To the thoughtful student of Scripture, this study will show how the historical person of Melchizedek is presented in the book of Hebrews as a pattern for the greater New Covenant ministry that Jesus Christ came to fulfill in Himself.  We will discover how the Law in its entirety is declared to be weak and useless, unable to make anything perfect, and how Christ’s greater Melchizedekian priesthood was required.  It will be shown how God’s sworn “word of the oath” regarding Jesus’ greater ministry carries ultimate authority to completely dispossess, supersede, and invalidate all other temple ministries, legal requirements, sacrifices, rites, and past precedents that were established in the Law of Sinai, making them null and void forever. The “word of the oath” is final and complete.  It abides forever.  We will then consider how Jesus’ greater Melchizedek ministry serves as the exemplar pattern of prophetic fulfillment for the entire New Covenant age, acting as its eternal foundation that can never change nor permit any turning back to the Old Covenant paradigms, either for current practice or for any future prophetic fulfillments.  The New is here, and there is no turning back.

The Need for this Study

The need for this study becomes massively apparent when we scan the chaotic backdrop of the modern church scene.  A wide angle lens will quickly show that the church is awash with various forms of Old Covenant Law usage.  Countless denominations and streams of theology have resurrected and embraced some form of lawism.  We are a church culture infatuated with law.  Whether its Reformed, Dispensational, Evangelical, Pentecostal, NAR, or Hebrew Roots, there is a wide turning back, perhaps some would even call it a great “falling away”, back into the types, shadows, present practices, future hopes, and legal requirements of the Old Covenant.

Our modern day scourge of lawism in the church is not new.  Over the past 200 years, the church has been very ill served when it comes to teaching, preaching, or publication about the Biblical concept of New Covenant fulfillments by Jesus Christ.   The primary reason for this nonexistent theology is because the landscape of the western church has been dominated, on one hand, by Reformed theology and on the other by Dispensational theology.  Both systems widely miss the mark when it comes to the topic of fulfillment because both fail to recognize the exclusive New Covenant ministry of the Spirit as eschatologically and ontologically distinct from the expired Old Covenant ministry of fleshly types and shadows. This singular distinction is vitally important if we are going to understand the Pauline distinctions between Law and Spirit in the New Covenant age.

A Historical Trainwreck in the Making

From a brief historical perspective, let us consider the brewing trainwreck of lawism that now shapes today’s chaotic church scene, looking at two main culprits: Reformed theology and Dispensationalism.

Reformed theology holds to a present view of continuing types and shadows, while Dispensationalism holds to a future view of re-established types and shadows.  Both systems fall into the same ditch of resurrected Old Covenant types and shadows.  Both camps end up like Esau, selling out their New Covenant birthright and forfeiting their privileged identity as being the true Israel of God, the holy nation, the royal priesthood, Abraham’s children, sons of promise like Isaac, God’s Temple, and those who are inheritors of the Abrahamic blessing and indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Romans 7:6, Ephesians 2;19-22, 2 Corinthians 3:7-13, Galatians 3:29, 4:26-28, 6:16, 1 Peter 2:9-10).

For the Reformed, their covenantal system is a product of the historical revisionism of the academy, holding to an artificial formulation they call the “covenant of grace”, which attempts to blend the Old Covenant legal types and shadows together with the New Covenant teachings about the gospel, all the while completely ignoring the sharp distinctions between the Old Covenant ministry and the New Covenant ministry that the Scriptures elucidate.

The result is a hybrid gospel (as per Galatians 1:8-9) in which the Reformed view their natural-born infants as little Abrahamic offsprings, requiring a fleshly form of circumcision (infant baptism) for admittance and membership into the external community, following the same legal and fleshly pattern of the Old Covenant Israelites.  This revisionism causes them to miss the New Covenant reality of the Spirit’s new birth and circumcision that is required for entrance, not into an institution, but into Jesus Christ himself,  by faith (John 3:3-8, Romans 2:28-29, 1 Peter 2:2).  Further, they miss the point that there is only but ONE true Offspring of Abraham (Galatians 3:16), not many, and that any entrance into living union with the Messianic Offspring and his family requires much more than a natural  birth and a cursory circum-tism rite of sprinkling the infant with common tap water.

Adding to this confusion, the Reformed hold to a rigid third-use of the Law of Sinai, under which they place themselves for obedience, self-examination, and church discipline.  For the Reformed, the Old Covenant legal framework of Sinai and its ability to continually count up sin and condemn offenders was never dealt a death-blow through the blood of the cross.  Rather, they have ignored the Scriptures (Romans 6:14-15, 7:1-6, 8:1-4, Hebrews 12:18-25) and have repurposed, magnified, and upgraded Sinai’s abolished Law as a continuing yoke of observance.  The result is a very formal church ceremony that looks and feels serious, and operates under the morose intensity of those weighed down by many law burdens.

For the Dispensational evangelicals, their theological system is a late product of the 1800’s bible college and prophecy-conference movement.  Like the Reformed, they also do not hold to the clear Biblical distinctions between Old and New Covenants.  Rather, they opt to understand redemptive history through a loose formulation of unfolding historical “dispensations” or eras.   Their primary view of the New Covenant age is one, not of actual prophetic fulfillments, but of mystery.  They see the church age as a temporary pause in God’s redemptive plan in dealing with the ethic Nation Israel.  We gentiles are a hidden mystery, a never-before anticipated parentheses in God’s timeline of prophecy, in which He pressed “pause” on His prophetic stop-watch and stopped dealing with Israel for a little while, so that He could gather in us Gentiles.  Once God is finished saving His portion of the Gentiles, He will then rapture us out of here and continue again with the originally scheduled prophetic-program with Nation Israel.  Or so the story goes.  Try to find this unnatural division between Jews and Gentiles in the New Testament anywhere.  Meanwhile Ephesians 2 says something altogether different entirely.

Because of this errant view, Dispensational teaching holds to a very rigid separation between the present “mystery gentile church” and the emerging Jewish Nation-State of 1948 Israel, which they believe are the sole subjects of all end-times Bible prophecy. They believe that God will again revert to dealing exclusively with the Jewish Nation once again, in their Old Covenant legal and religious practices and within the geographical boundaries of the original “promised land” of Canaan/Israel.

Their view that the geographical “promised land” still possesses great future prophetic significance completely ignores what the Scriptures actually teach on the subject.  Hebrews chapter 4 clearly tells us that Joshua’s conquest into the “promised land” did not bring the Israelites into the true Sabbath rest that was actually contained in God’s original promise regarding the land.  Rather we are shown that Joshua’s true promised Sabbath rest is found in Jesus, by faith in the gospel.  The true Sabbath Rest that God promised was never in a geographical land mass on this earth.  Rather, it is to be found in Himself.  God is our ultimate dwelling place.

Further to this, Hebrews chapter 11 clearly tells us that Abraham, having received the original promise of the inheriting the land of Canaan as a possession, looked forward to its ultimate and true fulfillment, NOT as an earthly geographical land mass, but a Heavenly City.  In other words, for both Abraham and Joshua, the promised land of Canaan was simply a passing and temporary waypoint.  It acted only as shadowy type that pointed forward to something FAR greater, a new heavens and a new earth.  The land of Canaan was just like all the other types and figures, pointing forward to something ultimately better and spiritually new.  One wonders if our generation of Christians can even read the Scriptures for what it actually says?

The artificial division between Jew and Gentile that Dispensationalism maintains is necessary to advance their view that God will abandon the Spirit-fulfilled realities of the New Covenant and return again to the fleshly types and shadows of the Old Covenant that have already been abolished.  This ‘going backwards’ to the fleshly types and shadows is a hallmark of their literal approach to prophetic fulfilment.   This futuristic literalism is required to advance their vision of a literal earthly kingdom.  It is here that they believe Jesus will reign from a rebuilt Temple precinct and a renewed bloody sacrificial system of bulls and goats, overseen by Levitical priests, in order to be properly worshipped and approached.  This will somehow again become acceptable to God for earthly kingdom worship.  As bizarre as this may sound, it is the central tenant of the majority dispensational camp.  

During this supposed renewed theocratic Temple dispensation, our current dispensation of grace and the “once for all sacrifice” of Jesus will then effectively be over.  Ultimately, what need will there be of salvation by faith in things unseen (2 Corinthians 4:18, Hebrews 11:1, 11:7), when Jesus will be clearly seen and bloody animal sacrifices are once again required under the Law of Sinai to draw near to God?

Further to their belief in a rebuilt Jewish Temple in Jerusalem is a future desolation of this Temple precinct by an anti-christ figure during a time of “tribulation”, completely ignoring the historical fact that this event already took place in Jerusalem in AD 70, just as Daniel and Jesus both prophesied (Luke 21:20-22).  It must be seriously considered that any supposed future desolation or desecration of an earthly holy Temple would FIRST require that this space be sanctified and made holy by the sprinkling of sacrificial blood and God’s indwelling presence there, as is the clear biblical pattern in several Old Testament passages (Exodus 24:16, Exodus 40:34-35, 2 Chronicles 7:1).  Does the Scripture actually teach that God will resurrect and validate the former types and shadows, which were but “weak and useless” copies of the true Heavenly realities, where Christ currently presides?  Could any supposed future Temple, built by human hands, once again be made holy by God as sacred space, acceptable for worship by a restored Levite priesthood?  Because this is the only way that such a Temple could then later be desolated by any kind of future abomination.

It is evident that the errant claims of Dispensationalism presumes that God would even allow the Jewish people to ‘go backwards’ to the fleshly types and shadows, which can never take away sins, therefore nullifying the entire purpose of the cross and the “once for all” sacrifice of Jesus.

In the end, the onus remains firmly on both the Dispensationalists and Reformed to biblically prove their wild and fantastical claims.  But the serious student of Scripture can rest secure in knowing that there is no stray syllable of teaching in the entirety of the New Testament canon that attempts to turn the saints of Jesus Christ backwards to any of the Old Covenant types and shadows for present worship, under the Law, or future worship, under a revived Temple theocracy.  The dispensationalists cannot justify their future position of a Temple and its attending Levitical priesthood.  Neither can the Reformed justify their current position of a continuing Law Covenant and its attending form of circumcision for their natural born children.

To examine this assertion further we will be looking at the person of Melchizedek and God’s unwavering “word of the oath”, which irrevocably secures Christ’s present heavenly position for ever.  Never again to go backwards to types and shadows.

Melchizedek: Tracing His Appearing in the Book of Hebrews

Before we get to the actual person of Melchizedek we need to trace how the writer of Hebrews methodically and carefully leads his readers to see Jesus as “better” in all the preceding examples leading up the introduction of Melchizedek.  The author’s unfolding pattern will help us to better understand who the historical Melchizedek of Genesis 14 was, in comparison to Christ.

From the outset, the purpose of the book of Hebrews was to act as theological encouragement to early persecuted believers, particularly ethnic Jews who had embraced Jesus as the true Messiah.  The writer’s concern was to encourage them to continue in the faith of Jesus in the midst of severe trials they were enduring on account of their faith.  As Jews, they would have been bitterly expelled from their Synagogues and tight-knit tribal communities.  On account of this, they would have been extremely tempted to forsake Christ and return to temple Judaism, in order to regain access to social status, jobs, properties, families, etc.  Thus the author’s goal in encouraging these exiled Jews is to magnify the ultimate supremacy of Jesus Christ over all the former types and shadows of Judaism, showing them that Jesus is the true fulfillment and heavenly archetype of them all.  He is worthy of the suffering and loss they were enduring.

Let us then briefly trace how the author shows Jesus to be “better” in all things as he develops his argument through the book:

• Jesus is better than the words of prophets (1:1-3)
• Jesus is better than heavenly angels (1:4-14)
• The message of Jesus is better than the message delivered by angels (2:1-18)
• Jesus is better than Moses (3:1-6)
• Jesus is the true Sabbath rest, better than the “land of promise” given to Israel by Joshua (3:7 to 4:13)
• Jesus is a better High Priest than those formerly chosen among men (4:14 to 5:14)
• Jesus is a better High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek, made firm by God’s oath (6:19 to 7:28)
• Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Throne of Majesty, having entered into the true tent to minister in the holy places of heaven itself (8:1-5)
• Jesus has obtained a better ministry, he mediates a better covenant, the New Covenant (8:6-12) – the old covenant is now obsolete (8:13)
• Jesus’ heavenly Temple ministry as High Priest, with his “once for all” purifying blood, is far better than the temporary earthly copies that were given to Moses (9:1-28)
• Jesus’ “once for all” bodily sacrifice is far better than the blood of animals (10:1-18)
• The Old Testament saints looked forward, by faith, to a better heavenly hope and city (11:1-40)
• The Heavenly Mt. Zion, where Jesus presently reigns as mediator of the New Covenant, is better than Mt. Sinai (12:18-24)
• Christ’s present heavenly kingdom is unshakable and permanent, better than the old earthly kingdom (12:25-29)

Contained in each of these snapshots, there is a simple and consistent message throughout: Jesus is better.  He is better than all the outward, fleshly, temporary, and tangible elements of Judaism, temple worship, human priesthood, animal sacrifices, Sabbath observance, and even possession of the “promised land”.  All of these things were shadows.  They were weak and useless, unable to make anything perfect.  They were only copies of heavenly things.  As such, they pointed away from themselves to far greater prophetic expectation, namely Jesus Christ, His person, His redemptive sacrifice, and His permanent ministry in the heavenly places as High Priest and mediator of the New Covenant, for ever.  Therefore, when we consider who the historical person of Melchizedek was, we need to be aware that the author of Hebrews was arguing from lesser things to greater things. 

Melchizedek’s Person and Identity

As we consider who the historical Melchizedek may have been, we need to acknowledge that, at the very least, he is considered a direct type of Christ in the book of Hebrews.  The Genesis 14 account does not contain the classic Old Testament markers that would identify Melchizedek as a divine appearance of the Angel of the LORD or a pre-incarnate Christ.  Such markers would include holy fear, awe, falling down in worship, verbal acknowledgment of divinity, removing of one’s shoes, offering of a sacrifice, etc.

Further, the Hebrew writer clearly tells us that the mysterious details of Melchizedek’s identity are such that he “resembles the Son of God” (7:3) and that Jesus is “another priest who arises in the likeness of Melchizedek” (7:15).  It seems that if Melchizedek was a divine person, this identity would have been clearly stated in no uncertain terms.  However, the writer describes him in human terms, “see how great this man was” (7:4).  This wording strongly favours the view that Melchizedek was a mortal man, but one who possessed a very high calling as both King and Priest of the Most High God.  Further, we are told that Jesus’ priestly appointment is “in the likeness of Melchizedek” in the same way that Jesus is said to “be made like his brothers in every respect” (2:17).  The author is seen consistently comparing lesser types and shadows with the greater fulfilled realities of Jesus, the divine exemplar.

At the very least, Melchizedek is presented as a mysterious Spirit-filled man whose unrecorded genealogy resembled the Son of God, who has no beginning and no ending.  Melchizedek’s role as King-Priest, offering bread and wine to Abraham, has undoubtedly served to prefigure Jesus Christ who, being the Davidic King and High Priest, offered up Himself as the New Covenant sacrifice, giving us His bread and wine to eat and drink.

Whatever view of Melchizedek’s identity is favoured, it is not essential to the points that the writer is drawing us to conclude about Jesus’ better ministry as the heavenly High Priest.

Melchizedek: The Divine Pattern of Jesus

Let us now see how the author uses the person and office of Melchizedek to illustrate the divine pattern that Jesus now fulfills perfectly:

• King of righteousness and King of Salem (of Peace)  (7:2)
  Jesus is identified consistently as the Davidic King (Matthew 2:2, Luke 1:32-33, John 1:49, Acts 15:14-16, 1 Timothy 6:15, Revelation 19:16).
  Jesus is our righteousness (Romans 3:21-22, 4:22-25, 10:4)
  Jesus is our peace (Ephesians 2:14, Isaiah 9:6, 2 Thessalonians 3:16)
  
  
• An untraceable genealogy (7:3)
  Jesus, the Son of God is eternal, without beginning and without end (John 1:1-5)
  
  
• Melchizedek’s office and rank was superior to the Levitical priesthood and the order of Aaron (7:4-11)
  Jesus’ decent from Judah did not authorized or sanction  Him to become a priest under the Old Covenant Law.  A change in the priesthood and the Law was necessary.  The Law had to be set aside, since it made nothing perfect.  Jesus’ superior priesthood arose after the likeness of Melchizedek, not on the basis of the Law’s legal requirement concerning bodily genealogy.  (7:12-19)
  
  
• Levites became priests by legal requirement of the Law of Moses concerning bodily descent, not by a divine oath.
  Jesus was made a priest with a divine oath by the power of an indestructible life: “The LORD has sworn, and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek” in fulfillment of the prophetic Psalm 110. (7:20-21)
  
  
• Jesus is now the guarantor of a better covenant. (7:22)
  
  
• Former priests died and could not continue in office
  Jesus now hold his priesthood permanently, because He continues forever and always makes intercession (7:24-25)
  
  
• Jesus is our high priest, exalted above the heavens (7:26)
  
  
• Former priests had to offer sacrifices daily.
  Jesus offered up Himself “once for all” (7:27)
  
  
• The Law could only appoint men in their weakness
  The word of the oath, which came later than the Law, appoints a Son as High Priest, who has been made perfect, for ever (7:28)
  
  

Melchizedek: God’s Sworn Word of the Oath

Integral to God’s appointment of Jesus to the Melchizedekian high-priestly office in heaven is His sworn word of the oath.  God’s word of the oath makes His promise doubly unalterable, immovable, and eternally permanent.

The original oath is found in Psalm 110:4, written by Jesus’ ancient forebear, King David, who was acting as a prophet when he wrote (Acts 2:30):

“The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.’”

This prophetic promise concerning Jesus was steadfast and true in its own standing.  Nevertheless, the Scripture explicitly tells that when God desires to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with an oath.  He does this in order to double down, as it were, on His prophetic promise, so that by two unchangeable things, the promise and the sworn oath, it is impossible for God to lie (See Hebrews 6:13-20).

As we consider the double weightiness of God’s oath concerning the appointment of Jesus to the Melchizedekian high-priestly office in Heaven, we must realize that this appointment is for ever.  God will not change His mind.  Jesus’ office as the New Covenant guarantor (7:22) and mediator (8:6) is eternally fixed.  There is no going back to the weak and shadowy elements of the Old Covenant paradigm.  Jesus will never allow a rebuilt temple to exist in Jerusalem, where He sanctifies it with His Spirit, and authorizes a revived Levitical priesthood to offer bloody animal sacrifices once again.  Neither will He sanction a church that currently returns to the fleshly paradigms of the Old Covenant Law and modified circumcision rites for infants.

God has ensured this, because through His oath, He desired to show us more convincingly that Jesus’ New Covenant heavenly ministry is permanent, eternal, and “once for all”.

Melchizedek: The Divine Pattern of the New Covenant

In Hebrews chapter 7 there is a wealth of spiritual wisdom to be gleaned concerning the transition from the Old Covenant age of fleshly and temporal types into the New Covenant realities that are permanent and eternal in Christ Jesus.

We learn that the Law of Moses was only temporary.  It was weak and useless, unable to make anything perfect.  Its Aaronic priesthood was based on genealogical descent, as prescribed by the legal requirements of the Law.  They were appointed in weakness, needing first to offer up daily sacrifices for their own sins.  The entire priesthood and legal system needed to be changed and replaced in order for perfect remission of sins to be accomplished.

Jesus’ high-priestly ministry is shown to be far better.  Jesus is identified as the fulfillment of the OT typology of Melchizedek, who appeared to Abraham, long before the giving of the Law and the Aaronic priesthood. However, His appointment to this office was established by God’s prophetic word of the oath, given through King David, which came much later than the Law.  This principle of replacing first (shadowy) things with second (spiritual) realities is a well established pattern in God’s unfolding plan of redemptive history.  It is stated explicitly in Hebrews 10:9: “He does away with the first in order to establish the second” and is found in many other places (eg. 1 Corinthians 15:46-49), including a New Heaven, New Earth, and a Divine Garden (Revelation 21 & 22).

This means that Jesus’ continuance in His heavenly role as High Priest and mediator of the New Covenant is now permanent, unchangeable, perfect, “once for all”, and sealed with God’s sworn oath, by which He will never change His mind.

This means that the entire New Covenant age of Spirit-filled realities are a fulfillment of OT shadows and types.  Like Jesus’ own office, the New Covenant He now mediates is equally superior, unchanging, irrevocable, eternal, and never to be annulled or broken.  All of the old types and shadows of Israel’s past (first things) have been permanently dispossess and replaced by the far-better (second things) heavenly ministry of Jesus Christ and His poured-out Spirit into the believing community.  The saints of Jesus now fulfill the role of Spiritual Israel, the ecclesia of God, the true Temple, the assembly of the Firstborn, the royal priesthood, and the holy nation of Jesus Messiah ben David.

This means that there can never be a returning or “going back” to Old Covenant types and shadows, either in the present or sometime in the future.  “In speaking of a New Covenant, He makes the first one obsolete” (8:13).

Melchizedek: A Corrective to the Reformed and Dispensationalists

The pattern we have seen concerning Melchizedek and Jesus’ fulfillment as high priest is that His new and heavenly ministry has been established by God himself, completely apart from any reliance upon or continuation of the Law of Moses, including any requirements concerning genealogical or tribal heritage.  Rather, the Law and the old fleshly priesthood have been completely changed, dispossessed, and replaced by a far better heavenly ministry, made doubly sure by God’s sworn oath, alone.  Jesus now remains in His Melchizedekian priesthood forever, apart from any continuing legal requirement of the Law, which is now rendered obsolete.

Paul also confirms this change in this way: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it.” (Romans 3:21).

“Likewise, my brothers, you have also died to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another . . . now we are released from the Law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:4-6).

For the Reformed community, this means that they must examine their insistence on placing themselves back under the Law of Moses for their standard of moral righteousness and church discipline.  This means they must re-examine their insistence on calling Sunday the Sabbath Day to be legally observed as a moral requirement of the Old Covenant.  This also demands that they reconsider their practise of circum-tism for their flesh-born infants, according to the Old Covenant pattern of a fleshly Israel, in light of who the true singular Offspring of Abraham is (Galatians 3:16) and how His own New Covenant priestly ministry is not dependent on fleshly descent.  The true children of God are no longer born of the flesh, but are those who receive the Son of God and are born from Heaven by the Spirit (John 1:11-13, 3:5-6, Galatians 3:25-29).    And finally, they must consider if they even understand the sharp distinctions that the Scripture makes between the Old Covenant (Sinai) and the New Covenant (Christ), against the backdrop of their artificial covenantal system of “covenant of works” and “covenant of grace,” where such distinctions are blurred and conflated.

For the Dispensational community, this means that they must re-examine their insistence that God is going to return back to all the Old Covenant types and shadows, including the temple, the land, bloody sacrifices, and a Levitical priestly administration in order to restore the Jewish people and usher in a millennial kingdom.  A rebuilt Jewish temple is not being discussed in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 when one realizes that Paul’s consistent identification of the Temple of God is the ecclesia, the New Covenant community, the church of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, Ephesians 2:19-22, Hebrews 3:6, 1 Peter 2:5).  The Man of Lawlessness is described in this passage as one who infiltrates the church of Jesus with everything that is false, fleshly, worldly, sensual, deceptive, and detestable on a worldwide level, going hand in hand with other warning passages (Acts 20:29-30, 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, 1 Timothy 4:1-3, 2 Peter 2, Jude 1, Revelation 20:7-8)

The divine pattern of Melchizedek, as fulfilled in Christ the Son, is the corrective lens that the church desperately needs at this late hour.  It must be once again confessed and believed that the Old Covenant types and shadows have been forever put away and replaced by the far better Heavenly realities of Jesus Christ, His New Covenant ministry, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit now at work in the believing community.  All of this has been sealed up with Jesus in God’s word of the oath.  This oath, which came later than the Law, will not allow any return to the old fleshly paradigm, at any point, ever.

“The LORD has sworn, and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4, Hebrews 7:20).

The old has passed away; behold the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)