His priesthood is superior since it rests on his endless resurrection life. He is the priest after the order of Melchizedek – Psalm 110:4.
The word provided in the Son is complete and supreme, “having achieved the purification of sins” that is so vital to His people. This he did, and thereby, he qualified to become the high priest who mediates life and forgiveness for his people forevermore.
ANOTHER PRIESTHOOD
The letter contrasts his priesthood and sacrifice with the priesthood and repeated animal sacrifices of the Levitical system. Moreover, Jesus applied the blood from his once-for-all sacrifice in the “real Tabernacle not made with hands.”
The fact that God promised another priesthood “after the order of Melchizedek” demonstrates that the Aaronic priesthood failed to achieve the “purification of sins.” Under it, “the people received the law.” But the change in priesthood promised by Yahweh also meant “a change of law” - (Psalms 110:4).
Due to human mortality and weakness, the Aaronic priesthood was dependent on lineal descent and multiple generations of priests. In contrast, the priesthood “after the order of Melchizedek” is perpetual, since it is based on an endless resurrection life.
The “weakness” of human mortality inherent in the old system meant there was a “disannulling” of the previous commandment, which could “make nothing complete” - (Hebrews 7:11-17).
BY DIVINE WORD
Unlike the Levitical priests, the high priest after the “order of Melchizedek” was installed by the declared word and oath of God, and it is held by one who was resurrected. Therefore, Jesus holds the priesthood “nontransferable” and unchangeable.
Moreover, by his death and resurrection, he became the “guarantor of a better covenant,” and now he is able “to save to the uttermost” all those who approach God through him because he “lives evermore to intercede on their behalf” - (Hebrews 7:19-25).
In contrast to the earlier priests, Jesus “sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,” and he became the minister of “the Real Tabernacle” and not of a tent pitched by man.
On the earth, the old system constituted “glimpses and shadows of the heavenly realities,” just as Moses was told to make the earthly Tabernacle “according to the pattern he had seen in the mount” - (Hebrews 8:1-5).
NEW COVENANT
Likewise, having “attained a more distinguished ministry, he also is the mediator of a better covenant legislated upon better promises.” If the “first covenant” had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second.
But having found fault with it, the Lord announced the coming days when “I will conclude a new covenant”:
- (Hebrews 8:6-13) – “… Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by their hand, to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt, because they abode not in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. Because this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, giving my laws into their understanding, upon their hearts, also, will I inscribe them: and I will become their God, and they shall become my people; and in nowise shall they teach everyone his fellow-citizen and his brother, saying: Get to know the Lord! Because all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them; because merciful will I be as to their iniquities, and of their sins, in nowise will I be mindful anymore. In saying, of a new sort, he has made obsolete the first; but the thing that is becoming obsolete and aged is near disappearing!”
The new covenant was NOT “according to the covenant” made at Sinai. It was not a “renewed” or enhanced piece of legislation based on the regulations of the Torah, but a new covenant made necessary since the old one was incapable of achieving the “purification of sins.”
And the new covenant empowers all citizens of the kingdom to know God and establishes them as His people, and the righteous requirements of His Law are written on their hearts. Unlike all previous efforts, the covenant established by the “Son” did achieve the purification of sins (“I will become merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins will I remember no more”).
By establishing the new covenant, Jesus “made the first obsolete,” and that means the previous covenant has ceased to be in effect because of the superior act and supreme “word of the Son.” And anyone who removes himself from the jurisdiction of our “Great High Priest” places himself under the jurisdiction of an incomplete and now obsolete system.
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