of the King.
Revelation 1:6
"…and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever."
Forever and ever. The priesthood is not a temporary Church Age arrangement. It is an eternal standing. What began at regeneration will not be revoked in glory.
Revelation 5:10
"…and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."
The redeemed will reign on the earth. The priesthood is the foundation of the reign. You cannot separate the two. The one who has grown in his priestly life before God — who has learned to draw near, to offer spiritual sacrifices, to live the invisible life of worship and doctrine — is the one being prepared for governing responsibility in the Kingdom.
Revelation 20:6
"Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years."
Priests of God and of Christ — reigning with Him for a thousand years. This is the millennial Kingdom. The priesthood established at regeneration is functioning at full capacity in the reign of Christ on earth. Who reigns with Him? Those who were faithful here. Trusted and knowing aides. The invisible life before God in this age is the training ground for the visible reign in the age to come.
2 Timothy 2:12
"…if we endure, we will also reign with him…"
Paul connects endurance here to the reign. The priest who grows through the challenges of this life — who maintains his walk before God, who keeps drawing near, who keeps offering the sacrifices of praise and doctrine — is the one who will reign. How we grow here is how we stand in eternity.
Looking Ahead — Lesson 003
The priesthood is the invisible side of the Christian life — your personal relationship with God, directed toward Him, producing the inner character that makes everything else possible.
But there is a second commission. Every believer is also a royal ambassador — directed not toward God but toward man, carrying the policies of the King into a world that does not yet know Him.
The outward life depends entirely on the inward one. The ambassador depends on the priest.