Our
Great High Priest Consecrated For Evermore
From
Signs of the Times—April 1, 1857
“For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word
of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated
for evermore.”
Hebrews 7:28
This whole epistle appears to be devoted to an exhibition of the mediatorial
relations which our Redeemer bears to his Father and his church, prominent among
which his priesthood is the peculiar theme of the inspired writer. The epistle
begins with the testimony of his sonship, and as the medium of divine revelation
to the saints on earth, God who spake to the fathers by the prophets, has in
these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all
things, and by whom also he made the worlds. Who being the brightness of his
Father’s glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by
the word of his power, &c. The Son of God thus identified, is next presented in
the perfect work of purging our sins, and then sitting down on the right hand of
the Majesty on high. In purging our sins, his priestly office is involved, and a
comparison of him with angels and with the priests of the Levitical order, by
way of contrast, is instituted; wherein his unexampled pedigree, the higher
order of his priesthood, and the superiority of the testament of which he is the
surety, are brought to view. The disparity between the order of Aaron’s
priesthood, and that of Melchisedec, is very clearly and strikingly demonstrated
by several qualifications, which Christ possessed over those possessed by Aaron
and his, among which is that found in out text, namely, the oath, by which the
perpetuity and immutability of his priesthood are established.
The law maketh men high priests which have infirmity.
That is, the law to which the Levitical priesthood belonged, for Aaron and his
sons had infirmities, were liable to diseases, like other men, and could not
long fill the office by reason of death, yet the law expressly made these men
high priests, and allowed no other men to hold the office. Hence we are told
that there being a change of the priesthood, there must of necessity be also a
change of the law. The law could not recognize any but Levites, and it is
evident that our Lord sprung out of
In the foregoing references to the testimony, we see that the men which were
made high priests by the law, all had infirmities, and had first to offer
sacrifices for their own sins, and then for the people’s; and such was their
infirmity they could not continue in the office by reason of death. But the
word of the oath which was since the law, maketh the Son who is consecrated for
evermore. The word of the oath is quoted in the twenty-first verse of this
chapter, from Psalm 110:4, “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent. Thou art a
priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.”
The word of this oath was since the law. Not that the word was not
spoken, or the oath taken until after the legal dispensation expired, for the
law and the prophets were until John, but the inspired psalmist declares that it
was in the past tense in his days, more than fifteen hundred years before the
days of John the Baptist. And we understand that Christ, as signified by the
peculiar order of his priesthood, was a Priest, without predecessor or
successor, without descent, without father or mother, in the priesthood, and
without beginning of days or end of life. Thou art a priest forever, after the
order of Melchisedec, was the word of the oath, and that order is expressly
defined as signifying that his priesthood was without beginning or end, and
after the power of immortality. So long then as Jesus has embodied in himself
the immortality of his body and members, as their mediatorial Head and Life, the
words of the oath by which he is made priest have been in force. But his
appearance now in the end of the world to officiate in the priestly office, to
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, was in the order of time, subsequently
to the priesthood of Aaron. In the same sense in which he is called the second
Adam. Not that Adam existed before him in reality, for before the dust of the
world, out of which Adam was formed, was made, Christ existed in his mediatorial
relation to his body and members, as one brought up with the Father. In
manifestation to us, Christ was the second Adam, while as the Lord from heaven,
his goings forth were of old, from everlasting—so in the order of divine
revelation, the types preceded their antitypes, the shadows, their substance.
The word of the oath, “Thou art a Priest,” not thou shalt be a Priest, the word
of the oath is in the perfect tense, but this word of the oath by which he is
made a Priest, involved the necessity of his advent to the world, and of his
being made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. Moreover, the word of the oath consecrated him as
the High Priest for evermore, and thus secures the perpetuity of his priesthood.
He is not to be removed by infirmity, by death, or anything else. He is not to
be superseded by any other priests or priesthoods, sacrifices or sufferings, but
to represent his people as their only dependence—for acceptance before God for
evermore.
In the summing up of what had been said, the amount of testimony is thus given:
“We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the
Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle,
which the Lord pitched and not man” who has by so much obtained a more excellent
ministry, than that under the Old Covenant or Testament; by how much also he is
the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. The
superior excellency of the new covenant over the old is to be estimated by the
superiority of the priesthood of Christ over that of Aaron. The better promises
are those which God, that cannot lie, made before the world began, and which is
confirmed by oath. An oath for confirmation with men is an end of all strife,
wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the
immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable
things, by which it is impossible that God should lie, we might have a strong
consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us,
which hope we have, as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which
entereth into that within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered,
even Jesus made an High Priest forever, after the order of Melchisedec.
Well might the inspired penman assure us that “Such an High Priest became us,
who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than
the heavens,” And also that he is able to save unto the uttermost all who come
unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them. One
who is easily touched with the feelings of our infirmities, having been tempted
in all points as we are, and yet without sin. Wherefore, holy brethren,
partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our
profession, Christ Jesus.
