The Function of the Priest

In First Peter 2:9, true Christians are called “royal priests.”  But what does that mean to Christians?

Priesthood has its history in the Old Testament when God appointed Aaron, the brother of Moses, to be the High Priest and his sons were his priests (Exodus 28:1-5).  Aaron belonged to the tribe of Levi, the only tribe out of the 12 tribes of Israel who did not have material inheritance but the altar to serve God.

When an Israelite sinned at that time, he could not go direct to God in heaven in prayer to ask forgiveness of his sin.  Rather, he would pass through the Levitical priests who would represent  him.  When the sinner was poor, he would be required to bring a dove.  When moneyed, he would be required to bring a sheep without blemish.  These would serve as animal sacrifices to be slaughtered by the priests, pouring the blood in the altar as the cleansing of sins.  This ritual was repeated yearly.

With the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, however, the animal sacrifice was put to an end.  The Lord Jesus became the Final Sacrifice for the sins of the world.  And blood was needed to accomplish it.

Since Jesus Christ started as the Angel of Jehovah God, He could not qualify as the Last Sacrifice if He remained the Angel  as angels have no blood.  And this is where the mystery is seen.  So God transformed His angelic body into man through the virgin birth.  As man, He could now shed blood.  He did it as His crucifixion, a show of God’s  love to mankind.

After His resurrection and ascension to heaven, on that Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem around  30 A.D., the Lord Jesus becomes the High Priest of Christians (Hebrews 4:14).  At the same time, He becomes the only Mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5), meaning no one can come to God the Father without passing through Him.  And on that Day of Pentecost too, His church was born.  His church is composed of His followers (Christians) which is His Body, and He is the Head of the Body (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 5:23).  Hence, the Lord Jesus becomes the Master of Christians and Christians His servants.  This Master-Servant  relationship has to be guarded against disobedience to Him to avoid divine discipline.

Being the High Priest in the New Testament, therefore, His followers  are automatically His priests, in fact royal ones (1 Peter 2:9)!  As priests, Christians can now go direct in prayer to God in Christ’s name without the mediation of any man.  So other so-called priests now requiring others to come to them in prayer are out of line because the old priesthood has been done away with.  And any other claiming to be the High Priest today is rejecting the Lord Jesus as the only High Priest.  The disobedient will then receive what he deserves when he faces the Lord Jesus on Judgment Day.

The advice is, obey the written Word of God in the New Testament, especially the teachings of the Lord Jesus, and God’s  blessings will be poured in to you.

The One God

The Lord Jesus prays, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that your Son may also glorify you. As you gave to Him authority over all flesh so that to all which you gave to Him, He may give to them everlasting life, even this is everlasting life, that they may know You, the Only True God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:1-3)

From the above passage, we can gather that the Father is “the only true God,” from the original Greek “ton monon alethinon Theon.” The Greek “monos” is one or only in English. And the noun form “aletheia” is truth.

The apostles also confess that there is “one God, the Father and one Lord, Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 8:6). Even in the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi writes, “Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? (Mal. 2:10).” So this puts to rest the Doctrine of Trinity in which there is, aside from God the Father, there is God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The biblical title is “the Son of God” and “the Holy Spirit of God.” The title “God” belongs only to the Father, and “Lord” to the Son.
The Lord Jesus also confesses that the one God has “no voice nor form” (John 5:37). So God created first the Word (or the Son) to be His voice or spokesman (John 1:1) and to be His “image” (Colossians 1:15). As revealed in Proverbs 8:22, God can now speak or appear to mankind through His Son Jesus. God fully indwells the Son in a union, the Son speaking the words of the Father and appears for the Father.

Actually, the Son started as “the Angel of Jehovah” in the Old Testament, to be transformed later as man through the virgin birth. The purpose is for the Son to have blood to cleanse the sins of the world and to end the yearly sacrifice of animal blood in the Old Testament. So remaining as the Angel, the Son could not qualify as the Last Sacrifice because an angel does not have blood.

This Grand Plan of God only shows His love for the world. But inasmuch as God has also given man freewill, He does not force anyone to accept His love. Those who accept His Plan will believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to be saved and be like angels in heaven. But those who do not will travel the path of destruction. So make the right choice NOW!

From Angel to Man

When it was time for the Son to fulfill His mission as the Lamb of God to be slaughtered on the Cross to cleanse with His blood the sin of the world once and for all to those who believe, God transformed His angelic body to that of a man.  This is prophesied in Psalms 40:6, saying “Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me” as quoted in Hebrews 10:5.  So a natural body was formed in the womb of Mary.  Even at this point, the union is still on.  That is the reason for the statement “for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20).  Because of the indwelling Spirit in the body, it was a miraculous conception  on the part of Mary who remained a virgin even after delivering the child until she and Joseph came together and started begetting natural children.

       Another proof that the Son was Angel first is because of His statement “I came down from heaven” (Jn. 3:13).  He was in heaven before He came down to earth.  Also, the transformation is obvious in John 1:14 with the statement “And the Word became flesh.”  It is not God who became man as many believe but the Son of God.

Proofs of the Union

By understanding the doctrine of Theosomatism, many false discernments and interpretations can be avoided.  One example is Exodus, chapter 3.  In verse 3, it says that the Angel of Jehovah appeared to Moses in a burning bush.  But as we get down to verse 6, the Angel says, “I am the God of your Father, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”  How could that be, an angel claiming to be God!  In the Theosomatic Union though, the Angel is not claiming to be God but just speaking the words of God as dictated to Him by the Father, being the Word or Spokesman of the Father.  The same angel earlier appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre, like a man, together with two others (Gen. 18).  Abraham recognized the union that he addressed Him as “Lord.”  Again, in Exodus 20:1, the same Angel appeared to Moses at Mt.Sinai to deliver the Ten Commandments.  This was the testimony of Stephen, the first Christian martyr (Acts 7:38).  But it is written in this Exodus passage that God “spoke.”  Because of the union though, this does not surprise the Theosomatist.  Some proofs of the union are listed below:

1. He who sent me is with me; He has not left me Alone(John 8:29).
2. He who has seen Me has seen the Father (John 14:9).
3. That you may know and understand that  the Father is in Me and I in the Father (Jn.10:38).
4. The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works (Jn.14:10).

       The Theosomatic union cannot be ignored without inflicting damage to right understanding.  It  is understood by Paul when he writes that “God was in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:19).  It was recognized by Apostle Thomas when he exclaims “my Lord and my God! (Jn. 20:28).  He addressed  “Lord” to the Son and “God” to the indwelling Father.