Representing Christ by Anizor Uche; Voss Hank; & Hank Voss

Author:Anizor, Uche; Voss, Hank; & Hank Voss [Anizor, Uche]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780830899746
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2016-04-17T16:00:00+00:00

5

Worship, Work and Witness

The Practices of the Royal Priesthood

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-13 NIV

The most important question in the last chapter was “Who?” Who is the God the priesthood of all believers serves? In this chapter the main question is “How?” How do we as members of the royal priesthood faithfully and fruitfully respond to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? Throughout church history (see examples from Luther in chapter three), seven “priestly practices” have especially been associated with the royal priesthood’s response to God. These seven central practices are (1) baptism, (2) prayer, (3) lectio divina (divine reading), (4) ministry, (5) church discipline, (6) proclamation and (7) the Lord’s Supper. They may not be new, but examining them through the lens of the priesthood of all believers helps us exercise them faithfully in the varied contexts of our multicultural world.

“Begin with the end in mind!” This popular proverb points us to the New Testament’s book of Revelation. There, as we have seen, the people of God are referred to as royal priests multiple times:

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (Rev 1:5-6)

You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. (Rev 5:10)

They will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. (Rev 20:6)1

Revelation’s eschatological vision pictures believers responding to the triune God as members of Christ’s royal priesthood. N. T. Wright correctly claims that the ultimate telos of God’s people is to “be the renewed world’s rulers and priests.”2 Yet this ultimate kingdom vision can be embraced in the here and now. The seven central practices presented in this chapter lead Christ’s royal priesthood more deeply into this apostolic vision of the early church. Before we discuss the seven central practices themselves, however, there are several preliminary issues to address.

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