Purchased For Clarity: The Sobriety Of A Blood-Bought Priesthood

PURCHASED FOR CLARITY: THE SOBRIETY OF A BLOOD-BOUGHT PRIESTHOOD

I. YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN

The crisis of modern Christianity begins with a lie:

"I am free to choose."

But Scripture says:

You are not your own.

This is not poetry. This is legal reality.

Paul asks: "Know ye not?"

Your body is not your possession. Your life is not your property. Your decisions are not your prerogative.

Why?

"Ye are bought with a price."

Purchased. Owned. Claimed.

And that price was not silver or gold.

"Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot." — 1 Peter 1:18-19

Christ's blood bought you.

Every breath you take is His. Every decision you make is under His authority. Every use of your body is accountable to Him.

This is not tyranny. This is freedom—deliverance from sin's ownership into Christ's possession.

But it means you have no right to self-determination.

None.

II. PURCHASED INTO PRIESTHOOD

The blood purchase is not merely forgiveness. It is identity transformation.

Peter does not say: "You were sinners, now forgiven."

He says: "Ye are a royal priesthood."

This is covenant reality.

Israel became God's priesthood at Sinai through covenant blood:

"And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold, the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you." — Exodus 24:8

Christ's blood does the same—but better.

"Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father." — Revelation 1:5-6

The order:

1. Loved

2. Washed in blood

3. Made priests

Not achievement. Not status. Not choice.

Covenant reality.

Christ's blood made you a priest.

And that changes everything.

III. PRIESTHOOD REQUIRES CLARITY

A priest mediates holiness. Guards boundaries. Discerns clean from unclean. Teaches truth. Stands watch.

All require clarity.

Which is why God commanded Aaron:

"Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations: That ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken." — Leviticus 10:9-11

Wine and strong drink—separate categories.

Wine (????? - yayin): fermented grape juice.

Strong drink (?????? - shekar): barley beer, date wine, concentrated fermentation.

Both existed. Both forbidden to priests.

Why?

Because priesthood requires:

Discernment—holy from unholy. Teaching clarity—God's statutes. Constant readiness—entrance into God's presence.

Wine obscures. Strong drink intoxicates. Both compromise judgment.

Priests cannot afford compromise.

IV. WHEN IS PRIESTLY DUTY "OFF"?

We read Leviticus 10 and think:

"Priests couldn't drink while serving. But I'm not in the tabernacle. I'm at home. I'm off duty."

But something happened at Pentecost.

Something transfigured.

Old Covenant reality:

God dwelt in a place—tabernacle, temple. Some Israelites were priests. The Spirit came upon specific people for specific tasks, temporarily.

Priests entered the tabernacle at specific times. They served. They left. They had "on duty" and "off duty."

New Covenant reality:

"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy Ghost?" — 1 Corinthians 6:19

"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood." — 1 Peter 2:5

God no longer dwells in a place. He dwells in persons.

All believers are priests. The Spirit indwells all believers permanently.

The tabernacle is not a place you enter.It's what you are.

Therefore "when ye go into the tabernacle" becomes "always"—because you ARE the tabernacle.

There is no "leaving" when you are the dwelling place.

The old priesthood had "on duty" and "off duty" because they entered and exited a physical structure.

The new priesthood IS the structure.

We were transfigured.

Not at a mountain with Christ. But at Pentecost with the Spirit.

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." — 2 Corinthians 5:17

We were dead. Now we're alive. We were profane. Now we're holy. We were flesh. Now we're Spirit-indwelt temples.

This is not theological adjustment. This is ontological transformation.

You are always what Christ made you.

A priest has no private life separate from priestly function.

V. WHAT SCRIPTURE ACTUALLY SHOWS

If we are priests always, what does Scripture show regarding alcohol?

Passover and covenant meals. Wine at appointed feasts before the LORD (Deuteronomy 14:26). The Lord's Supper (Matthew 26:27-29).

Wedding celebrations. Jesus at Cana—public feast, covenant establishment (John 2).

But notice: Cana happened before Pentecost.

Before the Spirit was given (John 7:39). Before disciples were indwelt. Before the Church was constituted as royal priesthood.