THE CROWNED
CHRIST
CHAPTER VIII
The Anointed Priest
The Lord seen as "Last Adam" necessarily introduces us,
therefore, to His atoning work. For the race of which He is thus Head, although
a new creation, is a race of men - of those involved in the fall of the first
head, and who have added to this their own individual and innumerable
iniquities. Here, therefore, what He is as Christ - as Messiah, the "Anointed"
- comes into view: for this "anointing" has regard to His official work, and
(apart from Jacobs anointing of the pillar at Bethel) the first notice
that we have of it in Scripture is in connection with the priests (Ex. xxviii.
41; xxix. 7); while the high priest is distinctively, even as among these, the
"priest that is anointed" or Messiah-priest.
After the failure of the
priesthood, it is the king who is specifically the "anointed of Jehovah;" and
the union of priest and king in our Lord, as in the type of Melchizedek, we
shall have attentively to consider in a little while. For Christ also,
priesthood necessarily preceded kingship, the history runs parallel with the
doctrine. Of the prophet who (as in Elishas case) was sometimes anointed,
but, from the nature of his call, less frequently, we need not at present
speak. Christ unites, as we know, these three offices in His own Person, but
the first and fundamental one is that of priesthood.
The priest,
ideally, was one who presented himself to God in behalf of others: of those who
could not, therefore, of them selves draw near, as he. For his office, there
were two requisites: first, personal fitness to draw near himself. This was
figured under the Law by that simple white linen garment in which alone the
sanctuary could be entered; while, wherever there had been sin, (and therefore
for the high priest also, as long as he was but the "figure of the true") the
blood of sacrifice was needed for atonement.
Among mere men the true
Priest could not be found. The "called of God" is He to whom, though Man, God
could say, "Thou art My Son: to-day have I begotten Thee" (Heb. v. 5). In Him,
as "First-born among many brethren," a new humanity begins for God, open to all
men to come into, but by the lowly gate of a new birth. For these as Head and
Representative He stands and offers sacrifice; for these, and not for the
world, He intercedes; but this of course shuts out none from blessing. Faith
could at any time bring nigh the stranger and join him to the people of God. Of
Gods will none were ever shut out, as even the dispensation of law bore
witness, and Ruth and Rahab are signal examples. Now, under the gospel, to
faith all the privileges of Gods house are open. The veil is rent, and
God is in the light, where the blood of Christ His Son cleanses those who enter
from every stain of sin.
But we are now looking at the Priest Himself,
whose call to the Priesthood is founded upon His nature as Son of God, as the
apostle distinctly tells us. He "glorified not Himself to be made high priest,
but He who said unto Him, Thou art My Son: today have I begotten Thee." Here
the owning Him Son of God - the First-born and not the Only-begotten, or it
would not be said, "today"- implies, according to the argument, that God
recognizes Him as High priest also; and so the apostle adduces the passage from
the hundred and tenth psalm as similar in import: "Just as also in another
place, he saith, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."
It is denied, however, by some that this is the argument. "The two
citations," says Moll, "do not express the same idea; nor is the former adduced
to prove that Christ is a High priest; but simply to call to mind the relation
previously unfolded, that namely which the God who has bestowed this priestly
dignity on Christ, sustains as Father to this Anointed One."
In fact,
the apostles words at first sight may seem indefinite. That "He glorified
Him, who said to Him," does not necessarily mean "glorified Him in saying to
Him." But the apostle does, nevertheless, use the same form of speech in the
seventh chapter with reference to the second quotation, which here he does to
the first: "But He with an oath, by Him that said unto Him: The Lord sware and
will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever." Here, of course, no doubt could
arise, nor could be supposed to do so: and this makes a difference. But it
would show, at least, that the form of speech is not against the implication.
Further, that relationship of Christ as Son to God, previously
unfolded, has been already shown to be in connection with His priesthood in the
second chapter: for it has been told us there that the "many sons" whom God is
bringing to glory "are all of one" with Him: "so that He is not ashamed to call
them brethren." And because these "children that God has given Him"
are "partakers of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part in the same,
that through death He might annul him that had the power of death, and deliver
them." Thus "it behoved Him to be made in all things like unto His brethren,
that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in thing pertaining to
God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people."
Here is surely
a long and connected argument to show the relation which Christs being
the Son of God bears to His Priesthood. For atonement, and for sympathy too (as
to which the last verse of the second chapter speaks) Christ as High-priest
must be made like into His brethren. His brethren are the many sons of God He
is bringing to glory; He therefore must be Son of God in human nature. To own
Him this is thus by implication to own Him as the Mediator-Priest on their
account.
That as Son of God He is King also, and that the quotation
from the second psalm is in connection with this, does not conflict at all with
such a view. The second quotation, which directly affirms His Priesthood,
expressly connects the two things together. He is a priest after the order of
Melchizedek, a priest upon the throne (Zech. vi. 13); a King with priestly
tenderness and succour for the sinful and needy - a Priest with royal and more
than royal authority. How sweet and fitting is the union in Him of these two
things! That as the Minister of priestly grace all power should be committed to
Him! But here, plainly, priesthood must come first, and lay the foundation. It
must begin in humiliation and sorrow, as the apostle represents. The Son of God
must learn what obedience is in a strange path of suffering. The Perfect One
must be officially perfected as the Author of eternal salvation to all those
that obey Him. He cries unto "Him that is able to save Him out of death," not
"from" it, and is "heard for His piety" (Heb. v. 7 - 9). Come up out of death,
He is "saluted of God as high-priest after the order of Melchizedek" (ver. 1O)
- hailed as Victor with the crown.
This course begins on earth and
ends in heaven. On earth He made propitiation (ii. 17), offering up Himself
(vii. 27) in the body prepared Him (x. 5), one offering for sins, by which He
has perfected in perpetuity those that are sanctified (x. 14). Then, as risen
from the dead, in the power of that blood whose acceptance had been thus openly
declared, He entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God
for us (ix. 24). But we must look more closely at the stages of accomplishment
of a course for us so necessary and so fruitful.
It is by His baptism
at the hands of John, that the Lord, coming forth out of His thirty years of
private life in which He had fulfilled His own personal responsibility as Man
before God, devotes Himself to that work on behalf of others for which He had
come. He is "baptized unto death," of which Jordan is the well-known figure;
and this implies for Him both sacrifice and priesthood. As the Lamb of
sacrifice John therefore proclaims Him, while as Priest He is anointed with the
Spirit; the Fathers voice proclaiming Him that which, as we have seen,
marks Him as the true Priest - His beloved Son. Here then begins His ministry,
which is characterized by all that grace which priesthood implies, and by those
works of power which are the broad seal of His commission as the Anointed of
God.
As Son of God He is now also the Prophet, God Himself now, as
never hitherto, speaking among men, and as Man, which makes the intimacy of
this grace complete. But His feet have to take for this the way of Calvary.
Every word is in this sense an evangel; every act of power is as it were an
anticipation of resurrection from the dead. The glorious Voice has to be hushed
in silence, the Mighty One to be crucified through weakness, the Priest of men
to offer up Himself, the Son of God to suffer as Son of man, the Seed of the
woman to set a bruised heel upon the Serpents head. It is a conflict of
good with evil, in which all vantage of power is to be on the side of evil, the
victory gained by suffering, in the awful place in which the fire of God also
searched out all the inward parts, and no deliverance could be but on the
ground of absolute perfection - a whole burnt-offering, sweet savour every
whit. He was "heard for His piety." No grace could be in His case, but simple
righteousness, which at last drew Him out and justified Him in resurrection
from the dead.
Thus the pure white linen robe was seen to be upon Him
before He entered the Sanctuary; but more - the blood was provided: the penalty
upon man was met, death and the forsaking of God - the governmental penalty,
and that which was and is the necessity of His nature - of purer eyes than to
behold iniquity and who cannot look at sin. Thus the hindrance - not to going
(for He could always go) but to bringing into the sanctuary is removed: and
this, of course, means His going in officially, as Priest for others. And thus
it is that it is the blood of the sin-offering, (and only of that when in its
fullest character,) not of any other, that opens the way into the sanctuary of
God. For, sin being removed, God is free to draw near to men, free to admit men
to draw near to Him: divine love is unhindered.
Thus propitiation was
effected on earth, and resurrection had declared the justification of all who
should believe on Him, before He ascended up to take His place for us before
God. "He entered in once, into the holy place, having found eternal redemption"
(Heb. ix. 12). In contrast with remission for a year, and annual entrances of
the Jewish priests, only for the moment, He has entered in once for all never
needing to repeat a sacrifice which abides in its value before God continually.
It is as entering in thus that He is "saluted of God a high priest
after the order of Melchizedek;" and here several things have to be noted,
which combine to make up the picture presented to us in the type.
But
let us first take notice that the two words in Heb. v. in our common version
alike translated "called," are by no means the same. The second word (ver. 10)
is in the revised "named," but would better be rendered "addressed" or
"saluted." It does not convey the thought of calling to an office, and it was
not after His work had been accomplished, that the Lords priest hood
began. Most certainly He was High priest when He offered up Himself (Heb. vii.
27), and the passage here says nothing to the contrary. But it is in
resurrection that His priesthood assumes the character in which Melchizedek
represents Him - a royal priesthood, and with no shadow of death upon it.
A royal priesthood is certainly the Melchizedek order; it is doubly
emphasized: in his name, "King of righteousness"; and then as "King of Salem,"
that is, "King of peace." This is what the apostle first of all dwells upon. It
has been by some lost sight of, because the Lords human Kingdom is not
yet come; but we are in "the Kingdom of Gods dear Son" (Col. i. 13), and
the epistle to the Hebrews emphasizes His place as Son over the house of God
(chap. iii. 6). Thus He is surely a Royal Priest: with power in His hands
exercised in priestly tenderness; righteousness and peace the characteristics
of His rule.
Then He "abideth a priest continually"; and as
Melchizedek is presented to us in the history, without predecessor or
successor, without beginning of days or end of life, in this he is "made
(typically) like the Son of God" (Heb. vii. 3). Levi, as the apostle reminds
us, gave tithes in Abraham to this greater priest; and the Levitical priesthood
are thus prefigured as to their relation to the antitypical Melchizedek.
Strikingly, in the history also, Melchizedek offers no sacrifice, but
"brings forth bread and wine" for the refreshment of the man of faith. This the
apostle neither comments upon nor notices; but he goes on to picture Christ as
the Minister of the true tabernacle, the heavenly sanctuary where, of course,
no sacrifices are offered. The bread and wine cannot fail to speak to our
hearts of the memorial of that once offered sacrifice, which has left us now no
sacrifices save that of praise and thanksgiving. Thus every way Melchizedek
represents Christ in His relation to us now. That there is an application to
millennial days, and His relation to Israel, is surely true; yet the whole
connection in the book of Genesis presses rather upon us the Christian one. *
Indeed the men of Aarons order, while they show us typically the work
which opens the Sanctuary, have nothing to say of the Sanctuary open.
Melchizedek may therefore fill a gap here, without in any wise displacing the
Aaronic priesthood in whatever it can show us.
* "See Genesis in the light
of the New Testament" or The Numerical Bible, Vol. I.
It is just here
however that a mistake has been made in another direction which needs to be
pointed out. It is that which would ascribe to the apostle a doctrine of the
Lord not having been a Priest on earth, not even when offering up Himself upon
the Cross; in direct contradiction of the whole typical system.
His
words are very different from this: "For if He were on earth, He would not even
be a priest, seeing that there are priests who offer gifts according to the
law, who serve for representation and shadow of heavenly things." He does not
say that the Lord was not a Priest on earth; but having set Him before us as
Minister of the true (antitypical) Tabernacle, he says, if He were on earth
there would be no room for Him in the earthly one: for there the sons of Aaron
fill everything according to the law. Surely nothing could be much more simple
than such a statement.
But the work which He did upon earth had
nothing to do with the Aaronic service, and answered to the work outside the
sanctuary. Now He has finished this, it is the heavenly Sanctuary into which He
has entered, and to which He belongs. "By one offering He has perfected in
perpetuity those who are sanctified." And in consequence, "such a High Priest
becometh us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens.
All sin put perfectly away from every saint
of God our Priest in heaven is for saints, not sinners, for weakness, not for
sin. His sacrifice is for sinners; His sympathy and intercession are for
saints, amid the opposition and seductions of an evil world, in which He has
Melchizedek-like refreshment for the tired warrior, and memorials of
unutterable value for him who is exposed to the offers of the king of Sodom:
food of the mighty which makes men that, and in the strength of which they may
go, like Elijah to Horeb, many days.
But our Priest keeps open the
Sanctuary also, that we may have access to God, and refuge in His presence from
the world through which we pass. With a veil rent, and a great Priest over the
house of God, we are encouraged to draw near with a true heart, in full
assurance of faith.
Go To Chapter Nine
Home | Links | Literature