The Romance of Romans-Part 117

[Michael]

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.