Our Great High
Priest
Part V—A Priest
Forever
“Thou
art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews
“For this Melchizedek, king of
Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the
slaughter of the kings and blest him, to whom also Abraham divided a tenth of
all; first on the one hand being interpreted “king of righteousness”, and then
also king of Salem, which is “king of peace”, without father, without mother,
without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, being made
to resemble the Son of God, remains a priest forever” (Hebrews 7:1-3).
Perhaps
the most important single reality in the redemptive process of God is the
Priesthood of Christ. The author of Hebrews made this unmistakably clear—“Of all the things which we have spoken this
is the sum [chief]—we have such a Priest” (Hebrews 8:1).
The
priesthood is a universal symbol of the connection between man and His God or
gods. There is no way that man can come unaided into the presence of the Master
of the Universe. And indeed, most religions stand in awe of the Deity and rely
on the priest to gain His favor. In religions where the priest is on the one
hand the access to the Deity, but on the other, a barrier against any personal
interaction, the people have little more than some vague sense that their
offering is accepted and that the Deity is satisfied. The close personal touch
with the Creator is germane, primarily, to Christianity.
A Priest after the order of
Melchizedek. The priesthood of
Christ was not merely an extension of the Old Testament priesthood. It was an
entirely different order of things. The so-called “Aaronic” priesthood was the
one established with Moses at the formation of the nation of
The
story of Melchizedek is brief and simple and yet profound, and only perceived
through the Holy Spirit. This, of course, is true of all the major elements of
redemption. What could be more simple than the use of a sacrifice for sin, for
example, and yet what could be more unfathomable than the willingness of God to
provide such a sacrifice for His fallen creatures. And still more profound—the
providing of a Son for that sacrifice.
Melchizedek
was, by definition and description, extraordinary. It is quite possible that he
was, in fact, a so-called “pre-incarnate” appearance of Christ Himself. The
description in Hebrews 7 would certainly support this idea.
Melchizedek. Melek, “king;”
and zadok, “righteousness.” The name
embodies the essence of all that God intends for creatures who went totally the
wrong way and are now, through the sacrifice of Christ, turned in the right way
or “the way of righteousness.” This change comes not by the will of man, but
the will of God.
King of
Without father, without mother,
without geneology. If Melchizedek
were only a type, this would mean no more than the absence of a record of these
things. But the text does not say “without record of.” It says, “without.” If
this were, indeed, Christ, there would not have been as yet any human lineage
as there was with Jesus.
Having neither beginning of days or
end of life. This could only truly
be said of Christ, the projection of the eternal Spirit of God. The earthly
Jesus had both beginning of days and end of life, as far as His natural person
was concerned, but he was, nevertheless, possessed by the eternal Spirit of
God.
Remains a priest forever. As Melchizedek had an eternal priesthood, so also
Christ, a priest in the order of Melchizedek. But will there be need for a
priesthood in heaven? Apparently, yes. On what grounds? On the grounds of the
eternal separateness between God and man. We are truly partakers of His divine
nature as Peter has said, but we will never be gods. Children are partakers of
the nature of their parents, but they are never the same as their parents. As
God is eternally God, and we are eternally human, Christ must forever be the
catalyst that maintains the intrinsic oneness.
David
Morsey
February
1990
Next month “Part VI—Mediator of a
New Covenant”