KING AND PRIEST

KING AND PRIEST

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” Col. 2:6

The figure of walking is employed with the subject of living. The idea of a destination and progress toward that destination is immediately the simplest and fullest suggestion. Life is considered as an effort toward a consummation. It is a walk along a highway that leads to a destiny. This book has enlightened us as to the Divine provision made for us so that we might now consider our responsibilities. Here we are beyond the Gospel which we needed when we read the Law, but here we are beyond the Gospel, knowing its terms, realizing its benefits, and facing now the obligations arising therefrom. "As....so!" Gospel is implicated in the Title named of Christ Jesus the Lord suggesting both Savior and Sovereign. "As ye have therefore received” suggests the way by which the Gospel becomes of real value to us. We have to receive it, an act which implies the very opposite of anything like merit. It is simply the acceptance of a gift. Finally we should face a new responsibility of agreement with which is created when we receive the Gospel, and that is of walking humbly with Him, loving mercy, and doing justly.

<Christ> is a familiar title of His Saviorhood. The word "Christ" is but a Greek form of the old Hebrew word "Messiah," and its central thought is of anointing. The Hebrew thought of Messiah, as the Anointed One always had in it two elements, Kingship and Priesthood. The Messiah to the Hebrew was the King-Priest, both the One Who reigns and the One Who mediates. The title Christ suggests therefore government and grace, requirement and reconciliation, law and love, light and life. Consequently, in their very merging, in the fact that these two main factors are both perpetually suggested by the word "Christ," that word becomes the highest title of the Saviorhood of the Person referred to. He is surely King, governing, requiring, giving law, shedding light; but, with equal assurance, He is Priest, administering grace, bringing about reconciliation, expressing love, and communicating life to the souls on whom the light has fallen. The King is also the Priest. The King Who has highest authority, and Whose law has been broken, is the Priest mediating between Himself and the sinner who has broken His law. The lawgiver--never for one moment lowering the standard of the requirement, never consenting to condone sin or pass it over as though it did not matter--is yet the Lover of my soul Who comes to me in the state of bondage and pollution which results from my breaking of His law, and so deals with me that the chains are broken and the pollution is cleaned, and I can find my way back into the place of loyalty to His highest Kingship. Consequently, the Cross is the appointed place where God and the soul meet, keep their appointment, pass into agreement, for the Cross is the throne of the King and the altar of the Priest.