The Power of an Endless Life

“And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. For He testifies: ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’” Heb. 7:15-17.

The priests in the first covenant became priests according to the law of a fleshly commandment. If they were born of the tribe of Levi and had a faultless body they had a right to be a priest. “For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.” Vs. 14. According to the flesh Jesus had no right to become a priest, but He became one on the basis of the power of an endless life.

A crown prince becomes king because he is born to become a king, but Napoleon became a king by virtue of the power of his life. In the first covenant the deciding factor was the law of a fleshly commandment, whereas in the new covenant it is the power of an endless life.

Jesus lived this life of sacrifice. It was not merely something he had learned, something He wanted to preach about, but it was something He lived. Melchizedek was without genealogy, and all the seed of Jesus according to the flesh was sacrificed through the power of this endless life—all of mankind according to the flesh that had so irreversibly corrupted its way. Therefore Jesus truly was a priest, and was confirmed with an oath. Oh, how pleasing in God’s sight this work was! “The Lord has sworn and will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’” Heb. 7:21.

The body of Christ, which is the church, grows and develops by the power of this endless life. Every member receives his area of work. Jesus sets in the church some to this task and others to that task—according to the life they have come to by the power of this endless life. They are what they are, and nobody can change that fact. Jesus will not regret having appointed them.

This is in stark contrast to the way things are in the religious denominations today. There they become something according to the law of a fleshly commandment—as a consequence of what they are according to the flesh—and by majority vote. If a man has a good education, is a good speaker or is well-to-do, it is easy for him to gain a position or an appointment. It is easy for him to become an elder. But if one day this elder does not get his own way he asks to be relieved of his duties; or if he causes a scandal he is dismissed.

How can someone who has become an elder by virtue of his life resign his position? He is an elder; it is his life. He is a shepherd, an overseer, because he lives the life of one. Shall he stop being an overseer and a shepherd, and stop serving? Shall he begin to live a different life? Yes, he can do that if he gained the position according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but not if he became what he is according to the power of an eternal life. Jesus will not regret having appointed him to a certain ministry. What, then, can man do? In the body of Christ nobody can do anything about it, but in the denominational churches the majority can either appoint or dismiss a person at will.

Nobody can be a priest in the new covenant on the basis of his education and talents. These things are just substitutes. God’s word is sealed to the natural understanding. As high as heaven is above the earth, so are the thoughts and ways of our Lord higher than our thoughts and ways. We must come up onto these ways and into these thoughts, and we can only do that by His resurrection power. Only by this wisdom and knowledge can we serve the church of the living God.

The Bible recognizes only two priesthoods: the Levitical priesthood and the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek. Everything else is vanity, a useless work of man.