Kings and Priests

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

KINGS AND PRIESTS

Rev 5:9-10

 9 And they sang a new song:  "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth."

NIV

What is this new song? We can see that David sang a lot of new songs to the Lord, in praise of his wonderful works. We can also see the angels sang songs even during the creation of the earth. But this is a new song, a song that is about the redemption of mankind. The truth here is absolute proof that God is the God of all mankind and that Jesus died on the cross for all the people of the earth. There is no other God and there is no other way to him except through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only one worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals. Once again we see the reason for his being worthy. He was the one slain and with his blood he purchased all of us for God. He purchased people from every tribe and language and people and nation. We could spend many words explaining the detail within the Greek words used but in essence it means people from all over the world, from all of creation, every person who have ever lived, is living and will live has an opportunity to experience salvation. Jesus has purchased them for God. This means that no matter what country, no matter what language people speak, no matter what time in history, present or future, every person will have the opportunity to know Jesus Christ. He is not linier, he is always present. It might seem that some people might think that Jesus came some two thousand years ago to redeem mankind. That is in some sense true, but the fact still remains that he was in the beginning before the foundation of the earth. The fact also remains that God created man with the knowledge of him within them, which would be the knowledge of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We see this explained in Paul’s letter the Romans. We are also told that some people suppress that truth with their wickedness and the conclusion is that no man is without excuse. This completely agrees with what John records he hears in this new song. There will be every possibility for every person in every country, who speak every language to know Jesus Christ as Savior. Jesus did not die just for the Jews, or just for us Americans. He died for all mankind and if that is true, which it is then all mankind has had and will have the opportunity to accept him. Those of us who do are made into a kingdom of priests to serve our God. This is where it gets a little sticky. We cannot be priests if we are serving someone other than God, such as ourselves. Although the original test does not include the phrase to serve God, the word priest denotes just that. We cannot be a priest to ourselves, but we can be to God. We can offer sacrifices to God. The only thing we can sacrifice is our own selves. In doing so we are in fact a priest devoted to God and for him alone. We will reign on the earth. This can carry two meanings but both of them are incredible. First it could refer to the thousand year reign or millennium, but it would seem he has already made us into kings and priests while we are still here. So Secondly, we could say that we will have kingly power over the earth. That is if we are kings, we have the power of life and death over people. In a certain sense we actually do. If we tell them about Jesus and the truth of the gospel we have given them life. But if we keep our mouths shut we may well have given them death. We might think that others will say something, or that is why we send missionaries places. But the fact remains Jesus has called us to go forth into all the world and proclaim the truth. This requires us as kings and priests to go into every aspect of our lives, where we live, where we work and where we play and meet people so we can tell them about Jesus. We have their life and death in the balance. True, they still have the choice to make and ultimately decide their life or death, but we have the responsibility to let them make that choice.  What other reason could it be that we are kings and priests?