In the Old Testament, a priest was a man appointed by God to serve in the tabernacle and later the temple. His job was to pray for the people, offer their sacrifices to God and so help them to draw near to God. But a priest also taught the people God’s Word, making clear to them both what God had done to save them and how they should live in response to Him. In the New Testament, the letter to the Hebrews in particular describes how the Old Testament priesthood is fulfilled by Jesus Christ. In that letter, we see that Jesus is the Great High Priest, who prays for His people, offers His own life as the great sacrifice for them, and so enables them to draw near to God in faith (see High Priest).
The New Testament also makes clear that all those who trust in Jesus are priests, in the sense that like the apostle Paul, they have ‘… the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit’ (Romans 15:16). All believers, like Paul, have become priests with the responsibility of declaring the way to draw near to God (1 Peter 2:5, 9), through the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the term priest should no longer refer to the main leader of a local church (see Priesthood of All Believers).