August 25
“You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek,” Hebrews 5:6.
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is moved by the Holy Spirit to quote from Psalm 110:4: “The Lord has sworn and will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’” Psalm 110 is one of the psalms that we designate as a Messianic psalm – that is, one of the psalms that foretold events that would occur in the life of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah and Savior of the world. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of Melchizedek in the entire chapter seven of this Epistle.
Melchizedek met Abraham as Abraham was returning from rescuing his nephew Lot, who had been taken captive during a war. This is reported in Genesis chapter fourteen. Melchizedek was king of Salem, and he was also a priest. In Hebrews chapter seven, we are told, “For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated ‘king of righteousness,’ and then also king of Salem, meaning, ‘king of peace,’ without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually,” Hebrews 7:1-3.
Jesus is a priest forever like Melchizedek, who suddenly appeared on the scene and suddenly disappeared. He appears without a beginning or an ending, without a father or a mother, and without any other family members. Melchizedek was a type or symbol of Christ, who is both King and Priest in one Person. But Melchizedek passed away, and we hear no more of him. Jesus is the eternal Son of God, without beginning and without ending. He has a continual priesthood.
Jesus is our great High Priest who sacrificed Himself on the cross to redeem all people. Like the priests in the Old Testament, and especially the High Priest, Jesus pleads and prays for us. The apostle Paul wrote of this: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us,” Romans 8:31-34. God is for us, as He demonstrated by sending His Son to be our Savior. Christ died to redeem us. However, we do not have a dead Savior. He rose from the grave! He ascended on high, and He is at the right hand of God; He rules! And how comforting it is to know that Jesus pleads and prays for us as our High Priest.
Therefore, we can ask, as Paul did, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (We more than come out on top!) For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Romans 8:35, 37-39. Nothing – nothing at all, not even death – can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus! Note the little word, “us.” Paul was not speaking just for himself. What he said, you can say, I can say, and every child of God can say: “Nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus!” Amen! And again I say, “Amen!” So shall it be!