Romans Chapter 15 cont'd
But in light of the special calling God has placed upon me, I have had the boldness to write to you this rather heavy letter. He has called me to be a servant of Jesus Christ by serving his good news. I'm like a priest offering up an acceptable sacrifice that has been consecrated by the Holy Spirit. But it's not animals that I offer, but rather, the whole Gentile world!
Comments:
Priesthood is a concept to which the evangelical wing of the Church does not generally have an emotional connection. In this, we have lost a major living truth that is all throughout the writings of the apostles of Christ. The main point of the Book of Hebrews is that we have, in Jesus, such a high priest who is interceding for us in the Father's presence in the highest heavens. (cf. Heb 8:1f.) Believers are qualified, through the regeneration of the Spirit, to function as a part of a many-membered royal priesthood in this world. I believe that the consciousness of our priesthood is a primary identity issue for us that is meant to inform and animate all of our worship and work.
In the garden, Adam and Eve were not just stewards over the earth that God gave them to share in with him, but they were "sacred stewards"...priests of the original creation...and the garden in Eden was the "holy of holies" within the cosmos. There is "temple language" surrounding their callings and duties to God and creation in the Genesis account. This sacred stewardship was restored to humanity through the life and ministry of Jesus to those who would identify with him through simple faith. Only now, it is taken to unprecedented heights in God's economy because we are royal priests of both creation and the new creation that was inaugurated by the resurrection and ascension of Jesus to the Father's right hand.
In this passage, Paul views himself as a priest who, through the agency of embodying and spreading the great news of Jesus, is envisaging the gathering up of the whole gentile world in his apostolic arms and offering their "redeemed by Christ through grace and faith" lives to the Father as a sweet smelling sacrifice...they are the reward of the sufferings of Jesus his Son. The Father promised to give the nations to Jesus the firstborn (of both "creation" and "from the dead"...see Col 1:15,18) as his inheritance in Psalm 2.
We also are called to view our entire lives and labors in this world as a sacred offering to the glorious Trinity...in our occupation of handling the created order and in our preoccupation of sharing the news of Christ with our fellow human beings whom he so dearly loves and died to save. The duty of royal priests can be summarized by saying: we gratefully receive what God has put into our charge, we add our love, labor and human creativity to those divine gifts, we offer back to God what we have cultivated for his honor and then we trust him to sanctify and crown...with salvific grace and power...what he, in response, gives back again into our hearts and hands for the good of all creation and its creatures. As one wise Orthodox priest noted, "In the Lord's supper, we don't offer to God wheat and grapes, but bread and wine." It is these elements that he graces with new life and healing power.
No comments:
Post a Comment