And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: “The LORD has sworn And will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek’”), by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. (Hebrews 07:20-22, NKJV).
In a very real sense, the Old Testament Jewish priesthood consisted of men who were priests by accidents of birth. They "happened" to be born of a certain lineage at a certain time, and if they met the minimum qualifications of not having any physical or mental disabilities or infirmities, and if they maintained a certain level of ceremonial righteousness, they became priests. Then they died.
In this way, oftentimes, the office of priest was held by worthless, evil, or incompetent men, who were malfeasant representatives of God to the people and of the people to God.
Some of these were outright scoundrels and thieves. Others were merely apathetic or unskilled, or lazy. It was only when good men fulfilled these priestly roles well that the nation prospered, and the Mosaic covenant between God and the Jews reaped blessings upon the people. When that was not the case, misery and disaster was the rule of the day.
As such, the Covenant of the Law, being dependent on sinful men who often failed, was a conditional contract that, while never broken by God, was frequently broken by the priests or the kings or the people. For the average child of Israel, the whole prospect was an unsure, risky business.
Even if it went well for any length of time, the transition from one generation of priests to the next was always of uncertain result. An unstable priesthood or an an unstable High Priest was calamitous.
This then was the bottom line of performance-based Law. It was established on the basis of heredity and dependence on fallible and frail men; shaky and easily shaken.
Jesus, in utter contrast to this, was made Priest, not by any genetic provisions, but by an oath of the Father Himself, as prophesied in Psalm 110 by David a thousand years before Christ's birth. And note the citation above - not only that the LORD has sworn, but that He will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.
Clearly it is by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.
By so much more than ancestry.
By so much more than conditional performance.
By so much more than fallible and fallen men.
By so much more than the imperfect activities of unreliable and weak mortals.
By so much than the uncertainty of time and circumstance.
By so much more than all that ever was or is or will be.
By that much and more so, Jesus ensures that the New Covenant in His blood is unbreakable, inviolable, and beyond negation.
Heaven and earth may pass away, but the word of the Lord remains forever.
For those of us who have entered into this covenant through faith in Christ, our eternal destiny is assured.
We have a High Priest empowered by an endless life and confirmed in His office by an oath from Heaven itself.
A greater level of certainty there cannot be.
There is no conceivable loophole.
Nothing has been overlooked. No contingency unforeseen or left unhandled.
We can rest in the knowledge that all that needs to be done has been done, and will continue to be done.
Forever.
