- CHAPTER 9: Jesus, Like unto Melchizedek

IT WAS NEVER IN THE MIND of God that a privileged priesthood of sinful, imperfect men would attempt, following the death and triumphant resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, to repair the veil and continue their office of mediation between God and man. The letter to the Hebrews makes that fact very plain. When Jesus rose from the dead, the Levitical priesthood, which had served Israel under the Old Covenant, became redundant.
God’s better plan for an eternal High Priest and a sinless Mediator is also made plain in the letter to the Hebrews. Jesus glorified at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens is now our High Priest forever. His priesthood is not after the order of Aaron and Levi but after the enduring priesthood of Melchizedek.
Those are highlights in the Hebrews message concerning the better covenant, the better priesthood and the better hope resting upon the completed work of Jesus Christ for lost mankind. We read:
Jesus… has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.… When there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law.… The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless(for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.… If there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. (Hebrews 6:20; Hebrews 7:12, Hebrews 7:18-19; Hebrews 8:7)
The mysterious Melchizedek
Long before the time of Moses and Aaron and the sons of Levi, the Genesis record notes the appearance of a mysterious yet compelling personality, Melchizedek. Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of the most high God. When Abraham returned from the rescue of Lot, his nephew, he was greeted and blessed by Melchizedek. And Abraham gave to Mechizedek the tithe of all the goods he had recovered (Genesis 14:17-20).
The Genesis appearance of Melchizedek is brief and without explanation in Old Testament history. More information is offered by the writer to the Hebrews. When he notes that Melchizedek was “without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life” (Hebrews 7:3), the writer simply was saying that Melchizedek had no “family tree,” no genealogical records through which his origins could be traced. In short, we do not know where he came from.
Melchizedek is not mentioned again until Psalm 110. There he is referred to as the type of an eternal priest of God who would yet appear in Israel’s national development.
Jews were very meticulous about genealogy. Each son or daughter of Israel could trace his or her ancestry back to Abraham. It is only too apparent that later generations in Israel did not know how to deal with the references to Melchizedek, a priest whose lineage they could not trace.
The reason all Jews so jealously guarded their lineage, preserving these on permanent tablets, was related to their hope of Messiah’s coming. They knew the prophecies. When Messiah finally appeared, He would have to prove His line of descent from Abraham through King David and on down to His own parents.
In his New Testament Gospel, Matthew conformed to Jewish custom, taking pains to furnish his readers a full record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. He begins with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, carries the lineage through David and Solomon to another Jacob, concluding with “Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ” (Matthew 1:16).
Israel’s final hope
In view of the importance given to the Jewish records of ancestry, it is significant that all those carefully preserved records were lost in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. So historians believe. Jesus had come as Redeemer and Messiah. Israel rejected Him, crucifying Him on the cross. But there could be no other. No other could have furnished the necessary proof of his descent from Abraham and David. Jesus, the risen, ascended Son of God was and is Israel’s final hope.
As we come into a consideration of the things taught in this section of Hebrews, we must be prepared to do some thinking. We live in a generation that wants everything condensed and predigested. But here we must do some thinking. And in the end, the understanding we achieve will be well worth the effort.
In this part of his letter, the writer sets out to make three things very plain to the troubled Hebrew Christians of his day. First, he declares that the Mosaic law and the Levitical priesthood were not established by God as permanent and perfect institutions. Second, he makes it plain that the eternal and sinless Son came to assure believers concerning His superior and enduring priesthood, confirmed by His glorification at God’ s right hand. Third, he wants his readers to know that the plan of salvation for sinful men and women does not rest upon earthly offerings made by Levitical priests, but upon the eternal sacrifice and high priestly mediation of Jesus, the eternal Son, who also was willing to become the sacrificial Lamb of God.
The comparisons made in this letter indicate that the provisions of the Old Testament Mosaic law and the system of the Levitical priesthood were interdependent. Thus, when the priesthood was eliminated, the Mosaic law passed away also. The writer’s summary is clear: “The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.”
We are free in Christ Jesus
What does all this mean to us in our Christian lives, our Christian faith? Thankfully, it means that we do not stand under the shadow of those laws given through Moses. We do not stand under the shadow of the imperfections of the Old Testament Jewish priesthood and mediation. Instead, we stand in the light and authority of Jesus Christ. He is superior to all Old Testament priests. He has fulfilled the Law—dismissed it, if you will—by the institution of the new covenant based on a superior sacrifice. This new covenant, sealed in the blood of Jesus, our Savior and Mediator, introduces for us a great spiritual freedom. We should rejoice daily. No one can lay the burden of the old law upon us—a law that Israel was unable to fulfill.
In his letter to the church in Galatia, Paul dealt with this very problem. He states the principle of God’s grace and righteousness through faith with telling effect. He condemns those who followed the Galatian Christians around, trying to make Jews out of them. “Stand firm, then,” he says, “and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.… You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace” (Galatians 5:1, Galatians 5:4).
We who are Christian believers should thank God continually for our New Testament guarantees of spiritual life and freedom in Christ! Our sacrifice is not an animal offered by a priest as imperfect as we are. Our sacrifice is the very Lamb of God, who was able and willing to offer Himself to take away the sins of the world. Our altar is not the altar in old Jerusalem. Our altar is Calvary, where Jesus offered Himself without spot to God through the eternal Spirit. Our Holy of Holies is not that section of a temple made with hands, secluded behind a protective veil. Our Holy of Holies is in heaven, where the exalted Jesus sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Note the comparisons
Note the comparison of the two priesthoods. In the Old Testament, every priest who ever served knew that he would ultimately be retired and die. Each priest was temporal. But in our Lord Jesus Christ we have an eternal High Priest. He has explored and conquered death. He will not die again. He will continue as a priest forever, and He will never change! It is for that very reason, the writer assures us, that Jesus is “able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
Before we move on from the subject of the passing of the Old Testament priestly mediation, I want to mention the strange, anomalous event that took place within the Jerusalem Temple as Jesus gave up His life on the cross. As He “gave up his spirit”(John 19:30) outside Jerusalem, the very finger of God Almighty reached into the temple’s most holy place, splitting, rending, tearing the heavy hanging veil.
That ancient veil was not just a curtain. It was a special drape—a veil so thick and heavy that it took several men to pull it aside. As Jesus died, the finger of God rent that veil which had housed the earthly presence of the invisible God. Thus, God was indicating the beginning of a new covenant and a new relationship between mankind and Himself. He was demonstrating the passing of the old order and the transfer of authority, efficacy and mediation to the new order.
The priesthood, the priests, the old covenants, the altars, the sacrifices—all that had been involved in the Old Testament system of law—was done away with. God had eliminated it as useless, powerless, without authority. In its place He instituted a new Sacrifice, the Lamb of God, the eternal Son, Jesus Christ. God instituted as well a new and efficacious altar, this one eternal in the heavens, where Jesus lives to intercede for God’s believing children.
The futile repair
When the Temple veil was torn top to bottom, tradition has it that the Levitical priests determined they must repair that long-sacred partition. And they did. They sewed it together as best they could. Not understanding that God had decreed a new order, they took the earthly view by trying to continue the old system of sacrifices.
I hope I will not be accused of anti-Semitism when I cite certain Bible truths indicating that even yet Jews do not really know why they worship. We evangelicals have no sympathy for those who hate the Jews. In our understanding of the Scriptures and God’s great plan, we recognize the worth of our Jewish friends. We have a concern for their well being in an unfriendly world.
Moreover, we believe strongly in the future glory of Israel. We believe that when God’s Messiah returns, Israel will minister again in faith and worship in her own land. We believe in a day yet coming when a reborn Israel will shine forth. The Word of God’s righteousness will go forth from Zion and the Word of God from Jerusalem.
But for the present, the living, beating life of Jewish faith is gone. There is no altar. There is no Shekinah glory and Presence. There is no efficacious sacrifice for sin. There is no mediatorial priest and no Holy of Holies for him to enter on behalf of his people. All is gone—eliminated as useless, powerless, without further authority.
In its place God has instituted and accepted a new sacrifice—the Lamb of God, the eternal Son. He has confirmed a new and efficacious altar, this one eternal in the heavens, where Jesus ever lives to make intercession for God’s believing children. He has ordained and accepted a new High Priest, Jesus, the eternal Son, seating Him at His right hand.
Jesus lives eternally
All that I have been saying may seem complex and involved. This much we must understand: Jesus our Lord, God’s Christ and our Savior, lives forevermore! As God is timeless and ageless, so also is Jesus Christ.
And Jesus lives to intercede for us! His eternal interest is to be our surety. We sing of it with faith and joy: “Before the throne my Surety stands; / My name is written in His hands.” And then we continue with the rest of those stirring words from the vision and heart of Charles Wesley:
The Father hears Him pray,
His dear anointed One;
He cannot turn away
The presence of His Son.
His Spirit answers to the blood
And tells me I am born of God.
It is Christ’s unfailing intercession that makes it possible for us to tell each other that we believe in the security of the saints of God. We believe there is a place of security, not because there was some technicality that John Calvin might have advanced, but because of the high priestly intercession of the eternal One who cannot die. Day and night He offers our names before the Father in heaven. No matter how weak we may be, we are kept because Jesus Christ is our eternal High Priest in the heavens.
How different is our vision of Jesus Christ from that of the ones who put Him to death, saying, “That is the end of him!” Our vision is of a risen, victorious, all-powerful and all-wise High Priest. Quietly, triumphantly He pleads the worth and value of His own life and blood for the preservation and victory of God’s believing children.
Just consider, if you will, the gracious implications of God’s guarantee. He declares in His Word that Jesus, our Savior and Mediator, “is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” The King James translation reads “is able to save to the uttermost. .. . “ There have been preachers who changed the preposition to and made it from. They preached a salvation with emphasis on what the individual sinner is saved from.
I heartily disagree with that emphasis!
Our Lord has given an invitation that excludes no one. “Whoever” is as broad as the human race. I do not believe God is concerned at all about where we have come from. He is concerned with where we are going. The decision we have made to go where we are going—to be with God forever—is what pleases Him and causes the angels to rejoice.
Some Christian workers have made an entire career of dwelling on the negative aspects of the human, sinful life—”from the uttermost.” “Let me tell you what a hopeless drunkard I was!” “Attend the services and let me share what it is like to be a helpless drug addict!” “Come and let me relate the awful, tragic time in my past when I was a good-for-nothing wife-beater!”
It is a gracious thing that God does for us in His mercy and love when we are forgiven, regenerated and converted. It is indeed a new birth! God saves us from what we were, whatever it was. But He expects us to spend the rest of our lives praising Him, telling about the wonders of Christ and His salvation. He wants us to spread the good news of the great eternal future He has planned for us. He wants us to tell others of the eternal habitation He is preparing for all who love and obey Him.
A personal testimony
It is fitting that I close this chapter with a word of testimony. I trust it will be helpful.
I came to Christ and was converted when I was 17. My testimony was just as dull as it is possible for a testimony to be. I had never been in jail. I did not use tobacco in any form. I did not know anything about the use of drugs. I had never taken to any kind of strong drink. I had never deserted my wife—I had never been married!
If you have seen me in later life, you might not believe it, but I was a healthy, red-cheeked young man at the time the Lord found me. There were some who considered me good looking. We had neighbors who said, “Aiden is a fine boy!” If I had had to get up and tell people what I was saved from, in the eyes of the curious world my testimony would not have been worth two lines of type.
But I was a sinner in the sight of God and I have found Him faithful. What I was saved “to is much more important than what I was saved “from . I have had a lifetime of telling and retelling everyone around me of the goodness, kindness, mercy and grace of God. He has saved me to the uttermost. He guarantees an eternity of fellowship and rejoicing with our Lord Jesus Christ and the redeemed family of God.
If you are doubtful or hesitant, I can only say: Do not make the mistake of trying to match your time on earth against the eternity that is your endless future. No matter who you are, all of your past is time; your future is eternity.
On Christ the solid rock you stand. All other ground is sinking sand.