He Ever Lives Above, For Me to Intercede

The sermon text will be Hebrews 7:20-28.

In Genesis 14, Melchizedek is described as “king of Salem” and “priest of God Most High.” Based on this passage and Psalm 110, the inspired author of Hebrews explains the importance of Jesus’ priesthood being from the order of Melchizedek and not from the order of Aaron (the Levites). In Christ we have a Mediator who is both a King and a Priest. As our King, he subdues us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q/A 26). Christ is completely sovereign. But if this is all we would know of him, we might be led to despair and terror in the face of such awesome power. The inspired author therefore points to the fact that Christ is also our Priest. As our Priest he once offered himself as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, to reconcile us to God, and he continues to make intercession for us (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q/A 25). D.A. Carson writes, “God knows that I need a king to subdue me and to bring in the consummation. I need a priest to offer up himself as the supreme sacrifice, or I am undone. I need a perfect priest—one of our kind, a human being, who is nevertheless one with God, without mother and without father (in the most ultimate sense), with everlasting days. This is the Jesus of the gospel we proclaim.”