CHAPTER 20
The Royal Priesthood
The Royal Priestly Sons of God and Their Ministry in the Ages to Come
Introduction
Priesthood as the Destiny of Divine Sonship
The purpose of redemption is not merely to rescue humanity from sin but to form a family of priestly sons who share the life, nature, and ministry of the Firstborn Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. From the beginning, God’s intention was that humanity would reflect His likeness, dwell in His presence, and mediate His ways to creation. This destiny, forfeited through Adam’s failure, is restored and fulfilled in Christ, who has made His people “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9). In Him, priesthood is not a mere religious function but the full expression of mature sonship, for all true priestly ministry flows from participation in the life of the Son.
Under the Old Covenant, the priesthood of Aaron revealed patterns of consecration, holiness, and access to God. Yet these shadows anticipated a greater order, the eternal priesthood of Melchizedek, in which kingship and priesthood are united, as the Father declares, “You are a priest to the age according to the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4 literal, see Appendix O). The Lord Jesus, risen in glory and possessing “the power of an indestructible life” (Hebrews 7:16), is the Head of this priesthood. He is the one High Priest and King in His own right, the only true Royal Priest. By His Spirit He forms a people who may share in His consecration, His sufferings, and His glory, becoming the vessels through whom God will restore the nations in the ages to come.
Scripture, however, makes a solemn distinction. In one sense, the whole believing community is addressed as “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), for the Father’s intention is that all His sons should share the royal, priestly life of the Firstborn. Yet Hebrews warns that a son can despise and forfeit the firstborn portion, as Esau did, who “for one morsel of food sold his birthright,” and afterward “found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears” (Hebrews 12:16-17). Esau did not cease to be a son, but he lost the higher inheritance. In the same way, believers who persist in unfaithfulness forfeit the royal, firstborn share in Christ’s heavenly priesthood. Therefore this chapter uses the term Royal Priesthood in a specific sense. In its strictest meaning, it belongs to Christ alone and, by grace, to those faithful sons who attain the celestial resurrection at His appearing and share His Melchizedekian ministry in the Heavenly Tabernacle.
The unfaithful, fully restored as terrestrial sons in the Eighth Day, do participate in priestly service among the nations, but they are not counted among this Royal Priesthood; they are the outer-court priests who serve under the authority of the celestial sons, having lost the firstborn portion like Esau. This loss of the firstborn portion is therefore also a loss of inner-sanctuary nearness. In the pattern of the tabernacle and Temple, the holy place and the most holy place formed the inner sanctuary, while the outer court surrounded them at a greater distance. The glorified sons who share Christ’s Melchizedekian Priesthood are formed as the living naos of God, corresponding to that inner sanctuary where the High Priest draws near. The restored unfaithful, by contrast, take up a genuine but outer-court priesthood in the renewed earth. They serve like Levites at the footstool of the Heavenly Jerusalem, guarding the holiness of the mountain of the Lord’s house and ministering among the nations, yet they do not enter the inner court of the heavenly naos reserved for Christ and the faithful firstborn sons. With this distinction in view, we will trace the divine pattern of priesthood—its origin in Adam, its anticipation in the Torah, its fulfillment in Christ the Firstborn, its two orders in the coming ages, and its ministry in the Seventh and Eighth Days.
Priesthood Begins With Adam: The First Royal Priestly Son
The first picture of priesthood in Scripture is not Aaron but Adam. He was formed in the image of God and then placed in a garden-sanctuary to “tend and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). The Hebrew verbs here are ʿābad (עָבַד) and shāmar (שָׁמַר). The verb ʿābad means “to serve” or “to work,” and is used for priestly service in the tabernacle. The verb shāmar means “to keep,” “to watch,” or “to guard,” and speaks of vigilant protection over something holy. These are the same terms later used to describe the duties of the Levites, who “shall attend to his needs and the needs of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of meeting, to do the work of the tabernacle” (Numbers 3:7). This linguistic connection clarifies that Adam’s vocation was priestly from the beginning: he was to serve in God’s presence and guard the holiness of the garden-sanctuary entrusted to him.
Adam was thus the prototype royal priestly son, appointed to guard sacred space, to walk with God, and to extend divine order throughout the world. His ministry was to mediate the rule and character of God from the garden outward, so that creation would be ordered according to heaven. The way Adam enters this priesthood also anticipates the later truth of sonship and placement into the firstborn inheritance. He is not simply created inside the garden; he is formed from the ground and then brought into the garden. The man whom God formed is then set, by a distinct act of divine placement, into the sanctuary-garden “to serve it and to guard it.” In this movement—from formation out of the common earth to installation within sacred space—Scripture gives us the first shadow of the placement of sons. In Adam, a son formed from the ground of this creation is installed in God’s garden-sanctuary as royal-priest over the earth. In this, Scripture quietly prepares us for the Last Adam, who will be raised from the earth, enter the true sanctuary in heaven, and bring many sons with Him into a higher placement as Royal Priesthood in the Heavenly Jerusalem.
Adam’s failure in the garden shows that priestly calling can be forfeited even while sonship remains. As a priestly son, he stood in a garden-sanctuary that contained two central trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The way of priestly maturity lay in trusting God’s word, eating from the tree of life, and receiving discernment as a gift from communion with Him. Instead, Adam reached out his hand to the forbidden tree, grasping at knowledge apart from obedience. The very place of his priestly service became the place of his disqualification. The one who had been set to “serve and guard” the garden (Genesis 2:15) failed to guard it from the serpent’s voice and from his own self-will.
The consequence is priestly disqualification. The man who was placed in the garden to “serve it and to guard it” is driven out of the garden, and the Lord “placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword… to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24). The one who was to guard is now himself kept out. The tree of life, which would have sealed him in immortal fellowship, is closed to him in his fallen state. Adam is not annihilated when he falls, nor does he cease to be a son made in God’s image; but he is removed from the sanctuary and returns to the ground from which he was taken. The picture is clear: a son of earth who was once stationed in God’s house as royal-priest is now outside the inner place of nearness and barred from the immortal life that would have sealed him in priestly glory. The priestly calling remains the divine design for humanity, but the path into that calling is barred until a new Adam opens the way.
The New Testament applies this same seriousness to the church. Peter can tell believers, “you are… a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), expressing the Father’s intention that all His sons share the royal, priestly life of the Firstborn. Yet Hebrews warns that a son may despise and forfeit the firstborn portion, as Esau did, who sold his birthright and afterward found no place for recovering it (Hebrews 12:16–17). In Adam’s fall we see the first pattern: a royal priestly son loses access, not because priesthood was never his, but because he proved unfaithful in the very place of his trust. In this age the same pattern operates on a higher plane. Those who, though truly begotten of God, persist in walking after the flesh and refuse the yoke of the cross will not share the royal, firstborn portion in the resurrection of life. They remain sons, destined for restoration, but they forfeit the inner-sanctuary Royal Priesthood and stand instead in the resurrection of judgment, undergoing the purifying discipline of the Age to Come.
Adam’s story therefore anticipates the later distinction between the faithful and the unfaithful among God’s sons. The faithful, walking in obedient trust, are brought into priestly nearness and confirmed in it; the unfaithful are removed from that nearness and placed under discipline, even while the divine intention to form a priestly family remains unchanged. The Torah will take up this same pattern with Israel when the whole nation is called to be “a kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6) and yet, because of unfaithfulness, the priestly nearness is narrowed to the tribe of Levi and to the house of Aaron. In this way, the guarded gate of Eden and the barred way to the tree of life become the first shadows of the later loss of the firstborn portion and the distinction between Royal Priesthood in the inner sanctuary and outer-court service in seed-form.
The Pattern of Consecration in the Torah
The Levitical priesthood was a temporary shadow of the heavenly order. Every stage of Aaron’s consecration points to spiritual realities fulfilled in Christ and His people. When Moses “brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water” (Leviticus 8:6), this washing prefigured the inner cleansing of the new covenant, of which Paul says, “He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). The outward cleansing of the priest’s body anticipated the inward cleansing of the heart by the Spirit.
Aaron was then clothed with holy garments. The prophet rejoices, “He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). The robing of the priest set him apart as one who no longer represented himself but stood as a representative of God’s holiness. In Christ this finds fulfillment as believers “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14), being clothed with His righteousness for priestly service.
The anointing oil poured upon Aaron’s head—”It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron” (Psalm 133:2)—signified the outpoured Spirit. That same anointing comes upon the Messiah and all who are in Him, for “you have an anointing from the Holy One” (1 John 2:20). The oil marked the priest as a man under the influence and empowerment of the Spirit; likewise, priestly ministry in the new covenant is impossible apart from the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
The blood of sacrifice, applied to the altar and to the priests themselves, anticipated union with Christ’s death. The writer to the Hebrews declares that Christ entered the Heavenly Sanctuary “not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood” (Hebrews 9:12), and Paul teaches that “in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace,” and that we are “baptized into His death” and “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4; Ephesians 1:7). The priest did not minister in his own life but in a life that had passed through death and blood; in the same way, the Royal Priesthood serves only as it abides in the crucified and risen life of the Lord Jesus.
The structure of the consecration rite is also prophetic. On the first day Moses washed, clothed, anointed, and offered sacrifices for Aaron and his sons, and then declared that what had been done “this day” was to “make atonement for you” (Leviticus 8:34). Yet the Lord then confined them at the door of the tabernacle for seven days, saying, “You shall not go outside the door of the tabernacle of meeting for seven days, until the days of your consecration are ended. For seven days he shall consecrate you” (Leviticus 8:33-34). In this we see a twofold pattern: a decisive act of consecration on “this day,” and a seven-day span in which the priestly house is kept before God at the entrance of His dwelling. Only “on the eighth day” do Aaron and his sons begin to minister for Israel, and on that day, after the offerings are presented, “the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people” and fire from the Lord consumed the sacrifice on the altar (Leviticus 9:1-4, 23-24).
For Christ as Head, this pattern is already fulfilled: His incarnate life, sufferings, death, and resurrection are His full consecration, and He has entered His “eighth day” as the Great High Priest who now ministers in the true Tabernacle in heaven. For His priestly house, however, the same pattern stretches across the ages. In this present evil age the faithful are washed, clothed, and anointed in spirit; at His appearing they are perfected and glorified, conformed to His glorious body (1 Corinthians 15:40-44; Philippians 3:21; 1 John 3:2); throughout the Seventh Day they stand with Him in the Heavenly Sanctuary, set in their place before God while the earth below passes through the fires of Gehenna. Then, in the Eighth Day of the renewed earth, as the nations rise in the resurrection “of the end”, the Royal Priesthood, already consecrated and enthroned, steps into the full public exercise of its priestly ministry toward a fully restored humanity. Thus the Torah establishes a pattern in which a completed period of setting apart is followed by an eighth-day unveiling of priestly service, a pattern that governs not only the history of Israel’s priesthood, but the way God forms and reveals the priestly house of Christ through the ages.
The Torah also makes a crucial distinction within Israel’s priestly order. The Lord said to Moses, “Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may serve him. And they shall attend to his needs and the needs of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of meeting, to do the work of the tabernacle. Also, they shall attend to all the furnishings of the tabernacle of meeting, and to the needs of the children of Israel, to do the work of the tabernacle. And you shall give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they are given entirely to him from among the children of Israel” (Numbers 3:5-9). Aaron and his sons formed the inner priesthood, those who drew nearest to the altar and sanctuary.
The Levites, by contrast, were set apart from the rest of Israel as a tribe given to Aaron and his sons to assist them, to serve their priestly ministry, and to stand between the tabernacle and the other eleven tribes. This pattern is not a mere historical detail; it is a deliberate sign of the priestly structure in the Eighth Day. Aaron, the anointed high priest, prefigures Christ, the true Great High Priest. His sons foreshadow the faithful celestial sons who share His Royal Priesthood in the Heavenly Sanctuary. The Levites represent a wider priestly order that surrounds and serves the inner priesthood, corresponding in the new creation to the restored outer-court priests who minister among the nations under the authority of Christ and the faithful firstborn sons. From the beginning, the Torah distinguishes between an inner, higher priesthood and an outer, assisting priestly tribe, anticipating the distinction between the Royal Priesthood above and the terrestrial priestly sons among the nations below.
Christ the Firstborn: The True Melchizedekian Priestly King
Everything the Torah foreshadowed is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. At His baptism, when “Jesus came up immediately from the water” and “the Spirit of God” descended upon Him (Matthew 3:16), He underwent His priestly washing and anointing. His life of obedience, in which He “became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8), was His sacrificial offering. His resurrection was His entrance into the Heavenly Sanctuary as the true High Priest, for Christ came “as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands” (Hebrews 9:11). His exaltation to the right hand of God fulfilled the word, “Sit at My right hand… You are a priest to the age according to the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:1, 4 literal, see Appendix O).
The Lord Himself explained that His death and resurrection were the only way to reproduce His own life in many sons. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12:24). Before the cross, He was alone in that mode of sonship; after the cross and resurrection, He becomes the source of “much grain,” the many sons brought to share His life. Hebrews says it was fitting for God, “in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10). The cross is therefore not only the sacrifice that removes sin; it is the womb of the new creation, the place where the solitary grain becomes the seed of a harvest.
In the strongest sense, the Royal Priesthood belongs to Christ alone. He is the only One who is both King and Priest in His own right, “a priest to the age according to the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4 literal), and also “the heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2). The Greek noun archiereus (ἀρχιερεύς), translated “High Priest,” means “chief priest” or “principal priest.” This clarifies that all priesthood now flows from one Head: there is only one true Royal Priest, and He ministers “in the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man” (Hebrews 8:2). The entire priestly and kingly order is concentrated in the Person of the crucified and risen Son.
When Christ came, He did not simply repair the Levitical order; He elevated and transformed priesthood altogether. The writer to the Hebrews declares, “For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law” (Hebrews 7:12). The old order, bound to earth and to mortal priests, gave way to a new order rooted in the Third Heaven and in the indestructible life of the Son. The Lord Jesus is “a priest to the age according to the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4 literal), and He ministers not in an earthly sanctuary but “in the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man” (Hebrews 8:2). The earthly tabernacle was “copies and shadows of the heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5), temporary teaching tools meant to direct our gaze upward. The Melchizedekian elevation of priesthood means that all true priestly ministry now flows from, and returns to, this Heavenly Sanctuary where the Firstborn Son ministers in glory.
Through this work, the Lord Jesus becomes “the firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:18). His resurrection is the first full birth of a Man into the new creation, the first instance of a human life brought entirely into the mode of the Spirit. He Himself said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). In this age believers are truly begotten from above: “Now we are children of God” (1 John 3:2), and “whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him” (1 John 3:9). The Greek noun sperma (σπέρμα), translated “seed,” denotes both offspring and the sown seed. God’s own life has been implanted in His children. Yet John also says, “It has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). The begetting is real now, but the full birth waits for the resurrection of life.
At the resurrection of life, the faithful experience what the Lord describes: “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). Their entire being is brought into spiritual mode. They receive celestial, spiritual bodies, for “there are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another… It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption… It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:40, 42, 44). The Greek adjective pneumatikos (πνευματικός), translated “spiritual,” means “of the Spirit,” showing that these resurrection bodies are fully governed and animated by the Holy Spirit. Paul declares that the Lord Jesus “will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). In this moment, the many grains appear; the many sons are brought to the same mode of sonship as the Firstborn from the dead (1 John 3:2).
Yet by grace, the faithful sons are brought into this same order. They are not independent priests and kings; they are joint heirs who share His rule and priestly ministry. Paul teaches that we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:17), and he adds, “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Timothy 2:12). He then unfolds the purpose: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son [symmorphos, ‘sharing the same form’], that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). The faithful sons share His firstborn status only by participation, not by right. Their Royal Priesthood is derived, not native; they reign and minister only in union with the Firstborn Royal Great High Priest.
Scripture therefore speaks of a corporate Christ. “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). The Lord Jesus is Christ in His own Person, the unique eternal Son. Yet He has chosen to reproduce His life in many sons by His death and resurrection, so that Head and Body together form one new Man, one corporate Christ. The church is “the church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven” (Hebrews 12:23), the assembly of those who will share His firstborn inheritance. In this way the solitary grain of wheat becomes a harvest; the unique Son, without ceasing to be unique in origin and authority, is revealed in a family of sons who bear His image and share His priestly and royal ministry in the ages to come.
It is important to see that this consecration does not imply that the Lord Jesus was ever morally imperfect or unconsecrated in Himself. As the eternal Son He has always been holy, and even in His incarnate life He was “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). When He prayed, “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5), He was asking that the glory He had voluntarily veiled in His humiliation would again be openly manifested. The consecration pattern in Leviticus, with Moses setting apart Aaron and his sons, points not to a lack in Christ’s person, but to the public installation and completion of His priestly office in His humanity. The One who is eternally holy as Son passed through obedience, suffering, death, and resurrection, and in this way was “made perfect” as Great High Priest, brought to the goal of His mediatorial work (Hebrews 5:8-9). Now, as the glorified Man in heaven, He is fully and forever consecrated in His priestly office, and it is from this completed consecration that the Royal Priesthood of His many sons receives both its pattern and its power.
The Throne, the Firstborn, and the Royal Priesthood
Scripture does not speak of priesthood in isolation from kingship. From the beginning, God is presented not only as Creator but as King. “The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all” (Psalm 103:19). Heaven is His throne and earth His footstool (Isaiah 66:1). All created rule—angelic or human—is derivative; every throne on earth is either a reflection of, or a rebellion against, His government.
In Israel’s history, the Davidic throne is explicitly described as the LORD’s own throne mediated through a human son. David says that God “has chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel” (1 Chronicles 28:5). A few verses later we read that “Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father” (1 Chronicles 29:23). The king of Israel does not possess an independent throne; he sits on the LORD’s throne, exercising delegated authority as a son over the people who are God’s own inheritance.
When Israel persisted in rebellion, that throne was removed in judgment. Through Hosea, God declared, “O Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from Me… I will be your King; where is any other…? I gave you a king in My anger, and took him away in My wrath” (Hosea 13:9–11). The line of kings was cut off; the visible throne of David disappeared from the earth. Yet the promise of a Davidic son who would reign forever remained (2 Samuel 7:12–16; Psalm 89:3–4, 29–37). The kingdom was stripped from unfaithful stewards, but the covenant with David could not be annulled.
The New Testament proclaims that this promise is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. Peter declares that God swore with an oath to David that “of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,” and that in raising the Lord Jesus from the dead and exalting Him to the right hand of God, this promise has been realized (Acts 2:30–36). The crucified and risen Son of David now sits at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens (Hebrews 1:3; 8:1), occupying the true Davidic throne in its heavenly form. Psalm 110:1—”Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool”—is no longer a bare prophecy; it is the present posture of the ascended Christ.
The New Testament also anchors this royal and priestly enthronement in the coming age. The angel announces that the Lord Jesus “will reign over the house of Jacob to the age, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:33). Hebrews speaks of the Son’s throne as being “to the age of the age” (Hebrews 1:8), and the Father swears to Him, “You are a priest to the age according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:6; 7:17, 21 literal). The writer concludes that He “continues to the age” and has an unchangeable priesthood (Hebrews 7:24). These phrases point from this present age into the Age to Come, declaring that Christ’s kingship and priesthood will not be altered or replaced when the Day of the Lord arrives. He remains the enthroned Son of David and Great High Priest all through the sabbath age of His royal rule. And when that age has finished its work and the Eighth Day begins, His royal and priestly dignity does not vanish. He delivers the kingdom to the Father so that “God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28), yet He remains forever the Firstborn Son and the One in whom all priesthood and all rule are gathered and made complete.
This enthronement is not merely honorary; it is the beginning of a real reign. Paul writes that Christ “must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25). Death itself will be the last enemy destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26). When every opposing rule and authority has been brought low, then “the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). The throne of the Son is therefore both mediatorial and terminal in one sense: He reigns until all enemies are subdued, and then He hands the kingdom over to the Father, so that the original purpose of creation—God all in all—is brought to completion in the Eighth Day.
The calling of the faithful is to share in this royal rule. Those united to Christ are not only children but heirs: “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). Paul reminds Timothy, “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Timothy 2:12). The saints are destined to “judge the world” and even to “judge angels” (1 Corinthians 6:2–3). These are royal functions: to reign, to judge, to share the inheritance of the Firstborn. The Royal Priesthood is therefore genuinely royal—it participates in the rule of the enthroned Son of David.
This royal sharing is inseparable from priesthood. The same Christ who sits at the right hand of God is also our High Priest, “who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Hebrews 8:1). Seated on the throne, He intercedes; reigning as King, He ministers as Priest. In Him, kingship and priesthood are united in a single Person, after the order of Melchizedek—a king of righteousness, a king of peace, and a priest of God Most High (Genesis 14:18–20; Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 7:1–3). Those who are joined to Him share this dual vocation: “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people” (1 Peter 2:9).
In this light, the church of the firstborn is more than a gathered assembly; it is a training ground for kings and priests. The faithful are being prepared to share in Christ’s rule in the ages to come—to administer His judgments in the Seventh Day and to shepherd the restored nations in the Eighth Day. Their destiny is not an abstract “heaven” but a concrete participation in the government of the renewed creation under the once-crucified, now-enthroned Son. As later chapters will show, this is the meaning of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus and of the firstborn inheritance: to be conformed to the image of the Son, that many brothers and sisters might be brought into the liberty and dignity of sharing His throne, until at last God is all in all.
From Aaron and the Levites to the Royal and Outer-Court Priesthood
The pattern glimpsed in the Torah—Aaron and his sons at the center, with the Levites given to them as a serving tribe—finds its fulfillment in the ages to come. In the new creation there will likewise be an inner priesthood and an outer assisting priesthood. At the center stands Christ, the true Aaron, with the faithful celestial sons who share His royal Melchizedekian ministry; together they form the Royal Priesthood in the Heavenly Sanctuary. Surrounding the Heavenly Jerusalem in the renewed earth below and serving this inner priesthood stand the restored terrestrial outer-court priests, like the Levites given to Aaron; these are given to Christ and the celestial sons to assist their ministry and to serve the nations. The old pattern of Aaron and the Levites therefore becomes a prophetic map of the two orders of priestly ministry in the Eighth Day.
The Royal Priesthood: Christ and the Faithful Celestial Sons
Those who remain faithful to Christ, overcoming sin, fear, and the world, are described by the Lord as those who are “counted worthy to attain that age and the resurrection from the dead” (Luke 20:35). At His appearing they receive incorruptible, celestial bodies, for “there are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one” (1 Corinthians 15:40), and “it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44). The Lord Jesus promises that “whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32), and Paul teaches that if we are “children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:17).
Their ministry is heavenly, royal, and direct. The writer to the Hebrews declares that believers have come “to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels… to the spirits of just men made perfect” (Hebrews 12:22-23). The faithful who attain the resurrection of life dwell in this Heavenly Jerusalem as its priestly citizens. They do not merely stand in a figurative inner-court but join the Lord Jesus in “the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man” (Hebrews 8:2), serving with Him in the Heavenly Sanctuary of which the earthly holy places were only “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5). In this way, the glorified sons become a celestial Royal Priesthood gathered around the Great High Priest Himself, ministering in continuous fellowship with God in the very reality after which the earthly tabernacle was patterned.
The Apostles reveal that “the saints will judge the world” and “shall judge angels” (1 Corinthians 6:2-3), showing that the glorified sons participate in Christ’s judicial and governmental work during the Seventh Day. In the Eighth Day, when the nations are restored, they will mediate divine light, teaching, and government to those nations so that “out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3). This is the fully realized Royal Priesthood: Christ the Firstborn at the center, and around Him a company of faithful celestial sons who share His throne, His priestly nearness, and His kingly administration in the Heavenly Sanctuary.
The Outer-Court Priestly Order of the Restored Unfaithful Believers
Believers who live carelessly, neglecting holiness or resisting sanctification, remain sons of God yet are unprepared for celestial glory. The Lord warns that the servant who knew his master’s will and did not prepare himself “shall be beaten with many stripes,” while the one who did not know “shall be beaten with few” (Luke 12:47-48). Of such unfaithful servants He also says, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Matthew 10:28). In the Seventh Day they pass through the fires of Gehenna, reaping the consequences of what they have sown, bearing “few stripes” or “many stripes” according to the measure of their knowledge and disobedience. Their judgment is not the wrath reserved for the ungodly, but the severe discipline of sons who refused the Lord’s chastening in this age and must therefore endure it in the Age to Come.
Hebrews teaches that “whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12:6), and exhorts believers not to “despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him” (Hebrews 12:5). The Greek noun paideia (παιδεία), translated “chastening,” means the training and discipline of a child. It is painful, yet it is the expression of fatherly love, for “if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons” (Hebrews 12:8). In Gehenna, this chastening reaches its most intense form: the soul-life of Adam is destroyed, and every work of the flesh is burned away, so that “afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11). The unfaithful do not escape being sons; they endure the full measure of corrective discipline until the corruption they clung to is consumed and they are ready for restoration in the Eighth Day.
These sons do not lose their sonship, but like Esau they forfeit the firstborn portion. Esau remained Isaac’s child, yet he sold his birthright for a single meal, and afterward “he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears” (Hebrews 12:17). In the same way, unfaithful believers are restored to life and service, but they do not regain the royal, heavenly share they despised through disobedience. After their correction is complete, in the Eighth Day they rise in terrestrial, incorruptible bodies suited for the renewed earth. They are no longer subject to death, yet they belong to the earth rather than to the celestial realm.
In that age, they enter priestly vocation as the outer-court priesthood among the nations. Their ministry is to teach the nations the ways of God, to serve under the authority of the glorified Royal Priesthood, to mediate righteousness, justice, and worship, and to guide the peoples into the paths of the Lord, in harmony with the Servant song that speaks of the One who “will bring forth justice for truth… and the coastlands shall wait for His law” (Isaiah 42:3-4). They are truly priests, but not of the royal, firstborn order. They do not sit in the Heavenly Sanctuary; they minister in the earthly courts of the new creation, bringing the light they themselves receive from the Lord Jesus and the celestial sons above to the nations below.
The arrangement of the outer-court priesthood in the Eighth Day corresponds closely to the pattern of the Levites in the wilderness. The Lord commanded that “the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the Testimony, that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the children of Israel” (Numbers 1:53). They formed a living ring between the tabernacle and the other eleven tribes, guarding the sanctuary, serving the priests, and mediating between the holy place and the camp of Israel. The Lord said of them, “You shall give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they are given entirely to him from among the children of Israel” (Numbers 3:9). The Levites thus belonged to Aaron in a special way, standing closer to the sanctuary than the tribes, yet remaining among the tribes as servants and teachers.
In the Eighth Day, the restored outer-court priests take up an analogous place in the cosmic order. The Heavenly Jerusalem, the mountain of the Lord’s house, “shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills;” (Isaiah 2:2 ESV). There, in the true sanctuary, Christ and the faithful celestial sons form the Royal Priesthood in the immediate presence of God. At the base of this heavenly mountain, on the slopes and heights of the renewed earth beneath the city, the outer-court priesthood is stationed. They form a living ring at the foot of the Heavenly Jerusalem, the earth-side border of the mountain of God. From this position they stand between the Royal Priesthood above and the nations spread across the earth below. They receive instruction, life, and light flowing from the city of God, and they transmit that light, instruction, and order outward to the peoples.
As the Levites were “given entirely” to Aaron and his sons (Numbers 3:9), so these terrestrial priests are given to Christ and His celestial brothers and sisters to assist their ministry and to surround the Heavenly Sanctuary with obedient service. They guard the holiness of the mountain of the Lord’s house, the nations ascending to Zion receive the teachings of the Royal Priesthood for their daily lives in the renewed earth. Their cities, spread among the nations as the Levitical cities were spread among the tribes, become centers of instruction, worship, and justice in which the ways of God are learned and lived. In this way, the outer-court priesthood of the Eighth Day fulfills in antitype the wilderness pattern of the Levites encamped around the tabernacle. Heaven and earth are joined by a priestly structure: the Royal Priesthood above in the Heavenly Jerusalem, the outer-court priests encircling the base of that heavenly mountain on the renewed earth, and the nations dwelling under their ministry. The Levites’ ring around the tabernacle foreshadowed this greater reality: a world in which every approach to God is ordered through the priestly house of Christ, and in which the restored outer-court priests joyfully serve as the living bridge between the city of God above and the families of the earth below.
Thus, in the ages to come there are two priestly orders: the Royal Priesthood of Christ and the faithful celestial sons in the Heavenly Tabernacle, and the outer-court priestly order of restored terrestrial sons serving among the nations. Both orders are priestly; only one is royal in the strict, Melchizedekian sense.
The Royal Priesthood as God’s Inheritance and Portion
The language of priesthood in Scripture is inseparable from the language of inheritance. Paul tells the Ephesians that “in Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11). The Greek noun klēronomia (κληρονομία), translated “inheritance,” denotes a portion, lot, or heritage given by right or by grace. In Christ, believers receive an inheritance that cannot be measured: God Himself, His kingdom, His righteousness, and the ages to come. Yet Paul does not stop with our inheritance in God. He prays that the Father may give believers “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:17-18). Here the emphasis shifts: it is God’s own inheritance in the saints, the portion He possesses in a people who belong wholly to Him.
This double movement—God as our inheritance, and we as God’s inheritance—appears already in the Torah. At Sinai the Lord said to Israel, “If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6). Israel as a whole was offered the dignity of being God’s “special treasure,” a priestly kingdom in which the entire nation would be His peculiar possession among all peoples. All the earth was His by right of creation, yet He desired a people who would be His treasure by covenant love and obedient response. The hope of His calling for Israel was therefore not merely a land inheritance for them, but a priestly inheritance for Himself—a people in whom He could dwell and through whom He could be known among the nations.
Israel, however, sinned at the golden calf, and the priestly calling of the whole nation was narrowed. Instead of all Israel serving as priests, the tribe of Levi was chosen to draw near. “The priests, the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and His portion. Therefore, they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He said to them” (Deuteronomy 18:1-2). To Aaron the Lord said, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel” (Numbers 18:20). In this decree the pattern becomes clear: the priestly tribe receives no territorial allotment because their inheritance is God Himself. They live from His offerings, serve in His house, and depend upon His provision.
At the same time, the Levites are themselves given to God and to His priest. “You shall give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they are given entirely to him from among the children of Israel” (Numbers 3:9). They stand closer to the sanctuary than the other tribes, encamped around the tabernacle as a living ring between the dwelling of God and the camp of Israel. In this sense they are God’s portion within Israel, His possession drawn from among the people to serve Him continually. The Levites thus embody the double truth of priestly inheritance: God is their portion instead of land, and they are His portion instead of property.
In the New Covenant this pattern is fulfilled and elevated in Christ and His Royal Priesthood. Peter writes to believers, “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people” (1 Peter 2:9). The Lord has “redeemed us from every lawless deed and purified for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14). The underlying idea is the same as in Exodus 19: a people for His own possession, a treasured inheritance in whom He delights. Paul says that in Christ “we have obtained an inheritance” (Ephesians 1:11), but he also longs that believers would know “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18)—the glory that God Himself finds in His priestly people.
Within this broad calling, the faithful Royal Priesthood occupies a firstborn place. All the redeemed will ultimately belong to God, yet the faithful who attain the resurrection of life and share Christ’s Melchizedekian Priesthood are the inner portion, the “special treasure” at the heart of His inheritance. As Aaron and his sons, with the Levites given to them, were taken from Israel for the Lord’s service, so Christ and the faithful celestial sons are taken from the family of God as the Royal Priesthood, the company in whom God’s presence is concentrated and through whom His rule is immediately exercised. They are the “church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven” (Hebrews 12:23), the firstfruits of the redeemed creation. Their inheritance is God Himself in the fullness of His presence; His inheritance in them is a house, a priestly people, and a body conformed to the image of His Son.
Ephesians declares that the people of God are “being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). The Royal Priesthood is therefore not only God’s inheritance but God’s house, the place where He rests and reveals His glory. In the Eighth Day, when the Royal Priesthood attends upon Him in the Heavenly Jerusalem and the outer-court priests serve at the base of that holy mountain, the universe will see what Paul prayed for: the hope of His calling, and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. God will possess, in the Royal Priesthood, a people who are wholly His, and they will possess, in Him, an inheritance beyond all created gifts—the eternal joy of being His portion and having Him as theirs.
This structure of inheritance does not end with the Royal Priesthood; it widens to embrace the whole renewed creation. The prophets declare that “Israel is the tribe of His inheritance” (Jeremiah 10:16; see also Deuteronomy 32:9; Psalm 94:14), and within Israel the tribe of Levi is taken as a nearer inheritance, with Aaron and his sons nearer still. In the Eighth Day this pattern is fulfilled on a cosmic scale. All restored humanity becomes, in a broad sense, God’s inheritance, for at the consummation “the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). The nations are given to Christ as His inheritance and the ends of the earth as His possession (Psalm 2:8); the outer-court priests, like Levites on the renewed earth, are God’s priestly portion among those nations; and the Royal Priesthood, Christ and the faithful celestial sons, are His firstborn portion, His special treasure in whom His presence and glory are most intensely concentrated. In this way, every layer of the new creation shares in God and belongs to God, yet there remains an ordered inheritance: the Lord Jesus and the celestial sons as the innermost portion, the outer-court priesthood as His portion in the earth, and the nations as His Son’s inheritance, until the whole universe is filled with God without dissolving the distinctions of calling, glory, and priestly nearness.
The Heavenly Tabernacle and the Throne-Footstool Order
A central testimony of Hebrews is that there is one true Tabernacle, one abiding sanctuary in which the priesthood of Christ is exercised. We are told that “we have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man” (Hebrews 8:1-2). The earthly holy places were “copies and shadows of the heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5); they never were the ultimate reality. Christ has entered “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24), and by His blood He has opened “a new and living way” into this Heavenly Sanctuary (Hebrews 10:19-20). This Heavenly Tabernacle “not of this creation” does not pass away; it is the fixed center of all priestly life, both now and in the ages to come.
The Lord Himself describes the basic structure of His dwelling when He says, “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?” (Isaiah 66:1). This declaration reveals that God’s purpose is neither a purely earthly tabernacle nor a disembodied heaven, but a unified order in which heaven, as His throne, and earth, as His footstool, are joined by His “house” and “place of rest.” Hebrews shows that this house is first and foremost the Heavenly Sanctuary, “the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man” (Hebrews 8:2), where Christ ministers as Great High Priest. The earthly tabernacle was “copies and shadows of the heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5), teaching Israel that the throne above and the footstool below must be united by a priestly house in which God rests among His people.
At present this true Tabernacle is veiled from earthly sight by the heavens of this creation, but at Christ’s appearing, when “the heavens… will pass away with a great noise” and “the elements will melt with fervent heat” (2 Peter 3:10), the first and second heavens dissolve and the firmament is removed. What remains is only the earth below and the Third Heaven “not of this creation” above, the Heavenly Jerusalem standing revealed in the open heavens. From that moment through the entire Seventh Day, the Royal Priesthood serves in this unveiled Heavenly Sanctuary above, while the earth beneath, as His footstool, undergoes judgment and purification.
For that reason, no later vision or symbol may be allowed to erase or relativize this truth. The book of Revelation, with its apocalyptic imagery, speaks of a city in which “no temple” is seen, yet such symbolism cannot overturn the apostolic witness concerning the true temple of God. The Lord Jesus Himself is the true Temple in whom God and man are united, for He spoke of “the temple of His body” (John 2:19-21), and all who are joined to Him share in that reality: “you are the temple of God” (First Corinthians 3:16-17), and “you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22). In these passages the Apostles use the Greek noun naos (ναός), the word that denotes the inner sanctuary of the Temple—the holy place and the most holy place—rather than hieron (ἱερόν), which refers to the wider temple courts and precincts. By calling the Church the naos of God, they do not merely say that believers surround His presence as an outer religious space; they declare that in union with Christ they are being formed as the inner sanctuary itself, the place of priestly nearness in which God dwells and from which His light, law, and life go forth.
What changes through the Seventh and Eighth Days is not the existence of God’s dwelling among His people, but the widening disclosure of that dwelling in a restored order: first the faithful, glorified and gathered into Christ’s priestly house in the Age to Come, and then, in the Eighth Day, the nations and the renewed earth brought into the life of God’s presence through the finished reconciliation accomplished in the Son.
The Seventh Day: Formation, Government, and Judgment
During the Seventh Day, the Day of the Lord, the faithful Royal Priesthood reigns above in the Heavenly Jerusalem while the earth below functions as Gehenna—the realm of fire, darkness, and judgment. Isaiah speaks of those who “pass through it hard-pressed and hungry… and look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish” (Isaiah 8:21-22), and the Lord Jesus describes offenders being cast “into the furnace of fire” where there will be “wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:42). In this age the glorified sons participate in Christ’s government, judging men and angels and administering the righteous order of the Day of Wrath.
Their ministry in the Seventh Day is primarily governmental and judicial, not yet the full priestly ministry to resurrected nations. The nations in their final, incorruptible form do not yet exist; they will arise in the resurrection “of the end”, when Christ delivers the kingdom to the Father, “when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power” (1 Corinthians 15:24). Until that moment, the Royal Priesthood above exercises authority to establish divine order, to assign righteous sentences, and to oversee the destruction of the Adamic nature in all who undergo judgment. The faithful sons, having themselves been refined, now participate with the Lord in the refinement of others, ensuring that the Day of the Lord becomes the doorway to the new creation. Through this ordered government the Seventh Day prepares the stage on which the Eighth Day will unfold.
The Eighth Day: Priestly Ministry to the Restored Nations
When the Seventh Day completes its work, death is abolished in all mankind, fulfilling the word that “the last enemy that will be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). The earth is transformed, and the nations rise in the resurrection “of the end”, when Christ “delivers the kingdom to God the Father” after putting down every opposing rule (1 Corinthians 15:24). Only then does the priestly ministry to the nations begin in its fullness.
In this final state the word of Isaiah 66:1 is not abolished but brought to full clarity. Even now, “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool” (Isaiah 66:1), yet in this present evil age the throne in the Third Heaven and the Heavenly Jerusalem are veiled behind the created heavens. At Christ’s appearing, the first and second heavens dissolve, the firmament is removed, and the Third Heaven is unveiled so that its glory is visible above the darkened earth. Throughout the Seventh Day, the Heavenly Jerusalem stands revealed in the open heavens, functioning as the place of enthronement, judgment, and priestly administration for the Royal Priesthood. Only after the sabbath age is complete and the earth itself is renewed does Isaiah 2:2 reach its fullest expression: “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it” (Isaiah 2:2 ESV). In the Eighth Day, the Heavenly Jerusalem—the Zion “not of this creation” (Hebrews 9:11)—descends to stand above the mountains of the renewed earth, now accessible to a fully restored humanity.
From the throne-city above, the Royal Priesthood ministers in the true sanctuary, while on the earth as His footstool the outer-court priesthood orders the nations in righteousness, bringing the life and instruction that flow from the throne into every sphere of terrestrial existence. The nations ascend, saying, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord… He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths” (Isaiah 2:3). This ascent portrays the continual movement of restored humanity into deeper knowledge of God under priestly guidance.
In this Eighth Day, the two priestly orders work together in perfect harmony. The Royal Priesthood—Christ and the faithful celestial sons—teaches from the heavenly mountain, ministering in God’s immediate presence and extending divine government in love and wisdom. The restored terrestrial priests serve among the nations, applying heavenly instruction to the new realities of renewed earthly life. The light of the Heavenly Sanctuary flows through the Royal Priesthood to the outer-court priests, and from them to the nations, until “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9).
The Harmony of the Two Orders in the Ages to Come
The divine purpose in establishing two priestly orders is not to create rivalry within the family of God but to manifest harmony. Paul declares that God’s plan is “that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth” (Ephesians 1:10). In the Eighth Day this gathering reaches its mature form. The Royal Priesthood, Christ and the faithful celestial sons, dwell in the Heavenly Jerusalem above, ministering in the true sanctuary and exercising heavenly government. The restored outer-court priests serve at the base of that heavenly mountain on the renewed earth, standing between the city above and the nations below. The nations themselves ascend, saying, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord… He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths” (Isaiah 2:3). Heaven and earth, priesthood above and priesthood below, nations flowing upward—together they form one ordered kingdom under one Head, the Firstborn Son.
In this structure, each order serves the other. The Royal Priesthood mediates the immediate light and life of the throne; the outer-court priests receive that light and carry it into the daily life of the renewed earth; the nations receive instruction and blessing through their ministry until “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). Authority flows downward in love, and worship rises upward in gratitude. The celestial sons do not despise the terrestrial; the terrestrial priests do not envy the celestial; the nations do not resent the priesthood, each glorifies God in the sphere appointed to it.
In this way, the priestly house of Christ becomes the living bridge by which heaven and earth are united. The Royal Priesthood above and the outer-court priesthood below together fulfill the promise given to Abraham: his descendants as “the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore” (Genesis 22:17). The celestial sons are as the stars, shining in the heavens with the glory of the Firstborn; the restored terrestrial sons are as the sand, covering the renewed earth with the knowledge of God. Through both, the nations are blessed, and the covenant word and gospel is fulfilled: “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 22:18; Galatians 3:8). Thus the two orders of the redeemed do not fragment the kingdom; they complete it. They reveal a universe in which every measure of glory, nearness, and service contributes to one end: that the Father may be all in all through His Firstborn Son and the priestly family formed in His image.
Conclusion
Royal Priesthood and the Fulfillment of the Firstborn Calling
The Royal Priesthood reveals the heart of God’s purpose for the ages. In Christ, the Firstborn Son, the Father has established one true Royal Great High Priest who ministers in the Heavenly Sanctuary and inherits all things. Around Him, by grace, He gathers a company of faithful celestial sons and daughters who share His priestly nearness and kingly rule. This is the Royal Priesthood in the strict sense: Christ the Head and the faithful firstborn sons and daughters who did not despise their inheritance, but embraced the path of suffering, obedience, and holiness.
At the same time, the mercy of God ensures that unfaithful sons are not finally lost. They pass through Seventh-Day judgment, like Esau bitterly weeping over a lost birthright, yet unlike Esau they are ultimately restored in the Eighth Day. They rise in terrestrial glory to serve as priests among the nations, teaching, healing, and shepherding under the authority of the Royal Priesthood above. Thus the outer-court priestly order participates in God’s restorative purpose, even though it no longer shares the royal, firstborn portion it squandered in this age.
In the end, priesthood is the means by which divine love saturates creation. Through the Royal Priesthood in the heavens and the outer-court priesthood on the earth, God will fill all things with His wisdom and goodness that “God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). The Royal Priesthood therefore prepares the way for a further mystery: the inheritance of the firstborn. For if Christ is the Firstborn among many brethren, and if the faithful sons are called to share His priestly and kingly ministry, then the next question concerns the nature of this firstborn inheritance. The following chapter turns to this theme, showing how the pattern of the firstborn in the Torah, the Prophets, the Lord Jesus, and the Apostles reveals both the privilege and the responsibility of those who will share the double portion of glory and dominion in the ages to come.
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