Had we approached one of the sons of Aaron and asked him how he became a priest, he would doubtless have told us that it was, firstly, by his birth; and that, secondly, being born of the priestly family, he was put into the priest’s office by the washing of water, the sprinkling with blood, and the anointing with oil, as ordered in Exodus 29. We, too, are priests by birth. Being born of God, we are priests of God. We, too, have had the washing of water by the Word (Eph. 5:26). We have been redeemed by blood, the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:19), and we have received the Spirit, who was typified by the oil; though that particular feature is not brought before us in the passage we are considering. We have come to Christ (2:4), and thus we are priests, just as Aaron’s sons were priests, as having come to Aaron, and being thus associated with him in the priest’s office.

Every believer today is then a priest. But we must remember that it is one thing to be a priest, another to really enter into and exercise our priestly functions. The first exercise of our priesthood is Godward, in the offering up of the sacrifice of praise. This is “acceptable to God by Jesus Christ,” for He is the Great High Priest. All that we offer, we offer by Him.