Our Saviour and Lord by George W. Reaser

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 27, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 33.

Our Saviour and Lord

By George W. Reaser

Christ as Our Great High Priest—

No. 2

To supply all of the Scriptural proof that Christ becomes “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,” by virtue of His taking Adam’s position as the head of our world, would require the entire space of several issues of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. We will therefore limit our present treatment of the theme to the development of a few salient points in the argument.

Coincident with sonship, by His resurrection Christ became the Melchizedek of our world.

That there was a time when Christ was not the Melchizedek of our world, and that He became such coincident with the declaration of His sonship by the resurrection from the dead, is perfectly clear from the following statement: “So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an high priest; but He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten Thee. As He saith also in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek;” “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” Heb. 5:5, 6; Rom. 1:4. Adam was the son of God by creation, doubtless in the same order as the sons of God who present themselves before Jehovah to represent their respective worlds. In the instances brought to view in the book of Job, Satan represented our world instead of Adam, because the latter had forfeited his sonship, his representative right, his Melchizedek priesthood, by yielding to Satan, who became “the prince of this world.” Christ was declared to be the Son of God by the creative power manifested in bringing Him from the dead (Rom. 1:4), and not until He was triumphant over death did He fully take Adam’s place — become the last Adam, the Melchizedek of our world.

What a glorious change in representation for our human family! When our first father had so dismally failed, and Satan became the prince of this world, then Christ, the Creator, “the Head of all celestial powers,” stepped into the breach, by the cross, redeemed the failure of Adam, cast Satan out of heaven, and became the representative of our world in the councils of Jehovah.

A Perfect Parallel

A certain statement descriptive of the Melchizedek who met Abraham is considered by commentators to be one of the most difficult and perplexing passages in the entire Word of God. The reader will observe that by applying the principle that the order of the Melchizedek priesthood is composed of “sons of God,” created to be heads, eternal priests, of worlds, all of the apparent difficulties of the passage are removed. The verse referred to reads thus: “Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.” Heb. 7:3. Proceeding on the basis that Inspiration will make its own statements clear when the time comes for their unfolding, let us undertake to analyze this verse.

The Bible recognizes but two ways in which intelligent beings can have existence. These two ways are, either by creation or by birth. Then if Melchizedek was “without father, without mother,” he did not come into existence by birth, and must have come into being by the only other process, namely, by being created. In fact this verse informs us that he was a created being, and also conveys the idea that he was not created a member of our human family, for Eve “was the mother of all living.” Adam and Eve were the only two created members of our race; therefore Melchizedek must have belonged to the family of another world.

How good it is that this same so-called difficult passage informs us as to how Melchizedek came into existence! We read, he was “made like unto the Son of God.” Reasoning from the analogy of God’s plan for our world, we have reason to believe that the head, the Melchizedek, of each inhabited world, was made in the likeness, after the image, of the Son of God; for in the proposed creation of man, it was said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness,” and describing the creation of Adam, it is written, “So God created man in His own image.” Gen. 1:26, 27. An exhaustive study will reveal the fact that in speaking of a creative act of God, the verbs “make” and “made” are more frequently employed than any other words. Thus the statement that Adam was made in the “likeness” of the Son of God, to be the head of our world, is in perfect harmony with the fact that another Melchizedek was “made like unto the Son of God,” to be the head of another world. The next expression requires no explanation. Adam and Melchizedek each came into being without birth, but instead by a special creative act of God, and were therefore “without descent.” It will be observed that in the tracing of the “descent” of Christ, the record stops of necessity with the fact of Adam’s coming into existence as a “son of God” by creation. Luke 3:38.

Without Beginning of Days

If Melchizedek was the Adam, or first created man, and hence the head, of another world, he did not begin his days—his life—by birth, as do all members of our human family except our first parents; but like Adam, he came into existence a perfectly developed, mature man. He did not begin his days in our world, nor as an infant in his own world. As a divine comment on this point, we find that the Lord uses similar language in drawing the contrast between a mature man and a child, by speaking of the latter as “an infant of days.” Isa. 65:20.

Without End of Life

No fact could be made clearer or more emphatic than the certainty that Melchizedek never experienced death. This truth is still further impressed by the statement that “here men that die receive tithes; but there he [Melchizedek] receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.” Heb. 7:8. In fact, it seems to be set forth that the Melchizedek priesthood has “the power of an endless life.” Verse 16. This would have been true of Adam had he not sinned. The fact that Melchizedek saw no “end of life” would indicate that he belonged to a sinless world, and also that by experience he never knew sin, for “the wages of sin is death.”

A Perpetual Priesthood

If we are satisfied with a plain statement of Scripture, we must concede that the Melchizedek who met Abraham holds the office of priest in perpetuity, for such must be the meaning of the expression, “abideth a priest continually.” This would have been the character of Adam’s priesthood had he not lost all in the act of sinning against his Creator. But what was Adam’s loss will eventually be the eternal gain of our human family, for One greater than Adam took his position as Melchizedek—priest-king of our world.

The Oath of Jehovah

“For those priests [the Levites] were made without an oath; but this [Christ] with an oath by Him that said unto Him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Verse 21. The fact that one thousand years before the birth of Christ Jehovah saw fit to place Himself under oath to make His Son a priest after the order of

Melchizedek, proves that we are dealing with a subject of paramount importance. Naturally one of investigative mind will desire to make a careful study of the text of the oath in its original setting. We find it recorded in Ps. 110:4. We will preface our study of the oath by the statement, which could be fortified by much Scriptural proof, that in the plan of God “the kingdoms of this world” will eventually “become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever.” Rev. 11:15.

Now if we find, by the setting of the oath, that it will go into full effect, become fully operative, when Christ takes possession of “this world” as His rightful and eternal kingdom, then will our minds be impressed with the fact that the oath of Jehovah makes Him “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,” by virtue of placing Him, as Adam’s successor, in possession of this world, renewed and purified, as His eternal kingdom.

It seems to the writer that a correct understanding of the Messianic psalm under consideration makes it one of the most profoundly beautiful portions of the entire Scripture canon. The first verse represents Jehovah as addressing these words to Christ: “Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” That this has reference to Christ after He had offered Himself as the one sacrifice for sins forever, by which sacrifice He redeemed the failure of the first Adam, and occupied thenceforth an attitude of waiting until He should be placed by Jehovah in possession of the dominion lost by our first parents, is proved by reference to Heb. 10:12, 13, and to Matt. 13:40-43; for the making of His enemies His footstool is simply the gathering out of His kingdom all things that offend and do iniquity, and reducing them to non-sentient ashes. Mal. 4:1-3.

The second verse of the psalm continues in the same strain, by referring to the well-authenticated Bible truth that for a brief space of time, “a little season,” after the descent of “Zion,” New Jerusalem, the capital city of Christ’s kingdom, the resurrected wicked will live upon the earth and finally surround “the camp of the saints,” and “the beloved city.” The sending forth of the rod of His strength out of Zion, the ruling in the midst of His enemies, are figures of speech, indicating the complete overthrow of the wicked.

The next expression, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power,” indicates that altho now, while grace reigns and mercy lingers, we are burdened of heart to plead for and to save the wicked, yet when probation is closed forever, and none of the wicked manifest any desire to repent, but instead curse God, even the most zealous soul-winners in this gospel age will be “willing” in the day of God’s power—manifested in rooting out of Christ’s kingdom all things that offend—that the wicked shall be destroyed. In fact it will be an “honor” to have a part in the final overthrow of sin and rebellion. Ps. 149:4-9.

“In the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: Thou [Christ] hast the dew [the freshness] of Thy youth.” Ps. 110:3. The most beautiful thing in all the universe is spotless holiness. Because of absolute holiness of character, Christ is as strong, as vigorous, when the time comes to overthrow sin, as He was at creation’s morn. The only thing that weakens is sin. The climax of weakness is death. When Christ goes forth to final triumph over His enemies, then will be fulfilled the prophecy concerning Satan, “How art thou cut down to the ground, which [by sin] didst weaken the nations!”

The Lord Hath Sworn, and Will Not Repent

The things about this oath which impress us with the fact that it embodied the idea of Christ’s receiving the kingdom lost by Adam, are that it is set in the exact midst of this psalm, the whole intent of which is to show that Christ will ultimately triumph over Satan, eradicate from the kingdom His enemies, and save His people by virtue of the cross of Calvary. This statement naturally raises the question as to what occasion there is for repentance on the part of Jehovah in making Christ a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

The answer is this: The cost to heaven of remedying the ruin that Adam had wrought was the priceless gift of the Son of God to redeem Adam’s failure. In brief, the cross of Calvary, with all that was involved in the crucifixion of the Lord of Glory, is the price that Jehovah paid to fill Adam’s place by making Christ “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

There must have been special occasion for repentance—for turning back from the carrying out of the oath—or the thought of the possibility of Jehovah’s repentance would not have been embodied in the oath. To redeem Adam’s failure, and forever seat Christ as priest-king upon Adam’s forfeited throne, would make it necessary that Christ should become, and forever remain, a member of our human family. It embraced the idea that He must become a weary, homeless wanderer in the earth, “despised and rejected of men,” to be mocked, treated as a malefactor, and finally taste death for every man. But no matter what the cost, Jehovah is pledged, by His oath, not to turn back from the completion of the purpose to redeem Adam’s failure, by making Christ a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

The fifth and sixth verses continue on the same theme, bringing to view the day of God’s wrath, when He will smite through wicked kings to prepare the way for Christ’s kingdom, and when He will execute judgment upon “the heathen”—all who are not children of the kingdom.

Then (verse 7), because He drank of the whole flood of human sorrow, received in His own person the sentence of death, which sentence stood “in the way” of our eternal salvation, He will lift up our heads with the joys of salvation forevermore.

Thus among all the offices held by Christ, none can be more important to our human family than that of His priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. When by the fall of our first father we were left hopeless, fatherless, homeless, kingless, the Son of God, the Creator of all worlds, came to our rescue, and became hope, everlasting Father, Saviour, King, in short, Melchizedek, to our race.

As King, He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Our erstwhile sin-defiled, grave-filled world will—praise God—erelong be the brightest, the happiest, the most glorious spot in all the universe, for the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and the “sons of God” will at stated seasons wend their way from worlds afar to join with our redeemed, blood-bought family in worshiping our King and our God.