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by Katie Erickson

“And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him:
‘The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever.’’
Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.
Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.” -Hebrews 7:20-28

If you’re thinking this passage seems to start in the middle of a thought, that’s because you’re right – it does! It’s always helpful to remember that the Bible was not written with chapter and verse designations like we have today. Sometimes Biblical authors get pretty wordy so there’s just not a good place to break up a thought to write about in a blog post like this. So, check out my post from last week for the context of the beginning of this thought.

The author of Hebrews has been talking about the difference between priests in the order of Melchizedek versus priests in the order of Aaron. His point is to make it clear that Jesus Christ is a superior high priest to all other high priests because He is part of the order of Melchizedek. In the previous section, we saw evidence of this because of the life that He lived. Here, the author continues with three more ways that Jesus is superior: His divine oath (verses 20-22), its permanence (verses 23-25), and His better sacrifice (verses 26-28).

When priests were established in the order of Aaron and from the tribe of Levi, there was no oath to establish them as priests. Jesus, however, “became a priest with an oath” (verse 21). The verse goes on to quote Psalm 110:4, indicating that God has appointed Jesus as a priest forever and will not change His mind about that. This priesthood of Jesus is sealed by a divine oath from God Himself! That means that nothing can break this priesthood, unlike human priests in the order of Aaron.

The old covenant had been given through Abraham, but no person could guarantee that either party would fulfill their part of it. Now, we see that the covenant is better and Jesus has become the guarantor of it (verse 22). Jesus is the guarantor of both sides of the covenant. He guarantees that God will fulfill His covenant to mankind of forgiveness of our sins and eternal life, and He also guarantees that those who have faith in Him are to be considered acceptable in God’s sight.

The next way that Jesus is superior is that His priesthood is permanent. Human priests would stop being priests when they died (verse 23), and all priests in the order of Aaron would die. Successors were needed to keep the office of the high priest going throughout the generations. According to early church historian Josephus, there were 83 high priests from the time of Aaron until the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. All of them died and needed someone to replace them.

Jesus, however, never dies, so there is never any need for someone to replace Him; in fact, no one could replace Him (verse 24). His high priesthood is permanent. Interestingly, the Greek word for “permanent” is only found here in the New Testament (that phenomenon of a word only being found once is called a hapax legomenon if you want to amaze and amuse your friends with that). Some scholars believe it means “without a successor” more specifically than simply “permanent,” but others believe it also means “unchangeable.” Regardless, Jesus has lived and will live forever, so unlike the Levitical priests in the order of Aaron, His priesthood will never end.

Because of this permanence, Jesus is completely able to save those who have faith in Him (verse 25). He always lives to intercede for us, and He will always be there to guarantee that we fulfill our part of the covenant through His work. The phrase “save completely” indicates the idea that any sinner can be redeemed and saved no matter what sins they have committed. The idea of Jesus always interceding for us is an interesting one. We often think of intercession in terms of praying for someone else, but the act of Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection is the ultimate intercession for us.

Finally, Jesus is shown to be superior because of His better sacrifice. Verse 26 starts out by sharing the character of Jesus – “holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.” No earthly priest can even begin to compare to that! Verse 27 explains the contrast again of Jesus sacrificing Himself once and for all, whereas the earthly priests would have to regularly offer more sacrifices because they were not final as Jesus’ was. Then, verse 28 shows one more contrast between Jesus and human priests: human priests have weaknesses, while Jesus forever lives in perfection.

Why does all this matter for us non-Jews today who don’t have a high priest in our lives? It means that we can be shown as blameless before God and worthy to have eternal life in Him because of what Jesus did for us. Jesus is the great and perfect high priest that no person could ever compare to. He is the only sacrifice that we ever need, and when we have faith in Him, He guarantees for us that God will see us as righteous as Jesus is, no matter what evils we have committed in this life. Jesus is the only high priest and the only sacrifice that we’ll ever need, and we do need Him to become right with God.

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