Jesus Compared to Melchizedek

Hebrews 7:11–28

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.

1.              If perfection, or the ultimate intention of God, had been attainable via the Levitical priesthood, there would have been no need for a high priest like Melchizedek. But there, from a human point of view, was a change in the priesthood.

2.              Jesus, is born of the tribe of Judah and not Levi, and there were to be no priests from the tribe of Judah. Thus Jesus’ priesthood is of another order, and unlike the priests of Levi, this high priest has no end of living but is eternal.

3.              And Jesus’ priesthood is not without an oath for such is found in Psalm 110:4, “You are a priest forever” and this oath spoken by the Creator God who inspired David the Psalmist.

4.              It is sharply stated by the author of Hebrews that Jesus “holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.”

(This precludes all others, individuals or groups, who claim their truth is new improved truth. And there are many such who do so, consider Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Christian Scientists among dozens of others.)

5.              Our high priest has no need to make sacrifices first for his own sin and then for the sin of others. This high priest, sinless and eternal, offered up Himself alone, and who “ has been made perfect forever.”

6.              The “Old Covenant (Testament) was always and only temporary, which covenant in fact pointed prophetically to the ultimate covenant ushered in by Jesus the Messiah.

7.              There is a paradox to be found here: there is an Old and a New Covenant or Testament, but there is really only one as the Old was never to be permanent.

8.              The New Covenant, agreement, testament, contract, never changes and is eternal.        

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