Rick McNally / Friday September 11, 2026 / after last night’s How To Study the Bible workshop, focused on 1 Peter 2
This verse blows my mind. Even just a bit of it explodes our thinking.
1 Peter 2:9 / But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
From the pen of a man (Peter) who didn’t want to even enter the house of a gentile man (God-fearing or not, Acts 10) to the one who wrote this boundary-imploding verse — is it the same man? Of course, but he is now one who has changed because of the profound work of Christ Jesus.
The reality Peter grew up with was one where there was deep hierarchy; gentiles on the bottom, Jewish women, Jewish men, Jewish Priests, the High Priest. In that order. The temple spoke of those boundaries — each court of the temple allowed some to pass and some to be held at arm’s length or much, much farther.
Jesus made believers to become something more. Regardless of your race, gender, or appointments. Here in this new reality, the dissolution of such secondary things (not unimportant, but not ultimately important) falls away — “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11, 1 Corinthians 12:13)
So Peter speaks the truth of Christ’s work having “made” us [aorist, past tense] a “kingdom, priests…” Here too, there is no distinction. It is to the gentiles (who were once not a people, but now are a people), it is to the women (not second-class believers but priests themselves), it is to any who dare believe that these honors are a part of their lives.
So, going back to that temple and its courts of divisions, it seems that the presence of God and the access to him has been cleared away — there should be no gentile court, no court of the women, no court of the men, nor even the court of the priestly orders. In this picture of the presence of God, Jesus’ work has done much. The true High Priest (Hebrews) made these new identities possible—we are all priests.
You and I are priests before God. We need no “priests.” This is why most of our Christian leaders are not called priests anymore, because it is an erroneous distinction. It means nothing, since we are all priests. Pastors are not priests. Pastors are not mediators. We all have one High Priest, and with one another, we take priestly roles (we speak the Word, we pray and intercede), but never in just one direction, as we are each other’s priests in a servant manner.
Luther put it this way: “Let everyone, therefore, who knows himself to be a Christian be assured of this, and apply it to himself — that we are all priests, and there is no difference between us.” [Luther, “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church”]
For those of us keeping score of the areas of the temple, we have not mentioned one area — the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. This is the area that only the High Priest could enter, and that very infrequently, to offer sacrifices to God. In this area of the temple, only a handful of men ever went, and then in terror and fear. What about this area of the presence of God — are we pushed out and kicked to the curb? No.
When Jesus died, a curious thing happened: the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies tore from top to bottom — symbolizing access to God through Christ’s sacrifice once for all (Matthew 27:51). It is this image that the author of Hebrews takes up.
Hebrews 10:19-25 / Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Consider his passionate understanding of the purposes of Christ completed — full access to God. No secondary citizens. If Jesus is your High Priest, you can have confidence to enter into his very presence. It is not a boldness that is out of pride and arrogance (ugly, ugly things) but rather out of confidence in work accomplished on our behalf. If our High Priest says it’s okay, and desires our presence, we can enter in with him to the presence of God.
And so, draw near, dear people. You are like a priest, and you must be about your priestly duties. You must study the Word and know it. You must pray for those around you. You must allow others to speak to you the Word and pray for you as well.
We are a kingdom of priests. Don’t forget it. Don’t treat it lightly.
It is not just a positional thing, it is all wrapped up in the ministry that is done one to another. If you think you are superior to others, you tend to treat others as “less,” but in Christ there are no “lesser” ones — rather people who are instructed to act as “less than” to others, as others act “less than” to us — the beauty of Paul’s call of humility (Philippians 2).
So go, enter into God’s presence, and offer spiritual sacrifices.
In Christ, by Christ, for Christ.
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