‘To Him who loves us (present tense), and freed us from our sins by (en) His blood (aorist tense), and made us to be a Kingdom, even priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen.'
At the thought of what Jesus has done for us John now bursts into praise. The tenses are significant. His love is continuous, unceasing and unfailing, never ending (present tense). His work of freeing from sin was accomplished once for all (aorist tense) at the cross where He offered one sacrifice for sins for ever (Hebrews 10:12).
He has also ‘made us to be a kingdom'. He is the King we are His kingdom, we belong to Him in close connection. His kingdom are His people. ‘Even priests.' Thus are we priests to His God and Father under our great High Priest (1 Peter 2:5), indeed we are a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). Compare Revelation 5:9 where the kingdom and priests are purchased from every tribe, tongue, people and nation. (We could actually translate ‘a kingdom of priests' (compare Exodus 19:6) for the author tends to combine two nouns in this way when the second is to be treated as a genitive. Compare Revelation 1:9).