Earlier in chapter 7, the writer began his exaltation of Christ's priesthood by explaining that it does not follow the model of Aaronic or Levitical priests:
- The Levitical priests served based on their ancestry, law and regulation, but it was wholly ineffective (7:18), therefore in a mediatorial the sense , their priesthood doesn't really implement and sustain peace between God and his people, and does not truly deliver them from their sins. This is made powerfully clear by the blunt fact that even though the Levitical system and the Law were established by the Lord himself, Israel nevertheless continued to fall into sin and idolatry, eventually landing in exile
- So clearly, theirs was merely a symbolic priesthood, which points ahead to the need for a more effectual model
Christ's priesthood, on the otherhand, rests on the power of an indestructible life, that is within himself! This is probably the most significant differentiator which in someways summarizes the distinctive difference between the two priesthoods: there is no cultural or traditional qualification that is generously applied to Jesus, he is uniquely [thanks, Mark H.] qualified within his person to achieve as our mediator what the previous priesthood lacked the power and reach to achieve: win our peace and make God's people safe from their sins!
The writer begins to expound on this by dealing with the continuity problem of the old priesthood, namely the person standing in for the people was always changing, consider...
- Even though Israel had several godly kings, prophets and priests, godless leaders often seemed to surface, examples of this include Hophni and Phinehas. And even though Samuel led Israel in a godly way, but he died and then even Samuel's sons did not follow in his ways, and of course Israel [and eventually Judah in the divided kingdom] managed to always leave her people exposed to bad leadership
- What we need is a priest that is permament and consistently available to intercede for God's people at all times; priestly "turnover" makes this impossible...this is the writer's point in v.23
Praise God, Christ lives forever...his priesthood is not subject to interruption! The big gains for this are the following:
- He is able to save completely those who come to God through him [v.25]...this "save" is not speaking about redemption, but really means to sustain, keep, deliver: his intercession brings us all the way home ["saves completely"]!
- In my opinion, this tells us a lot about the nature of the Lord's intercession at the seat of Majesty in heaven, that in additon to his defending us based on the work he has done, Christ also appeals to the Spirit's sustaining work to help the saints remain in him [again this is my opinion, it does not emerge directly from the text, but the "save completely" phrase implies practicality and considering the persistent emphasis in the epistle on endurance...it makes sense to me! But I won't quibble with objectors... :-)]
The bottom line is that the permanence of the Lord's priesthood results in the people of God always receiving the help and grace they need to walk successfully and not fall prey to the very pitfalls that threw off those under the old covenant.
It is this grace, I believe, that will help us understand the purpose and effect of the warning passages in the epistle [thanks brothers Caneday and Schreiner!] and to reconcile real warnings with real assurance. But that will come later...the big news here is that Christ's priesthood is always active and continues forever...and that is a real advantage!
Next, we'll very briefly profile the Character of Christ's Priesthood...
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