Priests Part 1

Okay, time to talk about priests. We need to answer three questions about priests. The first is, "What makes a person a priest?" The second is, "What does a priest do?" We will deal with the third one later.

What makes a person a priest? Being a priest means we have access to God. In other words, we are allowed to approach Him and know Him. Remember that in the old days, only priests could enter the tabernacle. And only the high priest could enter into the most holy place where God Himself dwelt at the ark of the covenant. A priest is one who has access to God.

Now this is wicked cool- all Christ-followers have access to God! Paul (or whoever wrote it) tells us in Hebrews that we can "approach [God's] throne of grace with confidence." If you need a visual aid for this spiritual reality, imagine approaching the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant and God's shekinah glory filling the room, and speaking "face to face" with Him as Moses did. God has given us this access to Himself, to His grace, to His power!

This COULD lead to a little arrogance. "Humph! I have access to God, I am better than others!" But our attitude should be that of humility and thanksgiving. After all, it was only by the undeserved and unearned grace of the High Priest, Jesus, that we became priests and were given this privilege. And, to top it all off, being a priest is all about serving anyway. But we will deal with that tomorrow!