17  Jesus, the Superior  Priest—part 1 (7:11-19)

Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of Him, “Thou are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and useless-ness (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. (7:11-19)

The key phrase of this passage is we draw near to God (v. 19b). God’s ultimate desire for men is for them to come to Him. His ultimate desire for believers is that they continue to draw nearer to Him. God’s goal in all that He does in behalf of men is that they might come into His presence. Drawing near to God is the essence of Christianity. Drawing near to God is the Christian’s highest experience, and should be his highest purpose. This is the design of God for Christianity—access to His presence, coming into His presence with nothing between. Sometimes we forget this.

Some Christians seem to look at Jesus Christ only as a means to salvation and personal happiness. If they believe they are saved and are fairly happy with their circumstances, they consider their lives fulfilled. They are looking for happiness and security. They find these in Christ and are satisfied. Others see their Christian lives as a continuing, growing relationship to God through study of and obedience to His Word. This view of the Christian life is much more mature than the first. But the key to the Christian life is drawing near to God. The fullest expression of faith is to enter into the presence of God in His heavenly Holy of Holies and to fellowship with Him. That is something Judaism was limited in enabling men to do.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul gives the essence of the mature, spiritually fulfilled Christian life. “So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:17-19). This is Christianity-”the fulness of God.”

That is the basic goal of the gospel. Judaism brought a man into the presence of God, but not in the purest and fullest sense. The veil was always there. Only in the New Covenant is complete entrance possible. Only by the blood of Jesus Christ, only by His priestly intercession at the right hand of God, based on His perfect sacrifice on Calvary, was access to God opened. These are the great recurring themes in Hebrews.

Aaron’s priests could never bring a man fully to God. There was always a barrier in between. The veil could not be removed because sin had not been fully done away. But the fact that the Messiah was a priest after the order of Melchizedek opened the way. He could remove the veil because He atoned for sin. He actually bore our sin; the Levitical sacrifices only symbolically anticipated its cancellation. And now that sin had actually been dealt with, the Levitical priesthood was no longer necessary, and God set it aside. You do not need a symbol when you have the real thing. Now that the perfect had come, the imperfect passed away.

The design of Hebrews 7:11-19 is to show this truth. The point is to encourage the wavering Jews to break with the old system and come to Jesus Christ. This was not an easy thing for Jews to understand or accept. Despite the many prophecies of the Messiah and of the new order He would bring, most Jews could not imagine that the Mosaic economy was temporary and inadequate and defective and unable to bring perfection. The very idea was incomprehensible to the pious Jew. All their lives they had assumed that the Levitical system was instituted by God, and that it was perfect, sufficient, and permanent. They were correct only in the first part. It was indeed instituted by God. But it was never intended or declared by Him to be perfect, eternally sufficient, or permanent.

It is the imperfection of the Levitical system that the Holy Spirit points out in our present passage. He uses invincible logic to show that the Aaronic priesthood was imperfect and that, because it was imperfect, it had to be superseded. First He shows the imperfection of the old priesthood, then the perfection of the new.

THE IMPERFECTION OF THE OLD PRIESTHOOD

God never intended for the Levitical priesthood to remain forever, and nowhere in Scripture is this idea taught. The Old Testament, in fact, anticipated (as in Ps. 110:4) that another priesthood was coming. If God predicted another priesthood was coming, it would have been reasonable to assume, even without further revelation, that the new one would be better and would replace the old. Israel was told that a greater priesthood was to come, of which the Messiah would be the Priest. If the Aaronic priesthood had been perfect, another would have been unnecessary. Or, if God had intended the Aaronic priesthood somehow to improve and one day introduce the age of perfect access to Him, why would He have planned for the Messiah to be a priest of a different order?

It was no accident or mistake that God set aside the Israelite priesthood. He had planned it that way from the beginning. That is obvious because soon after He called Abraham, before He actually made the covenant with him, God introduced him to Melchizedek, a priest of a higher order than the one that would come from Abraham’s descendants.

THE MEANINGS OF PERFECTION

In Scripture, the word perfect is often used in the sense of maturity or completion, of being what something or someone is meant to be. Sometimes it means full-grown. Paul often uses it in this way. In Hebrews, however, it is used to refer to the goal and aim of Christianity. This goal, this maturity, is access to God. In this sense it does not mean spiritual maturity (being advanced in the faith) but salvation in Christ (coming to faith).

Hebrews 7:11 speaks of perfection not coming through the Levitical priesthood. The purpose of the priesthood was to reconcile men to God through sacrificing for their sins. But this priesthood could only picture, only typify, the actual reconciliation, because it could only typify cleansing of sin. It was therefore imperfect, in that it could not give men access to God. Verse 19 speaks of the law not being able to make men perfect, and goes on to say specifically that this imperfection, this failure, was in not being able to bring men near to God. The goals both of the Aaronic priesthood and of the Mosaic law were to bring men to God. They were both imperfect in achieving this goal, in the sense that they could not stand alone apart from the priesthood of Christ.

In Hebrews perfection first of all means access to God, not the spiritual maturity of Christians. “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). In other words, a person is perfected when, by Christ’s sacrifice, he is given full access to God in Christ.

The Levitical priesthood could not provide this full access. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6). Jesus was speaking to Jews, to those under the Old Covenant, the Levitical priesthood. The Old Covenant sacrifices merely covered over sin, they could not remove it. There was a degree of forgiveness, but it was never comprehensive. Permanent forgiveness, and therefore permanent access to God, can come only through Jesus Christ—in the New Covenant and through the new priesthood.

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? (10:1-2)

Had the old sacrifices been able to bring a person into God’s presence, they would have ceased. They would have fulfilled their purpose.

The Old Testament saints lacked the total sense of freedom from the consciousness of their sin. They came short of that full privilege, because the sacrifices of that covenant could not completely remove their sin and bring them to God. Because their sins were not finally cleansed, their consciences could not be wholly cleansed, could not be freed. The New Covenant gives greater understanding of full forgiveness, freedom from guilt, and a peaceful conscience.

Jeremiah clearly predicted the New Covenant and many of its superiorities to the Old.

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, . . . But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jer. 31:31-34)

A portion of this passage is quoted in Hebrews 10:16-17, where the point is made that where there is true forgiveness of sin, sacrifice is no longer necessary. Once the final sacrifice was offered, we were free from sin and therefore from guilt. But all through Old Testament times the Israelites were troubled because their sins were never fully and permanently covered. They were still anticipating the perfect sacrifice.

Hebrews 9:8-9 makes the same basic point: “The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed, while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience.” Those sacrifices could not give a person access to God’s presence. They offered no “way into the holy place,” where God dwells. They offered limited freedom from guilt, “since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation” (v. 10). The “time of reformation,” of course, is the time of the New Covenant. No one through the old economy had complete access to God. There was only a temporary covering over of sin, not removal of sin or of the guilt that it brings.

The point of 7:11 is made clear. If the Levitical priesthood could have brought this perfection—which is access to God, or salvation—why would God have provided another priesthood?

This truth was extremely important for Jews to hear. It was important for believing Jews as assurance that they were now totally secure in Jesus Christ, that their break with Judaism and its rituals and repeated sacrifices was justified. They had no reason to look back longingly at the forms and ceremonies and symbols—as meaningful and significant as these once were. They no longer needed a picture of salvation, for they had the reality of the Savior. But in the argument of Hebrews 7, the truth is even more important for Jews who had not yet come all the way to Christ. It shows them that the Levitical priesthood could not bring men to perfection, to God. It was never intended to do so. As long as they held onto it and relied on its sacrifices, they would never be free of sin, they would never have access to God.

What the old economy could not do, Christ did. The old priesthood had its place in God’s plan. But it was inferior and ineffective. It only pictured perfection. Similarly, the law had its place in God’s plan. It represented God’s truth and righteousness. It demanded perfection. For on the basis of it [that is, perfection] the people received the Law. But neither the sacrifice that pictured it nor the law that demanded it could provide perfection. Perfection is provided only in Jesus Christ.

For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. (7:12)

Changed (metatithmi) means to put one thing in the place of another. Christianity, in a sense, comes from Judaism. But Christianity is not merely enhanced Judaism; it replaces Judaism. For a Jewish convert, his faith is changed from Judaism to Christianity. The new priesthood, after the order of Melchizedek, was not added to Aaron’s, but replaced it. Aaron’s priesthood now has no validity at all, not even as a picture of salvation or as a temporary covering of sin. It is defunct, totally abrogated.

Because the Aaronic priesthood and the Mosaic law were so closely tied to one another, a changed (replaced) priesthood also meant a changed law. Is the law of God, therefore, also done away with? It is in a certain way and sense. The word law has several meanings in Scripture. In its broadest sense, it refers to the whole Old Testament, the Old Covenant. It can also mean the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. It can also signify the required rituals and ceremonies of the Old Covenant. Since they were commanded of Israel by God, they were part of His law for them. I believe that is clearly what is meant here. The Holy Spirit is saying that, if the old priesthood is defunct, so is all law that pertains to it.

God’s moral law, however, reflected not only in the Ten Commandments but throughout the Old Testament, is part of His very nature, and therefore cannot possibly change. In the New Testament, God’s standards of righteousness for His people are reaffirmed, not decreased—much less done away with. If adultery, stealing, lying, and coveting were wrong under the Old Testament, they are also under the New. As Jesus makes clear in the Sermon on the Mount, God holds us accountable to our intents, not just our actions (Matt. 5:21-48). Far from setting aside His moral law in the New Covenant, He has strengthened it as far as standards for His people are concerned. The New Testament demands a greater judgment on disobedience (Acts 17:30-31).

But the ceremonial law, the Aaronic system of sacrifices, has been set aside. “You don’t need to trek to the Temple all the time,” the Jews are told. “That’s done with; it’s over; it’s been replaced—permanently.” Some who had come to Christ, and many who were thinking of coming, were still worshiping at the Temple, still hanging on to the ritual of the old system. Setting this aside was extremely difficult for many Jews to do and the reasons for doing so were extremely hard to grasp.

Some believing Jews, in fact, not only insisted on maintaining their own Jewish practices, but on making them mandatory for everyone who wanted to become a Christian. These people were called Judaizers, and they were a plague to the early church for many years. They told prospective believers, and even non-Jewish Christians, that they needed to be circumcized and have sacrifices made in the Temple and follow all the prescribed Jewish laws and rituals. It was this Judaizing of Christianity that Paul opposed so strongly in several of his letters, especially Galatians.

“You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? . .. Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? ... Now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? ... For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.” (Gal. 3:1, 3; 4:9; 5:6)

On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter was so awestruck when he saw Moses and Elijah appear and talk with Jesus that he blurted out, “ ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’ ” (Mark 9:5). Jesus said nothing, but “then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!’ And all at once they looked around and saw no one with them anymore, except Jesus alone” (vv. 7-8). God was saying to Peter—and to James and John and every person—”Don’t listen to Moses and Elijah. This is My Son; hear Him and Him alone.” Even before the New Covenant was finalized by Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, God illustrated that the Old had passed. The covenant represented by Moses and Elijah was gone (cf. John 4:21-24).

At Sinai the people were fenced off at the foot of the mountain, so they could not approach God. In the Tabernacle and in the Temple the veil stood between them and God’s presence in the Holy of Holies. The Old Covenant not only did not bring men into God’s presence, it forbade them from trying to get there. Without full cleansing, complete forgiveness of sins, they were not qualified. But Jesus, so to speak, came down the mountain to the people and tore down the veil.

So the whole Judaistic system was changed—not just changed, but exchanged—for a new order, a new Priest, a new sacrifice, an entirely New Covenant.

For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. (7:13-14)

Jesus did not come from Levi, which was the only priestly tribe. He was from Judah, which, just as all the other non-Levitical tribes, had nothing to do with priestly service at the altar. If Jesus became a high priest, therefore, He obviously was of a different order of priesthood from the Aaronic-Levitical. And His priestly qualifications obviously were not hereditary. The hereditary Levitical priesthood—typical, temporary, and imperfect—was changed and replaced by Jesus’ Melchizedek-like priesthood, which was real, eternal, and perfect.

THE PERFECTION OF THE NEW PRIESTHOOD

And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of Him, “Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” (7:15-17)

The Greek language has two words for another. Allos means another—that is, an additional one—of the same kind. The word used in verse 15, however, is heteros, which means another of a different kind. The first indicates a quantitative difference, the second a qualitative difference. If I traded in my small imported car for another small imported car, I would be getting another automobile that was allos, of the same kind. But if I traded it for a large American car, I would be getting another automobile that was heteros, of a different kind, a different quality.

In Christ we do not have another priest just like those who ministered in the Tabernacle and the Temple. He is heteros, of a completely different kind and order. Under the Old Covenant there were many priests, and they were all allos. Under the New there is but one Priest, and He is heteros.

THE PERFECT PRIEST ARISES BY HIMSELF

Both verses 11 and 15 speak of another priest arising. But in verse 15, arises (anistmi) is in the Greek middle voice, which is reflexive. The phrase, then, could be translated, “another priest arises by Himself.” This meaning has special significance in several ways.

First of all, I believe it signifies the virgin birth. As God, Jesus raised Himself up by giving birth to Himself, so to speak. No Aaronic priest could make such a claim. All other priests besides Jesus “arose” by virtue of their mothers and fathers, not of themselves.

Second, arising by Himself implies that this other Priest had no priestly ancestry, no priestly heritage. Aaronic priests could only claim a right to priesthood because of who their parents were. Jesus claimed the right because of who He Himself is.

Third, Jesus’ arising by Himself indicates His resurrection. In Acts 2:32, Luke uses anistmi specifically to refer to Jesus’ resurrection.

Who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of Him, “Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (7:16-17)

The standard prescribed for priests in the old economy had to do only with the physical. A priest, of course, was supposed to be godly, just as all Israelites were supposed to be godly. A number of priests who were especially ungodly were severely punished by God. But godliness was not a qualification for their serving at the altar. First, they had to be pure descendants of Aaron. Even with this pedigree, however, any one of more than 100 physical blemishes or deficiencies could disqualify them from officiating. But there was not a single moral or spiritual qualification that they had to meet. Their serving had nothing at all to do with character, ability, personality, or holiness.

Like Melchizedek’s priesthood, however, Jesus’ was first and last based on who He was. It had nothing to do with the physical body, but everything to do with eternal power, the power of an indestructible life. In the case of the Levitical priesthood, no matter how ill-suited a man may have been, or how reluctant to take the office, the law made him a priest because of the family into which he was born and because of certain physical requirements he had to meet. It was outward compulsion. For Jesus Christ, priesthood is an inner compulsion, because of who He is. He became, and He continues, a priest by eternal power—a power that can do what no priest could ever do: give us access to God.

The evidence and the logic are overwhelming that the Levitical priesthood is now-obsolete and that the new priesthood that God had long predicted could not be Levitical. Beginning with Genesis 49:10, the Old Testament is clear that the Messiah would come from Judah. And in many passages, such as Psalm 110:4, it is also clear that the Messiah will be both priest and king and that His priesthood would not be hereditary and temporary but would be based on personal qualification and would be eternal.

Jesus Christ can do what Aaron could not do. He takes us into the presence of God and He anchors us there eternally. “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us” (Heb. 6:19). That is ultimate power, and ultimate love. It is the accomplishment of the ultimate Priest through the ultimate priesthood.

For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. (7:18-19)

Here is the climax of the text. Aaron is replaced by Christ. God has set aside the old and imperfect and has replaced it with the new and perfect. Setting aside (athetsis) pertains to doing away with something that has been established. It is used, for example, of annulling a treaty, a promise, a law, a regulation, or of removing a man’s name from a document. The whole paraphernalia of the sacrificial system, the whole ceremonial system, was canceled, annulled, done away with entirely. God assured its end in A.D. 70, when He allowed the Temple to be destroyed.

The old system could reveal sin. It could even cover sin, in a certain way and to a certain temporary degree. But it could never remove sin, and so itself had to be removed. It brought nothing to conclusion. It gave no security. It gave no peace. A man never had a clear conscience. But the priesthood of Jesus Christ made all of what Israel looked forward to a reality. It brought access to God.

Peter tells us, “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look” (1 Pet. 1:10-12). In other words, those Old Testament saints only saw salvation from a distance. They were neither fully certain nor secure until Christ came. They trusted in hope, looking ahead for a conscience freed from sin. But now we can go into God’s presence and we can sit down before Him and, with the apostle Paul, say, “Abba, Father.” We have access to God.

Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. (10:19-22)

A young woman had run up a lot of bills and charged far beyond what she was able to pay. She was in debt over her head and saw no way to get out. She was in trouble and the situation looked hopeless. Then a young man came along and fell deeply in love with her. After some months he proposed. She also loved him very much, but felt that she should tell him about her debts before she agreed to marry him. When told, he said, “Don’t worry. I’ll pay all your debts. Just leave them to me.” Before the wedding he gave her an engagement ring and reassured her many times that he would take care of her debts. She trusted him implicitly and knew he was a person of his word. She had every reason to be confident and hopeful. But she was not yet actually free of her debts and, consequently, could not be at peace about them. Finally they were married, and he paid her debts. Not only that, but he told her that he was wealthy beyond her wildest dreams and gave her a joint checking account with himself. She would never again need to be concerned about debts. From that time on she was secure in the riches of the one she loved and who loved her.

That is how much better off a person is under the New Covenant than under the Old. In Christ we are freed from all sin’s debts, and we live forever in the riches of the One we love and who loves us.