Hebrews 7 - A Better Priesthood
It is so good to be with you here this week. My name is Brad, and if we have not met yet, and you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to Hebrews chapter seven. I am just so grateful you chose to hang out with us. Here at The Well, we value our Bibles. We love taking books of the Bible and kind of working our way painstakingly through them, chapter by chapter. We find ourselves at a bit of a halftime break—we are about halfway through this incredible letter. We are so grateful for those joining us in person across our gatherings and venues, and for those joining us online. It is wonderful to spend this time together in God’s Word.
The Story So Far: A Greater Savior
As we work through Hebrews, I want to catch us up to speed on where we have been. If you are a guest here with us and missed the first several weeks, let us recap the journey:
- Chapter 1: Jesus is a better revelation.
- Chapter 2: Jesus is better than the angels.
- Chapter 3: Jesus is better than Moses.
- Chapter 4: Jesus is a better rest.
- Chapter 5: Jesus is a better High Priest.
In chapter five, we ran into a warning. The author had a deep concern for the original recipients of this letter because they were not growing spiritually. They had professed faith in Jesus Christ, but spiritually they were still infants. That surfaced in chapter five, verse 11, where we were introduced to a shadowy, mysterious figure named Melchizedek. He shows up in only five chapters of your entire Bible: Genesis 14, Psalm 110, and Hebrews chapters five, six, and seven.
The author could not explain much about him in chapter five because the believers were spiritually dull of hearing and stuck in spiritual infancy. We also issued a caution regarding Melchizedek: whenever the Bible introduces a character with few details, human nature tempts us to fill in the narrative ourselves. We start speculating and saying, “Oh, I wonder if…” and we invent things Scripture never says.
Remember: all Scripture is inspired by God. If God wanted us to have a full, biographical picture of Melchizedek, He would have given it to us. The fact that we do not have every detail is intentional. Melchizedek is meant to be a provocative figure—an Old Testament shadow pointing to a New Testament reality. Theologically, we call this a type, and Melchizedek is a type of Jesus Christ.
Last week, we looked at chapter six, where Jesus is presented as a better assurance. If you asked me what one of the most difficult passages in the Bible to exposit is, Hebrews 6:4–8 would easily be on my list. On the surface, it looks like it is describing someone who genuinely follows Jesus and then loses their salvation. But that cannot be what it means, because that would fundamentally contradict the rest of Scripture. Mike walked us through that passage last week, and I thought it was one of the finest expositions of Hebrews 6 I have ever heard.
Mike reminded us of two critical principles for reading the Bible:
- The unclear must be interpreted by the clear. We interpret difficult passages in light of the overwhelming witness of Scripture. The clear teaching of the New Testament is that when we embrace the gospel, a punctiliar, decisive event occurs: we are forgiven, accepted, reconciled, justified, adopted, transferred into the kingdom of light, and sealed with the Holy Spirit as a pledge of our inheritance. If salvation could be lost, all those divine acts would have to be undone.
- The actual text and context determine the meaning. Jesus taught in Matthew 7 that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit—we know them by their fruit.
Matthew 7:17-18 (NASB)
’So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. ’A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
Our salvation does not depend on our ability to hold onto God. Chapter six, verse 19 tells us that our hope is an anchor for the soul, sure and steadfast, anchored within the veil where Jesus has gone before us.
Hebrews 6:19-20 (NASB)
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, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Our salvation is as secure as the sinless Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father. He has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
The Problem with the Levitical Priesthood
To understand the priesthood of Melchizedek, we have to understand the role and function of the Old Testament priests. In Genesis 11, God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees to go to a land he had never seen. Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob, and Jacob had twelve sons—one of whom was Levi. The Levitical priesthood came exclusively from the lineage of Levi.
Those Levitical priests served for a limited duration. Scripture outlines their term of service starting between twenty and thirty years of age, but ending strictly at age fifty. At fifty, a priest stepped down from active service to mentor the younger generation. Their primary role was to mediate between a holy God and a sinful people. They received sacrifices, collected tithes and offerings, and offered sacrifices continually.
The Old Testament law basically operated like this: obey the commandments of God, and since you cannot and do not, bring a sacrifice. That meant the priest stayed busy all day, every day, because he was dealing with everyday sinners like us. You wake up in the morning, see that your neighbor’s trash cans are still blocking your driveway, lose your temper, say something you regret, and suddenly you need to bring a sacrifice. It was an endless, perpetual system.
Once a year, on the Day of Atonement described in Leviticus 16, the High Priest had the unique privilege of entering the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle or Temple. That was the sacred space where the presence of God dwelt above the Ark of the Covenant. The High Priest would bring blood to make atonement for himself, for the other priests, for the sanctuary, and for all the sins of the people. But it had to be repeated year after year.
Leviticus 16:34 (NASB)
‘Now you shall have this as a permanent statute, to make atonement for the sons of Israel for all their sins once every year.’ And just as the LORD had commanded Moses, [so] he did.
Now, Hebrews 7 introduces us to a better priesthood altogether.
The Mysterious Melchizedek
In Hebrews 7:1, the author points us back to Genesis 14. Let us look at what happened in Melchizedek’s original appearance.
Abram was living in the land of Canaan, and his nephew Lot had made a series of compromising choices. In Genesis 13, Lot pitched his tent near Sodom. In Genesis 14, he was living inside Sodom. By Genesis 19, he was sitting in the city gates as a leader. That is how sin works: proximity leads to participation, and participation leads to entrenchment. As Paul warned, bad company corrupts good character.
1 Corinthians 15:33 (NASB)
Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.’
In Genesis 14, four Mesopotamian kings invaded, defeated the King of Sodom and his allies, plundered the city, and took Lot captive. When Abram heard the news, he did not panic like an untrained farmer. Abram mobilized 318 trained men born in his household—essentially an ancient tactical strike force. Together with his local Amorite allies, Abram pursued this invading army all the way to Dan in northern Israel, routed them at night, and chased them past Damascus into Syria. He recovered all the goods, the people, and his nephew Lot.
Genesis 14:14-16 (NASB)
When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he led out his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. He divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. He brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative Lot with his possessions, and also the women, and the people.
On his return, Abram was met in the Valley of Shaveh by the King of Sodom. But suddenly, another king stepped onto the scene:
Genesis 14:18-20 (NASB)
And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. He blessed him and said, ‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.’ He gave him a tenth of all.
Consider what we learn about Melchizedek:
- He was the King of Salem. The root word in Hebrew is Shalom, meaning “peace.” It is also the root for Yerushalayim—Jerusalem. Melchizedek was the king of the very city that David would later make the capital of Israel and the site of God’s temple.
- He brought out bread and wine. Kings did not serve refreshments to returning armies. Yet he offered bread and wine—a vivid foreshadowing of the Last Supper.
- He was a priest of El Elyon—the God Most High. Melchizedek did not worship the pagan idols of the Canaanites; he served the one true Creator of heaven and earth.
- He blessed Abram and praised God. He reminded Abram where the real victory came from: “Blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” God does not delight in the strength of horses or the legs of men; He favors those who fear Him.
- Abram gave him a tenth of everything. Abram paid a tithe to Melchizedek as an act of worship toward God.
Melchizedek is an Old Testament shadow pointing to Jesus Christ. His name means “King of Righteousness,” and his title means “King of Peace.”
Hebrews 7:3 notes that Melchizedek appears “without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest continually.”
Hebrews 7:1-3 (NASB)
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all [the spoils], was first of all, by the translation [of his name], king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is 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, he remains a priest perpetually.
This does not mean Melchizedek literally had no human parents. It means the Genesis narrative deliberately leaves out his genealogy and death record so that he functions as a literary and prophetic type of Jesus Christ—the eternal Son who has no beginning and no end.
The Superiority of the New Order
Hebrews argues that Melchizedek’s priesthood is vastly superior to the Levitical priesthood for several reasons:
First, the lesser is blessed by the greater. Melchizedek blessed Abram, who held God’s promises, and Abram gave him a tithe. Since Levi was still in the loins of his forefather Abraham, you could say that Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek through Abraham.
Hebrews 7:7-10 (NASB)
But without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater. In this case mortal men receive tithes, but in that case one [receives them], of whom it is witnessed that he lives on. And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.
Second, the Levitical priesthood could never bring perfection. If the Levitical system had been sufficient to deal with our sin, there would have been no need for God to announce a new priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek in Psalm 110:4.
Psalms 110:4 (NASB)
The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.’
The Old Testament law was like a searchlight into the human soul. It revealed sin, but it could never remove it. It showed us what was wrong, but provided no power to fix it.
Paul explains this struggle in Romans 7. When the commandment says, “Do not covet,” our sinful nature awakens to covetousness. We see that every day. You read, “Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth,” and then you watch your sports team blow a lead, and out comes the unwholesome talk. You read, “Be angry and do not sin,” but then you get stuck in marathon traffic on Sunday morning trying to get to church, and your temper flares. The law exposes our total lack of inherent righteousness.
Romans 7:7-8 (NASB)
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COVET.’ But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin [is] dead.
What the law could not do because of our human weakness, God did by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.
Romans 8:3-4 (NASB)
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God [did]: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and [as an offering] for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
The Power of an Indestructible Life
Jesus did not come from the priestly tribe of Levi; He descended from the royal tribe of Judah. Moses said nothing about priests coming from Judah. Jesus became our High Priest not by physical lineage or legal pedigree, but by the power of an indestructible life.
Hebrews 7:15-17 (NASB)
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 attested [of Him], ‘YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.’
Earthly priests served for twenty or thirty years and then died. But Jesus died for our sins once, rose bodily from the grave, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and lives forever. His resurrection proves that His sacrifice was entirely acceptable to the Father.
Because Jesus holds His priesthood permanently, something extraordinary happens for us:
Hebrews 7:23-25 (NASB)
The [former] priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
What is Jesus doing right now in heaven? He is not taking a nap or passively waiting for the end of history. He is actively living to make intercession for you.
When you fall into sin, the enemy accuses you, and the standard of the law demands judgment. But Jesus stands before the Father on your behalf and says, “They are Mine. Their debt is paid. They are covered by My blood.” Through the double imputation of the gospel, our sin was placed on Christ at the cross, and His perfect righteousness was credited to our account.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB)
He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
God does not just tolerate us; in Christ, we are declared righteous, fully forgiven, fully accepted, and deeply loved.
Jesus, Our Perfect High Priest
Look at how the author summarizes the character of our Savior:
Hebrews 7:26-28 (NASB)
For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the [sins] of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, [appoints] a Son, made perfect forever.
Earthly priests were weak and sinful. They had to offer sacrifices for their own sins before they could offer sacrifices for the people. But Jesus is holy, innocent, undefiled, and separated from sinners. He offered Himself once for all on the cross.
When Jesus hung on the cross, His final cry was, “It is finished!” The sacrificial system was completed. The debt was settled forever.
John 19:30 (NASB)
Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
The offer of this salvation is wonderfully broad. Scripture says that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. God does not discriminate based on your ethnicity, gender, background, past failures, or socioeconomic status. The invitation goes out to all.
Romans 10:13 (NASB)
for ‘WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’
Yet while the offer is broad, the means is exclusively narrow. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved except the name of Jesus.
Acts 4:12 (NASB)
‘And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.’
Your religious rituals will not save you. Your Bible reading will not save you. Your attendance in a church group will not save you. Your moral track record, your family heritage, your career success, your philanthropy, and your personal goodness cannot save you. None of those things went to the cross to bear the wrath of God for your sins. Only Jesus did that.
Why would you turn to functional saviors that will always leave you empty? Why look to human systems when you have a High Priest who possesses an indestructible life?
If you have never placed your faith in Jesus Christ, I urge you today to surrender your life to Him. Stop trying to earn your way into God’s favor and rest in the finished work of our Great High Priest. And for those of us who belong to Christ, let this truth anchor your soul: you are secure in His hands, and He lives forever to intercede for you.
Closing Prayer
Lord, what a gift it is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. We thank You that when we were alienated, hostile in mind, and engaged in evil deeds, You reconciled us to Yourself through the death of Your Son.
Thank You, Jesus, that You are our better High Priest—holy, undefiled, and seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Thank You that You live forever to make intercession for us. I pray for anyone here today who has not yet trusted in You; stir their hearts, open their eyes, and draw them to Your saving grace. And may all of us walk in the full assurance of our faith, resting entirely in what You have accomplished. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.