The priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) is based on the Old Covenant model under the Law of Moses. God ordained priests descended from Aaron to perform the cultic ritual of animal sacrifice as a means to temporarily appease God’s wrath against Israel’s sin. These priests were intermediaries between God and the nation and constituted a separate class of people with a special calling and ministry. Today we use the term “clergy” to distinguish people separated by ordination to perform a ministerial function in the church.
This article examines the following questions.
- Did God intend for a new class of priests to exist in the New Covenant?
- Is the clergy-laity distinction a New Testament concept?
Old Covenant animal sacrifices were a stopgap measure to delay God’s judgment against sin until the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God, offered himself on the cross to expiate our sins once and for all.
I covered this earlier in this series in my article on the Mass. Once Jesus completed this work, the need for animal sacrifices ceased. Consequently, the need for priests to offer these sacrifices also disappeared. The perfect came eliminating the need for the foreshadowing.
For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Hebrews 10:1 (NASB95) — When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. Hebrews 8:13 (NASB95) —
As prophesied by Jesus, the Romans destroyed the Jewish temple in 70 AD, eliminating forever the Old Covenant sacrificial system with its attendant priesthood.
In the Old Testament Law, the high priest entered the the Holy of Holies in the Temple, where only he was allowed to go and only once a year on the Day of Atonement, to sprinkle blood on the Mercy Seat above the Ark of the Covenant.
Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship, 7 but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. 8 The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, 9 which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, 10 since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation. 11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; 12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Hebrews 9:6–12 (NASB95) —
Jesus is the foreshadowed and perfect high priest. His coming eliminated the need for the high priest, since his function and role ceased.
The RCC’s doctrine of the Mass, that it is the re-sacrifice of Christ, necessitated a new order of priests, not authorized in the Bible.
This is an abomination since only Christ himself, acting as his own high priest, was qualified to oversee his perfect sacrifice of himself. He was both the sacrifice and the offerer. The Bible makes it clear that his sacrifice is never to be repeated. It was once and for all time.
Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, 13 waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. 14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Hebrews 10:11–14 (NASB95) —
Any so called priest who pretends to offer Christ again is defying the Word of God and pretends to be greater than Christ himself.
Another reason for the RCC priesthood is their supposed role in mediating God’s grace through ministering the sacraments. I will cover this in a future article in more detail. For now, let it suffice that the Bible teaches that there is only one mediator between God and men – our Lord Jesus.
For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. 1 Timothy 2:5–6 (NASB95) —
Anyone who claims to be a mediator of God’s grace, by granting absolution for example, seeks to replace the ministry of the Lord himself.
The New Covenant is a brand new way of relating to God that is categorically different from the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant failed because it depended on man’s obedience. Our disobedience breached the covenant, bringing upon us the consequences of our rebellion against God – death.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (NASB95) —
In order to properly and permanently reconcile us to himself, Father God instituted a new covenant between himself and our Lord, which depended on Christ’s obedience, not ours.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. 8 For finding fault with them, He says, “BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL EFFECT A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH; 9 NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS ON THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; FOR THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND I DID NOT CARE FOR THEM, SAYS THE LORD. 10 “FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. Hebrews 8:7–10 (NASB95) —
The New Covenant transformed all believers into a new sort of priesthood which offers spiritual sacrifices to God.
And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 1 Peter 2:5 (NLT) —
The New Covenant temple is made of people, living stones, in whom dwells the Spirit of God. We offer spiritual sacrifices of surrender, praise, giving, and hospitality, to name of few. (Romans 12:1-2, Hebrews 13:15-16) Essentially, a spiritual sacrifice is an act of worship whereby we offer ourselves back to God in appreciation for all he has done for us in Christ.
Since we are all priests to God who offer spiritual sacrifices, the idea of a separate clergy, as was instituted in the Old Testament, is obsolete.
God does raise up individuals whose responsibility is to care for and equip the church for service. These people are called to be elders, pastors, teachers, apostles, prophets and evangelists. (Ephesians 4:11) These are not a separate class of people, but fellow servants with a specific role. Their job is to prepare the rest of the church to do the ministry, not keep it for themselves.
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:11–12 (NLT) —
Any group that seeks to relegate ministry to a special class of clergy violates what the Bible teaches in the New Covenant.
Therefore, the RCC concept and practice of priesthood is wrong on all counts. RCC priests cannot possibly re-sacrifice Christ. They are not able to mediate grace, since Jesus is our only mediator, and in the New Covenant, all believers are priests who offer spiritual sacrifices.
The RCC practices syncretism relating to the priesthood by incorporating Old Covenant concepts into the New Covenant, thus coming up with a hybrid that is foreign to the New Covenant.
By doing this they present us with a different gospel and bring God’s judgment upon themselves.
I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! Galatians 1:6–9 (NASB95)
