Genesis 14:18-20. 18And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) 19And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; 20and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
One day, Abraham will have lots of kids and grandkids. God’s promises to him will all come true. Abraham’s descendants will become a great nation, the nation of Israel. From Abraham will come a tribe of people called Levi. The Levites will be chosen by God to be the priests of Israel. Every priest had to be a Levite. There will also be a tribe called Judah. The kings of Israel will come from this tribe, the tribe of King David.
Kings and priests. Israel would have both. But here’s what God said in his law – kings cannot be priests and priests cannot be kings. No one from the tribe of Levi could be a king, and no one from the tribe of Judah could be a priest.
Do you know what tribe Jesus was from? That’s right, he was from the tribe of Judah. Uh-oh, we have a problem. In the New Testament, Jesus is not only called our king, he is also called our priest.
Hebrews 4:14. we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.
How can Jesus be our king and our priest? Doesn’t that break God’s law? This is where Melchizedek comes in. Melchizedek? Yes, the mysterious man that met Abraham after he won the battle. We don’t know much about Melchizedek, but we do know that he was both a king and a priest. Melchizedek is what we call a “type of Christ.” A “type” is someone or something that gives us a picture of Jesus in the Old Testament before Jesus is born in the New Testament. Melchizedek is a picture of Jesus. He was the only person in the Old Testament that was both a king and a priest, just like Jesus would be. This is why the book of Hebrews, in the New Testament, calls Jesus a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 6:20. Jesus has…become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
You may be wondering what any of this has to do with you, and the answer is everything. First of all, because Jesus is after the order of Melchizedek that means that you only need ONE savior. Like Melchizedek, Jesus is both king and priest, therefore, he can be everything we need. Jesus is the king who won the battle for us against sin and Satan, and he is also the high priest who offers us forgiveness and peace with God through his sacrifice.
Hebrews 7:27. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
Once for all.
This is our second point. Because Jesus is our victorious king, he only had to offer one sacrifice for sins. The priests in the Old Testament offered sacrifices for sins all day every day. Why? Because those animal sacrifices weren’t a perfect substitute for us. But Jesus is! That’s why when he sacrificed his own life for us on the cross there would never have to be another sacrifice ever again. What does that mean for you? It means that when you trust Jesus, you are forgiven FOREVER. Every sin you have committed or will commit is already forgiven for eternity.
With Jesus, we don’t have to keep asking God to forgive us; we should just keep saying thank you for his forgiveness.
With Jesus, we never have to offer sacrifices for our sins. We don’t have to pay God back for the bad things we’ve done. We don’t have to give things to God as an offering in order to get him to like us again.
With Jesus, we don’t do good to cover up our bad, we do good because God has made us good through Jesus.
You: Do you ever attempt to cover up your bad by trying to be good?
You with Jesus: Jesus is our king who defeated sin forever and he is our priest who forgives us forever. How do these two truths help you to know God loves you and help you to love others like God does?
Prayer: Father, I’m so glad that Jesus is like Melchizedek, a priest and king forever. Your love for me will never run out. Help me to trust it every day. Amen.
TLICfamily 