A Better Covenant

When many theologians and Christians want to defend the role of Elders/Pastors many of them run back to the Old Covenant (A Covenant that is abolished by the way and obsolete, and was a ministry of death) and point to the priests as an example (especially some of my Covenental brothers). I want to reiterate we need to borrow nothing from the Old Covenant in relation to ecclesiology because the Church had not been born! There is no Church in the Old Covenant! She does not begin until the Holy Spirit moves His ministry of coming upon people to living within them!

I think most of what is ignored however is the fact that the Levites became the priests because all of Israel failed to! Okay let me highlight this. Remember Moses is on Mount Sinai. He is going up to be a representative for the nation (lets not forget that all of Israel should have been up there, but Israel was afraid and told Moses “you go for us”) and to receive the Covenant! As Moses is up there God says:

5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

This is what is realized in the New Covenant as Peter not only quotes this but says “you are this nation and you are these priests”! Why didn’t all of Israel receive this promise? It was conditional! That is why! The promise starts with an “if”. As God turns to talk to them in Exodus 20 they say “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Later Moses comes down and the glory of the Lord and the fear of the nation made Moses veil his face (but we have unveiled faces 2 Corinthians 3). Don’t forget the Levites became servants due to their faithfulness in Exodus 32:27 and Israel’s unfaithfulness with the making of a Golden Calf (the beginning of continual unfaithfulness)

I bring you to a quote from Ketcherside:

Nothing is clearer that the fact that God’s purpose was to make ministry and priesthood co-extensive in “the time of reformation”. Every person who accepted the good tidings was to be a priest, every such person was to be a minister. Every priest was such because he ministered; every person was to minister because he was a priest. In priesthood and ministry all were to be equal rank insofar as liberty, privilege and relationship to God are concerned.  God’s people were no longer to be a kingdom with priests, but a kingdom with priests; they were not to be a congregation with ministers, but a congregation of ministers. Priesthood was to be universal in the kingdom of heaven, ministry was to be mutual and reciprocal. This was to be the grand climax of the ages, the golden era of God’s dealings with mankind. God promised Israel that if they would obey his voice and keep his covenant they would be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation unto him. But they did not obey his voice nor keep his covenant. They never realized the fruition of the magnificent promise because they failed to meet the conditions.

Alan Knox has a beautiful post on this over at his blog The Assembling of the Church. The problem lies here folks. Listen in the Old Covenant God used a few select to minster to Him under the New Covenant He commands/requires that all who are under it to minister to Him and to one another! You see my man many would agree with the post I linked to above and the Reformers such as Calvin and Luther. This is where I take a “Step Past Reformed”. The Reformers failed to take steps toward a proper ecclesiology and because they are well respected (which they should be) where they stop we stop. However as Alan says:

I think that my differences with Alston concerning the priesthood of the believer is primarily found in this sentence: “The church may not be dependent upon the ordained clergy for its existence, but for its well-being it needs the few who are called and set apart by the laying on of hands to the particular vocation of preaching, administering the sacraments, teaching, and pastoral care.” As I study Scripture, I cannot find where only a few are given the responsibility of preaching (proclaiming the good news), administering the sacraments (baptizing and breaking bread – the Lord’s Supper), or pastoral care (caring for one another). Instead, I see where all believers are given these responsibilities.

I nod with eager concurrence! Let allow the scriptures to be what we base our ecclesiology off of. Not man’s writings, no matter how much they contributed to the modern Church. The greatest gift God’s give us as a Church is the Spirit, this Spirit empowers all to be the priests God has ordained us to be. To rob individual Christians of this privilege to be priests and when I say priests I mean full functioning priests, not just in small groups and Sunday schools but whenever the Church of God gathers, is to rob the bride of what her Husband has given her as a gift (It is He who descended and ascended and gives gifts unto man Ephesians 4). Lets take a step past the reformation and reform our ecclesiology!