MELCHIZEDEK KING OF SALEM

MELCHIZEDEK KING OF SALEM

                “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:19, 20

                We are learning and or relearning many things in these last days. Some of these things that we are learning (or relearning) pertain to the end time harvest and final outpouring of the Holy Spirit in ways that we could not have anticipated in years past. One of these subjects is the Melchizedek priesthood, which if understood properly would reconcile Law and Grace and bring unity into the body of Christ.

                Paul, in the book of Hebrews, spends several chapters explaining to us the difference between the Melchizedek priesthood and the Levitical priesthood and to be honest it is so confusing in places, that it is very hard to get His point even though every bit of it is important. So, for the sake of clarity I am going to try and boil this down to a sentence or two in order to capture in a nutshell what Paul is saying. So here goes:

                The Levitical priesthood was a temporary priesthood with temporary ordinances and types and shadows pointing forward to a greater reality, which is Jesus Christ, the true Lamb of God. (Gal 3:23-25, Col. 2:16, 17, Hebrews 8:13) Jesus came to fulfill the Levitical priesthood along with its laws contained in ordinances, sacrifices and types and shadows, (Mt. 5:17) so that He could bring us into the original Melchizedek priesthood and it is under the authority of this Melchizedek priesthood that we have the New Covenant.

                Let me make it even shorter. The Law was added to lead us to Christ and once we have come into Christ, the Law has finished its work

                But, like I just said, it isn’t really a New Covenant. It is the original covenant God made with Abraham before the Law of Moses was in existence. This is why it is said, that through faith in Jesus Christ, (who is our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek,) we become Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise… what promise? The promises made to Abraham. We don’t become Moses’s offspring, but Abraham’s… and Abraham came before the Law.

                You can read this covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis chapter 17. It is too long to repeat it all here, but God said to Abram: “Walk before Me and be blameless. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and I will multiply you exceedingly.” Gen. 17: 1b-2

                His covenant with Abraham was a promise that out of him would come many nations and that through Him all nations of the earth would be blessed.

1.       This covenant would be an everlasting covenant and it would include the Land of Canaan as an everlasting possession.

2.       There was also an everlasting covenant of circumcision. (First physical and then spiritual)

3.       There was a covenant that Sarah would bear him a son. (Just as Mary would one day bear a Son, who would become the Seed of Promise.)

4.       There was a covenant promise that through Abraham all nations would be blessed.

                Notice first of all that these Abrahamic covenants are not temporary, but everlasting.

1.       Israel ( with much bigger borders than today) will belong to God and His people forever

2.       The sons of God will be circumcised in their hearts

A.      “For we are the true circumcision who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh…” (Phil. 3: 3)

B.      “And in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. (Col. 2:11)

                Do you begin to see the importance of our faith in Jesus Christ? It is through Him that we become Abrahams’s seed and heirs according to promise.” Gal. 3:29. The promises come to us, not by replacing Israel, but by being grafted into Israel. (Romans 11:17) And when we are grafted into Israel by faith in Israel’s Messiah, we become Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise.

                It is through Jesus that the everlasting covenant of circumcision is fulfilled by a circumcision made without hands. (Col. 2:11)

3.       There was a covenant that Sarah would bear him a son. And as we look down through history we see that promise ultimately fulfilled in the birth of the promised Seed, the Messiah Jesus Christ and yet further down we see that Seed bringing many sons to glory. Hebrews 2:10

A.      For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Hebrews 2:10, 11

4.       This covenant also promised that through Abraham all of the nations would be blessed.

A.      Again, can we have any doubt that these blessings and covenants come to us through the promised Messiah Jesus Christ? All nations of the earth are offered the same blessing, but it comes to us through Jesus Christ and through Him alone. He is the Seed to whom all of the promises were made.

B.      Read this carefully: “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds” as referring to many, but rather to the one… ”AND TO YOUR SEED,” THAT IS CHRIST!”  So if we want to receive the promises made to Abraham, we must receive them through Jesus Christ.

C.      But Paul doesn’t stop there. He says: “What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but “God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.

                Ever since Jesus went back to heaven to be our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, we have lived under an Abrahamic covenant made possible by the Melchizedek Priesthood of Christ.

                This Covenant that we live under is not based upon the Levitical priesthood, or upon any of the laws that came with it. We live in a covenant that was given to Abraham 430 years before the Law was given on Mt. Sinai, so how could it be based upon that Law?

                And isn’t it interesting that Melchizedek met Abraham with bread and wine? Jesus made a positive ID of this fact when He too said, “This is My New Covenant. “ And He offered them bread and wine.

A.      “And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way He took the cup also, after supper saying,” This cup is the New Covenant in My blood; do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me.”

B.      Jesus is telling His disciples and us  that this new covenant is the Abrahamic covenant that was given under the Melchizedek Priesthood…. And He is the Seed of promise through whom the Melchizedek Priesthood comes.

                Now we need to understand that the Melchizedek Priesthood and the Levitical priesthood run side by side and they will continue to do so until all is fulfilled. But here’s how it works: Everyone in the world who is not in Christ is still under the Levitical Law. The only escape from the Law is through death and that death has been provided for us by Jesus. When we enter by faith into His death we literally die to the Law and to the kingdom of this world and we are born again to a Law written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit and to a new Priesthood based on better laws for these are fulfilled by Love for God and love for our fellow men…by the fruit of the Spirit and not by the letter of the Law. This is better understood if we take it in the context of Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me.” There is not some sloppy kind of ship jumping going on here. We are not carelessly tossing out the Law. In Christ we are making a transition from living by the flesh to living by His Spirit… and this life in the Spirit fulfills the law infinitely more so than trying to keep the letter of the Law.

                Many Christians today are still trying to be perfected by the Law of Moses, when in fact Paul explained to us that the Law made nothing perfect. It couldn’t make anything perfect (Heb. 7:19) because it makes its commands to imperfect and sinful flesh and flesh can’t do anything about it… at least not anything of eternal value. So we fall short of God’s glory and we fall short of perfection…. And we continue to break the Law in principle because we are made of sinful flesh and we cannot please God in the flesh. (Romans 8:8)

                That was our big problem; the law made many demands, but could not help us or transform us. So Jesus Christ had to come in the flesh and die in our place (As the true Lamb of God to which all the other sacrifices pointed) and then we went back to heaven as our faithful High Priest. He sent down His Holy Spirit to dwell in us and to do in us what the Law could never do. This doesn’t mean that the Law was done away. It simply means that we have a new way for it to be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

                But we need to get this straight. The Law was not some failed attempt on God’s part. Just like America has its foundations based upon the rule of Law… so also Law must be established in heavenly courts, otherwise there can be no judgment. Judgment is based upon law… and in spite of our natural distaste for laws, they really do protect our freedoms and they keep nations from disintegrating into chaos and bloodshed. For instance, look at the bedlam that goes on in some Muslim countries. The streets are jammed with unhappy people, shooting guns in the air and rioting for any one of a thousand reasons. Our peace as a nation has always been based upon the perfect Law of liberty.  (James 1:25)

                THE MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD IS AN ADMINISTRATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Jesus sends His Spirit into our hearts by which we cry “Abba Father” We are no longer slaves to the Law, but sons of God and as such we live by His Spirit. Nevertheless the Ark of the Covenant is in our hearts if we belong to Him and inside the Ark lies the Ten Commandments as the foundation upon which our freedom exists.

                So what does this have to do with the last days harvest and the power of God that we need to carry it out?

A.      Those who say that we are being perfected by keeping the commandments are wrong.

B.      Those who say that the Law was done away are also wrong.

C.      What we need in these last days is one grand unified truth that corrects both of these wrongs and transforms them into a grand and glorious truth that will bring on the power of the harvest. LAW AND GRACE CAN BE RECONCILED!

                THAT GRAND AND UNIFIED TRUTH IS A PROPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD AND HOW TO TRULY WALK IN IT!

                The Melchizedek Priesthood doesn’t do away with the Law and it doesn’t try to keep the Law. And this is why Romans chapter 8 is of such key importance in these last days. It brings final balance into everything Paul says. In other words, you can develop any number of false doctrines if you pick and choose what you want Paul to say. But if we will take the sum of what Paul says, we will have the whole truth. We see denominations on every side of this issue today and it is because they have picked one part or another of Paul’s message but not the whole of it. Romans 8 will correct that! And coincidentally Romans 8 also spells out life under the Melchizedek Priesthood without ever mentioning his name.

                We need to come into full maturity now as sons and daughters of God. A vast majority of the church across all lines is immature and unprepared to stand in the day of battle. We don’t know how to put on the full armor of God. We don’t know how to put on Christ or to wear His robe of righteousness.  We don’t know how to hear His voice. (Jesus said My sheep hear My voice.) We don’t know how to truly walk in the Spirit so that we don’t either fall into the ditch of legalism on one side, or lawlessness on the other. Our Christian life is like a roller coaster, going up and down with every wave of trouble, being blown this way and that by every wind of doctrine. We desperately need maturity.

                It is therefore so very important that we fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and Finisher of our faith. (Heb. 12:2) If we live by His Holy Spirit, we will not break the Law. Romans 8:12-14) He is our Rest. (Mt. 11:28)He is our Love for God. He is our love for our fellow man. (Gal. 5:22, 23) He bears His fruit in and through us and against this fruit there is no law. (Gal. 5:24, 25)

                Every promise was written to one Seed, even Jesus Christ and it is through that one Seed, that we receive everything that God offers us including eternal life. This is the everlasting covenant that will never pass away even in eternity. Melchizedek was both a king and a priest. King David walked in that anointing, being both a king and a priest. This is why the tabernacle of David is going to be restored in the last days. We too are a kingdom and priests as joint heirs who will rule and reign with Christ. Rev. 1:6

                There is so much that we need to yet learn about these things as we seek to enter into the fullness of God’s plans for us. But one question remains:

                So why was the Law added? It was added because when a society begins to fall out of fellowship with God through His Holy Spirit, that society begins to break down. We lose our loving relationship with God and we lose our right relationship with each other. The Law simply identifies the nature of this breakdown and urges us back into the Spirit of God. Unfortunately for the Old Covenant people, the Spirit of God as an indwelling presence was not available until the life, death and resurrection of Christ.     They had to live under the Law and then sacrifice innocent animals to bear the gilt of their sin when they broke it. But this was obviously a temporary measure that would last only until the true Lamb of God would come, but now that He has come, we live by His Spirit and as such we will not carry out the deeds of the flesh and the Law will be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Rom. 8:4. Paul explains this in Gal. 3: 19-29 and Romans 8.

                Perhaps next we will discuss the Tabernacle of David as it relates to the Melchizedek Priesthood and the great revival and harvest that must yet come.