NO PRIESTHOODS IN THE DISPENSATION OF GRACE ✦

✦ NO PRIESTHOODS IN THE DISPENSATION OF GRACE ✦

1️⃣ WHAT A PRIEST IS - BIBLICALLY DEFINED

A priest, according to Scripture, is a man who:

Stands between God and men

Offers sacrifices for sins

Ministers in an earthly sanctuary

Functions under a covenant law

Represents a people under that covenant

📖Hebrews 5:1 For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

📌 A priesthood cannot exist unless ALL of the following exist:

The Law

A covenant

A sanctuary

Sacrifices

A people under that covenant

Today:

👉 No Law → No covenant → No sacrifices → No priesthood

📖Hebrews 10:10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

📖Romans 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God

2️⃣ ISRAEL HAD PRIESTS - THE BODY OF CHRIST DOES NOT

🔹 Israel’s Program (Prophecy)

👉Tribe of Levi

👉Aaronic priesthood

👉Earthly tabernacle / temple

👉Continual animal sacrifices

👉Conditional forgiveness

National covenant

📖Exodus 28:1 And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office…

Israel required priests because Israel lived under the Law - Those priests were also physically circumcised 

👉The Body of Christ (Mystery)

🔹No tribe

🔹No temple

🔹No altar

🔹No sacrifices

🔹No covenant law

🔹No priesthood

📖Romans 6:14 For ye are not under the law, but under grace.

📌 Grace does not function through priests.

Grace functions through completed redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ.

3️⃣ CHRIST IS NOT PRESENTED AS OUR HIGH PRIEST BY PAUL

This is a critical dividing line.

🔴 Paul never calls Christ our High Priest

🔴 Paul never teaches a priesthood for the Body of Christ

🔴 Paul never uses temple or altar language for us

Why?

Because priesthood belongs to Israel’s covenant system, not the mystery revealed to Paul.

4️⃣ THE LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD IS DONE IN THIS DISPENSATION

The Levitical priesthood depended entirely on the Mosaic Law.

📖Hebrews 7:11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise…?

The Law has ended as a governing system.

📖Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

📌 End of Law = End of Levitical priesthood

5️⃣ WHAT ABOUT THE MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD?

This is where confusion is greatest.

🔹 Melchizedek is NOT a current priesthood system

Melchizedek:

🔹Appears once in Genesis 14

🔹Appears once in Psalm 110

🔹Is explained in Hebrews for Israel’s benefit

📖Hebrews 8:4 For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:

Hebrews teaches that:

🔹Christ replaces Aaron

🔹For Israel

🔹Under a New Covenant

🔹With a future kingdom

📌 Hebrews does not teach: Hebrews is written to Hebrews, there are no Hebrews in the Body of Christ

A priesthood for the Body of Christ

A present Melchizedek order today

A priestly function for believers

👉 Melchizedek explains Christ’s right to rule Israel - not to mediate grace today

6️⃣ PAULINE TRUTH: WHAT CHRIST IS TO US TODAY

Paul presents Christ without priesthood language.

Christ is:

✔️ Head of the Body

📖Ephesians 1:22–23 And gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body…

✔️ Saviour

📖Ephesians 5:23 Christ is the saviour of the body.

✔️ Mediator

📖1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

✔️ Reconciler

📖Romans 5:10–11 We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son…

✔️ Our Life

📖Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear…

📌 Mediation ≠ Priesthood

📌 Reconciliation ≠ Sacrifice system

📌 Grace ≠ Law

7️⃣ “ROYAL PRIESTHOOD” - WHO IS IT REALLY FOR?

Christianity misapplies Peter.

📖1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation…

Who is Peter writing to?

📖1 Peter 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

These are:

🔹A single generation of

🔹Israelites

🔹Kingdom believers

🔹Awaiting the earthly kingdom

🔹Under covenant promises

📌 Peter never writes to the Body of Christ - His gospel was to the circumcision 

📖Galatians 2:7 But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter 

📌 Paul never calls us priests

8️⃣ RELIGION CREATES A PRIEST CLASS GOD NEVER ORDAINED - TRADITION OVER TRUTH

Modern Christianity invents:

🔹Clergy vs laity

🔹Spiritual hierarchies

🔹Confession systems

🔹Priestly titles

🔹“Covering” doctrines

The Lord Jesus Christ warned:

📖Matthew 23:8–9 But be not ye called Rabbi… And call no man your father upon the earth…”

Yet religion:

🔹Elevates men and tradition

🔹Inserts mediators

🔹Undermines direct access to God through Christ

📌 This is religion, not grace, tradition, not truth.

9️⃣ WHY BELIEVING YOU NEED A PRIEST IS DANGEROUS

If you believe you need:

A priest

A pastor-priest

A confessor

A spiritual covering

Then you:

Deny direct access to God

Mix Law with Grace

Place yourself under men

Undermine reconciliation and the finished work and mediator ship of Christ

📖Ephesians 2:18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

👉 Direct access. No system. No priest.

🔟 THE DISPENSATION OF GRACE - STATED CLEARLY

In this dispensation, Christ is not presented as our High Priest.

That office belongs to Israel’s covenant program.

For the Body of Christ, Paul presents Christ as Head, Mediator, and Saviour - with no priesthood whatsoever.

🔚 SUMMARY

✔️ There are no priests today

✔️ There is no Levitical priesthood

✔️ There is no Melchizedek priesthood operating today

✔️ The Body of Christ is not a royal priesthood

✔️ Christ’s High Priest role belongs to Israel’s future

✔️ Paul teaches direct reconciliation, not mediation through men but through Christ alone

📖Colossians 2:10 And ye are complete in him…

Those in the Body of Christ are Ambassadors of Christ 

📖2 Corinthians 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God

✨ Complete - without priests.

Free yourself from religion - Trust Christ alone 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 His finished work alone...