Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.
Christ was called and appointed by God to serve as high priest after the order of Melchisedec. God designed the earthly high priesthood to represent Him and to point to Him in that office. That design was corrupted when ambitious men secured the office through worldly influence and fraud rather than by divine appointment.
This appointment opens the mystery of godliness concerning Christ, His work, and His power to save to the uttermost all who come to Him and to make His people a praise in the earth. Its truth was hard to utter plainly because its first hearers among the Jewish converts were dull of hearing. Their spiritual weakness and dull understanding kept Paul from explaining this saving work as plainly as he wished. Grasping it requires spiritual perception and intelligent comprehension, with advancement from milk and the first principles of the oracles of God to strong meat and becoming teachers.
Along with His appointment, Jesus is presented as a sympathetic helper. The appointment upholds honoring the ministry of the Word and not elevating other missionary work above it. Benefiting from it calls for improving abundant advantages by receiving truth in faith and retaining essential truths for success in character building. It calls for thorough consecration to the Lord, denying self, taking up the cross and following Christ, and walking in His companionship. It calls for understanding and practicing His words as Teacher from heaven, and for being wholehearted Christians rather than half Christians and half worldlings.
Christ was called and appointed by God to serve as high priest after the order of Melchisedec. God designed the earthly high priesthood to represent Him and to point to Him in that office. That design was corrupted when ambitious men secured the office through worldly influence and fraud rather than by divine appointment.
This appointment opens the mystery of godliness concerning Christ, His work, and His power to save to the uttermost all who come to Him and to make His people a praise in the earth. Its truth was hard to utter plainly because its first hearers among the Jewish converts were dull of hearing. Their spiritual weakness and dull understanding kept Paul from explaining this saving work as plainly as he wished. Grasping it requires spiritual perception and intelligent comprehension, with advancement from milk and the first principles of the oracles of God to strong meat and becoming teachers.
Along with His appointment, Jesus is presented as a sympathetic helper. The appointment upholds honoring the ministry of the Word and not elevating other missionary work above it. Benefiting from it calls for improving abundant advantages by receiving truth in faith and retaining essential truths for success in character building. It calls for thorough consecration to the Lord, denying self, taking up the cross and following Christ, and walking in His companionship. It calls for understanding and practicing His words as Teacher from heaven, and for being wholehearted Christians rather than half Christians and half worldlings.