The Bible clearly shows us that the priesthood and the kingship are for God’s building; in Hebrews, we see the heavenly Christ who is both the High Priest and the King (the King of righteousness and the King of peace), as typified by Melchizedek (see Heb. 5:10; 7:1-3, 28; 8:1-2).
As the King, Christ maintains an atmosphere of peace and order for His priesthood, and as a Priest, He ministers the processed Triune God into us as our life and life supply. Christ is the High Priest in three main aspects: He is a High Priest according to Aaron for the putting away of sin, He is the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek for ministering God to us as our supply, and He is the divine High Priest to save us to the uttermost and intercede for us before God.
On the one hand He is the King with the scepter to rule and manage our affairs, and on the other hand He’s the High Priest interceding for us and taking care of our case before God. His main function as the High Priest is to minister the processed and consummated Triune God into us; God’s original from the very beginning was to be man’s life and life supply so that man would live by Him and express Him corporately.
But because sin came in, Christ had to offer Himself as the sacrifice for sin; furthermore, because of the damage of sin and death, He is the divine High Priest to save us to the uttermost.
Christ is the High Priest according to the order of Aaron and He is a divine High Priest so that He may be a High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, that is, for Him to intercede for us as we fight for the brothers and to come to us and minister God to us as our supply for us to live Christ. Hallelujah for the wonderful Christ as the High Priest in Hebrews!
Christ is a Kingly and Divine High Priest to Minister God to us and Save us Fully
The focus of the book of Hebrews is the heavenly Christ, and the main point of the heavenly Christ is that He is both the High Priest and the King (as typified by Melchizedek). Christ is not only the King with power and authority but also the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek (see Heb. 2:17; 4:14; 5:6, 10; 6:20; 8:1; 9:11).
In Psa. 110:1-4 we also see Christ as the Priest and the King, and here He’s also the Victor and the Drinker. The key to enjoying Christ as the High Priest is to consecrate ourselves to the Lord willingly; today it is the day of the Lord’s warfare, and we should offer ourselves to the Lord willingly in the splendor, the adornment, the beauty of our consecration. To the Lord our consecration is a splendor, a beauty, and a holy adornment.
We need to be inwardly young, living, open, empty, new, active, and not preoccupied, and every morning we need to spend time with the Lord to enjoy something of Him and become like the dew to refresh Christ. This is how we respond to Christ’s heavenly ministry, by consecrating ourselves to Him to become the dew to water and refresh Him.
In His heavenly ministry Christ is both the King and the Priest for the building up of the church as the temple of Jehovah, the temple of God (see Heb. 7:1-2; Zech. 6:13, 15; 1 Cor. 3:16-17). We are the temple of God, and we build up the church as the temple of God with gold, silver, and precious stones.
May the Lord save us from destroying, ruining, marring, defiling, or corrupting the temple of God by building with worthless materials like wood (our natural man), grass (the flesh), and stubble (lifelessness). May we be those who exercise their spirit to build up the church as the temple of God with the Triune God as gold (the Father’s divine nature), silver (the Son with His redemptive work), and precious stones (the Spirit with His transforming work).
May we not commit the iniquity of the sanctuary (Num. 18:1) by sinning against Him in our building up the church, but may we intrinsically do everything out from Him, to Him, and through Him (Rom. 11:36).
Our service in the church should come out of Christ as the source, we should do everything through Christ as the means, life, person, and everything, and everything should be for His glory; this is how we serve in the church as priests and kings. Christ as the King has the scepter to rule over the earth and to manage our affairs, and as the High Priest, He’s interceding for us and taking care of our case before God (see Heb. 4:14-16; 7:25-26; 9:24; Acts 5:31; Rom. 8:34; Rev. 1:12-13).
On the one hand Christ as the King arranges situations and things and people in our life to create the right environment for us to grow in life and be one with Him, and on the other hand He is interceding for us before God and ministering to us.
As the Son of Man He has a long robe and is girded about at the breast with a golden girdle; He trims the wicks and adds the golden oil as the Spirit for the churches to shine brightly. Christ’s divinity is His golden energy exercised and motivated by His love to nourish the churches. As the High Priest Christ cherishes us and nourishes us, and we need to be one with Him to nourish and cherish others.
He first makes us happy – we enjoy the salvation of God’s countenance (Psa. 42:5), and then He nourishes us so that we may also cherish and nourish others (we enjoy the salvation of our countenance, Psa. 42:11). When we are filled with the presence of God, His presence with us is the factor of making others feel pleasant, happy, and comfortable, and we can minister Christ to them for their life supply and growth in life.
Lord Jesus, we consecrate ourselves to You today in the day of Your warfare; we want to spend time with You and become the dew to water and refresh You. Lord, gain our response to Your kingly priesthood. O Lord Jesus, save us from trying to build up the church with the wood of our natural man, the grass of the flesh, and the stubble of lifelessness. We want to build with gold (God the Father in His divine nature), silver (God the Son in His redemptive work), and precious stones (God the Spirit in His transforming work)!
Enjoying Christ’s Kingly and Divine Priesthood to Fight God’s Enemies and be Saved to the Uttermost
All believers are priests, and Christ Himself is the High Priest in the heavens – He is the kingly High Priest and the divine High Priest. As the kingly High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, Christ ministers God into us as our supply to fulfill God’s eternal purpose (see Heb. 7:1-2; 8:1-2; Gen. 14:18-20).
Melchizedek didn’t offer sacrifices for sin: he interceded for Abraham and then came to meet him after the defeat of the five kings to give him bread and wine, a sign of the processed and consummated Triune God to be our life supply.
When He was on earth, Christ in His earthly ministry was a High Priest according to the order of Aaron for the putting away of sin; He entered into the Holy Place and offered Himself to God as the unique and all-inclusive offering for sin (see Heb. 2:14, 26).
Then, in His heavenly ministry Christ was designated a High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 5:6, 10); He now no longer offers sacrifices for sin but He ministers to us the very God who was processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection.
As such a kingly High Priest, Christ ministers the processed Triune God to be our supply, signified by the bread and wine (Matt. 26:26-28), for us to be nourished, refreshed, sustained, comforted, and strengthened so that we may be saved to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25).
On our side we need to cooperate with Christ’s intercession by “slaughtering” our wandering mind, our wild emotions, and our stubborn will; when we fight against “the kings” rising up to take us captive, Christ comes as a kingly High Priest to minister God to us as our daily supply and enjoyment.
Christ ministers to us the heavenly life, grace, authority and power, and He sustains us to live a heavenly life on earth. He is the Christ now, the Christ today, the Christ in the heavens on the throne who is at the same time our daily salvation and our moment-by-moment supply.
Christ’s divine priesthood is for saving us to the uttermost in His life unto glorification from all the by-products of death; as the Aaronic High Priest, Christ saved us from sin, but sin brought in many problems, the greatest of which is death and the by-products of death.
Christ’s divine priesthood is the absence of death and the presence of life, and He saves us to the uttermost from all the by-products of death such as vanity, groaning, sighing, decay, bondage, corruption, and slavery.
Today we are much more saved in His life (Rom. 5:10; 8:19, 21, 23, 30) through regeneration (we receive the divine life), sanctification (we have the divine nature), renewing (we receive the divine element), transformation (we receive the divine being), and conformation (we receive the divine image). We are being divinized through God’s salvation in life so that we may become the same as He is in life, element, nature, being, and image, but not in His Godhead!
Lord Jesus, save us much more in Your life unto glorification from all the by-products of death. Lord, save us from vanity, groaning, sighing, decay, bondage, corruption, and slavery. We want to cooperate with You by dealing with our wandering mind, our wild emotions, and our stubborn will; come in and minister to us the processed and consummated Triune God as our life and life supply. Lord, we want to experience Your kingly priesthood to fight against Your enemies and receive more of the Triune God as our supply!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Hebrews, msgs. 32-35 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Priesthood for God’s Building, week 1 / msg 1, The Priesthood and the Kingship for God’s Building.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Oh Lord, Thou art ascended / To God’s right hand to sit; / As Head o’er all things, to Thee / God doth Thy foes commit. / Our King—for us Thou reignest, / Our Priest—we are supplied, / Our all we give unto Thee, / Thou Conqueror glorified. (Hymns #1102)
# Gathered at Thy table, Lord; / Here the bread and wine are spread. / Thou, our High Priest, present here; / We, by Thee, are richly fed. / Thou, Lord, our Melchisedec— / We, the ones You come to feed; / God to us to minister, / Rich supply to us indeed. (Hymns #1111)
# Then rejoice evermore, rejoice evermore, / It is better to sing than be sighing: / It is better to live than be dying; / So let us rejoice evermore. (Hymns #717)
About aGodMan
In His earthly ministry Christ was a High Priest according to the order of Aaron for the putting away of sin (Heb. 9:14, 26). Then, in His heavenly ministry Christ was designated a High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 5:6, 10), not to offer sacrifices for sin but to minister to us the very God who was processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, signified by the bread and the wine (Matt. 26:26-28), as our life supply that we may be saved to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25a). (Gen. 14:18, footnote 3, Holy Bible Recovery Version)
Praise the Lord for this email we need to take Christ as heavenly high priest and king all over the earth. He is a high priest interceding and praying for us as the head of the church, His body. He is a truine God ministering His divine life through his only begotten son jesus that he could dispense himself among his chosen or redeemed people all we need is to enjoyed this truine God. .The father who is the source of divine life and nature which made of gold and Jesus as silver who work all has done and the spirit who transmitteth praise the three who work as one in the church the living organisms His body to be save fully from earthly pleasure cooperating with Christ to be build up and full grown of Christ until His body shining and expressing Christ to bring Lord’s coming back to end this current age. To be built up one another we should not depend our human nature or capability which made of grass a fallen nature it will cause division That’s why our God he is continually praying and supplying our needs that we should abide on Him in serving Him because we are still in our flesh we should renewed day by day by eating and drinking on Him enjoying His word to be saturated His word to our entire being then the father fully glorified. Amen.