“In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a {hope} both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 6:17-20)
The book of Hebrews goes in detail declaring the efficacy and eternity of the perpetual priesthood of Jesus – our blessed High priest of the better covenant. The apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit labours to reveal the excellency and immutability of the priesthood of Jesus, who has once for all entered the Most Holy place of the Heavenly Tabernacle. He draws comparison with the Levitical priesthood and that of Jesus which is according to the order of Melchizedek. The long discourse of the apostle on this “solid food” begins in chapter 3 and goes all the way to chapter 10, but in chapter 6:17-20, he explains the divine motive behind His oath – by which Jesus has become the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
In chapter 6, he starts with exhortations to move on from elementary teachings to maturity. He has much to speak on Christ, but his hearers have become dull of hearing. Hence he exhorts and warns them of apostasy. But he does not scare them for he is hopeful in God who has begun the good work in them and is convinced of better things concerning them- things that accompany salvation. Though he warns them of the necessity of being diligent in their Christian pilgrimage, he reminds them of God's justice and His promises. Faith and patience needful to inherit the promises of God are birthed by the proclamation of the truth of the word of God. Hence the apostle turns the attention of his hearers to God, for them to receive true understanding of God's promise and His work. Thus he speaks of how God promised Abraham and how the father of faith waited patiently to obtain the promise. Using that example, the apostle moves on to the subject of oath – which is given along with the promise, as a confirmation to put an end of every dispute. In the same way as men swear to make known the surety of the promises they make, God also desiring to make known the immutability of His purpose to His elect, interposed or mediated with His oath. He did this so that His people will have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before them. This strong encouragement in the hearts of His elect is birthed and founded on the two unchangeable things – the promise and oath - of God, who cannot lie. The hope of a Christian is entirely based on the work and word of God. Hence his hope knows no bound, is both sure and steadfast, leading him to the most holy place through the torn veil to eternal fellowship with His Father. This very hope birthed by the knowledge of God's promise and oath is the anchor of his soul, holding his mind in undivided devotion to God and in unwavering surety of his justification by the grace of God, leading him to approach the throne of grace with boldness. All this becomes our experience when we receive divine revelation on the unchangeableness of His purpose and receive divine encouragement from what God has promised and sworn.
What is the oath of God?
The oath of God is the Father's declaration and designation of His Son as the perpetual High priest of the New Covenant. "for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him, "THE LORD HAS SWORN AND WILL NOT CHANGE HIS MIND, 'YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER' ” (Hebrews 7:21)
Though the Son of God, Jesus in his humanity being very much a man did not take the glory of being a high priest, but pleased the Father in everything through reverent submission and perfect obedience. Thus the Father being pleased at Him calls Him and designates Him to be the eternal High priest in the heavenly tabernacle.
“And no one takes the honour to himself, but {receives it} when he is called by God, even as Aaron was. So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, "YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU"; just as He says also in another {passage,} "YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK." In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5:4-10)
This oath adds surety to the better promises of God offered under the New Covenant because its says in Hebrews 7:22 “Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.” Under the New Covenant, we not only have better promises, but God in His glorious grace has also provided His people – a guarantee of His covenant, the man Christ Jesus. The very fact that Jesus though tempted at all points as we are – yet overcame them all in perfect obedience not by His Sonship but as a mere man by the help offered by the One able to save Him from all death through the eternal Spirit of grace, is surety enough of what grace can do. His walk before the Father being perfect and so pleasing that the Father designates Him the eternal priesthood of the New Covenant – to be that one mediator between God and man, is the cornerstone of our full assurance of His covenant and His promises thereof. Thus Christ becoming the High priest of the New Covenant by the oath of God is good news to us as it reveals what grace can do in us. Not that the Father will make us all High priests, but that His grace can do a work in us that the Father can justly glorify us. Jesus being the eternal Son of God needs no further glory, but in His humanity, being emptied of all divine prerogatives He as a man subject to the Scriptures pleased the Father through perfect obedience in humble dependence on the grace of God that rested on Him, leading to the Father glorifying Him with the eternal priesthood of His better covenant. Jesus did so to make the message of grace loud and clear to the subjects of His salvation, for whom He is a faithful and merciful High priest in service of God. “Because He himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted”(Hebrews 2:18). Thus the oath puts an end to all disputes of unbelief in the better promises of the New Covenant.
Not only is the designation of Jesus as the High priest of our God a good news, but His ministry as our High priest, a matter of better hope. He being perfectly pleasing and eternally immortal is all the more glorious and effective in His intercession as a High priest than the Levitical priesthood, which was nothing but a shadow. The former priests were sinful and mortal, limiting the efficacy of their priesthood. Hence their ministry was not perpetual, but a temporal one. Thus it was handed from one to another and they were made priests on the basis of their physical lineage – being born to the tribe of Levi. On the other hand, Jesus Christ – our High priest is holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens, who is immortal and eternal, and thus His ministry also is eternal. He is not limited in His duration or in His efficacy, but is perfectly able to save all His elect. Our Saviour is perfect in His atonement and His intercession for His people. In John 6:38,39 Jesus speaks of the perfection of His salvation, “ For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.” Hebrews 7:24,25 speaks about the perfection of the intercession of Jesus as our High priest “but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
Intercession of Jesus on behalf of His elect based on His atonement is perfect and fruitful resulting in the salvation of all His people, so that the saying “Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one." (John 18:9) will be fulfilled. We have a perfect Saviour who saves us, not one who makes salvation available or possible, but one who saves us. For under the Law the high priest offered the same sacrifice year by year, making no one perfect, but rather these offerings served as a reminder of their sins. But Jesus by one offering has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. In other words, He by the offering of His own body has bought perfect justification for all those whom He is sanctifying. We also have a perfect High priest who has entered the Most Holy place to intercede on our behalf – which will result in the salvation of all His people. “For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever”(Hebrews 7:28).
Thus by the magnificent promises of the New Covenant by which we partake the divine nature(2Peter 1:4) and the oath of God – the designation and perfection of the mediation of Jesus, we have strong encouragement to be diligent and not be sluggish. A clear understanding of these truths will beget faith in us to believe that on the basis of God's word and work – it is easier to be diligent than to fall away.
