We’re God’s Spiritual House and the Holy Priesthood Offering up Spiritual Sacrifices

As believers in Christ, we are a holy priesthood, the coordinated body of priests, to be the built-up spiritual house, and our corporate priestly service is to tell out as the gospel the virtues of the One who has called us so that we may offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!

Praise the Lord for what the Lord is doing in us and among us in the church life today!

On the personal side, we have received the Lord Jesus through regeneration, and we have been regenerated of God with the incorruptible seed.

Now we grow in life by eating the Lord and drinking the guileless milk of the Word.

We cooperate with the Lord to deal with any problems and obstacles, and we allow Him to shine on us and within us to expose anything that hinders His life from growing in us.

We come to the Lord in His word day by day to not only read the Bible to know the Lord and His plan but even more, to drink for the guileless milk of God’s word.

As believers in Christ, our food is the word of God and the will of God. We are learning to contact Him in His word and drink the milk.

We need the guileless milk of the word. In ourselves, we are full of guile, malice, and all kinds of evil speakings and things like that.

Therefore, on the negative side, we put away all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envyings and all evil speakings.

We put away all these things, and we uproot anything of the malice and guile.

On the positive side, we come to the Lord in His word to drink the guileless milk of the word.

In the word of God, there’s the milk, the guileless milk, for us to drink and be nourished.

As we drink the Lord in His word as the guileless milk, we grow in life unto salvation, for we taste and see that the Lord is good.

Amen, the Lord is good for food, and we are learning to daily eat Him in His word!

We can testify that God is good for food, for in His word there’s the guileless milk of the word causing us to grow unto salvation!

As we grow unto salvation, we are being transformed, for we come to the Lord as a living stone and we also become living stones for the building up of His dwelling place.

What we have here is first regeneration, then drinking the milk of the word, growing unto salvation, being transformed, and being built up as a spiritual house.

The result of all this, the issue and outcome of our personal eating and drinking the Lord to grow unto salvation and be transformed, is that we are the holy priesthood as God’s built-up spiritual house. Amen!

We are a Chosen Race, a Royal and Holy Priesthood, a Holy Nation, a People Acquired for a Possession

1 Peter 2:1-9 is an amazing portion of the Word revealing how we put away the negative things and drink the milk of the Word, grow unto salvation, taste the Lord, are transformed and built up as living stones, and we become a spiritual house, even a holy priesthood.

If we believers in Christ are faithful and diligent to day by day deal with anything negative by putting it away, and come to the Lord in His word to drink the guileless milk of the word, there’s a metabolic process taking place in our being.

We are being transformed from clay or dust into living stones, and as living stones, we are built up as a spiritual house. Praise the Lord!

1 Pet. 2:9 tells us that we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired for a possession, so that we may tell out the virtues of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Hallelujah!

We may read such a verse and be amazed at all these matters, but we may not fully understand what they mean and how do they apply to us.

It is important for us to know what we are, according to God.

Peter doesn’t mention the word church in his Epistles but verses 5 and 9 in 1 Pet. 2 clearly refer to the church.

We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people acquired for a possession.

The words race, priesthood, nation, and people are all collective nouns; they refer not to the individual believers to the church, the body of believers corporately.

We are a chosen race; God chose us from among all men to be His race, a chosen race.

This refers to our lineage from God; we are not from Adam; we were born in Adam, but we changed lineages – we are now from the lineage of God!

We are a priesthood, a body of priests, in order for us to serve God, minister to God, bring God to man and man to God.

We are not just a priesthood but a royal priesthood, for we are both priests and kings to God.

This refers to our service to God; we no longer serve sin as slaves but we serve God, and we rule and reign with Him, even as we serve Him.

We are a holy nation; as a nation, we are holy, sanctified to God, separated unto Him and in the process of being saturated with Him.

This refers to us being a community for God; we no longer belong to the old man community, we do not belong to this world, but we belong to God and we are His folks now, for we’re a holy nation. Praise the Lord!

We are a people acquired for a possession; we are precious to God, He treasures us, and He paid the highest price to acquire us.

We are God’s treasure, His particular and peculiar possession. As a chosen race, we have our source in God.

As a royal priesthood, we are kingly priests, just as Christ is the King and the High Priest, typified by Melchizedek (Heb. 7:1-2, 26; Gen. 14:18).

As a holy nation and a people acquired for a possession, we are sanctified in our very nature to become God’s treasure, His peculiar possession.

Titus 2:14 we see that we’re a particular people as His unique possession; this expression is also found in Deut. 7:6, 14:2, and 26:18.

We are a people who is privately possessed by God as His unique, peculiar treasure (Exo. 19:5) to be His own possession. Praise the Lord!

First, we’re a chosen race, for we were chosen by God; then, we are a royal priesthood, and then a holy nation, and finally, a people acquired for a possession.

God treasures us very much, for in the process of His organic salvation He is working Himself with His life and nature into us to make us the same as Christ in every way, so He loves us because we become just like Him! Praise the Lord!

Thank You, Lord, for calling us out of all the peoples, tribes, and nations, to be a chosen race to You! Hallelujah, we belong to the race of God, and our lineage is from God! Thank You, Lord, for making us a royal priesthood, a body of priests who serve God and man! Hallelujah, we are priests and kings to God, both serving God and ruling for God! Thank You, Lord, for making us a holy nation, a nation that is separated unto God and saturated with God’s element! Hallelujah, we are a community for God, for we are God’s holy people! Thank You, Lord, for making us a people acquired for a possession to be a possession particularly acquired by God and owned by Him as His treasure! Hallelujah, we are precious to God, for He is in us and He is being lived out of us, and He treasures us very much! We love You, Lord! We praise You for making such people! We want to tell out the virtues of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light!

Our Priestly Service is to Tell out God’s Virtues to Offer up Spiritual Sacrifices Acceptable to God through Jesus Christ

When we realize what we are and who we are in God’s eyes, we will be filled with appreciation toward God and at the same time we will realize what is our function.

We are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired for a possession” (1 Pet. 2:9)—chosen race denotes our descent from God; a royal priesthood, our service to God; holy nation, our being a community for God; and people acquired for a possession, our preciousness to God. Wow!

Now as a holy nation, a royal priesthood, we have a corporate priestly service.

We are a spiritual house for God to be a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (v. 5).

What is our priestly service? Our corporate priestly service is to tell out as the gospel the virtues of the One who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (v. 9) so that we may offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (v. 5). Wow!

On the spiritual side, we grow in life and are built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood.

On the side of service, we are a holy priesthood, even a royal priesthood, serving God.

We are a coordinated body of priests who are being built up into God’s spiritual house.

This is what the church is.

Our priestly service is corporate, for together we tell out the virtues of the One who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light so that we may offer up spiritual sacrifices to God, acceptable to Him, through Jesus Christ.

This implies that we are being built up; our service is not individual but corporate.

It’s not the spiritual life lived in an individualistic way but the spiritual life lived in a corporate way that can fulfil God’s purpose and satisfy His desire.

On the one hand, we need to personally contact the Lord and drink the guileless milk for the word so that we may grow unto salvation and be transformed.

On the other hand, however, we are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

God desires to gain such a spiritual house, the church, as His dwelling place; He gains this house with us and in us.

First, we are born anew (1 Pet. 1:2), then we grow in life by being nourished with Christ as the guileless milk of the word (2:1-4), and then we’re being built up with our fellow believers into the spiritual house of God (v. 5). Hallelujah!

We are a spiritual house for God and a holy priesthood; the spiritual house is for God’s dwelling, and the holy priesthood is for God’s service.

On the one hand, we are a corporate dwelling place for God to dwell in; on the other hand, we are a holy priesthood, even a royal priesthood, to serve God.

And we serve God not in an individualistic way but corporately, as a priesthood.

What are the spiritual sacrifices that we offer to God, sacrifices that are acceptable to Him?

According to the New Testament economy of God, the spiritual sacrifices we offer to God are first Christ, then the sinners who are saved, and finally our body and praises and things we do for God.

First, we offer up Christ as the reality of all the sacrifices of the Old Testament types, as typified by the offerings (the burnt offering, meal offering, peace offering, sin offering, and trespass offering – see Lev. 1-5).

Second, we offer to God as spiritual sacrifices through Christ the sinners saved by our gospel preaching; we offer them as members of Christ (Rom. 15:16).

Third, the sacrifices we offer to God are our body, our praises, and the things that we do for God (Heb. 13:15-16; Phil. 4:18). Amen!

Daily we experience Christ and enjoy Him as the reality of all the offerings, and we offer Him to God as our spiritual sacrifices for His satisfaction.

As we preach the gospel to those around us and they are saved, we offer them to God as spiritual sacrifices through Jesus Christ for them to be members of Christ as His Body.

When we praise the Lord and offer our bodies as a living sacrifice for the meetings of the church, we offer the sacrifices through Jesus Christ for God to be satisfied.

What a wonderful corporate priestly service we have!

Hallelujah, we believers in Christ are a holy priesthood, a coordinated body of Christ, to be God’s spiritual house! Amen, Lord, grow in us today unto salvation and transform us into living stones to be built up together as a spiritual house for You to dwell in and into a holy priesthood to serve You. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit today to take You as the reality of all the offerings. We lay our hands on You and we take You as the reality of the burnt offering, meal offering, peace offering, sin offering, and trespass offering. We offer You to God as spiritual sacrifices acceptable to Him. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to tell out as the gospel the virtues of the One who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light! We offer the repentant sinners as members of the Body of Christ to be spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ! Oh Lord, we offer our body, our praises, and the things we do for God as spiritual sacrifices through Jesus Christ! Hallelujah, we’re a holy priesthood and a spiritual house to God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ray Mulligan in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 Peter, msgs. 17-18, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living a Christian Life and Church Life under the Government of God for the Economy of God (2024 Thanksgiving Blending Conference), week 3, Life and Building in Peter’s Epistles.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The holy priesthood, a portion from, Lesson Book, Level 5: The Church—The Vision and Building Up of the Church, Chapter 19, by Witness Lee.
  – 1 Peter (Program #14) -Growth in Life and Its Results (4), via, Bible study radio.
  – Life-study of Ephesians, Message 7: The Mystery of God’s Will, message via, LSM youtube.
  – God’s Far-reaching Mercy, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – The spiritual house, the priesthood, a portion from, Christ as the Reality, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee.
  – The Kind of Person the Lord Can Use to Turn the Age, via, Shepherding Words.
  – The royal priesthood, a portion from, Lesson Book, Level 5: The Church—The Vision and Building Up of the Church, Chapter 19, by Witness Lee.
  – 20 Quote from the priesthood by Witness Lee, article via, Conversant Faith.
  – What is the Priestly Service? More via, The Hearing of Faith.
  – Our Priesthood, Now & New Jerusalem (4), via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The Way to Fulfill the Priestly Duty in the New Testament, via, Living to Him.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – What a blessing, what a priv’lege! / Called of God a royal priest, / That this glorious, holy office / I should bear, though last and least. / All the building of the Body / On the priesthood doth depend; / Ever praying in the spirit / I this office would attend. (Hymns #848 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – All the saints must serve as priests, / That the living stones they be; / Each must priestly work perform, / Then their functions we will see. / Tent and priests of olden times / Always did together go; / When the priests served in the tent, / Into one the two did flow. (Hymns #849 stanzas 2-3)
  – Unto the Lord His praise I’ll sing / As holy priests their songs did raise; / O may my heart be filled with Him / His love and grace to praise. / I’ll offer Christ to God in prayer, / I’ll read the Word, His light to know, / For all His grace I’ll sing His praise, / The Spirit then may flow. (Hymns #791 stanzas 5-6)