Chuck Larsen

I need a savior because I’m not capable of saving myself. My good deeds, my abstinence of any kind, my standards of living, or anything else one might think makes them acceptable to God, fall short. Both the Old Testament (Isaiah 64:6) and the New Testament (Romans 3:23) are clear on this point. All of us have fallen short of God’s standard. I need a savior! If Jesus is merely my example, I’m doomed forever. I’ll never be like him. He’s not a life guard standing on the shore making swimming motions saying “go like this.” I’m incapable of going like that! A life saver won’t even be good enough to save me because I have no strength to hold onto it in myself. I need someone to dive into the ocean of my sin and pick me up in his arms and carry me to safety. That’s exactly what Jesus does. He saves completely. Hebrews 7:25 says, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

When Jesus saves us to the “uttermost” it means two things. The first is that it accomplishes everything that needs to be done. Thus he spoke from the cross before his death, “it is finished.” This meant he left nothing undone. He didn’t start the process of our salvation to which we add our dedication, effort, good works or anything else. He did all that needs to be done. His sacrifice is sufficient! There is nothing to add! Some theological camps today define eternal security as being God will never let go of us. Sin will not destroy our salvation as long as we continue to believe in him. It says God will never let go of you unless you let go of him. Thus our salvation is assured only if we persevere. Therefore, it’s what I do in the end that determines my eternal destiny, not what Jesus has done for me. There is no rest, assurance or security in the hope that I will stay faithful until death. The only security is that God will never let go of me no matter what I do, say or think. It is only this unconditional confidence that changes me from the inside. All the rest is trusting in the efforts of the flesh.

The second thing the writer suggests through the idea that Jesus saves us to the “uttermost,” has to do with the duration of that salvation.  Kistemaker put it this way, “We have the assurance that as he lives eternally before God so shall we live forever with him. Presently we come to God in prayer, but at the end of our earthly stay he will take us home to be with him eternally.”^[1] Arguing in support of this two-fold aspect of salvation by Jesus to the “uttermost” Arthur Pink says, “Whatever hindrances and difficulties lie in the way of the salvation of believers, the Lord Jesus is fully competent, by virtue of the exercise of His priestly office, to carry out the work for them unto eternal perfection. No matter what oppositions may arise, He is more than sufficient to cope with and overcome them all. Combining the two meanings: a complete salvation is a never-ending one.”^[2] Jesus is sufficient in time and eternity! We have complete rest now and forever only in Jesus!

^[1] Simon J. Kistemaker and William Hendriksen, Exposition of Hebrews, vol. 15, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953–2001), 204.

^[2] Arthur Walkington Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1954), 402.

The book of Hebrews is all about how Jesus has satisfied all God’s requirements of us on our behalf.  He’s greater than the prophets, the angles, Moses, and the law, and especially the Levitical priesthood. The priesthood and the law had to change or I was doomed to failure. The law and the sacrificial system was established, not to make us acceptable to God. That was impossible. The blood of bulls and goats could never cleanse us of our sins once and for all. The law and the sacrificial system administered by the priests were established by God to give us hope. David Allen observes, “As we have seen, the key to the author’s hermeneutical method is to read the Old Testament, including the Law and cultus, through a Christological lens.”^[1]  Jesus who served as a priest in the order of Melchizedek was different than the priests of the Old Testament that merely offered the penitent a second chance. He was a priest of a different kind as Hebrews 7:13 says, “For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar.”

Ed Stetzer explained the difference between the Priest’s ministry in the Old Testament and Jesus’ priestly ministry to us today. He says, “It is not one more chance to be good. Jesus Christ came and died to pay the penalty of our failures and if we receive him, his record becomes our record. He doesn’t say one more chance to do good deeds, oh no, instead, he says, don’t you see, your doing will never get you there looking at me – I have done all the good deeds for you. I have lived the perfect life, I have died the perfect death. I put myself in your place, I took your penalty so that if you trust in me, and you lay your doing down, and you trust wholly in me, the Father will welcome you as complete in me. Lay your deadly doing down at his feet, stand in him alone, gloriously complete.” (see: https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2018/march/second-chances-incarceration.html)

The Old Testament as seen through Jesus’ lens, the Christological lens, shows us how everything written by Moses and the Prophets points to Jesus. The Levitical Priesthood with its laws and sacrifices is all about Jesus and how he will fulfill them all on our behalf. The priesthood of Levi presented the idea of an intermediary who would intercede with God on our behalf. He would bring our sacrifices to God to regain favor in God’s eyes in spite of our sinfulness. It’s clear that the laws were not meant to bring perfection but a realization of our imperfection which can once and for all be satisfied only in Christ. We’ll never be perfect in our obedience! We’ll never do enough good deeds to earn a spot in heaven or the full approval from God. That can only be accomplished through faith in Christ. He is our sacrifice! He is our good deeds!

^[1] David L. Allen, Hebrews, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group, 2010), 421.

Since Abraham offered tithes to Melchizedek according to Genesis 14, the author of Hebrews interprets that action as pure evidence that Abraham himself testifies to the superiority of Melchizedek. He then argues that this gesture of offering the tithe even demonstrates the total superiority of Melchizedek over the entire Levitical system of religion. Hebrews 7:9-10 says, “One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.” Tanner observes, “The text highlights Abraham as the patriarch, the father of the nation. Abraham is not merely acting as an individual but is representative of the entire nation that stems from him. His act of giving a tithe is significant, for under the Old Covenant the Levitical priests collected tithes from the people (Num 18:21–24).”^[1]

Fruchtenbaum explains this verse. He writes, “It is true that Levi was not living at the time that Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, but he was in the loins of Abraham. Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek by means of imputation, for he was still in the loins of his father, Abraham, when Melchizedek met him. The writer’s point is that, if the fathers like Abraham and Levi were obliged to recognize the superiority of the Melchizedekian Priesthood, the sons should also recognize this superiority.”^[2] But more important to my way of thinking is the connection between Melchizedek and Jesus! It’s all about Jesus as the writer of Hebrews asserts from the very beginning of his letter. The whole Old Testament testifies to this truth. The prophets proclaim Jesus! The Law of Moses speaks of Jesus, the angels serve Jesus! The entire record called “Scripture” is about Jesus just as He, Himself, said in Luke 24:27. But religion is strong. The most difficult thing to give up for Jesus and the only thing one must surrender is one’s religion. One must trust in the full-sufficiency of Jesus for salvation and for rest in this life.

Brown observes, “The relevance of his argument is not a first-century affair. It is of the greatest possible importance to twentieth-century men and women facing surprisingly similar problems, and at the same disadvantage.”^[3] The disadvantage is the strength of religion. We still desire lists of things to do and our preachers will not fail to give those to us. We still want rituals to follow and our current denominations have plenty of variants to choose from. We still think much of our acceptance by God is dependent on our behavior and although it’s often subliminal much, if not most, of Christian teaching and writing focuses on what we do for God rather than on what He does for us. The reformation needed today is a reformation of our confidence in the full-sufficiency of Jesus. When He said on the cross, “it is finished” He meant it.

^[1] J. Paul Tanner, “The Epistle to the Hebrews,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed. Robert N. Wilkin (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), 1057.

^[2] Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, The Messianic Jewish Epistles: Hebrews, James, First Peter, Second Peter, Jude, 1st ed. (Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries, 2005), 101.

^[3] Raymond Brown, The Message of Hebrews: Christ above All, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 130.