I understand the concept that today, in the dispensation of the grace of God, the body of Christ does not have Christ for a high priest, as he is our head. But while I was sharing this with a brother, he mentioned something that I had not thought of and couldn’t quite answer. He said that Christ was to be after the order of Melchizedek—a gentile high priest of the most high God—and therefore as the Christian’s high priest, because it is before the Law. What do you think about this?
You mention how you understand that today, a believer has no high priest in Christ, for we have him as our head...and who did you learn that from? The Apostle Paul!
We must always remember: God (through his Apostle to us, Paul) is right.
Romans 3:4
God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
Your friend had to go away from and outside of Paul's 13 epistles (Romans through Philemon) to come up with his erroneous theory! Therefore, what you need to do is to bring him back to focus on the fact that what Paul says is true for us today!
Romans 11:13
For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
1 Corinthians 4:15-16
For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
1 Corinthians 14:37
If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
So you got your understanding of this topic from Paul; contrariwise, your friend did not! And until your friend submits his mind to God's word through Paul, he will always be in error!
2 Timothy 2:7
Consider what I [Paul] say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
Your friend's failure to rightly divide God's word has led him to erroneous thinking.
2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
And until he does that, he, like anyone who rejects Paul's testimony, will never come unto a knowledge of the truth of this topic, or any other.
2 Timothy 3:7
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
But since you know the principle of right division, and since you understand Paul's authority from God in your life, you are ready to truly understand the role that Melchizedek's priesthood serves in scripture.
And here it is...
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Your friend does what most people do when talking about the Priesthood of our Lord, and its application to our present dispensation of grace. To try to strengthen their argument for that application today under grace, they leave Paul and then go back before the Law of Moses to Melchizedek in Genesis and use that mention of him to claim that it should apply to us today also. (They also do this with the issue of tithing. But just like the issue of Melchizedek, our Apostle never mentions tithing as a form of giving for us today when talking about how to give.).
The problem with your friend's thinking and way of approaching this topic is that he is choosing to deny the authority of our Apostle Paul in this matter or never has been taught that he must. We must always first examine what Paul has to say—as well as what he does not say about a particular subject before coming to a conclusion about it; especially, concerning whether something actually applies to us today. And the problem with what your friend deduces is the following:
Our Apostle Paul never refers to Melchizedek, nor does he ever mention that Christ is any type of priest to or for us today in any of his 13 epistles. Not even once! So that fact alone shows that here in our present dispensation of grace, our Lord is known as the head of the church, the Body of Christ and not our high priest! If your friend is to be believed, why did not our Apostle Paul mention this issue of the Melchizedek's priesthood in any of his 13 epistles? Ask him that. That is a huge deal!
Our Apostle did preach Christ, but remember it was according to the revelation of the mystery.
Romans 16:25
Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
He did not present our Lord to us the same way that the Hebrew Scriptures did; that is, according to prophecy—those things made known out of the mouth of all God's holy prophets since the world began; that being, his earthly ministry.
Luke 1:68-70
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
Acts 3:20-21
And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
Paul says that we do not know him that way!
2 Corinthians 5:16
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh [in his earthly ministry], yet now henceforth know we him no more…
[… “no more” according to his earthly ministry, but now, according to His heavenly ministry, as given to Paul].
And that includes our Lord’s fulfillment of Melchizedek's priesthood. Every reference to Melchizedek is found in the Prophetic books (that which was spoken by the holy prophet’s) of Genesis, Psalms and Hebrews and not once in our Apostle's 13 mystery epistles (that which was kept secret until revealed to Paul). And therefore it is Christ according to [after] the flesh, pertaining to this earth and—what we will also see—pertaining to his covenant with Israel. And he has no such covenant relationship with us gentiles today!
Jeremiah 31:31
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Romans 9:4
Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
Ephesians 2:11-12
Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
It was a prophesied (revealed) priesthood in the word...Genesis, Psalms, Hebrews. But no where in the Old Testament does God reveal our Lord as the head of the church which is his body.
Another thing to also remember is the role of a priest. The role of all priests in scripture is to teach God's Law(s)—a performance-based acceptance system!
2 Chronicles15:3
Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.
Malachi 2:7
For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
Therefore whether it was Israel's priests, Melchizedek, Roman Catholicism, or any other religion, the role of a priest is to teach people to do (perform) something to be right in the eyes of whatever "higher power" they worship. That is not how our Apostle Paul preaches our Lord today.
Romans 6:14
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
And it's clear from scripture that God was making his word known in that manner even before the Law of Moses!
Genesis 26:5
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Even before the Law of Moses, in the days of Abraham and Melchizedek, God was making his law(s) known to men that would hear it!
The Law of Moses was simply a written testimony of God's will, but his actual will was being communicated from the beginning, and that included blood sacrifices! It was that system that Melchizedek as a high priest was making known to man, and it is that system that our Apostle Paul says is not how God deals with us today!
Even before the actual Law of Moses as Melchizedek, is the fact is that he is still in the prophetic books before Paul and therefore, although he is before the Law of Moses, he still taught a performance-based acceptance system—something that is not required today in the present dispensation of grace! Men in that day still had to offer a blood sacrifice to be right with God, and if they did not, they would not be accepted!
In fact, unlike the priests in scripture who were supposed to teach God's law(s) to people, today, in the dispensation of grace, we are commanded not to teach people that they are under the Law!
1 Timothy 1:7
Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
Lastly, like I mentioned earlier, the Melchizedek's priesthood is associated with Israel's new covenant, and you and I today in the body of Christ have no covenant relationship with God. Our relationship with him is based upon pure grace! God made covenants with Israel only.
Hebrews 7:11-12
If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
Part of God's new covenant promise with the nation of Israel (not with us today) was a promise of a new priesthood! So the new Melchizedek's priesthood of our Lord is associated with Israel's new covenant, and not with our dispensation of pure grace!
So to use Melchizedek's priesthood in any way to apply it to Paul's preaching of our Lord is error today!
Hopefully this
helps!
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