Third, This unchangeableness of the priesthood of Christ depended also upon his own life: ‘This man, because he continued ever, had an unchangeable priesthood.’ (Heb 7:24) Now, although, perhaps, at first much may not appear in this text, the words that we are upon take their ground from them. ‘This man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood: wherefore he is able also’—that is, by his unchangeable priesthood—’ to save them to the uttermost that comes unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’
The life of Christ, then, is a ground of the lastingness of his priesthood, and so a ground of the salvation of them that come unto God by him: ‘We shall be saved by his life.’ (Rom 5:10) Therefore, in another place, this life is spoken of with great emphasis—the power of an endless life. ‘He is made [a priest], not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.’ (Heb 7:16) An endless life is a powerful thing; indeed, two things are very considerable in it: 1. It is above death, and so above him is the power of death, the devil. 2. In that, it capacitates him to be the last in his own cause, and so to have the casting voice.
1. We will speak to the first, and for the better setting of it forth, we will show what life it is of which the apostle here speaks; and then how, as to life, it comes to be so advantageous, both concerning his office of priesthood and us.
What life is it that is thus the ground of his priesthood? It is a life taken, his own life rescued from the power of the grave; a life that we had forfeited, he being our surety; and a life that he recovered again, he is the Captain of our salvation: I lay down my life that I may retake it: ‘this commandment have I received of my Father.’ (John 10:18) It is a life, then, that was once laid down as the price of man’s redemption, and life won, gained, taken, or recovered again, as the token or true effect of the completing, by so dying that redemption; wherefore it is said again, ‘In that, he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.’ (Rom 6:10) He lives as having pleased God by dying for our sins, as having merited his life by dying for our sins. Now if this life of his is a life merited and won under the death that he died, as Acts 2:24 doth clearly manifest; and if this life is the ground of the unchangeableness of this part of his priesthood, as we see it is, then it follows that this second part of his priesthood, which is called here intercession, is grounded upon the demonstrations of the virtue of his sacrifice, which is his life taken to live again; so, then, he holds this part of his priesthood, not by a carnal commandment, but by the power of an endless life; but by the power of a life rescued from death, and eternally exalted above all that anyways would yet assault it; for ‘Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.’ (Rom 6:9) Hence Christ brings in his life, the life that he won for himself by his death, to comfort John withal when he fainted under the view of that overcoming glory that he saw upon Christ in is visions of him at Patmos: ‘And he laid his right hand upon me,’ said he, ‘saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth and was dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen.’ (Rev 1:17,18) Why should Christ bring in his life to comfort John, if it was not a life advantageous to him? But the advantageousness of it doth lie not merely in the being of life, but in that, it was a life laid down for his sins, and a life taken up again for his justification; a life lost to ransom him, and a life won to save him; as also the text affirmeth, saying, ‘He can save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’
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