The Melchizedek Priesthood
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The priesthood of Melchizedek comes up in Hebrews 7 when talking about the priesthood of Jesus Christ and the insufficiency of the Levitical priesthood and their customs and sacrifices compared to the one that Jesus made.
This book of the Bible is specifically written for the purpose of reconnecting Jewish believers who wanted to lean on Judaism because of their heritage and sacrifices that cannot save you.
Paul is the perfect author for this type of instruction to them, as they will be able to hear from someone who was not only of the tribe of Benjamin, but also a Pharisee, and at that he was taught by Gamiliel as well as once persecuted the faith he now claims to save him.
There are other old testament elements talked about in the book of Hebrews including the blood sacrifices of bulls and goats, the superiority of Jesus to angels and humans and also the transition from the old covenant to a better covenant.
Where we see the purpose of priesthood come into play with Paul’s writing of this letter is seven chapters in when Paul wants to establish that earthly priests are only the shadow of what is required in heaven.
Within the specifics that Paul mentions in this chapter, Abraham is referenced as giving a tenth worth of tithe to Melchisedec in the book of Genesis – I believe that this is an old testament appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul makes sure to address parallel characteristics of Melchisedec that match Jesus:
●No father or mother
●No physical descendants
●An endless life
●No beginning of days
●King and priest simultaneously
Additionally, Jesus is noted as a superior priest to the Levitical priesthood because of the fact that He is after the order (priesthood) of Melchisedec.
These parallel characteristics help point us to the fact that Jesus truly is the Son of God and was God in the flesh during His earthly ministry and death, burial, and resurrection.
One thing that this chapter also shows us about Jesus Christ is that His priesthood after the order of Melchizedek is an unchangeable priesthood.
What this means is that it is not something that gets passed down to anyone else as was the case with the Levitical priests.
Paul drives this distinction further to highlight the eternal priesthood of Jesus by showing that Jesus became like one of us.
This was to pay for all of our sins and in that one sacrifice for all did not atone for sins of His own as the Levitical priests had to do.
It is for this reason that Jesus was sinless during His time on earth and has never committed a sin at any time.
The reason that this is important for saved believers to remember about who Jesus is stems from the fact that it is a good thing to be reminded of the grace we are given through what Jesus accomplished through His sacrifice.
We are not only given His imputed perfect righteousness through faith, we are also given access to the Father through the sealing of the Holy Spirit and through that we are able to boldly come to the throne of grace in our time of need as we still sin daily in the flesh.
Contrast that part of the new covenant – also called the new testament – with the fact that in the old testament the normal everyday congregants in Israel were not allowed to just waltz into the tabernacle, let alone stand in the holy of holies.
Even within the Levitical priesthood, the only one that was allowed into the holiest of holy areas to stand in the presence of God was the designated high priest – and he had a rope around his ankle in case he died from being in the very same room with God.
The fact that Jesus comes after the order of Melchizedek not only proves that the new testament is superior to the old testament, it demonstrates both a rest and an assurance provided to believers that are saved by the same faith that Paul preaches.
Because of the fact that we can have direct access to God the Father through the sacrifice of the Son and the sealing of the Holy Spirit, the priesthood of the believer is also established as a result of the imputed righteousness we get from Christ.
Peter talks about the priesthood of the believer in 1 Peter chapter 2.
In his writing, Peter calls the priesthood of the believer as both a royal and holy thing and talks about how this is an identifier of how special and precious we are to God. We are loved to the point where God wants to make sure we always have a direct line of communication with Him, which is established in the new testament by Jesus Christ.
The third element of the Melchisedek priesthood that Hebrews 7 confirms for us in the telling of how Abraham tithed to him is the fact that Levi, who was in the loins of Abraham, tithed to Melchizedek even though Levi didn’t exist physically yet.
What does this mean?
This is to show the superiority of the Melchizedek priesthood to anything that the Levitical priesthood thinks it could accomplish on its own. In every way, the order of Melchizedek is better.
The priesthood of Melchizedek is eternal, the Levitical is temporary from man to man.
The priesthood of Melchizedek is unchangeable, the Levitical is changeable.
The priesthood of Melchizedek has the authority to change the law, the Levitical does not have that authority.
Two modern examples of perversions of what the Bible says about priesthood involve both the Catholic and Mormon churches.
In Catholicism, they are a good example of a perverted Levitical system where the pope and archbishops act as a middle man between the people and God even though the new testament does away with this ordinance completely.
In fact, so much so, that we are told clearly that the only mediator between God and mankind is the man Christ Jesus.
No pope or priest required – this means no more middle man outside of Christ.
On the flip side of the heresy coin here, the Mormons teach their young men from a young age that Jesus requires them to be ordained for both the Levitical and Melchizedek priesthoods.
The first point of difference is that they change the name of the Levitical priesthood to the Aaronic priesthood. They claim that this is due to it originating with Aaron, but as we know from the Bible, it was called the Levitical priesthood because it dealt only with the entire tribe of Levi – not just Aaron the man.
Mormons require a young man under 18 to have and hold the blessing of the Aaronic priesthood in order to carry out the offices of a deacon, teacher or priest. While this already goes against all of the requirements for these offices in scripture, the Mormon church goes above and beyond to be as damnable as possible on purpose, it seems.
To get the Melchizedek priesthood blessing in Mormonism, they require men 18 and older to also be ordained by another Melchizedek priesthood holder in order to fulfill the offices of elder (missionary), high priest, patriarch, apostle, and member of the Seventy.
This denies the clear teachings of Hebrews 7 that we’ve covered above and is a heretical stance to have regarding the priesthood of the believer.
Having this understanding, this is why a lot of Mormon missionaries are so hard to win to the Lord since they have such a dark spiritual upbringing and have a veil of wickedness placed on them to blind them from the truth from a very young age.
I’ll end with this – the Bible is clear about priesthood without confusion.
Jesus is after the order of Melchizedek and it is not a changeable priesthood.
We do not need a Levitical priest to represent us anymore before the throne or presence of God because Jesus Himself is the advocate of the born-again believer and is sitting at the right hand of God the Father even now.
Do not be confused by a Mormon or other heretic that tries to confuse you regarding the Melchisedec priesthood – it is simply the eternal priesthood that only Jesus can hold.
