Hebrews 7:23

Heb 7:23-25. And there were many priests — One after another, because they were hindered by death from continuing in the perpetual execution of their office. But this man, because he continueth ever — In life and in his office; hath an unchangeable priesthood — One that passes not from one to another. Wherefore — From whence it appears; that he is able to save to the uttermost — From sin and its consequences, into the favour and image of God, and to preserve to eternal life, all that by faith and prayer come to God through him — As their priest; seeing he ever liveth to make intercession — That is, he lives and intercedes, in every circumstance of their respective lives, through all successive ages and generations. He died once, he intercedes perpetually. “The nature of the apostle’s argument requires that by Christ’s always living we understand his always living in the body: for it is thus that he is a sympathizing High-Priest, who in his intercession pleads the merit of his death to procure the salvation of all who come unto God through him. Agreeably to this account of Christ’s intercession, the apostle (Heb 7:27) mentions the sacrifice of himself, which Christ offered as the foundation of his intercession. Now, as he offered that sacrifice in heaven, (Heb 8:2-3,) by presenting his crucified body there, and as he continually resides there in the body, some of the ancients were of opinion that his continual intercession consists in the continual presentation of his humanity before his Father, because it is a continual declaration of his earnest desire of the salvation of men, and of his having, in obedience to his Father’s will, made himself flesh, and suffered death to accomplish it. This opinion is confirmed by the manner in which the Jewish high-priest made intercession for the people on the day of atonement, and which was a type of Christ’s intercession in heaven. He made it not [merely or chiefly] by offering prayers for them in the most holy place, but by sprinkling the blood of the sacrifices on the mercy-seat, in token of their death. And as by that action he opened the earthly holy places to the prayers and worship of the Israelites during the ensuing year; so Jesus, by presenting his humanity continually before the presence of his Father, opens heaven to the prayers of his people in the present life, and to their persons after the resurrection.” See Macknight.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

Heb_7:24. Continueth ever.—A firm assertion of the present living priesthood of Christ. Unchangeable.—R.V. margin, “hath a priesthood that doth not pass to another.” Vulgate, sempiternum. Stuart, “without succession.” Moulton, “Since His life is indissoluble, none can trespass on His right and invade His priesthood.”

Heb_7:25. Save.—To be understood here as embracing the various services to men that are represented in the work of the high priest. Uttermost.—Or “consummate end.” Completely deal with even their highest, most spiritual needs. Judaism could not “save to the uttermost,” because its range was confined to ceremonial offences. Make intercession.—Lit. to interpose on their behalf who employ him as their High Priest.

Heb_7:26. Became us.—Was necessary for us, who are conscious of these higher, spiritual needs. That which is precisely “befitting” may be spoken of as necessary. Holy.—Internal. Harmless.—External. One who does no evil. Undefiled.—This is the opposite to the “unclean” of Judaism. Free from ceremonial charge. Separate from sinners.—Diverse from them; unlike them; having no sort of fellowship with them. Made higher than the heavens.—Exalted above the heavens. Compare Heb_1:3. For this idea of Christ’s exaltation in acknowledgment of the perfect fulfilment of His mission, see Php_2:9; Col_1:8; Heb_2:9; Heb_8:1; Rev_5:12; Mat_25:31.

Heb_7:27. Daily.—The high priest officiated every day, as well as on the Day of Atonement (Heb_6:19-20; Num_28:3-4). His own sins.—See the order of ceremonies on the Day of Atonement. Offered up Himself.—Surrendered Himself in life and death obedience; this was the one sacrifice.

Heb_7:28. Infirmity.—Here moral infirmity, which involved the need of their offering sacrifices for themselves. Since the law.—And therefore a later and fuller manifestation of the will of God. Consecrated.—As High Priest for a perpetual service to sinful men. Stuart renders, “the Son, who is for ever exalted to glory.” R.V. reads, “a Son perfected for evermore.” Whose unchangeable, untransmissible, ever-living priesthood is our ground of hope.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Heb_7:23-28

Our Priestly Saviour.—The main purpose of this epistle is the exaltation of the person, the offices, and the work of the Lord Jesus, by comparing, and in some ways contrasting, Him with the most honoured persons associated with the older history and dispensation—with angels, with the patriarch Abraham, with Moses, with the high priest. The text stands nearly at the height of the comparisons of the person and office, and introduces the comparison of His work.

I. The nature of Christ’s office.—He is the “living Intercessor.” It is anxiously set before us that our Lord actually holds present office. The idea that His work was completed while He was here on earth is only true when it is precisely and carefully stated, and with due qualifications. The work of Christ is both present and past. The past explains the efficiency of the present; the present guarantees the acceptableness of the past. The present work is essentially the same, but not formally, or to outward seeming, the same that He carried through in the past: He is in the office, and does the precise work now for which the earth experience has fitted Him. It is therefore better for us to say of Christ, not “He has redeemed,” but “He can redeem, and does.” Describe the office of intercessor, as illustrated in Moses, in the Jewish high priest, and in the Scripture figure of the “Angel of the covenant.” Observe that the work of our Lord’s present office is stated in the passage to be, not only mediating for Christians in the supplying of Christian needs, but also an actual present saving of men. “Save to the uttermost all coming to God by Him.” Christ is set now in the office of dispenser of the salvation that He has won for men. Man, as a moral being, is to be saved, not by a salvation, but by a Saviour, through the agency of a salvation. The familiar words, “Simply to thy cross I cling,” are a poetical figure, which, stated in a plain, prosaic way, would be, “Simply to Thyself I cling.” In unfolding our Redeemer’s particular office as priestly Saviour, show—

1. Its sphere. Heaven as the symbol of the spiritual. The souls of men. The presence of the eternal Father.

2. Show its work. Saving, in the large and comprehensive sense of effecting all deliverances from all moral evils, and from all their consequences.

3. And show the ways in which He has won the fitness, and the ability, to be this living Saviour. “Therefore God also hath highly exalted Him.”

(1) By the faithful execution of a particular work entrusted to Him, He has proved Himself worthy of a higher trust. According to His own principle, embodied in the parables of the “talents” and the “pounds.”

(2) By the intimacy, variety, and completeness of His human experience, He has become precisely fitted for the sympathetic application of the saving power.

II. The extent of the power which belongs to Christ’s present office.—“To the uttermost.” This expression comprehends—

1. Power to meet the precise case of every one. And salvation is not quite the same thing for every man. It must be adapted to individuality.

2. Power to completely satisfy the needs of each one. Here Christ’s power is contrasted with that of Jewish high priests, who could not touch soul-sin. The infinite ability of Christ is our encouragement in the committal of our entire saving and sanctifying to Him.

III. The persons for whom especially the power is exercised.—Does the expression of Heb_7:25 mean “everybody”? And if not, what are its suggested limitations? Those who come into the saving power are those—

1. Who spiritually turn towards God. There must be some opening of the soul to God.

2. Those who, in thus turning, seek the help of Christ. To these, and under these conditions, He becomes an all-sufficient and almighty Saviour. Or we may say, that the condition of getting the exercise of this saving power is, that a man fully trusts his case to Christ. But nobody ever does that until he has ceased to feel that he can very well manage it himself. These considerations reaffirm the two essential things in every coming to God through Christ—penitence and faith. Reimpress the important truth, that the intercession of our Divine Lord is founded on His voluntary offering of Himself without spot to God.

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

Heb_7:22. Christ as Surety of a Covenant.—Dr. Moulton’s note on the word “covenant” may be found specially helpful: “This is the first occurrence in this epistle of a very interesting word (διαθήκη), which hereafter will occupy an important place in the argument. Throughout the Greek translation of the Old Testament it is used to represent a Hebrew word which is (more than two hundred times) rightly rendered ‘covenant’ in our version; and, like the Hebrew word, it is applied both to mutual agreements between man and man, and to ‘covenants’ or engagements into which God enters in regard to man. In classical writers διαθήκη commonly denotes a “testament”; and hence in the old Latin translation of the Scriptures testamentum became the common rendering of the word. As, however, this rendering is very often found where it is impossible to think of such a meaning as will (e.g. in Psa_83:5, where no one will suppose the psalmist to say that the enemies of God ‘have arranged a testament against Him’), it is plain that the Latin testamentum was used with an extended meaning, answering to the wide application of the Greek word. St. Paul’s designation of the Jewish Scriptures as the ‘old covenant’ (2Co_3:14) thus became familiarly known as ‘the Old Testament.’ … Here only is Jesus spoken of as a Surety, elsewhere as Mediator (chaps. Heb_8:6, Heb_9:15, Heb_12:24). As through the Son of man the covenant becomes established, so in Him it remains secure; the words addressed by God to Him as Priest and King contain the pledge of its validity and permanence.” Ἔγγυος means sponsor, pledge, surety. In a covenant each party may be represented by some one who will guarantee their good faith. The case is conceivable in which the same person may guarantee the good faith of both parties; and then such a person would stand as a living pledge of the fulfilment of the terms of the covenant on both sides. That conceivable thing is actually realised in the case of Jesus Christ, and in relation to the new Christian covenant. He stands for God, and pledges His good faith. He stands for man, and pledges his good faith. And so long as Jesus lives we have the assurance that God will keep His word; and God has the assurance that we will keep ours. Christ pledges us both.

Heb_7:23-28. Uttermost Salvation.—We are taught here—

I. The perfection of Christ’s priesthood.—He is lifted above all other priests—

1. By the immortality of His nature (Heb_7:24). He only hath immortality.

2. By the perfection of His character (Heb_7:26). Glorious in holiness.

3. By the efficacy of His sacrifice (Heb_7:27). So rich and prevalent that offering of the cross.

II. The consequent perfection of Christ’s saving power (Heb_7:25).—Christ is able to save in every way, in all respects, “unto the uttermost,” so that every want and need, in all its breadth and depth, is utterly done away.

1. His salvation extends to the worst. Such is the greatness of Christ’s sympathy and power, that He reaches down to the lowest, and can lift the lowest to heights of purity and glory.

2. His salvation comprehends all. In this sense He saves to the uttermost. Philanthropists usually select some particular class of sinners or sufferers as their sphere of beneficence—one cares for the slave, another for the prisoner, a third for the orphan; but Christ is “the Saviour of all men.” There is a Rabbinical legend to the effect that, when the law was given at Sinai, all the yet unborn souls of the Jewish nation were assembled to hear it. Certainly, when Christ died on Calvary, He saw around Him the spirits of all flesh, and bare in His body the iniquities of them all.

3. His salvation is complete. “Uttermost” signifies completeness; it forms an antithesis here to Heb_7:19, where it is stated “the law made nothing perfect.” Christ shall fully restore our nature to purity, to beauty, to joy. There is such a thing as being saved from fire, and yet the nerves to be shattered, and the flesh scarred; such a thing as being saved from shipwreck, and yet to stand bleeding and beggared on the shore; such a thing as being saved in the day of battle, and yet to have lost a limb. Not with such a salvation does Christ save His people.

4. His saving power continues undiminished by lapse of time. The power of Christ is as fresh and full to-day as it ever was; so it will continue to the latest age.

5. His salvation confers eternal security and joy. He ever liveth to continue the fellowship between His saints and God So all-comprehending is the salvation of Jesus Christ, He saves from deepest depths, to ends of the earth, to end of time: He saves thoroughly; He saves with the power of an endless life.

III. The subjects of Christ’s saving grace.—Them that come unto God by Him, come penitently, come boldly, come now.—W. L. Watkinson.

Heb_7:24. No Change in Christ’s Priestly Relations conceivable.—If the relations were material and temporal, change in them would be quite possible, and might indeed reasonably be expected. Those relations are spiritual and eternal, and they are therefore permanent and unchangeable. Or we may say, that the priestly relations of Christ do not concern the merely accidental conditions of men, but the essential and universal conditions; and so the adaptations of His priestly ministry can never pass or change. The thought of the writer may not, however, be so comprehensive and so philosophical as this. The point immediately before him is the limited time in which a Mosaic high priest served his office, and the unlimited time that Christ, as our spiritual High Priest, serves His. This was suggested by the prominent fact concerning Melchizedek, that there was no fixed beginning to his office, and no fixed termination. If an office is put into the hands of a succession of men, it is manifestly entrusted to a variety of men; and many men have many ways. The methods of carrying out the duties of the office must, of necessity, vary. Each man will put his own impress upon it. But if an office could be held by one person throughout all generations, and that one person had the power of precisely adapting his principles and his methods to each generation, he would virtually hold an unchangeable office. And that is precisely what we are to understand concerning Christ. He is the one and only spiritual High Priest of humanity. There was no time, since humanity has existed, in which He was not its High Priest. He was spiritual High Priest when there were formal high priests according to the law. And there will be no time, while humanity exists, in which He will not be High Priest. If we do but grip the idea that He is spiritual High Priest to spiritual humanity—and that alone is humanity—we shall easily see that change in the principles and methods of His priesthood cannot be, for the very simple reason that the conditions and needs of spiritual humanity—of the souls which men are—never do change, and so there can be no call for any change to meet their new needs.

Heb_7:25. The Eternal Saviour.—Happily we are not dependent on this or any other single passage of Scripture for our belief in the doctrine that Christ’s power to save is practically unlimited. We are not certain that the word rendered “to the uttermost” has more than a temporal significance. Probably it has. But if the text does not positively affirm, it supports and suggests the truth, left beyond all doubt elsewhere, that the power of Christ to save—

I. Is unconditioned by the character of the case.—However complicated or aggravated that may be, no fear or doubt need be entertained for a moment. Men may, and they sometimes do, think that their sin is unpardonable, or that their true manhood cannot be restored, that no human or Divine power can raise and renew them. But Scripture and experience alike prove that they are wrong. There is no depth of iniquity to which man can descend from which the power of Christ cannot lift him up. There are no crimes against heaven and earth which the mercy of God in Jesus Christ will not cover. He saves to the uttermost.

II. Extends through the whole of our human life.—We may have to change priests or pastors, and we may be troubled by the fact. We have not to change one Saviour for another. The thought is too familiar to affect us, but it is a very precious truth, that all our life through we have to do with an unchanging Lord and Friend. It means—

1. That Christ is ours through all the successive periods of our life, each one of which has its own dangers and difficulties, and demands special grace and power. Of Him do we all receive “grace upon grace,” one kindness after another, varying according to the stage we have reached, and to the peculiar need of the passing hour (see Joh_1:16).

2. That in any great sorrow or emergency that may overtake us we are sure to have our Divine Friend to whom we can resort, and on whose sympathy and succour we can rely.

3. That in the great, continuous work of spiritual culture we may count on His help. We are in some serious danger of supposing that there are faults in our character, and blemishes in our behaviour, which are irremovable, and must be accepted as an inevitable detraction from our worth and influence. But by what right do we accept these as permanent and incurable? With an ever-living Saviour, a helpful High Priest, “ever living to make intercession,” able to save His people to the uttermost from all their sin and shortcoming, we ought to be striving for and expecting a full deliverance, a complete salvation, through sanctity of spirit and excellency of life. We have no leave to settle down into a complacent tolerance of any evil thing in temper or in spirit, in speech or in conduct.

III. Will continue through all generations.—Many systems have had a brief day of power and have passed away. They have had adventitious or spasmodic advantages, and have done great things for a little while. Then testing time has come, and they have waned and disappeared. Jesus Christ has not lost one jot or tittle of His power to save and heal. Where His truth has been corrupted it has been enfeebled, as we can well understand it must be; but where it has been cleansed of its accretions, and has been presented in its purity, it has proved “the power of God unto salvation.” This it is proving now. At home and abroad it is found to be the one sovereign power that transforms the base, that uplifts the degraded, that arouses the sluggish, that calls the worldly to the service of God, that makes the selfish to be concerned for the welfare of their kind, that comforts the sorrowful, that cheers the lonely, that gives peace in strife, and hope in death. It shows no signs of age, no symptoms of decay. There is nothing ready to supply its place. Eighteen centuries of physical research and philosophic inquiry have not provided any substitute for Christian truth. It is Christ alone who can speak to us with authority upon God, upon sin, upon human life, upon the future; it is He alone that can give rest to heavy-laden souls. Christ is proving to be the eternal Saviour to whom mankind in every age can turn with trustful and thankful heart. To whom, if not to Him, shall we go? He only has the words of eternal life on His lips, and the gift of eternal life in His hand. But if we would find we must seek. It is “they who draw near to God through Him” that are saved. We must—

1. Gladly and gratefully receive the great truth of God’s Fatherhood as taught by Jesus Christ.

2. Confidently approach our heavenly Father through His mediation.

3. Eagerly accept the grace of God unto eternal life for His sake.—Selected.

Salvation to the Uttermost.—The writer is dealing with that continuous work of saving which was the ministry entrusted to the old Jewish priests, and is, in the highest senses, the ministry entrusted to our great High Priest. It needs to be well kept in mind, that the old priests did not merely do one great saving work for the people, they stood in constant saving relations with them. Every year, nay, every day, they were executing some saving ministry for them; and the very essence of their saving work consisted in this—they were the mediums through whom any one who wanted to come to God with a petition, or an act of devotion, found access to Him, and acceptance with Him. To express the work of the old priests in the language of this text, “they were able, in limited measures, to save those who came to God through them, seeing that they were the appointed persons for making intercession.” When this is clearly seen, the contrast between the limitations of the old priestly ministries, and the perfections of the ministries of Jesus, our great High Priest, comes to view with a singular and surprising force. “Wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” “Wherefore” is the usual term for introducing the conclusion of an argument. And it is necessary to understand what the writer has been presenting, from which he draws this conclusion. He is writing to professing Christians about themselves. He knows the perils and temptations to which they are exposed, but he has every confidence in the sincerity and earnestness of their Christian life. He wants to help them to enter fully into all their Christian privileges. In this part of his epistle he is trying to show these Christian Jews that Christ, in His sublime spiritual work, as High Priest of the new and spiritual dispensation, must be in every respect superior to the old temporal high priests of the old formal and typical dispensation. In the verses immediately preceding this text the argument is brought to one point. These old Jewish priests were necessarily insufficient, because they could not continue in their office by reason of death. “The vacancies caused in their number by the ravages of death required to be constantly replenished.” They cannot be thought of as altogether efficient when they entered on their office. They gained efficiency by practice and experience. But as they could not continue by reason of death, their practised efficiency could only reach a certain point, and then it was broken off. The dying priest could not transmit his efficiency to the new priest who took his office; the new man had to gain his efficiency in precisely the same way, and then to die as soon as he had gained it. But see how this affected the people, who sought the priest’s sympathy and help in their “drawing near to God.” They would get to know and love the priest; they would find one especially sympathetic and helpful, in dealing with their weaknesses and difficulties. But he would die, and they would feel quite at sea with the new man, who would surely be of another temperament, and would surely adopt new methods. It would be a long time before they would quite fit to the new man and the new regime. I think it was in the Catholic Cathedral at Arundel that this came home to me with singular power. On one side of the nave there are recesses, partitioned off, with the partitions pierced by small grated windows. These are the confessional chambers, where souls confidentially seek the aid of a priest in securing their access to God, and confirming their relations with Him. Outside each recess is a card, with the name of the priest who could be consulted there. On one of the cards had been put the word “dead”; and I thought of the poor souls who had found him their spiritual helper coming to seek him in vain, and broken-heartedly trying to get another priest to understand and sympathise with them, as their old, and perhaps life-long, friend had done. It brought up vividly the insufficiency of the old priesthood, by reason of its limitations. It helped to the realisation of the infinite and unchangeable efficiency of our great High Priest, who is our Priest in the “power of an endless life.” Christ continueth ever, and His priesthood continues with Him. He gains an efficiency of service to us which never breaks off, is never interrupted, and never stops. Of this we may be absolutely assured: we shall never be shifted off to another priest; we shall never be compelled to try and fit ourselves to another. He abideth our Priest continually, here and now, yonder and by-and-by. We need never think of our life under any conditions in which we shall not have Jesus as our Priest. We get full trust in Him, and that trust never will be broken off. See then why the Levitical priesthood, and every other human priesthood, must be considered as far inferior to that of Jesus. “As men in a frail and dying state are constituted priests, the consequence is, that the priesthood is liable to continual change, and must necessarily pass from the hands of one to another, in a short time. Not so in the case of Christ, who, being exalted above the heavens, and constituted High Priest in the temple not made with hands, hath an immutable priesthood, subject to no succession.” Christ’s endless life involves the continuity of His office, and this involves His ability to save His saved ones to the uttermost. Consider—

I. Christ’s continuous work of saving the saved.—Scripture does not speak of a man’s salvation as a thing completed at a given time, or in any single act. It is a Divine process in souls which has a beginning, but is of no value unless it is continued. Scripture speaks of “full salvation,” of salvation in advance, “ready to be revealed.” The term “saving” covers all that God does in the spiritual recovery and culture of men. It is true that we are saved. It is more true that we are being saved, that we are put into Christ’s power for saving, and that He is now doing that saving work. When is a man saved? When the whole work of grace entrusted to the ministry of the great High Priest is fully wrought out in him. Then, and not till then. It is the hope of our life, it is the inspiration of all high endeavour, that we saved ones are being saved. And does not this way of stating truth come close home to us? Is not this just what we feel can alone satisfy us? We cannot be satisfied with that salvation which began our relations with Christ. In our best moments we want to know this—Is He following up His saving work? In a Christmas sermon by George Macdonald, the continued saving work that Jesus has to do in us is suggested in His inimitable way. “It is as if God spoke to each of us according to our need. My son, My daughter, you are growing old and cunning; you must grow a child again, with My Son, this blessed birth-time. You are growing old and selfish; you must become a child. You are growing old and careful; you must become a child. You are growing old and distrustful; you must become a child. You are growing old, and petty, and weak, and foolish; you must become a child—My child, like the baby there, that strong sunrise of faith, and hope, and love, lying in his mother’s arms in the stable.” What is that but saying in a poetic way that Christ’s continuous work is “saving the saved.” In the text, however, the comprehensive word “save” is put into one particular relation, but it is the all-inclusive relation. Christ is saving us by helping us to “come to God,” to “draw near to God,” to keep in right and close relations with God, and to bring all our ever-varying and ever-multiplied needs and wants to Him. All the saving work will go on, if only we keep constantly “coming boldly to the throne of the heavenly grace.” Our Priest keeps up the relations, is our constant medium; and so we go on towards the “full salvation.”

II. The ground of His ability to save the saved.—It rests upon this, “He ever liveth.” He has the power which belongs to an endless and indissoluble life. He is a priest for ever. There can be no question of His power to carry through what He has undertaken. Man’s work never can be guaranteed as complete. Death comes to men at all times, and stops their work; and whenever he comes, he compels a man to cry out and say, “My purposes are broken off.” The symbol of man’s incomplete life undertakings is the broken pillar over the graves in the cemetery. Christ’s work can be absolutely guaranteed as complete, for death can never arrest Him, can never pluck His priesthood away, and give it to another. It continues to the very uttermost of human need. It is unchangeable, since it keeps ever in the same all-wise, all-loving, and all-sympathetic hands. The ground of Christ’s ability to save the saved is that experience of the needs of the saved which He gained by His own life among men. He can be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God. It is that trust of the high-priestly office which God has made to Him, as the recognition of His infinite acceptableness and efficiency. Able—His ability is Divinely recognised in His trust. But what we need more especially to see is, that the adequate impression of His ability is made upon our hearts by the assurance that “He ever liveth.” If death cannot touch Him, then we know that nothing else can. If death cannot put limits on His priesthood, nothing else can. The ability is unchangeable. He will never be other to us than we have proved Him to be, and He can save us to our “uttermost.”

III. The method of His work in saving the saved.—“To make intercession for them.” Sometimes we see that work as what the living Lord Jesus does, by His Spirit, in His people; and then we call it His sanctifying work. But here the writer dwells on another method in which the saving work is carried out. He secures the supply of all the need which the saved ones ever recognise, and want to carry to God, seeking its supply. No matter when or where, or for what, the saved one wants to draw near to God, to come to the throne of the heavenly grace, there is his High Priest, ready to take his prayer, to present it perfumed with the ever-acceptable incense of His own merit, and to guarantee him answers of blessing and of peace. “He ever liveth to make intercession for us”; and by that method of helping us He is ever carrying out His work of saving the saved. Our relations with God are never broken; our communications with God, our communications from God, are never stopped, and we are sure they never will be stopped, for our High Priest, our Intercessor, is there, and always will be there.

IV. The limit of His efficiency in saving the saved.—“Unto the uttermost.” It is not possible even to suggest all the difficulties and anxieties and distresses into which Christ’s people may get; they never get into any which put them beyond the high-priestly power of Christ. We may have proved His power to strange and exceeding limits, but we have never gone beyond Him, and we never shall. He can save His saved ones to the uttermost. Think again of the poor souls that in their thousand-fold distresses go seeking the sympathy and help of some human priest. What a wealth of woe has been poured into the ears of father-confessors through all the long ages! But how often, oh how painfully often, the priest is helpless, agonisingly helpless! The suppliant goes utterly beyond him with his great cry for help. No saved one ever yet got beyond the great High Priest with the cry of his need. He has always been able to save the saved ones to the uttermost. And He always will be: for He ever lives. What He was yesterday, He is to-day, and He will be for ever; and never shall the hour come round when we may not draw near with our burdened hearts, and find Him there—there ready—there as He has ever been: “able to save unto the uttermost all that would draw near unto God, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

A Living Saviour, therefore a Complete Salvation.—The saint learns that salvation must be continuous, that he can no more keep than redeem himself, and that he needs a Saviour, not for once, but for always, not in the first stages of redemption only, but every step of the way—in a word, what we have in the text, One who is “able to save to the uttermost.” And this His ability is because “He ever liveth to make intercession.” Salvation will be to us what it might be in proportion as we look for it, not to the cross, but to Him who, once crucified, is now living—living for evermore, to continue in heaven the work begun on earth.

I. The text reveals our Lord as living to save.—The Atonement does not include the whole work of salvation. As Saviour Christ never rests. He ascended to carry on His work to further developments.

1. Nothing less than this reaches the perfection of grace.

2. Without this His work on earth were unavailing.

3. Only this explains our continued spiritual enrichment.

II. The method by which our Lord carries on His saving work in heaven is that of ceaseless intercession.—

1. This intercession is for those that come unto God by Him.

2. It secures for them everything they ask.

3. And it includes all possible good.

III. This intercession enables Him to save to the uttermost.—

1. To the uttermost depth of depravity.

2. To the uttermost limit of time.

3. To the uttermost measure of perfection.—Charles New.

Heb_7:26. Christ as Separate from the World.—With us of to-day it is the commendation of Jesus that He is so profoundly humbled, identified so affectingly with our human state. But the power He had with the men of His time moved in exactly the opposite direction, being the impression He made of His remoteness and separateness from men, when He was, in fact, only a man as they supposed, under all human conditions. The contrast, however, between their position and ours is not so complete as may at first seem to us, for that which makes their impression makes, after all, a good part of ours. The present subject is—The separateness of Jesus from men; the immense power it had, and must ever have, on their feeling and character. Christ was not separated as being at all withdrawn, but only that, in drawing Himself most closely to them, He was felt by them never as being on their level of life and character, but as being parted from them by an immense chasm of distance. His disciples had no definite ideas as to His being a higher nature incarnate. His miracles, and the expectation of Messiah, may have had something to do with their impressions. But there was nothing that should separate Him specially from mankind as being a more than humanly superlative character.

I. Notice how the persons most remote and opposite, even they that finally conspired His death, were impressed or affected by Him.—Spite of their treatment of Him, we can easily see that there is growing up, in their minds, a most peculiar awe of His person. And it appears to be excited more by His manners and doctrine, and a certain indescribable originality and sanctity in both, than by anything else. The public mind became gradually saturated with a kind of awe of His person, as if He might be some higher, finer nature come into the world. It grew until it became a general superstition. The problem with the officials was, not how to arrest any common man, or sinner of mankind, but a superior, mysterious, fearful One, and there wanted, as they imagined, some kind of magic to do it. They took up thus an impression that, if they could suborn one of His followers, it would break the spell of His power, and they could proceed safely. Pilate was profoundly impressed with the sense of something superior, more wise, or holy, or sacred, than he had seen before. The centurion, in presence of the cross, exclaimed, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

II. Notice how the disciples were impressed or affected by the manner and spirit of Jesus.—The remarkable thing is, that He took possession of them strangely, even at the very first, and yet they appear to be more and more impressed with the distance between Him and themselves, the longer they know Him, and the more intimate and familiar their acquaintance with Him. Of this St. Peter affords a striking example. This, in part, is their blessing; for, as they are humbled by it, so they are raised by it, feel the birth of new affinities, rise to higher thoughts, and are wakened to a conscious struggle after God.

III. What is the solution of this profound impression of separateness made by Christ on the world?—His miracles and the repute of His Messiahship do not wholly account for it. It may be said that He produced this impression artificially, by means of certain scenes and observances designed to widen out the distance between Him and the race. Were the really astounding assumptions put forth by Christ designed as declarations or assertions of a superhuman order in His natural person? Certainly He is challenging, in such utterances, honours and prerogatives that are not human. At the same time, if He had not before separated Himself heaven-wide from men, by His character, and produced, in that manner, a sense of some wonderful mystery in Him, He would have been utterly scouted and hooted out of the world for His preposterous assumptions. Indeed, the minds of His disciples were so much occupied with the impressions they felt, under the realities of His character, that they scarcely attended to the strange assumptions of His words, and did not even seem to have taken their meaning till after His death. The impression of Christ’s separation was made, not by scenes, nor by words of assertion, nor by anything designed for that purpose, but it grew out of His life and character—His unworldliness, holiness, purity, truth, love; the dignity of His feeling, the transcendent wisdom and grace of His conduct. He was manifestly one that stood apart from the world in His profoundest human sympathy with it. He rose up out of humanity, or the human level, into Deity and the separate order of uncreated life, by the mere force of His manner and character, and achieved, as man, the sense of a Divine excellence before His personal order as the Son of God was conceived. And so it finally became established in men’s feelings, as it stood in His last prayer, that there was some inexplicable oneness where His inmost life and spirit merged in the Divine and became identical. How great a thing it is that such a Being has come into our world and lived in it! What is meant by holiness, and what especially is its power, or the law of its power? It is the sense of a separated quality in one who lives on a footing of intimacy and oneness with God. It means being drawn apart, or exalted, by being consecrated to God and filled with inspiration from God. This is holiness—the condition of a man when he is separated visibly from the world, and raised above it by a Divine participation. Christianity is a regenerative power upon the world only as it comes into the world in a separated character—as a revelation or sacred importation of holiness. In this lies the efficacy of Christ’s mission, that He brings to men what is not in them, what is opposite to them—the separated glory, the holiness of God. We want a salvation which means a grace brought into the world that is not of it. So Christ will not be a popular Saviour. His profound singularity, as a Being superior to sin and to all human conventionalities, would offend men, and drive them quite away. There is no greater mistake, as regards the true manner of impression on the world, than that we impress it by being homogeneous with it. It is not the being popular that makes one a help to religion,—no holy man was ever a truly popular character. There is no just mode of life, no true holiness, or fruit of holy living, if we do not carry the conviction, by our self-denial, our sobriety in the matter of show, and our withholding from all that indicates our being under the world, that we are in a life separated to God. And there is most profound philosophy in this—“Come out from among them, and be ye separate.”—Horace Bushnell, D.D.

The Divine Charm of Christ’s Character.—“Holy, harmless [guileless, R.V.], undefiled, separate [separated, R.V.] from sinners.”

1. The Christ whom the Jews expected was one whose works should be great—by no means one in whom there should be a humanly superlative character.

2. The separation of Christ from sinners was not one which came out of words of assertion, but one which grew out of His character and His life.

3. We have had among us a Visitor, living out in the moulds of human character, conduct, and feeling the perfections of God. Who, after this, can ever think it a low and common thing

(1) to fill these human spheres;

(2) walk these ranges of human life; and

(3) do these common-place, every-day, human duties?—After Bushnell.

Heb_7:27. One Sacrifice suffices.—“Once for all, when He offered up Himself.” That sacrifice suffices for two good reasons:

1. It is the real thing, to which all the pictorial, illustrative, and typical sacrifices pointed.

2. It is so altogether satisfactory, that there cannot possibly ever be any call to have it repeated. Why should it be? The supreme question, in regard to any sacrifice, is this—Is it acceptable to God? Will He make it a basis on which to accept us? If it is acceptable to Him, if He does accept us on the ground of it, what more has to be said? Who has any right to complain? On what ground can any other sacrifice be asked for? And that is precisely what we claim to be the fact concerning the sublime self-sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, concerning the offering of Himself. God is infinitely satisfied with it: He is willing to accept us on the ground of it. And there is nothing more to be said, and nothing more can be required. God requires no other sacrifice; He has accepted this, and makes no other demand. We cannot possibly require any other sacrifice, for we have gained all the acceptance that we can ever want on the ground of this. “By one offering” Christ has gained all-sufficient power to save unto the uttermost: “He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 7

Heb_7:25. “He redeemed me!”—The tears of a slave girl just going to be put up for sale drew the attention of a gentleman as he passed through the auction mart of a Southern slave state. The other slaves of the same group, standing in a line for sale like herself, did not seem to care about it, while each knock of the hammer made her shake. The kind man stopped to ask why she alone wept, and was told that the others were used to such things, and might be glad of a change from the hard, harsh homes they came from, but that she had been brought up with much care by a good owner, and she was terrified to think who might buy her. “Her price?” the stranger asked. He thought a little when he heard the great ransom, but paid it down. Yet no joy came to the poor slave’s face when he told her she was free. She had been born a slave, and knew not what freedom meant. Her tears fell fast on the signed parchment, which her deliverer brought to prove it to her. She only looked at him with fear. At last he got ready to go his way, and as he told her what she must do when he was gone, it began to dawn on her what freedom was. With the first breath she said, “I will follow him! I will serve him all my days!” and to every reason against it she only cried, “He redeemed me! He redeemed me! He redeemed me!” When strangers used to visit that master’s house, and noticed, as all did, the loving, constant service of the glad-hearted girl, and asked her why she was so eager with unbidden service night by night and day by day, she had but one answer, and she loved to give it—“He redeemed me! He redeemed me! He redeemed me!” “And so,” said the servant of Christ, who spent a night on his journey in a Highland glen, and told this story in a meeting where every heart was thrilled, “let it be with you. Serve Jesus as sinners bought back with blood; and when men take notice of the way you serve Him, the joy that is in your looks, the love that is in your tone, the freedom of your service, have one answer to give—‘He redeemed me!’

Intercession.—“A child,” saith Ambrose, “that is willing to present his father with a posy goes into the garden, and there gathers some flowers and some weeds together; but coming to his mother, she picks out the weeds, and binds the flowers, and so it is presented to the father.” Thus, when we have put up our prayers, Christ comes and picks away the weeds, the sin of our prayers, and presents nothing but flowers to His Father, which are a sweet-smelling savour.—Thomas Watson.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

IV

Christ lives forever, and can therefore, in His unchangeable Priesthood, forever intercede in the presence of God on behalf of the redeemed

Heb_7:23-25

23And they truly[indeed] were many priests [have more than one been made priests], because they were13 not suffered to continue by reason of death[on account of their 24being hindered by death from continuing]: But this man [he], because he continueth 25forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore [whence also] he is able also [om. also] to save to the uttermost [completely, unto perfection, εἰς τὸ πανταλές] them that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

[Heb_7:23.—Καὶ οἱ μέν, and they indeed=and while, they—πλείονές εἰσιν, etc., have in larger numbers, as more than one, become priests—διὰ τὸ θαν. κωλεύεσθαι, on account of their being hindered by death, etc. If the finite verb is used it should be in the present, not “were not suffered.”

Heb_7:24.—Ὁ, δέ, but he, not, but this man—ἀπαραβάτον ἔχει τὴν ἱερωσύνην, hath his priesthood, not to be passed by, hence superceded; or, perhaps, better (with reference to the active παραβαίνω, go aside from, transgress, violate, παράβασις, transgression, violation) not to be transgressed or transcended, inviolate.

Heb_7:25.—Ὅθεν καί, whence also.—εἰς τὸ παντελές, unto completion, completely, πάντοτε ζῶν, always living.—K.].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Heb_7:23. And they indeed, as more than one, etc.—The connection shows that this plurality of the priesthood is not to be conceived as simultaneous (Erasm. in Paraphr., Braun, Del. [but Del, only partially—K.]), but successive. The idea of Del. that the language points back to the act of inauguration and consecration at Exo_28:29, where Aaron is not for himself alone chosen and consecrated, but in connection with his sons, and that it is the multiplicity of the priests that insures the continuance of the priesthood, is at once without proof, and obscures the antithesis. So also of the interpretation of παραμένειν, favored by Del. of continuance in the priesthood (Œc, Grot., and others). It is not with the priests in general, but with the high-priest, that Christ is placed in contrast; and to παραμένειν corresponds the following μένειν. [But by no means necessarily in the same signification. I think Grot., Del., etc., are clearly right. To make μένειν and παραμένειν identical in meaning makes an intolerable platitude: “they are hindered by death from remaining in life!” But the change of reference is both suggested by the change in the verbs (μένειν and παραμένειν) and gives to each an appropriate and beautiful force: ‘They are hindered by death from abiding in their priesthood;’ He on account of His abiding forever in life, hath His priesthood unchangeable. The necessity of giving to both verbs the same reference is only apparent. The real contrast is against it—K.].

Heb_7:24. Unchangeable.—Ἀπαράβατος belongs to the later Greek, and with Theodor., Œc., Theoph., Erasm., is by most taken actively=not passing over to another, whence Este and Justiniani explain that the priests of the Catholic Church are not successors, but vicarii et ministri Christi. More accordant with usage is the Passive construction, not to be passed beyond or overstepped, hence inviolable, unchangeable.

Heb_7:25. To the uttermost, completely, to the consummation.—Εἰς τὸ παντελές is erroneously referred by the Peshito, Vulg., Chrys., Luth., Calv., Schlicht., Grot., etc., to time. Ὅθεν καί, whence also, shows that the declaration in this clause is to be regarded as the consequence, and indeed the natural consequence, of the statement of the clause just previous. [This seems hardly decisive against the reference of the adverbial clause to time; yet in the connection we can scarcely doubt that the reference is not to His saving always, or forever, but to His saving completely, those who come to God through Him. The perpetuity of His priesthood enables Him to carry through the salvation which He has commenced—K.].

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. A further prerogative of the New Covenant lies in the unchangeableness of the Priesthood, attached to one and the same person, and by Him carried out in the most perfect manner forever. The ground of this lies in the fact that Christ tasted death indeed, but has also forever overcome it; and that to both these alike, to His sufferings and His victory, as He originally undertook and accomplished them on our behalf, so also in heaven He gives on our behalf perpetual validity and efficacy.

2. The eternally unchanging, high-priestly, and royal sway of the glorified Son of Man, is the cause of our perfect salvation, in that, by means of this, we, reconciled, draw near to God, and are kept in perpetual fellowship of life with God.

3. The Priesthood of Jesus Christ does not commence with His ministry in heaven. There rather, He, the eternally Living One, as antitype of the priestly-king, Melchisedek, gives entire completeness and efficacy (Rom_8:34) to the sacrifice which, as antitype of the Aaronic high-priest, He offered in His death upon the cross, by the sacrifice of Himself.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Salvation and blessedness are the grand aim of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ.—The Priesthood of Christ is not less efficacious than it is permanent and comprehensive.—Nearness to God is possible only through the Son, but through Him is ultimately enjoyed in blissful perfection,—Wherein lies, on the one hand, the indispensableness, on the other, the imperishableness of the Priesthood of Christ?—In what consists, on what rests, and by what means is effected, the complete deliverance of men through Jesus Christ?—Christ has in His Priesthood no successor, since He lives forever, and no substitute, because He Himself exercises His office perfectly and all-sufficiently.

Starke:—The exalted Jesus prays actually before the throne of His Heavenly Father, on behalf of men, in a way that is pleasing to Him, so long as the kingdom of grace continues, since He can still bring man to salvation.—True members of Christ evince their spiritual priesthood toward others, in the fact that they pray for them zealously, although not with the meritorious supplication with which Christ pleads for us, yet still acceptably, and in a manner that is productive of blessing.—Priest, Bishop, and Prelate, all are nothing. Christ is the true Archbishop and Chief Shepherd, to whom all things minister, and through whom all are nurtured and live, physically, spiritually and eternally.

Rieger:—The death of Jesus Christ was no hinderance to the continuance of His Priestly office and employment, rather was itself a part of it. That Christ lives forever, is not only a prerogative of this Living Person Himself, but is also a blessing for us. Many circumstances that contribute to my happiness may change, but this capital circumstance changes not: “He ever lives and makes intercession for us.” Who would ever reach the destined goal, were there not such a priestly office and intercession ever exercised on our behalf in the Sanctuary of God?

Heubner:—Drawing near to God implies not merely coming to Him in prayer, but obtaining His grace on earth, and His heavenly kingdom hereafter.—Christ is not merely an intercessor on behalf of those who are to be made subjects of grace, but also on behalf of those already converted, in their state of moral weakness and infirmity.—All human dignities, institutions, schools, perish; the dignity and office of Christ are imperishable.

Hahn:—In heaven we are more regarded and cared for than we believe, and in the heart of the Father and of the Son there is much that is taking place on our behalf.

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7:23-24 Of necessity, the old covenant had a succession of many priests because each of them died. In contrast, Jesus’ priesthood lasts forever (literally is permanent): This term refers to something that cannot be changed, such as the sun’s daily trek through the sky or the constant turning of the seasons.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Heb 7:23. Πλείονες, many) one after another.—παραμένειν) to remain together on earth. The antithesis is μένειν, to remain absolutely in heaven, Heb 7:24.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb_7:23. Καί] parallel to the καί, Heb_7:20.

καὶ οἱ μὲν πλείονές εἰσιν ἱερεῖς γεγονότες] and they on the one hand have as several (or as a plurality) become priests, i.e. of Levitical priests there is a multiplicity. Attention is not here called to the peculiarity that many priests always existed contemporaneously the one with the other (so Erasmus, Paraphr., Braun, Delitzsch), or that the Levitical priesthood was not given to one, but to a lineage (Hofmann). That which is meant isas is evident from the immediately following διὰ τὸ θανάτῳ κωλύεσθαι παραμένειν, and from Heb_7:24the successive plurality, in that one dies after another, and consequently the one succeeds the other. For the author in thus speaking has before his mind the high priests, since it is just with these that Christ is placed in parallel. Comp. Heb_7:26 ff., al.

διὰ τὸ θανάτῳ κωλύεσθαι παραμένειν] because (wrongly de Wette: by the fact that) they are (wrongly de Wette and Bisping: were) prevented by death from continuing.

παραμένειν] not: ἐν τῇ ἱερωσύνῃ (so Oecumenius, who is followed by Grotius, Seb. Schmidt, Storr, Kuinoel, Klee, Stein, Bloom-field, Delitzsch, Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. pp. 459, 437; Alford, Maier, Kurtz, Hofmann, Woerner, and others). It denotes, as is clear from the corresponding διὰ τὸ μένειν αὐτὸν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, Heb_7:24, to continue in life. Comp. also Php_1:25, and Meyer ad loc.

Heb_7:23-25. Third point of superiority of the priesthood of Christ over the Levitical priesthood. The Levitical priests die one after the other; Christs priesthood, on the other hand, is, since He ever lives, an unchangeable and intransitory one. The author consequently lays special stress upon that point of superiority to which already, Heb_7:16 f. (comp. Heb_7:8), he had pointed.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 7:23-25 . Another ground of the perfectness of the new priesthood is found in the continued life of the priest, who ever lives to make intercession and can therefore save completely, whereas the Levitical priests were compelled by death to give place to others.

Heb 7:23 . καὶ , as above, Heb 7:20 , introducing a new element in the argument. οἱ μὲν , as in Heb 7:21 , the Levitical priests, πλείονες … “have been made priests many in number,” not many at one and the same time [Delitzsch], although that also is true, but many in succession, as is shown by the reason assigned διὰ τὸ θανάτῳ κωλύεσθαι παραμένειν “because of their being prevented by death from abiding” “in their office,” Peirce, as Œcumenius, ἐν τῇ ἱερωσύνῃ δηλονότι . Others think that remaining in life is meant. Possibly πλείονες is used instead of πολλοί , because there is a latent comparison with the one continuing priest, or with those already priests; always more and more. He, on the contrary, ὁ δὲ , by reason of his abiding for ever ἀπαράβατον ἔχει τὴν ἱερωσύνην “has his priesthood inviolable,” that is, no other person can step into it. The form of expression is similar to that used by Epiphanius of the Trinity, ἡ δὲ ἀπαράβατον ἔχει τὴν φύσιν . The meaning of ἀπαράβ . is contested, some interpreters (Weiss, etc.) supposing that it signifies “indefeasible,” or “untransmitted” or “nontransferable”. Indeed, Œcumenius and Theophylact translate it by ἀδιάδοχον . But in every instance of its occurrence given by Stephanus and Wetstein it has a passive sense, as νόμος , ὅρκος , etc., ἀπαράβ ., and means unalterable or inviolable. This suits the present passage perfectly, and returns upon the thought of Heb 7:3 , that the new priest is sole and perpetual occupant of the office, giving place to no successor. ὅθεν , “whence,” i.e. , because of His having this absolute priesthood; His saving power depends upon His priesthood. He is able καὶ σώζειν εἰς τὸ παντελές , “even to save to the uttermost,” not to be referred merely to time as in Vulgate “in perpetuum,” and Chrysostom, οὐ πρὸς τὸ παρὸν μόνον φησὶν , ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐκεῖ ἐν τῇ μελλούσῃ ζωῄ . If referred to time, it might mean either ability to save the individual eternally, or to save future generations. Peirce joins it with δύναται , and renders “whence also he is perpetually able to save”. But the phrase uniformly means “completely,” “thoroughly,” as in Luk 13:11 of the woman, μὴ δυναμένη ἀνακύψαι εἰς τὸ παντελές and in the examples cited by Wetstein. This, as Riehm shows (p. 613, note), includes the idea of perpetuity. The Levitical priests could not so save: no τελείωσις was achieved by them; but everything for which the priesthood existed, everything which is comprised in the great [Heb 2:3 ] and eternal [Heb 5:9 ] salvation, the deliverance [Heb 2:15 ] and glory [Heb 2:10 ] which belong to it, are achieved by Christ. The objects of this saving power are τοὺς προσερχομένους διʼ αὐτοῦ τῷ Θεῷ , “those who through Him approach God”; “through Him” no longer relying on the mediation of Levitical priests, but recognising Jesus as the “new and living way,” Heb 10:19-22 . This complete salvation Jesus can accomplish because πάντοτε ζῶν … αὐτῶν , “ever living to intercede on their behalf”. The particular mode in which His eternal priesthood applies itself to those who through Him approach God is that He intercedes for them, thus effecting their real introduction to God’s presence and their acceptance by Him, and also the supply of all their need out of the Divine fulness. ἐντυγχάνειν , “to meet by chance,” “to light upon,” takes as its second meaning, “to converse with” (followed by dative), hence “to entreat one to do something” (Plut., Pomp. , 55; Ages. , 25), and when followed by περί (Polyb., 4:76, 9) or by ὑπέρ (Plut., Cato Maj. , 9) “to intercede”. (See Liddell and Scott.) It is not the word itself, but the preposition following, that gives the idea of intercession . The word with a different preposition can be used in the sense of appealing against , as in Rom 11:2 , ὡς ἐντυγ . τ . Θεῷ κατὰ τ . Ἰσραήλ , see also 1Ma 11:25 . With ὑπέρ it occurs in Rom 8:27 ; Rom 8:34 , and with περί in Act 25:24 . Christ, then, treats with God in our behalf; and He lives for this. As His life on earth was spent in the interests of men, so He continues to spend Himself in this same cause. He ever lives, and being “the same yesterday, to-day and for ever” (Heb 13:8 ) His present fulness of life is devoted to those ends which evoked His energies while on earth. He secures that the fulness of Divine resource shall be available for men. “All things are ours.” This intercession is not the same as the Atoning sacrifice and its presentation before God, which was accomplished once for all (Heb 9:26 , Heb 10:18 ); but it is based upon the sacrifice which is also to men the guarantee that His intercession is real, and comprehensive of all their needs. [ Cf. Sir Walter Raleigh’s Pilgrimage .]

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Another argument tending to the same purpose. The Levitical Priests (as mortal men) could not be everlasting, but Christ as he is everlasting, so hath he also an everlasting Priesthood making most effectual intercession for them which by him come unto God.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Another proof of superiority; the Levitical priests were many, as death caused the need of continually new ones being appointed in succession. Christ dies not, and so hath a priesthood which passes not from one to another.

were--Greek, "are made."

many--one after another; opposed to His "unchangeable (that does not pass from one to another) priesthood" (Heb 7:24).

not suffered to continue--Greek, "hindered from permanently continuing," namely, in the priesthood.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 23. And they truly were many priests] Under the Mosaic law it was necessary there should be a succession of priests, because, being mortal, they were not suffered to continue always by reason of death.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. And they truly, etc. He had already touched on this comparison; but as the subject deserved more attention, he unfolds it more fully, though the point discussed is different from what it was before; for then he concluded that the ancient priesthood was to come to an end because they who exercised it were mortal; but now he simply shows that Christ remains perpetually a priest. This he does by an argument taken from things unequal; the ancient priests were many, for death put an end to their priesthood; but there is no death to prevent Christ from discharging his office. Then he alone is a perpetual priest. Thus a different cause produces different effects.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(23) Were many priests.—Rather, have been made priests many (i.e., in large numbers), because by death they were prevented from continuing. (Comp. Heb_7:8, where the thought is somewhat similar.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. many priests] Lit., “And they truly have been constituted priests many in number.”

they were not suffered to continue by reason of death] The vacancies caused in their number by the ravages of death required to be constantly replenished (Num_20:28; Eze_22:20; Eze_22:30).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost,.... Because he continues ever, and has an unchangeable priesthood. This is to be understood not of temporal salvation, nor of providential favours, but of spiritual and eternal salvation; and includes a deliverance from all evil, here and hereafter, and an enjoyment of all good in this world, and in that to come: Christ was called to this work by his Father; he was promised by him to do it, and was sent by him to effect it, and has accomplished it; and this is the reason of his name Jesus, and was the end of his coming into this world, and which the Gospel always represents as such: this work required ability; here was a law to be fulfilled; justice to be satisfied; sin to be bore, removed, and atoned for; many enemies to engage with, and a cursed death to undergo: it was a work no creature, angels, or men, were able to undertake and perform; the priests under the law could not; men cannot save themselves, nor can any creature work out salvation for them: but Christ is able; as appears from the help his Father laid on him, who knew him to be mighty; from his own undertaking it, being mighty to save; and from his having completely effected it; and he must needs be able to do it, since he is the mighty God: and he is able to save to the uttermost; "to the utmost perfection", as the Arabic version renders it; so as nothing can be wanting in the salvation he is the author of, nor anything added to it; or "for ever", as the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions render it; to the utmost of time, even to eternity, as well as to the utmost of men's wants: the persons he is able to save, are such

that come to God by him; Christ is able to save all the world, were it his will; but not his absolute power is designed by his ability, but that power which by his will is put into act; and reaches not to all men, for all are not saved; and those that are, are described by special characters, as here; they are such who come to God, not essentially considered, but personally, or in the person of the Father; and not as an absolute God, but as in Christ; not as on a throne of justice, but as on a throne of grace and mercy; not only as Christ's Father, but as theirs; and not only as the God of nature and providence, but as the God of grace: and this act of coming to him is a fruit of his everlasting love; an effect of Christ's death; is peculiar to regenerate persons; takes in the whole service of God, especially prayer; is not local but spiritual, it is by faith; and supposes spiritual life, and implies a sense of need, and of God's ability and willingness to help: the medium, or mean, by which such come to God, is Christ. Man had access to God in his state of innocence, but sinning, was not admitted; there is no approaching now unto him without a middle person; Christ is the Mediator, who having made peace, atoned for sin, satisfied justice, and brought in an everlasting righteousness, introduces his people into God's presence; in whom their persons and services are accepted, and through whom all blessings are communicated to them:

seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them; Christ ever lives as God, he is the living God; and though he died as man, he is risen from the dead, and will not die again, but live for evermore; and he lives as Mediator and Redeemer, and particularly as a priest; one branch of whose office it is to intercede for his people: this he does now in heaven; not by vocal prayer and supplication, at least not as in the days of his flesh; or as if he was supplicating an angry Judge; nor as controverting, or litigating, a point the court of heaven; but by the appearance of his person for them; by the presentation of his sacrifice, blood, and righteousness; by declaring his will, that such and such blessings be bestowed on such and such persons; and by recommending the prayers of his people, and removing the charges and accusations of Satan: the things he intercedes for are, the conversion of his that are in a state of nature; the consolation of distressed ones; fresh discoveries of pardoning grace to fallen believers; renewed strength to oppose sin, exercise grace, discharge duty, and bear up under temptations, and deliverance out of them; perseverance in faith and holiness, and eternal glorification; and he intercedes for these things; not for all the world, but for all the elect, even though transgressors; and he is very fit for this work, as the following verse shows; he is the one and only Mediator; and he is a very prevalent intercessor, he always succeeds; and he does this work readily, willingly, cheerfully, and freely; and all this proves him to be able to save; for though the impetration of salvation is by his death, the application of it is owing to his interceding life; had he died and not lived again, he could not have saved to the uttermost; his life is the security of his people's, and he lives for them, and as their representative; the blessed, effects of which they constantly enjoy.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:

Ver. 23. By reason of death] Neither their holiness nor learning could privilege them from death’s impartial stroke. Non te tua plurima Pantheu, labentem texit pietas. All our learning also is soon refuted with one black theta, which understanding us not, snappeth us unrespectively without distinction, and putteth at once a period to our reading and to our being.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And they truly - Under the Jewish dispensation. The object of this verse and the following is, to state one more reason of the excellence of the priesthood of Christ. It is, that owing to the frailty of human nature, and the shortness of life, the office of priest there was continually changing. But here there was no such change. Christ, being exalted to the heavens to live forever there, has now an unchangeable priesthood, and everything in regard to his office is permanent.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Many priests, &c. The apostle notes this difference between the high priests of the law, and our high priest, Jesus Christ: that they being removed by death, made way for their successors: whereas our Lord Jesus is a priest for ever, and hath no successor; but liveth and concurreth for ever with his ministers, the priests of the New Testament, in all their functions. Secondly, that no one priest of the law, not all of them together, could offer that absolute sacrifice of everlasting redemption, which our high priest, Jesus Christ, has offered once and for ever. (Challoner)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

And they truly were many priests: this further demonstrates the excellency of Christ’s priesthood above the Aaronical for its singularity and self-sufficiency; whereas theirs was, for the multiplicity of it, weak, vanishing, and mortal, like themselves. They had multitude of priests together under the high priest, to manage the service, and above seventy high priests, beside their sagans, such as were to officiate for them if at any time they were legally disabled from the institution of the Aaronical order, to the destruction of the temple, and were made according to the law successively.

Because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death; death cut them off one after another; they were all mortal, and could not abide, neither in their priesthood or life, Exo 28:43. Death transmitted that priesthood from one unto another, till the priesthood itself, by the succession of a better, was abolished, and did expire; so frail, passing, and imperfect were both their persons and office.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23-28. Point sixth. An undying priest and priesthood, able to save to the uttermost, is just suitable for us sinners.

23. Many priests… by… death—Poor mortals, alas! can send a line of life through centuries only by a succession of living and dying men.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 23, 24. And they indeed have been made priests many in number, because of being by death hindered from continuing. But he, because of his abiding forever, hath his priesthood unchangeable. This second point of contrast has already been twice touched on ver. 8, with respect to the claim to tithe; and ver. 16, with respect to the order of priesthood: here it is with especial reference to the eternal personality, and hence the perpetual and complete efficiency, of our one Priest. The repetitions are not tautological, having each time different bearings. The contrast here, as before, is between mortal men who succeed each other in the office of priesthood, and One who has the office inherent in himself forever. The word aparabaton (translated "unchangeable") is taken by some in an intransitive sense, as in margin of the A.V, that doth not pass to another, equivalent to adiadocon . This, however, is not the proper force of this late Greek word, nor does the sense of the passage of necessity require it.

Vers. 23-25. The immortal priesthood of Christ enhanced by weighty considerations.

The first is that the ancient priesthood passed through many hands, in which fact there were some obvious disadvantages. Some priests were so neglectful of their office that the prophet had to become a preacher of righteousness. All preachers had to pass through a process of education to gain fitness for their ministry; others were priests when there was no temple, no altar, and no holy of holies. Death came to them in turn, and lifted the miter from the brow, the breastplate from the breast, and closed the lips which pronounced the priestly benediction. The second consideration is that our Lord has an unchangeable appointment, because death has no power over him now that he has taken his life again. There is no death in the sublime sphere of his ministry. He can say, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" The value of this unfailing life is that it is devoted to the work of salvation. He is able to save to the uttermost by superintending the personal life of his followers, and supplying them with Christian peace and spiritual power, and by keeping before their minds his idea of salvation. He can infuse his own precious life through their souls, and lead through the paths of fellowship with God, evangelical obedience, and gracious discipline, until they are saved to the uttermost and attain to the resurrection of the dead. This is associated with his intercession, of which we have a sublime and affecting example in the seventeenth chapter of St. John"s Gospel. If others condemn, he makes intercession. If others neglect or persecute, he is their friend in the presence of God. If his people are in the outer court engaged in prayer, he is within the veil to offer acceptable incense. By his undecaying life he quietly pursues his own plans; and by the constancy of his ministry he gives a unity to his people of various communions, places of abode, and ages of time, who thus become one in Christ Jesus. B.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They were many priests - One after another.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Another feature of Christ’s priesthood is its eternal continuance:

v. 23. And they truly were many priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death;

v. 24. but this Man, because He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.

v. 25. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.

This is a point in which the superiority of Christ is very evident. Christ not only brought us back again into the right relation with God, but He permanently insured to us this near fellowship with God: And they indeed have been made priests many in number, because of their being prevented by death from remaining, but He through His remaining forever has His priesthood inviolable. It was a definite and unchangeable handicap of the men that held the office of priests in the Old Testament: they were mortal, subject to death, they could not remain in life, and therefore also in office, beyond the span of life allotted to them by God. The ones that died were continually being replaced by young men, and there was a continual change in personnel. But Christ, the everlasting Son of God, Psa 110:4; Dan 7:14; Joh 12:34, holds His office of High Priest throughout eternity. It will never he transferred, no other person will ever step into it. He is the sole and perpetual occupant of this singular office, giving place to no successor. And therefore it follows: Whence He is also able even to save to the uttermost those who through Him approach to God, forever living to make intercession for them. Because Christ holds His office of High Priest in this unique and absolute manner, therefore the salvation earned by Him is complete in every detail, not lacking in any single item. Every person in the wide world that turns to Christ for salvation, puts his faith in Him as his Mediator, has Him as the Way, as the certain Approach to God. No need of priests and sacrifices and ceremonies and special festivals, for He is our Mediator forever; He has opened the way to the eternal love of the Father. This is so certain because Christ lives forever, and His function in His office of High Priest at the present time is to be our Advocate with the Father, to make intercession for us, Rom 8:34; 1Jn 2:1-2. As Christ’s life on earth was spent in the interest of men, so He continues to spend Himself in our behalf. The entire fullness of His present life is devoted to the end of insuring everlasting salvation to men. And we have another reason for acknowledging the superiority of Christ’s office over that of the Old Testament priests.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now our apostle is come to his last argument, by which he proves the excellency of Christ’s priesthood above that of Aaron. The Levitical priests, he says, were many and mortal: their mortality was the cause of their multitude: they were cut off by death, and suceeded one another; but Christ is one and the same to his church, yesterday, today and for ever; he had no partner, has no successor, but executes an everlasting unchangeable priesthood in his own person.

Note here, 1. That the multiplication of priests, particularly of high priests under the legal dispensation, was a manifest evidence of the imperfection of it; from Aaron the first High Priest, unto Phineas the last, who was destroyed with the temple, are reckoned fourscore and three high priests, who succeeded one another: of these, thirteen are said to live under the tabernacle, eighteen under the first temple built by Solomon, and all the rest under the second temple: The ground of which multiplication of priests was this, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.

Learn, 1. That the priesthood of Christ, as unchangeably exercised in his own person, is perpetual; and its perpetuity is a principal part of the glory of that office. He continueth for ever, having and unchangeable priesthood.

Question But did not Christ, our great High Priest, die as well as Aaron and other high priests?

Answer Yes, he died as a priest, they died from being priests; he died as a priest, because he was also to be a sacrifice.

The apostle doth not say, that he did not die, but that he always abideth: he abode a priest even in the state of death, and after his resurrection he became immortal, never to die more; he ever liveth, he dieth no more, death has no more dominion over him. See how he describes himself, I am he that liveth, and was dead: and behold I am alive for evermore; and have the keys of hell and death. Rev 1:18

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23–28. Were many priests. Since they were removed by death there were in succession many Aaronic high priests.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

23, 24. BECAUSE IT IS INTRANSMISSIBLE, NEVER BEING VACATED BY DEATH

23. καὶ οἱ μὲν κ.τ.λ. “And they truly have been constituted priests many in number.”

θανάτῳ. The vacancies caused in their number by the ravages of death required to be constantly replenished (Num 20:28; Exo 29:29-30).

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23-25.] Further proof still of the superiority of Christ’s priesthood, in that the Levitical priests were continually removed by death: Christ is undying and abiding. This point was slightly touched before in ver. 8, and again in ver. 16 f.: in the first place, it was to shew the abiding nature of the superiority of the priesthood—its endurance in Melchisedek, and in Christ, Melchisedek’s antitype, as contrasted with dying men who here receive tithes. In the second, it was to bring out the difference between the ordinances which constituted the two priesthoods: the one, the law of a carnal commandment, the other, the power of an endless life. Here, the personal contrast is dwelt on: the many, which change: the one, who abides.

23.] And they indeed (the οἱ μὲν γάρ of ver. 20: i. e. the Levitical priests) are appointed (on εἰσὶν γεγονότες, see above, ver. 20. ἱερεῖς is interposed to give it the secondary emphasis) priests in numbers (the chief emphasis is on πλείονες, as contrasted with ἀπαράβ. below. The alternative rendering given as possible in Bleek, “they indeed are many, who have been made priests,” is hardly probable, seeing that thus the article οἱ would more naturally precede ἱερεῖς), on account of their being by death hindered from continuing (in life? or, in their priesthood? The latter is taken by Œc., Grot., Seb. Schmidt, Erncsti, Wahl and Bretschneider, Kuinoel, al. And this is the more probable. The verb is a vox media, and may be applied to any sort of endurance treated of in the context (so in the examples cited from Herod. i. 30, καί σφι εἶδε ἅπασι τέκνα ἐκγενόμενα καὶ πάντα παραμείναντα, and Artemidor. ii. 27, γυναῖκά τε κ. παῖδας μὴ παραμένειν μαντεύεται): which clearly here treats of abiding in the priesthood: besides which, it would be somewhat tautological to say that they were hindered by death from continuing in life. The other view is taken by Raphel, Wolf, Bengel, Michaelis, Schulz, De Wette, Lünemann; not seeing, says Delitzsch, was das fur eine narrische platte Rede ist),

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Were many priests [πλειονες εισιν γεγονοτες ιερεις] . Comp. ver. 21 for the construction. Rend. have been made priests many in number.

Because they were not suffered to continue [δια το κωλυεσθαι παραμενειν] . Rend. because they are hindered from continuing. Paramenein "to abide by their ministration."

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. καὶ ol μὲν wr. el. yey....6 8¢...] And while they—the ono class, the Levitical prieste—have been made priests many in number...He...hath His priesthood inviolable. Vulg. Ht alii quidem plures facti sunt sacerdotes...hic autem.... The Levitical priests held the priesthood in succoasion, one after another. Thoy were made priests many in number, not simultaneously but successively. Tho thought is of the line which repre-

would be pointless to say that ‘death hindered them from living’: it hindered them from discharging tho function which was necessary for man’s well-being.

Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901), The Epistle to the Hebrews (1889) and The Epistles of St John (1883) — public domain (pre-1929). Text recovered from Internet Archive / Google Books OCR scans. Westcott’s Gospel of John commentary is not included (its OCR lost the chapter running-heads required for reliable verse-keying). Some Greek quoted in the Hebrews volume is imperfectly rendered by the OCR.