A Kingdom and Priests

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father-to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
-- Rev 1:5-6 NIV

John here compares himself and the saints of Asia Minor with the Israelites of old. Just as Israel had been freed from slavery by the blood of a lamb and made to be a kingdom and priests to serve God (Exodus 19:6), so he and the saints in the churches had been freed from sin by the blood of the Lamb and made a kingdom and priests to serve God. John continues throughout Revelation to use the themes of a kingdom and priests, themes borrowed from the Old Testament, to describe New Testament saints. When you read about God's kingdom and priests in Revelation, you are not reading only about Abraham's physical descendants, but about people of all nations who are children of Abraham by faith.