Lesson 12: Hebrews 7:11-28
Unlike Other High Priests
Now if perfection had been attainable through the levitical priesthood—for the people received the law under this priesthood—what further need would there have been to speak of another priest arising according to the order of Melchizedek, rather than one according to the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. Now the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.
It is even more obvious when another priest arises, resembling Melchizedek, one who has become a priest, not through a legal requirement concerning physical descent, but through the power of an indestructible life. For it is attested of him,
“You are a priest forever,
according to the order of Melchizedek.”
There is, on the one hand, the abrogation of an earlier commandment because it was weak and ineffectual (for the law made nothing perfect); there is, on the other hand, the introduction of a better hope, through which we approach God.
This was confirmed with an oath; for others who became priests took their office without an oath, but this one became a priest with an oath, because of the one who said to him,
“The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind,
‘You are a priest forever’”—
accordingly Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant.
Furthermore, the former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests those who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
Why was another priestly order needed distinct from the Levitical priesthood? Hebrews 7:11-28 addresses this question and answers it by comparing the Levitical order and the priesthood of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, was like the order of Melchizedek. The comparison between the two orders demonstrates, according to the preacher, the superiority of the Messianic priesthood. This superiority is grounded in God’s goal of perfecting humanity to dwell in God’s presence.
The Levitical priesthood could not perfect anyone, but the Messianic priesthood can.
The key term is perfection. What does this mean? It means more than internal sanctification or the forgiveness of sins. For example, Jesus was perfected but neither of these applied to the sinless Messiah. Instead, Jesus was perfected because he suffered, and once perfected, he became a high priest to serve in the heavenly sanctuary. In other words, Jesus was perfected through resurrection which enabled him to enter the holiest of holies to present himself before God as a sacrificial offering (more on that in Hebrews 9).
The Levitical priesthood could not offer this sort of perfection. Levites died, but Jesus lives forever and thus is a priest forever. Also, Levites were flawed with their own sins and had to offer sacrifices for their owns as well as the sins of the people, but Jesus is sinless and offers himself for the sins of the people and not for himself.
Consequently, because the Levitical priesthood could not offer perfection due to their own enslavement to sin and death, there was a need for another priest that could secure eternal life through eternal redemption. We needed a priesthood that could perfect us, and thus there was a need for another priesthood, which is like the Melchizedekian order.
The Melchizedekian order, however, was not based on genealogy like the Levitical priesthood, which was a legal requirement for serving as a priest in Israel. On the contrary, instead of physical descent, the priesthood of Jesus—in the manner of Melchizedek (“you are a priest forever”) is grounded in “the power of an indestructible life,” that is, resurrection life. In other words, the resurrection of Jesus provides a basis for eternal redemption whereas the genealogical descent and subsequent deaths of Levitical priests could not fully complete that redemption. Resurrection secures life, liberates from death, and perfects humanity for dwelling with God eternally. Consequently, Jesus lives eternally (“forever”) and is thus able to make continual intercession for the people unlike the Levitical priests who die and are succeeded by others who also die.
The Messianic priesthood of Jesus is like Melchizedek in that while the Levitical priesthood was based on physical descent, the priesthood of Jesus is given through a divine oath and call. Jesus descended from Judah, not Levi. He could not be a priest in the Levitical order. But his priesthood is not Levitical; it is Melchizedekian in the sense that he was called by God and God swore an oath to confirm his role as priest. God ordains priests. While God ordained priests through Levi’s descendants, that does not limit God from calling and ordaining other priests as we see with Melchizedek himself.
The Messianic priesthood has a larger and fuller role than the Levitical priests. Jesus can perfect human beings. This does not mean the role of the Levitical priests was unimportant or somehow insignificant. On the contrary, they served an important function in Israel, and the people of God received through the priests the assurance of God’s forgiveness, love, and grace. The Levitical priesthood served God in ways that generated a yearning for the future and the complete redemption of God’s people. At the same time, they could not fully achieve through their priesthood (and their sacrifices!) the goal of perfection, which is the better of hope of indestructible life. It is through that hope that we “approach” or draw near to God (same verb as in 4:16 as well as 10:22).
Consequently, as the preacher says, a change in the priesthood was necessary, which also means a change in the law. The law ordained Levites as priests but said nothing about Judah. Consequently, the law was adapted or transformed (changed) through the recognition that another order of priesthood is also part of the Torah (Genesis 14:18-20) and the Psalms (110:4). The Messiah comes from Judah, not Levi, and the Messiah is, like David his father, a priest in the manner of Melchizedek. He is a priest by the direct call and oath of God and the anointed king.
This change in the law is not an abrogation of the whole Torah or even God’s covenant with Israel. Rather, it is a change in the priesthood and an abrogation of the necessity of a Levitical priesthood. In fact, the Torah and the Hebrew Scriptures are the authority of the preacher’s argument. It is because the Torah spoke of Melchizedek and the Psalmist identified the priestly order of Melchizedek that the preacher can make his argument for the Messianic priesthood of Jesus, the Son of God.
The law appoints priests by genealogical descent who must sacrifice for their own sins and still ultimately die. The divine oath appoints a priest by divine calling who is sinless and lives forever. This contrast lies at the heart of why the law’s Levitical priesthood could not perfect anyone. Levitical priests make offerings on earth, are sinful, and die, but Jesus, as our high priest, make his offering in heaven, is sinless, and lives forever.
| Levitical Priesthood | Messianic Priesthood |
| Make Sacrifice for their own Sins | Jesus is sinless |
| Make continuous sacrifices for sins | Jesus offered himself once for all |
| Levitical priests are descended from Levi | Jesus is called by a divine oath |
| Levites die | Jesus lives forever |
| Levites officiate on earth | Jesus officiates in heaven |
Jesus does not abrogate the Torah (law) or the covenant (more on this in Hebrews 8). Rather, he transforms the law or expands its priestly functions to acknowledge the Messianic work of Jesus the Christ as one who is like Melchizedek. As Barry Joslin argues (based on his reading of Hebrews 7:1-10:18), “The work of Christ has transformed the law, and this transformation involves its internalization and its fulfillment in the N[ew] C[ovenant]; the law has forever been affected Christologically.”[1]
Joslin explains this more fully in this paragraph: “It is argued here that what the writer of Hebrews means in 7:12 is that the Law has been “transformed” in light of the Christ event. What is meant by “transformation” is simply this: the “transformed Law” is the result of what occurs when Christ intersects the Law. There are radical changes that occur in both the priesthood and the Law that involve both discontinuity and continuity, and the best term that encompasses such changes is “transformation” (metathesis). This involves the cessation of the Levitical priesthood due to its fulfillment in Christ. In Hebrews 7, it becomes evident that nomou metathesis involves cancellation of the priestly lineage requirement since a new priesthood has been declared by God in the oracle of Psalm 110:4. This cancellation necessitates the cessation of the Levitical priesthood and its cultus due to Christ’s fulfillment of what it foreshadowed (which anticipates Heb 9 and 10).”[2]
What is abrogated is the requirement of descent from Levi, but the law is not itself abrogated (more on this in Hebrews 8). This acknowledgment of Jesus as one who is like Melchizedek (a priest-king who lives forever) makes for a “better covenant.” This does not mean one covenant has replaced another but that this covenant has been renewed in such a way that it has better promises, that is, the goal of perfection. Those better promises are grounded in the indestructible resurrection life of the Messiah who offers himself for the people so that they, too, might experience that indestructible life in eternal redemption. In this way, through the work of God’s priest-king Son, God renews covenant with Israel, and that is the topic of Hebrews 8 which quotes Jeremiah 31’s promise of a new covenant.
[1] Barry C. Joslin, Hebrews, Christ, and the Law: The Theology of the Mosaic Law in Hebrews 7:1-10:18 (Paternoster, 2008), 2, 5 italics original.
[2] Joslin, pp. 168-9.