“And has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen“
We now conclude the first of many doxologies of the Book of Revelation.
and has made us kings and priests
A king has the right to rule. Christians have the right to rule under God. God gives Christians spiritual authority. We have rights before God because Christ died for our sins. We have the right to share those rights with others.
A priest is one who offers sacrifice and worship to God. The New Testament depicts Christians as “a kingdom of priests” (Revelation 1:6) and “a holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5), and “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). Christians are to offer sacrifices (Romans 12:1; Philippians 2:17; 4:18; Hebrews 13:15, 16).
Only as we own Jesus’ kingly authority can we fulfill our priestly functions. The more we enter into His authority, the more we can worship as priests. A priest’s role is to mediate between man and God. Witnessing is a priestly function.
to His God and Father,
Jesus made us kings and priests to function toward God.
to Him be glory
We glorify Jesus because He made us kings and priests. The statements of this doxology are of such magnitude that John magnifies God with great glory.
and dominion
The idea of dominion is force, strength, might, and more especially manifested power. Jesus has the power to rule or control. This word especially occurs in doxologies (1 Peter 4:11; 5:11; Jude 25; Revelation 1:6; 5:13).
forever and ever.
We give Jesus “glory” and “dominion” “forever and ever” because He loves us, forgives us, and has “made” us kings and priests (1:5-6).
Finite people cannot think outside of time. We use terms such as “forever and ever” to refer to the eternal state, to something that transcends time. Time has a beginning point and an ending point. Eternity has neither; it has no succession of time.
Amen
The word “amen” means so be it. It is a term of faith. John affirms his faith in the glory of Christ. His “amen” places a stamp of approval on this doxology.
Principle:
All Christians are both kings and priests.
Application:
Christians function as both kings and priests. As “kings,” we have a right to rule. We have authority because of our position in Christ.
As priests, we have the right to represent others and ourselves to God. We also have the right to represent God to men. We do this when we share our faith.
Each believer represents Jesus Christ on earth. We are believer-priests. We operate as priests to God and toward each other. No one has special privileges of prayer before God. We all operate on equal ground in prayer. We all get God’s ear as quickly as any other Christian.
The full display of our kingship and priesthood is yet to come. We will reign with Christ. By virtue of our position in Christ, we can exercise our priesthood continually.
it seems that no one wants to comment on the phrase “HIS GOD AND FATHER.” Please what do you say to this?
There is but one article to both in the Greek, therefore the phrase “His God and Father” means, “Unto Him who is at once God and His Father.” The phrase unto his God and Father (?? ??? ??? ????? ????? [t?i the?i kai patri autou]). Dative case and ????? [autou] (Christ) applies to both “God” ??? [the?i] and “Father” ????? [patri]. Jesus spoke of the Father as his God (Matt. 27:46; John 20:17) and Paul uses like language (Eph. 1:17), as does Peter (I Pet. 1:3). Literally, to the God and Father of Him. Hence — His God and Father. For the phrase compare Rom. 15:6; 2 Cor. 1:3; Eph. 1:3. “to God and Father” ?? ??? ??? ????? (“to God and Father”) is a dative of reference or advantage; that is, Christ has made believers to serve as kings and priests in service to his Father, which is to be for his Father’s eternal glory and dominion.
In the phrase God and Father, care must be taken that the two refer to one being, not to two. The possessive his God may cause a problem if somehow “his” seems exclusive—that is, the God of Jesus Christ alone and of no one else. As for his … Father, there should be no problem, inasmuch as it is clear here and elsewhere in the New Testament that God is the Father of Jesus Christ in a special way.
We must distinguish between the humanity of Christ and His deity. If we confound the two neither keeps its essence. Jesus is true humanity and undiminished deity in one person forever. When Jesus became man He set aside the voluntary use of His incommunicable attributes.
the use KING is not right. cos you cannot have too many kings in the same kingdom. the gk word ALETHIA means kingdom.we are His kingdom. we are not kings. only in KJV and NKJV we find this use, king. in all other accepted versions it is kingdom.
Job, You use the wrong Greek word in your concern. ALETHIA is the Greek word for “truth.” BASILEIAN and BASILEIS are the alternative Greek words for “kingdom” and “king” respectively. BASILEIS refers to the individual king. Greek manuscripts Aleph A, C, MG, Cr support BASILIAN whereas the P cursives, Md e, TR support BASILEIS. I have been using the NKJV which uses the majority text rather than the critical text. I do not do this without exception because I use a combination of the critical text and the majority text depending on the context.
You make a good point about believers are a “kingdom” rather than “kings. This indeed may be the right translation and interpretation.
The idea of “kingdom” means to designation someone in a somewhat formal or official way for the role of ruling, to give the right to rule, provide authority to rule.
The book of Revelation emphasizes the reigning saints (5:10; 20:4,6; 22:5). That Christ installed saints to function in the present as kings and priests can be seen by 1) the striking parallel use of the aorist EPOIESEN with the accusative plural HIESREIS. The idea is installed as priests. The NT also uses ETHPOIESEN with the accusative for installation into an office with respect to the appointment of the disciples (Mark 3:4-19) and of Christ himself as Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:36). Thus, the language in 1:6 indicates that Christ installed the saints into the offices of kingship and priesthood. 2) That the two distinct though related functions of the office are in mind is evident from the parallel use of the allusion to the Exodus in 5:10, 20:6b (as you may know there are 400 allusions to the OT in Revelation). 5:10 makes explicit what 1:6 makes implicit. 3) 1:6,9; 5:10, BASILEIA occurs six other times (11:15; 12:10; 17:12, 17,18) five of which have the idea of active reigning.
We are a “kingdom” not only in the sense of inhabiting God’s kingdom but also in the sense of ruling with Christ as royalty; in other words, the abstract “kingdom” stands for the concrete “king.” The believer’s participation in God’s rule occurs frequently (2:26; 3:21; 5:10; 20:4,6). Thus, the “kingship” is active and we are to rule in his name. God appointed Adam and his progeny to become theocratic kings (kings to rule for him on earth—gain dominion over the fish of the sea, etc.). Jesus himself is the ultimate theocratic King, who will become King of the World, King Jesus.
Thanks for your reply… Iam not sure what all the ????are for. But I take it that you mean that when the passage says “God and Father,” that it means it is the (Father who is God) of our Lord Jesus Christ, not God and then Father.
So could it be said that the Father is the God of Jesus’ humanity (“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most Highg will over shadow you. . . the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God” Luke 1:35 NASB)with out diminishing His Deity and still maintaining His eternal existence?
Louis, I used a Greek word and WordPress would not receive it so it put ????? in place of the word.
The Father cannot be the Father of Jesus humanity in the physical sense. The Son was always the Son from eternity; that is, that was and is their eternal relationshipship.
Thank you for this wonderfull webpage and for sharing your work and "battle" with our great Bible.
I have one question to you. You write
"to Him be glory. We glorify Jesus because He made us kings and priests".
But is there any grammatically rule or anything that indicated that it must be Jesus and not "God and father" that the doxology is directed towards? "God the father" is here grammatically closer than "God the son".
I hope you understand my poor English – but in short: "He" could it not be God the father instead of God the son?
It would be great – also in speaking with Jehowas Witness – when I could also give this vers as a bulletproofed example example on a doxology to Jesus and not "only" to the God.
Thank you for an answer on this subject.
Your sincerly
pastor Kim from Denmark
Kim, thank you for your contribution to this site.
Note “to him” refers to the one who “freed us from our sins by his blood” (v.5). Verse 6 begins with “made us” (aorist active indicative [point action in the past] third person singular) as an antecedent to “freed us.” Christ made believers a kingdom of priest to “his” “God and Father.” Thus, “to him” of verse 6 has Christ as the antecedent. “To him” is dative case, singular, masculine, personal pronoun. The dative case points to the one who “freed” and “made,” thus grammatically “to him” refers to Christ.
WAU… Thank you for this very useful and more than quick answer!
… maybe I return later in Revelation – In my very little sparetime I am studying this wonderfull book!
Kim
Greeting in Lord,
I have struggling to understand about kingdom because we are in Kingdom right now. Pls explain me about the kingdom from various verses of the Bible. Pls help me to understand about it. Kingdom has two groups of the kingdom- Darkness and Heaven kingdom. The unbelivers are in darkness of the kingdom so it means the believers to belong to the kingdom of God due priesthood and His blood… right?? kingdom of Israel?? Thanks!!
Hi again,
Thank you for your time to respond to me. I have a question for you. In Bible's teaching is saying that when I am in Christ therefore I am in a kingdom, right? Pls explain me clearly, Thanks.
What kingdom are we have now? We are in Christ therefore we are in kingdom. what do we do in kingdom now? Thanks!
Ken, there is no concrete kingdom during the church age (geographical boundaries). Chrsitians are kings in a theocratic sense. A theocratic king represents God on earth. theo=God and cratic=to rule. Each believer rather than a nation rules for God in time on earth. However, believers will share in the Millennial Kingdom in the future.
Got it, Thank you much. It helps me to understand about it.
Dear brother in Jésus-Christ. My wife lately has read many books on prayer, and shared me alot and lately she concluded. « We were also saved to be prayers ( real day long prayers). I answered true 4 weeks ago. this morning i was reading 2 chronicals the king re-opened the temple doors and one of the things he started the priests to do was to offers ensences before the Lord. My human father has always told me these kinda perfume offering was an image of our prayers of good odor before God. Therefore being a priest is to also offer non ceassing prayers before God according to what He asks of us to ask in prayer. And i am starting to realize that the list is very long. Ex. -Before anything pray… 1Tim.2:2…, – then … Math.6:6-13, then…Eph.6:18, then…Paul's example of his list in every epistle,then … topray for workers,the….
Sorry, My story was in 2 chonicals 29 : 5-12.and sorry 4 my english,i'm french canadian.
Therefore am i understanding correctly, the priesthood of Christian also includes doing something like the levite priests , and being steady in prayer( offer perfums) ( sorry if i'm translating from my french Bible )not only to be a good witness ( ambassadors) for God.
Richard, thanks for your post. Although the believer's prayer life has similarities to the function of the Old Testament priest, it is not the same. The priest of the Old Testament related to the nation Israel while the church is an entirely different function. Our prayers, are indeed a sweet perfume to God (not literal perfume). The book of Hebrews says that the Old Testament priesthood was set aside because Christ fulfilled all the types (such as sacrifices by the priests). Old Testament functions were types of the anti-type (the reality). For example, the sacrifice of the lamb was a type of the sacrifice of Christ (the anti-type; that which is against the type).
Revelation is for Israel, not the Church (body of Christ) It is the Jews who will be kings and priests.
Craig, Revelation 1:5 describes Christians. Verse 6 expands on those who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ.