Now, in the most important sense both the priesthood and the sacrifices
were typical of Christ. In the mediatorial work of redemption, he was
both the priest and the victim. He offered Himself. And no one will
deny that He was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners.
The holy priest, under the law typified the holy priest, who is a
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. But under the gospel
dispensation all Christians are priests. "But ye are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people." And
we are priests, not for the purpose of expiation, for expiation was
completed by the Lord Jesus Christ, when He "bore our sins in His own
body on the tree," but priests to offer up "spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." And every such priest must
needs be continuously holy.
The "spiritual sacrifices" which the Christian priest must offer are,
as previously stated, (1) his body, with all its members and
capacities. The heart was given to Christ at conversion. It is,
however, largely through the body that the soul is led into sin, and it
is through the body, also, that the soul must perform its work for
Christ, so long as soul and body are united in probation. Hence, the
Apostle exclaims in the twelfth of Romans, "I beseech you, therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service." The Christian must offer (2) also his continual testimony. He
must "hold fast the confession of his faith without wavering." "By him,
therefore, let us offer the sacrifices of praise to God continually,
that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name." And, finally
(3), the Christian priest must offer the sacrifice of a holy life. "But
to do good, and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God
is well pleased." Beloved, let us ask ourselves if we are constantly
offering as a holy priesthood, a consecrated body, a confessing tongue
and a godly life. Amen.
This subject has already been alluded to under a different head, but
it will bear repetition.
In the ceremonial used under the law for the cleansing of the leper, we
find an impressive type or symbol of holiness. Leprosy is most clearly
and strikingly a type of inbred sin. It is loathsome, unclean,
incurable, fatal and hereditary. The leper was driven from society; he
could not dwell in the camp nor in the city. He was an outcast. None
must be permitted to approach him. They must be warned off by the
despairing cry "unclean, unclean." Nothing can be conceived more
desolate or more hopeless than the condition of the leper, unless it
be, indeed, the sinner who is an "alien from the commonwealth of
Israel, a stranger to the covenants of promise, having no hope and
without God in the world."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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