A NEW ADMINISTRATION

A CHANGE OF ADMINISTRATIONS

                When I was growing up, the Law of Moses was the driving force of our Christianity. Keeping the commandments and particularly the Sabbath were the kingpins, the centerpiece of all that we believed. We sang about Jesus, but we preached about law and doctrine and when we were in evangelism we had 28 nights to present 28 doctrines and one of those nights was about Jesus in a sermon called. “Behold the Man.”

                Perhaps this is an overly harsh assessment of the past, but in truth we were law driven and Sabbath driven. As such Jesus played a secondary role and the Holy Spirit a somewhat distant third.

                In truth we did believe in Jesus to be sure, but we understood Him within the framework of Law. Jesus came to fulfill the Law. He died to satisfy the Law, and then He commanded us to keep that Law as well and He went back to heaven as our High Priest to help us to keep the Law.

                As such the idea of a Melchizedek Priesthood was more of a curiosity. Who was this Melchizedek and what did He have to do with Christianity as we knew it. I think the reason we didn’t probe too deeply into this form of priesthood is because at some point it would have forced us to rearrange our entire platform. For us the Law of Moses was eternal and central… so how did a High Priest who came before the Law become the central theme and body of our truth?

                But the absolute truth is that when Jesus came into the world He brought with Him a change of administration. So naturally, people who are under the administration of Law, feel uncomfortable with the book of Galatians. Here Paul announces this change of administration by saying:

                “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 one, “And to your Seed,” that is Christ. 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.” Gal. 3:16-18

                So then Paul asks the next logical question: “Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator UNTIL the seed should come to whom the promise had been made… Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would have indeed been based on Law.” Gal. 3:19, 21

                Then Paul goes on to say: “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith, but now that faith has come we are no longer under a tutor for we are all sons of God through Jesus Christ.” And then Paul concludes in verse 29 by saying: “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed or offspring and heirs according to promise.

                So what we have here is a complete change of administration from Mosaic Law, to a covenant previously ratified with Abraham based on promise and in the story of Abraham we come face to face with Melchizedek. He offers bread and wine as a symbolic type of the New High Priesthood to be brought into the world by Jesus the Christ and it is not under the administration of Moses at all. It is an entirely new and different administration.

                In answer to this question the writer of the book of Hebrews points out the infinite superiority of the Melchizedek priesthood over the Levitical priesthood and the superiority of promise over Law… for what the Law could not do, weak as it was in the flesh God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the requirement of the aw might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Rom. 8:3, 4

                So Jesus, as our High Priest after of order of Melchizedek, set up a new administration of the Spirit, so that as we live by the Spirit the requirements of the Law will be fulfilled in us. So going after the Law will not fulfil the Law, but going after the Spirit will fulfill the Law in the actual way that the Law is intended to be fulfilled and that is through the fruit of the Spirit.

                At this point some will say, “Yes, but the Law… it is holy and righteous and good and how can you do away with it? Well … you can’t do away with the basic Ten Commandments. You can’t go out now and kill and steal and commit adultery with your neighbor’s wife. But then again, these are just common decency laws that form the basis of any respectable society… and loving and serving the one true God is also at the basis of any respectable society… which is why America is currently falling into anarchy and it is also why godless communist countries have the replace the Ten commandments within thousands of laws and constant surveillance and where freedom is lost as a result, rather than gained.

                Even as respectable citizens we should keep the Law, but God has a purposes for His people that is infinitely higher than becoming, merely good law abiding citizens. So the administration that Jesus has brought to us through the order of Melchizedek far exceeds anything that the Law of Moses can comprehend or bring.

                The Levitical priesthood was designed for earthly and temporary things and it was administered by men who would die; but the Melchizedek Priesthood is built for eternal things and it is administered by a High Priest who will never die. So our purpose on this earth is to move far beyond Law to the eternal things of the Spirit and when we learn to live by the Spirit rather than by our flesh, then we enter the rest that the Sabbath points forward to and rather than refraining from worshipping other gods we have actually become temples of the Holy Spirit and we are living as Christ(anointed ones) in the world.

                Often in our Christian lives we get bogged down and we settle for mere law keeping and the weakness of the flesh. Life becomes mundane because we fall from our high calling of walking in the Spirit and back into the elemental things. We go back to milk and we stop feeding on the meat of the Word. We fall back from the dynamic life of the Spirit and we begin to live in the flesh again and as such we lose all expectation of the supernatural life that we were called to live in Christ Jesus.

                So this subject of our Melchizedek High Priesthood is not a side issue, or a curiosity, for He is the administrator of and entirely New Covenant… one that came before the Law… one that is based on the righteousness of faith… one that is based on promise and not on law.

                The subject of Melchizedek then is not a side issue. It is on this basis that we have a New Covenant with new laws and a new Administrator and High Priest and the book of Hebrews was written to explain to Jewish Christians the absolute superiority of Christ and His High Priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, over the temporary administration of Law which only lasted until the arrival of Jesus Christ the Son of God who alone can take away the sins of the world.

                So as long as we remain oriented to the Law of Moses and to the temporary Levitical priesthood, we will fall short of the glory of God and even our best Law keeping will be as filthy rags and Jesus will remain less important than our doctrines.

                Paul’s burden and purpose was to proclaim Him (Christ) admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom that we may present every man complete in Christ. “Col. 1:28 and for this reason Paul then says: “Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food and drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” Col. 2:16-17 and He is able to say this on the basis of who Jesus Christ really is: “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form and in Him you have been made complete and He is the head over all rule and authority and in Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” Col. 2:9, 10.

                Our purpose in this world is not mere obedience, but to enter into and walk by the powers of the age to come, so that we can finish what Jesus started in this world and then go to reign with Him, victorious… having overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony… having learned to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh.

                We live under a new administration and we must by all means learn how to live by the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit and to base our lives on the eternal things that are brought to us by an eternal High Priest who is after the order of Melchizedek.