New Testament · Letters

Hebrews chapter 7

This was king of and of the Most High God. He met Abraham as Abraham was coming back from defeating the kings, and he .Abraham gave him of everything he’d won. Now, first of all, his name means “.” And then, “king of Salem” means “.”He has . His life has no beginning and no end. He’s been made to resemble — he remains a .Think about how significant this man was — even Abraham, , gave him a tenth of what he’d captured in battle.Now, the law requires those who become priests to collect from the people — that is, from their own brothers and sisters — even though they all came from Abraham.But this man — who wasn’t even from their family line — collected a tenth from Abraham and the one who had .And no one can argue with this: the lesser person receives favor from the greater.In the one case, collect the tenth. But in the other case, it’s someone who is .You could even say that himself — the one whose descendants collect the tenth — actually paid a tenth through Abraham,because he was still when Melchizedek met Abraham.Now, if the Levitical priesthood could have — and the whole legal system the people received was built on it — why would there still be a need for a different kind of priest, one described as being “” rather than “like Aaron”?Because when , the law that goes with it has to change too.The person all of this is being said about belongs to a completely different — one that has never had anyone serve at the .It’s obvious that our Lord came from , and Moses never said anything about priests coming from that tribe.And what we’re saying becomes even more obvious when a different priest shows up who is like Melchizedek —someone who became a priest not because of , but because of the power of .Because God confirms it: “ — like Melchizedek.”So on one hand, the old rule gets because it was .The law never . But now something better has been introduced — that actually .And this didn’t happen without God making an . The others became priests without any oath,but he became a priest with an oath, when God said to him: “ has and : ‘You are a priest forever.’”Because of this oath, Jesus has become the of .Under the old system, there had to be lots of priests because in office.But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood is — it never transfers to anyone else.That’s why he is those who come to God through him — because he is always alive, always .This is exactly the kind of high priest we needed: one who is , , , , and .He doesn’t need to offer every day the way those other high priests did — first for , then for the people’s. He did this when he .The law appoints as high priests. But appoints , who has been .