“Delight yourselves in the Lord who is your portion” by Wilhelmus à Brakel
“Having considered how one ought to make use of Christ as Priest, it is necessary in the second place that we be exhorted to be spiritual priests, in harmony with our name Christian. God has given the name priest to believers. “But ye shall be named the priests of the LORD” (Isa. 61:6).
“And hast made us unto our God … priests” (Rev. 5:10). They are priests, but not to sacrifice for their sins or the sins of others, for such is attributed to the Lord Jesus alone. “By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14).
Rather, they are “an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5).
Their work as priest is first of all to approach unto God, to enter the Holy Place, and to be continually engaged there in the service of God. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with a true heart” (Heb. 10:19, 22). Thus our conversation must be in heaven (Phil. 3:20).
Secondly, the priests had no inheritance in Canaan, but God was their portion. They must likewise also turn away from all that is of the earth, leaving this for the men of this world, and look not at the things which are seen (2 Cor. 4:18), but rather delight themselves in the Lord who is their portion (Lam. 3:24).
Thirdly, they must be engaged in sacrifice:
(1) They must mortify the old man. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth” (Col. 3:5); “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:24).
(2) Their prayers must be sacrificed upon the golden altar which is before the throne (Rev. 8:3). They must do so for themselves: “In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Phil. 4:6); as well as for others: “Pray one for another” (James 5:16).
(3) They must sacrifice their goods to the Lord by being generous to the poor, “for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Heb. 13:16).
(4) We must sacrifice ourselves to God with heart, tongue, and deeds, confessing, “Lord, here am I. I surrender myself entirely to Thy service. I am Thine, and whatever I am, I shall be for Thee. I offer myself to Thee as a thankoffering.” The apostle exhorts us to do so in Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
(5) If therefore the Lord leads us in difficult ways, and brings us in a situation where we must lose our life for the truth’s sake, may we then not love our life and deem it precious, but offer it willingly to the Lord as a sacrifice. Paul said, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand” (2 Tim. 4:6). There is no more glorious death imaginable than to die as a martyr for Christ.
Oh, how blessed is he who may thus use Christ as Priest, and who himself may be a spiritual priest!””
–Wilhelmus à Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, Volume 1 (God, Man, and Christ), Ed. Joel Beeke, Trans. Bartel Elshout (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 1700/1992), 1: 559–561.
