I N D E X
102
PERFECTION
PERDITION
102
OR
race to be run, the endurance ending in exaltation and glory, will come before the mind as we think of Christ as the
Forerunner; and the apostle uses the word dromos `course', in the parallel passage of 2 Timothy 4:7.
In Hebrews 7 we find a further explanation given of the Melchisedec priesthood. We are taken back to Genesis
14 where Abraham is met by this priest after his victory over the armies of the kings. It was here that Abraham
renounced all rights and dues as a result of his triumph, taking neither thread nor shoe latchet, lest the king of Sodom
should say `I have made Abram rich'. There he also learned something more of the all-sufficiency of the Most High
God, the possessor of heaven and earth. The Melchisedec priesthood blesses the overcomer. That is an important
truth to be remembered here.
The greatness of this priesthood is further emphasized by an elaboration of a number of details that occur in the
passage in Genesis. The name has a meaning. Melchisedec means King of Righteousness, and King of Salem
means King of Peace. The fact that no genealogy is given in Scripture is taken to typify the risen and unending
priesthood of the Son of God. The greatness of this priesthood is still further shown by the fact that even Abraham
the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoil to Melchisedec, and the blessing of Abraham by Melchisedec shewed that
`without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better'. The perfection of which the epistle speaks is not
connected with the Levitical priesthood (7:11), and the essential difference between the Aaronic order and that of
Melchisedec is found in the fact that this priesthood is not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the
power of an endless life (7:16).  The introduction of the Levitical order of priesthood moreover was not
accompanied by an oath, but in the case of Christ:
`The Lord SWARE and will not repent ... by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament (covenant)'
(7:21,22).
The subject is summed up in 8:1,2 in these words:
`Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an High Priest, Who is set on the right hand of
the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord
pitched, and not man'.
The verse, so often repeated in this section, `Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec', is taken
from Psalm 110, which speaks of Christ sitting at the right hand of the Lord until His foes be made a footstool, and
also of His people presenting themselves as free-will offerings in the day of His power, which day seems closely
linked with the day of His wrath (Psa 110:5) when He shall strike through kings. The first mention of Melchisedec
is connected with the slaughter of the kings near Sodom, the last (in the Old Testament) speaks prophetically of
`striking through kings in the day of His wrath'. In the book of the Revelation we have Christ presented to us as
both Priest and King. Hebrews dwells mainly on the priestly side, Revelation unites the two offices and shews how
this royal Priesthood of Christ in the heavens and the fashioning of that royal priesthood on earth (`kings and priests
unto God' Rev. 1:6; 1 Pet. 2:5,9) are the goal of the `perfecting' of Hebrews and the `overcoming' of the
Apocalypse.
The ministry associated with Christ as a Priest after the order of Melchisedec takes us neither to the Tabernacle
nor Temple, but to Gethsemane; the offerings here are not sin offerings or trespass offerings, but prayer and
supplications, the end `perfecting', not forgiveness or acceptance.
`Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him' (Heb. 5:8,9).
How are we to understand the awful agony of the garden of Gethsemane? Albert Barnes voices a common
interpretation of the agony of Gethsemane thus:
`The posture of the mind of the Redeemer, perhaps, was something like this. He knew that He was about to be put to
death in a most cruel manner. His tender and sensitive nature, as a man shrank from such a death. As a man, He
went under the pressure of His great sorrows and pleaded that the cup might be removed and that man might be
redeemed by a less fearful scene of suffering. That arrangement, however, could not be made ... even though the
prayer of the pious sufferer is not directly answered, yet that prayer is acceptable to God, and the result of such a
trial is worth all that it costs'.