The Priesthood

By H.H. Pope Shenouda III

The Common Priesthood (1)

Any believer can offer spiritual sacrifices and

spiritual incense without actually being a priest;

this is the common or the spiritual priesthood

Example 1: “May my prayer be set before You

like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be

like the evening sacrifice” Psalm 141:2

The Common Priesthood (2)

Example 2: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of

God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices,

holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of

worship” Rom. 12:1

Example 3: “…let us continually offer to God a sacrifice

of praise – the fruit of lips that confess His name” Heb.

13:15

The Common Priesthood (3)

Offering these kinds of sacrifice is what is intended in the

universal priesthood of all believers. But this does not, in

any way, prevent there being a priesthood specially for

the offering of the holy sacraments, for which God has

singled out certain individuals to serve in this way.

“No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called

by God, just as Aaron was” Heb. 5:4

Attempts long ago that failed (1)

The first rebellion against the specific priesthood was undertaken by

Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Numbers 16) “You have gone too far! The

whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them.

Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly” Numbers

16:3

The Lord said to Aaron “… only you and your sons may serve as

priests in connection with every thing at the altar and inside the curtain.

I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift. Any one else

who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death” Numbers 18:7

Attempts long ago that failed (2)

The second attempt when king Saul dared to raise the burnt

offering, as it tells in the first Book of Samuel (.1Sam.13:9). The

result was that the Lord rejected him, and the Spirit of the Lord

departed from him and an evil spirit from the Lord descended upon

him.

The third incidence when king Uzziah also dared to hold the censer

to raise the incense, according to 2 Chronicles 26: 19 – 21, and as a

result, the Lord struck him with Leprosy

Some people might object and say, that all these

things happened in the Old Testament and that the

situation was different in the New Testament since

the priesthood of the Old Testament was abolished

and God no longer put a mediator between himself

and man!

GOD DOES NOT CHANGE

“All Scripture is God – breathed and useful for teaching” 2 Tim. 3:16

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down

from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of

turning” James 1:17

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the Prophets; I have

not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” Matth. 5:17

Is this mean that we are required to observe the Old Testament from the

point of view of its rules about the observance of the Sabbath,

circumcision, festivals, blood sacrifices, impurity and purification?

The Observance of the Sabbath This commandment still stands, in essence, in so far as you should keep it as the holy

day of the week for the Lord

Since the Sabbath represents rest, the Lord’s only rest came when He freed man

from the judgment of sin, and from the effects of sin and its consequence; that is

death

The Lord’s rest day was Sunday, and so Sunday became the new Sabbath with the

spiritual meaning of the Sabbath

So resting on the Sabbath as a commandment of God’s law is still effective and

setting aside a day especially for the Lord is still expected of us, as far as the essence

and spirit of the commandment and what the Lord intended it to be i.e. rest

The Commandment of Circumcision

This cutting off or death of a small part of the body, symbolizes the

death of the whole body in baptism for, “We were therefore buried

with Him through baptism …” Rom. 6:4

So the process of death to the physical body, which is what is meant

by circumcision, is still in force as a commandment, but it is to be

taken in a spiritual sense rather than in a literal, and hence physical

sense

The Lord Jesus did not abolish the law, but rather interpreted it in a

spiritual terms

The Festivals (1)

The festivals of the Old Testament also remains, but as symbols of

their original situation.

The Passover took on its full meaning in our Lord Jesus Christ, “For

Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” 1 Cor. 5:7

The festival of the Unleavened Bread, which follows directly after the

Passover, we still celebrate , but in its spiritual meaning “Therefore let

us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and

wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and

truth” 1 Cor. 5:8

The Festivals (2)

The Feast of Weeks, which was held fifty days after the

offering of the harvest, (Lev.23), we still celebrate, but in

the form of Pentcost, on the fiftieth day after the

Resurrection.

Thus the commandment to observe the festivals still

remains, and has not been cancelled

The Sacrifices

The blood sacrifices symbolized the sacrifice of the Lord

Jesus Christ. The principle of the sacrifices was not

abolished in the New Testament, but in fact still stands,

though we have now taken it in the spiritual sense instead of

the literal one.

Thus the altar continues to remain in Christianity, though not

for blood sacrifices, but “For Christ, our Passover Lamb who

has been sacrificed for us” 1 Cor. 5:7