A Change Of Priesthood
A CHANGE OF PRIESTHOOD
HEBREWS 7:11-14
The new priesthood in Christ is a royal priesthood.
Another aspect of the subject of priesthood is implied in the very existence in Scripture of a reference to the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. If the Aaronic priesthood had done all that was required, humanity’s priestly needs would have been fully met. There would have been no need and no place for another priesthood. The reference in the Psalm should therefore have made thinking Israelites realize that the Levitical priesthood was inadequate. It is not that that priesthood did nothing. Under it the people received the Law (7:11) which was a great good (and would have been a greater had they realized the true function of the Law and the way it could point them to Christ; see John 5:46f.; Galatians 3:19,24).
But Psalm 110 does speak of a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. It sees this as persisting forever. This obviously means a change in priesthood. But it also means “necessarily a change in the law as well” (7:12). The Law cannot remain unaffected when the Aaronic priesthood is replaced by another. The Law, and the priesthood which offered the sacrifices prescribed by the Law, are closely bound up together. The one cannot be done away with without serious modifications in the other. Paul can speak of Christ as “the end of the law” (Romans 10:4), and the writer is making the same essential point in his own way.
The particular point which is emphasized is that Christ came from a tribe which was never by the Law connected with priesthood. Judah is the royal tribe, and the fact that Jesus came from this tribe fits in with the fact that Melchizedek was king as well as priest. The new priesthood in Christ is a royal priesthood.