LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
According to the Order of Melchizedek
Jesus Christ was instituted high priest, not according to the order of the Jewish Aaron, but according to the order of Melchizedek, the Gentile king of Salem. This is very significant, for the law of Moses was restricted to the Israelites, and if the law was, so was the Aaronic priesthood. But Melchizedek has nothing to do with Abraham, Isaac or Jacob. Neither with Aaron. He was a Gentile king, superior to Abraham ("before Abraham was, I am"; which shows the superiority of Christ over Abraham, not only his temporal antecedence), who offered him bread and wine and blessed him. Hebrews tells us that "without controversy the lesser is blessed by the greater" (7:7).
So when God institutes his Son as High Priest, he does not have Aaron in mind (although he did it after Aaron, in the time of the law), but Melchizedek. And with this, God links his priesthood with a Gentile, indicating that his ministry will be open to all men.
The figure of Melchizedek is very mysterious in the Scriptures. He has no genealogy, nor do we find more data than the few that Genesis gives us in that incident with Abraham. Hebrews, quoting the Psalms, gives us a little more light. Everything, taken together, suggests to us that he is a great one. Who, in Abraham's time, could be greater than the patriarch, considering that God had called Abraham to be the father of believers, the first in the honorable list of those justified by faith?
The figure of Melchizedek inspires in us much respect, the same that the author of Hebrews feels when he speaks of him. And the most significant thing is that Christ associates himself with him, and this association marks him as superior to Aaron, to the Aaronic priesthood, and to the law.
"If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood...what need is there that another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek, who is not called after the order of Aaron?" (Heb. 7:11). Here we are given an important light. The Aaronic priesthood could not make men perfect, for its ministry was weak and insufficient. Therefore a higher priesthood was to be raised up, "not according to the law of the commandment concerning seed, but according to the power of an indestructible life" (Heb. 7:16).
He was to be a priest "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens" and not like those who had to offer sacrifices first for their own sins. "For the law appoints men as high priests who are weak; but the word of the oath, which is after the law, the Son, made perfect forever" (Heb. 7:28).
Melchizedek means King of Righteousness, and he was king of Salem, which means peace. In him are gathered together righteousness and peace. Is not this what Christ, as high priest, gives us? Righteousness, because he entered the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary by his own blood (High Priest and offering at the same time), and peace, because "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1).
The heavens have been opened to the Gentiles, in Christ. This blessed high priest after the order of Melchizedek has introduced us into the heavens, mentions us at his Father's throne when he intercedes for us, and assures to present us perfect forever. Praise his name forever!