Jesus is better than Melchizedek.
Hebrews, Part 10: Jesus is the true and better King-Priest of Jehovah who had come to bring about all that the Lord had spoken.
A version of this article originally appeared on 1517.
Hebrews Chapter 7 is another one of the more troublesome texts of Scripture, with an abundance of opinions and interpretations at the ready for how to make sense of it, all of which revolve around the mysterious biblical figure known as Melchizedek. Discussing the enigmatic high priest Melchizedek has been on the heart of the Hebrew writer since the fifth chapter (Heb. 5:9–10); only now, as Chapter 7 opens, is he finally able to do so in full. The name “Melchizedek” is likely as obscure to you as it was to the original audience. Besides Hebrews, Melchizedek only appears in two other places in the entire Bible: he’s mentioned in a historical context in Genesis 14 and he shows up again in a prophetic context in Psalm 110. In all, he occupies no more than four verses in the Old Testament, which is surprising considering how central he is to the argument of the book of Hebrews, especially Chapter 7.
After a long albeit necessary rabbit trail in Chapters 5 and 6, the writer finally arrives at his primary point at the close of Chapter 6. “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul,” he declares, “a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 6:19–20). Not only is Jesus a better priest than Levi or Aaron, and all those who followed them, but he is a priest from an altogether better order, that of “the order of Melchizedek.” He elaborates: “For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace” (Heb. 7:1–2). This, of course, is a reference to Genesis 14, the only piece of biblical history which bears his name.
In the context of Genesis 14, Abraham and Lot have gone their separate ways, with Lot settling in Sodom. In a sign of things to come, Lot’s new home is besieged by an alliance of kings, resulting in him and his family being taken captive. When Uncle Abraham learns of his nephew’s capture, he sets out with over 300 of his trained men to get his nephew back (Gen. 14:14–16). After a successful rescue mission, Abraham encounters “the king of Salem,” Melchizedek, who also happens to be a “priest of God Most High” (Gen. 14:18–20). Centuries before Moses, Aaron, and the law that was covenanted to them on Mount Sinai, Melchizedek was serving Yahweh as a king and a priest in the land of Canaan. What ought to catch our eye, though, is the deference and reverence shown by Abraham to the mysterious Melchizedek.
After achieving a great victory over his enemies, Abraham receives a formal blessing from Melchizedek, to which Abraham responds by giving him “a tenth of everything” (Gen. 14:20) — and not only a “tenth of everything,” but a “tenth of the best things.” As great as Abraham was, even he recognized Melchizedek’s superiority, showing him the honor he was due as the king-priest of Yahweh. “Although he was blessed by God with the promises,” notes R. C. H. Lenski, “Abraham acknowledged himself as being less than Melchizedek when he bowed beneath Melchizedek’s blessing” (217–18). That’s it, though, for the Old Testament references to this mysterious priest. The Hebrew writer, however, adds a few more details:
[Melchizedek] is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. (Heb. 7:2–3)
This is where many stumble. How could Melchizedek have no “father or mother”? And what does it mean that he has “neither beginning . . . nor end”? And that he is “a priest forever”? Some have taken these descriptions and argued that Melchizedek wasn’t a real person. Instead, he was a spiritual being, an angel, or a pre-incarnate Christ. (There are entire denominations centered around Melchizedek as “the true version” of Christ!) However, the writer of Hebrews isn’t meaning to assert that the elusive Melchizedek didn’t have parents or that he was an eternal being of some sort. These descriptions are not in reference to his person but to his priesthood, and because his priesthood had “neither beginning nor end,” that is how he “resembles the Son of God” (Heb. 7:3). He tells us how that makes sense in the next few verses:
See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils! And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers though these also are descended from Abraham. But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. (Heb. 7:4–8)
In the Mosaic Law, only those who descended from Levi were allowed to function as priests. Strict safeguards were put in place in order to protect the priesthood from being defiled by other bloodlines (Num. 3:5–10; Ezra 2:62). In a way, then, this meant that the priesthood was a matter of inheritance. There was a codified “legal requirement” that stipulated who was and wasn’t allowed to serve as a priest, and that code must be followed to the letter of the law. Melchizedek, however, inherited his role from no one. He didn’t belong to Levi. This was generations before Levi, let alone centuries before any law of Moses was ever founded. Melchizedek’s priesthood, therefore, was not bound by the “legal requirements” of the law nor did he pass it on to any succeeding priest. The priestly order of Melchizedek, we could say, started and stopped with Melchizedek.
Consequently, even though there was no law, nor were there any genealogical ties obligating him to do so, Abraham still honored Melchizedek as the premier priest of “the Most High God” (Heb. 7:6–7). He acknowledged him as superior and, what’s more, so did Levi (Heb. 7:9–10). Levi was “in Abraham,” biologically speaking, before he was born, which is just to say that Levi’s deference to Melchizedek was, in effect, paid for by his great-grandfather.
The writer’s argument could be summarized like this: If you’re clinging to the institution of the priesthood — as if that institution itself can bring about your salvation and make you righteous — you’re clinging to an inferior institution if you’re clinging to Levi and his descendants. As right and lawful as Judaism was, with all of its rites and rituals ordained by God himself, Judaism in and of itself can’t save anyone. Indeed, the inability of the priesthood and the law to save anyone was baked into it from the start. After all, the writer wonders, why else would there be a prophecy of “another priest” from another order to come after Aaron? (Heb. 7:11). If Aaron and the priests of Levi were to be the culmination of God’s purposes for the priesthood, why would there be a need for any other priest?
Accordingly, God’s Word relays the promise that another priest would come, and this priest would rise up “after the order of Melchizedek” (Ps. 110:4). That prophetic psalm is, of course, the most cited psalm in the New Testament, with upwards of twenty references from the likes Peter, Paul, and the angel Gabriel. Psalm 110 is a song that’s all about the future King and Priest of Yahweh who would one day come to realize all of Yahweh’s promises. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus alludes to this psalm as being about himself. He was the true and better King-Priest of Jehovah who had come to bring about all that the Lord had spoken. After alluding to this reasoning in Chapter 5, the Hebrew writer furthers his analysis in Chapter 7:
For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of him, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” (Heb. 7:12–17)
Like Melchizedek, Jesus did not inherit the role of priest. He didn’t belong to Levi, nor did he assume his priesthood because of some “legal requirement” but because of who he is — namely, God in the flesh. Jesus is the Son of God, come down to us in order to represent us before the Father. And when he comes, he inaugurates an entirely new priestly order (Heb. 7:18–21). The old is “set aside because of its weakness” and a “new and living way” is opened up for us. Accordingly, those who believe “draw near to God” not on the basis of the law but on the basis of an “oath” from God, which is God’s solemn promise. And it is none other than the God who was “made like his brothers” who comes in the flesh as “the guarantor” of God’s oath (Heb. 7:22). Jesus Christ is the “underwriter,” the “Yes and Amen,” on all of God’s promises, the one through whom all those promises come true.
What the priests of Levi, under the law, could not do, Jesus has done. He has brought about a “perfect” and complete atonement, a finished salvation, which goes on forever because “he continues forever.” Every other priest met the end of their priesthood through death. But not Christ. Though he succumbed to death, death could not hold him (Acts 2:24). His claim to the priesthood, therefore, rests on the basis of his “indestructible life” (Heb. 7:16). Like Melchizedek, Jesus’s priesthood was not inherited from someone else nor was it transferred to someone else. The priestly order of Jesus starts and stops with Jesus. “He holds his priesthood permanently” (Heb. 7:24).
Even up to this very moment, Jesus serves as your great High Priest. “Consequently,” the writer of Hebrews says, “he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). Unlike any priest before or after him, Jesus’s priestly ministry has never come to an end nor will it ever. His entire life was one of “intercession,” that is, of speaking and acting on behalf of others, particularly sinners. And the good news is that his work of “intercession” will never cease. He was your priest and representative in his perfect life, in his perfect death, and in his perfect resurrection, and he is all of those things even now for you.
For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest holy, innocent, unstained separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever. (Heb. 7:26–28)
Faith means you have fallen under new representation. No longer are you represented by an imperfect priest who sins like you. Instead, your representative is none other than the perfect Son of God who is like you in every way “yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). Whereas other systems of faith operate according to the rule that perfection is earned, it’s only the gospel of Jesus’s priesthood that announces that perfection is a gift given freely, by grace, to those believe. “He gives us a perfect representation before the throne of God,” declares H. A. Ironside. “He is everything that we were not and should have been. He is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners and higher than the heavens, and He is all this for us” (91). The hope of the gospel is the promise of total salvation based entirely on Jesus’s perfect representation on your behalf — and that representation continues to this day.
Hardly a day goes by where we aren’t reminded of our faults and failures; of how far short we’ve fallen from the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). But, even still, Jesus has never grown weary of representing you before the throne of God. “Christ continues to intercede on our behalf in heaven because we continue to fail here on earth,” Dane Ortlund attests (84). It’s never a chore for him to show the Father the wounds that paid for your pardon. He stands with hands and feet emblazoned with eternal reminders that absolution has been won because he “gave himself for our sins” (Gal. 1:4; cf. Rev. 5:6). Therefore, though you and I may keep on sinning, he is always pleading and interceding on our behalf. Where the law only ever sees your sin, God only ever sees the scars of his Son.
Works cited:
H. A. Ironside, Hebrews, James, and Peter (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Bros., 1985).
R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of Hebrews (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 1961).
Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020).