1 Peter 2:5 “you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
As I have already mentioned, under the new covenant we do not offer the same sacrifices that the priests under the old covenant were called to offer, i.e. the killing of bulls and rams etc. Nevertheless as priests we are also called to offer daily sacrifices, but the sacrifices which we offer before God are spiritual in nature and not physical. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit through the apostle Peter confirms that we are a holy priesthood, and that we are called to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God.
Hebrews 13:15 “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”
So what are the spiritual sacrifices that we are called to offer? The answer to that question is the sacrifice of prayer. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit teaches the New Testament saints to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise, using the fruit of our lips. And so although this passage is referring specifically to the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, the principle of offering the sacrifice of prayer remains the same, for thanksgiving and praise is just one form of prayer.
Luke 1:8-10 “So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, (9) according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. (10) And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense.”
Under the old covenant one of the functions of the priest was to burn incense before God on the altar of incense, every morning and every evening. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit reveals to us that the people would pray outside the temple while the priest was burning incense inside the temple. And so we see that even though the old covenant served the shadow of the heavenly things, the saints under the old covenant understood that the incense offered to God was a form of prayer. In fact scripture teaches us that the hour of incense referred to in this passage, was also called the hour of prayer (Acts 3:1).
Revelation 8:3-4 “Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. (4) And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand.”
As revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, one of the things that the church on the earth is responsible for is the incense that ascends before God from the golden alter in heaven, for this passage teaches us that the incense that is offered before God in heaven, is in fact the prayers of the saints. This passage clearly shows that the incense offered under the old covenant was a type and shadow of the real incense that is offered before God in heaven, i.e. the prayers of the saints. And so we have seen in this section that as priests after the order of Melchizedek, that the saints are called to offer up daily spiritual sacrifices before the Lord, which are the prayers of the saints.
Michael E.B. Maher
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