To Encourage You

Hebrews 7:1-2 “For this Melchizedek . . . is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace.”

Melchizedek: what a wonderful Old Testament type of Jesus, our great High Priest. In the brief account of this priest from Genesis 14, God gives us a picture, one of many His Word is filled with, of His magnificent only begotten Son. It begins with Melchizedek’s names. The word “Melchizedek” means “king of righteousness.” What an apt shadow of the Son of God, the One Who alone is righteous in His very nature. To be righteous means to be “right” or “just” in a moral sense. One who is righteous always does the right thing. He never makes an error. His judgment regarding anything is perfectly right, because he knows the truth about everything. Nothing is hidden from His eyes. The rules He has given us are correct, good, the right ones for us. There could be none that are better. Because He is a righteous judge, He always deals with those Who violate His laws in the right way. He is perfectly just in His rulings. No one can deceive Him or get away with lying to Him. He sees through it all and will deal with all of it in the right way at the right time. And for those who are His servants, He always does what is right on their behalf. They can trust Him to do everything right and make everything right in the end. No one else is really like this. The One whose very nature is righteousness has told us that “None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). It is because this characterizes all people, it is inevitable that they will do things and make judgments that are not right. This was true of every one of the Old Testament priests. It was because of this that they had to make sacrifices for their own sins as well as for the sins of the people they ministered to. But it was only Jesus, in that He was perfectly righteous, Who could make a sacrifice that would bestow His perfect righteousness on others. In what some have called “the great exchange,” “for our sake He (i.e., God the Father) made Him (i.e., God the Son) to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Think of it. This King of Righteousness has actually bestowed His own perfect righteousness on those who have put their faith in Him. It’s how He sees us, for that is what He has done to and for us!

But then Melchizedek, who was the king of the city of Salem (the word means “peace”), was also the “king of peace.” What a wonderful shadow of the incredible truth that we who were once enemies of God are now at peace with Him, because the King of righteousness has delivered us from the penalty or our sins. This is elaborated in the wonderful words of Romans 5:1-11 which say this: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Jesus, the perfect High Priest Who is also the wonderful King of Righteousness and awesome King of Peace. These two attributes describe Him. All righteousness and peace come from Him. He bestows these gifts on all who are ruled by Him. So are you in His kingdom? Do you know what it is to be wonderfully ruled by Him? Are you one whom God “has delivered . . . from the domain of darkness and transferred . . . to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14)? What an awesome kingdom this is to be part of. What inexpressible glory to know such a King. Thanks be to God for the shadow of Melchizedek, a shadow that points to a reality too vast to fully comprehend.