The Priest Ordained by the Oath of God

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 1, 1881,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And inasmuch as not without an oath He was made Priest, (for those
priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by Him that
said unto Him, The Lord swore and will not repent, You are a Priest
forever after the order of Melchisedec), by so much more was Jesus made
a surety of a better Testament." Hebrews 7:20-22.

THOSE Of you who read Scripture carefully will have noticed that the
word, "better," is one of the key words of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
You are constantly meeting with it. In the opening chapter we read that
our Lord Jesus Christ is "made so much better than the angels, as He
has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." Look a
little further and you are taught that He is better than Moses,
inasmuch as Moses was faithful as a servant in the Lord's house, but
Christ, as a Son over His own house. Further on we find our blessed
Lord described as better than Aaron, while His blood is mentioned as
speaking better things than that of Abel. And He is declared, in our
text, to be the Surety of a better Testament, of which it is said that
it is established upon better promises.

It would be a very delightful subject to work out the betterness of
Christ, of His blood, of His Covenant and to show that however good
other things may be, they must all yield in excellence to Him. It is
implied in the use of the word, "better," that the ordinances of the
ceremonial Law were good, in their place, but Jesus is better than the
best of all visible things–the eternal Christ is better than the best
of all the temporal arrangements which God has made for the good of
man. How much better what heart shall conceive? "If the ministration of
condemnation is glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory. For if that which is done away with was glorious, much
more that which remains is glorious."

It behooves us, my dear Brothers and Sisters, to have a firmer faith
than Old Testament saints because we see more clearly our ground of
trust. Those who lived in the comparative darkness of the previous
dispensation were saved by faith and among them there were not a few
eminent Believers–surely we, also, ought to excel in our confidence in
God! Let the 11th chapter of Hebrews stand as a triumphal arch with the
names of ancient Believers recorded–these all died in faith and they
were no mean men–but inasmuch as we enjoy a brighter light and are
living under a better economy, we are called upon to be their superiors
in faith! Our faith should be clearer, calmer, stronger, more effectual
in working– we should do greater things than these, in the name of
Jesus.

Being endowed more richly with the Spirit of God, the modern Church
should attempt grander works than Israel ever thought about and so
there should be a shining more and more unto the perfect day. If better
are the promises, better and yet better should we be under accumulating
obligations. My objective at this time will not be so much to enter
into details of doctrine concerning our Savior's priesthood as to utter
practical Truths of God and press them on the heart. I shall not
attempt to exhaust so wonderful a subject as the parallel between
Melchisedec and Christ, but I shall try to strengthen the faith of
Believers and also to leave unbelievers without excuse if they will
still not believe in Jesus Christ, whom God has sent, confirming His
mission by an oath.

We need practical results, this morning, and no practical result will
content us but this–that you believe on Jesus Christ whom God has
sent! To this end were the Scriptures written, as says the Evangelist
John, "These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God and that, believing, you might have life through
His name." The objective of the written Word of God is also the
objective of the spoken Word of God–we would have you hear,

believe and live! Vain are your reading and hearing unless they lead
you to a sincere reception of the witness of God concerning His Son
Jesus Christ!

Oh that you may not, on this occasion, hear in vain! To our text,
then–and may the Spirit of God graciously be with us in speaking upon
it.

I. Men should believe in Jesus Christ with their whole heart and rely
upon Him with unstaggering confidence, first, because of OUR LORD'S
SPECIAL ORDINATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD. The Lord Jesus Christ was
ordained to the priesthood, according to the 110th Psalm, in a manner
distinct from all others. His ordination was unique, for neither Aaron,
nor his sons, nor any of the priests of the tribe of Levi were ever
ordained by an oath. Ceremonies most important, imposing, instructive
and impressive were performed–but there was no oath. God gave promises
to the house of Levi, but He expressly stopped short of anything like
an oath to them–not because His promise can be broken–but because
that promise was conditional and must not be confirmed by an oath, as
though it constituted a perpetual engagement.

But our Savior is made a Priest by an oath and it is written, as if to
make it exceedingly sure, "The Lord swore and will not repent." Not
because God ever can or does repent, or run back from His oath in any
case, but for the confirmation of our faith in the Immutability of His
Word–for it is expressly added, "He will not repent." By an oath which
stands fast forevermore, Christ is made a Priest forever after the
order of Melchisedec. But why, my Brethren, an oath for Jesus and none
for other priests? First, because of the greater dignity of Christ
above all other priests that ever were, for He is the Son of the
Highest, and they were not. They were men that had infirmity, but He is
sinless. They lived and died and so were changed, but, "Your Throne, O
God, is forever and ever." They were ordained to be types and emblems,
serving for the time of Israel's infancy, but He came as the, "I AM,"
the substance of the whole!

They were mere men and nothing more, but Jesus counted it not robbery
to be equal with God, though for our sakes He assumed our nature. It
seemed becoming that God should settle Him in the priesthood by an
oath, seeing He is above all and infinitely superior to all others that
have ever exercised the priesthood! I tremble while I speak of the oath
of God, for God's lifting His hand to Heaven and swearing by Himself
because He can swear by no greater, is something so solemn that one
scarcely dares to think of it! The Lord will not hold Him guiltless
that takes His name in vain! The devout soul is full of awe at the bare
thought of God in His most fatherly and ordinary acts, but how shall we
think of the Lord girt with solemnity, resolute in purpose, stern in
truth, as lifting His hand and taking an oath? Surely this is the
innermost sanctuary of mystery, the Holy of Holies!

This oath was for the honor of His dear Son as He assumed the sacred
Priesthood on behalf of the sons of men. The glory of His Character,
the dignity of His work, the certainty of its accomplishment and the
supreme excellence of His motive in entering upon it all lift up the
Priesthood of Christ out of the category of all human priesthoods and,
therefore, the eternal Father marks it by a special mark of
distinction–He makes an oath that His only-begotten Son is a Priest
forever after the order of Melchisedec. Another reason is found in the
eternal Character of His work. The priesthood of Aaron and his
successors was intended to be temporary. God did not confirm the
priests of old in their offices because He held in reserve the right to
set them aside when He pleased–and He from the first intended that
their functions should be abolished when the fullness of time should
come for another and better Priest to take their place.

They were candles for the darkness, but the sun was to rise and then
they would not be needed. They were pictorial representations, but when
the Substance was come, they would not be required. He allowed their
priesthood to be one of imperfect men because He intended, by-and-by,
to supersede it by a perfect and enduring Priesthood. Hence no oath of
God attended the ordination of the sons of Aaron. But our Lord Jesus
Christ's Priesthood and all the economy which He has ushered in was
intended by God to be perpetual and, therefore, does He confirm it with
an oath. No end of days will ever happen to our High Priest, nor shall
the economy of Divine Grace be supplanted by another and clearer
revelation. It shall be developed from strength to strength and we
shall see greater things than these in the days of the personal reign
and the millennial Glory, but no new economy of Grace shall overthrow
the present.

Think not, O you ungodly, if you reject Christ, that there will yet
come a Savior better than He! For you there remains no other Sacrifice
for sin. I have heard men talk of "a larger hope"–I believe it to be a
larger lie than ordinary if it supposes more mercy than is revealed in
Christ Jesus! There is no larger hope than that which Christ has
revealed! If it had been so, He would have told us. Stars can be
excelled by other stars, but what shall outshine the sun? One human

Gospel can be eclipsed by another, but how can there be a more loving,
tender, gracious Gospel than that which is embodied in our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ? "God so loved the world that He gave His
only-begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life"–is that message of Grace to be exceeded? Is
greater love yet to be revealed?

No! The Gospel is God's ultimatum! He will go no further–we have the
last proclamation of mercy to men, the last Savior, the last foundation
for hopes to be built upon, the last fountain in which sin can be
washed away, the last door of hope by which men shall escape from the
guilt and punishment of sin! I beseech you, avail yourselves of it, for
God has confirmed it with an oath that it may stand forever! It is your
one and only hope for eternity–lay hold upon it while you may. The
oath of God sets forth the dignity of our Lord's Person and the
eternity of His office–see that you despise not One who is thus great
and abiding. By an oath, also, was our Lord set apart because of the
reality of His Priesthood and the Substance that dwelt in His
Sacrifice.

As we have already said, the Levitical priesthood dealt only with the
shadows of good things to come and not with the very substance of the
things. So to speak, the sacrificial bull was not actually a sacrifice,
but the representation of the Sacrifice that was to come. The morning
and evening lambs did not take away sin, but only mirrored the great
blood-shedding of the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the
world! In very deed and truth, the men of the house of Aaron who
attended at the visible altar were not actual priests before the real
Altar of the Lord, but only shadows of the true. The real Altar is the
Person of Christ! The real Sacrifice is the death of Christ and the
real Priest is Christ Himself!

The images of heavenly things were glorious, but the glory of the
things, themselves, dwells in Christ and we behold that Glory full of
Grace and truth. Fly, you shadows, since it is clear that is what you
were meant to be, for God did not establish you as abiding things. You
did but predict and foreshadow–you were not the blessings which you
pictured. In Christ is the actual putting away of sin, the effectual
Atonement, the real and efficacious Substitution for guilty men, the
Redemption which actually redeems, the Sacrifice which reconciles! In
Him dwells the Truth of the matter–He is not prediction but fact–not
promise but fulfillment!

Oh, never listen, for a moment, to those who would spiritualize Christ,
Himself, and make out even His Person and work to be shadows! Certain
teachers have risen who seem to look upon our Redeemer's life as a sort
of allegory, an instructive parable, or a myth out of which eclectic
minds like theirs may spell out mystic truth. It cannot be so! Christ
Jesus is a fact–God was Man in human flesh–that mysterious Person,
the Son of God, the Son of Mary, lived and loved and died and rose
again! His Sacrifice, once offered, has forever put away sin and it has
bestowed upon Him the power, by His intercession, to save unto the
uttermost them that come unto God by Him.

If I had been sent, this day, to be the preacher of the shadows of the
Law I would have done my best to obey my Master, but as I am
commissioned to preach absolute certainties, I am full of delight and
resolved to speak boldly. We preach not fictions, dreams, or parables,
but literal facts! What a joy I feel–a joy as true and unfeigned as
the glad tidings I deliver! For real guilt, here is actual Atonement
and sure forgiveness! For access to God, here is an open way and a
tender hand to guide you in it! Trifle not with that which is no
trifle, lest when you come into real straits and the waters of death
are actually around you, you shall find the lack of the only Friend who
can effectually help you in your hour of need!

Death and judgment are no fiction! Seek, therefore, in very deed, for
the substantial Grace which can bear you through. God confirms the
Priesthood of Christ by an oath because it is a real Priesthood! I pray
you cast your soul upon it by true and real faith. But perhaps to us,
the main reason of Christ's being installed in the priesthood by an
oath of God is this–for the strengthening of our faith. Brethren, an
oath for confirmation among men is the end of all strife. When an
honest man has sworn to it, the testimony stands in evidence and may
not be questioned. When God not only gives His promise and His word,
but swears to His declaration–who shall dare to doubt? Shall blasphemy
go the length of accusing Him of perjury? Shall profanity give Him the
lie in the teeth of His oath?

There was no need for God to swear if there had not been in us a
fearful lack of faith, but, "by two immutable things in which it was
impossible for God to lie," He has given us strong consolation by
swearing by Himself that it shall be so. I do beseech you, since God's
design is the confirmation of your faith, pray that your faith may be
confirmed by it! No measure of faith in Christ can ever be too great.
If we trust Him blindly, implicitly, immeasurably with every interest
for

time and for eternity, we cannot have ventured too far. He that is
ordained with an oath may be rested on without fear– He cannot
fail–it is not possible, while God's own Truth is staked upon His
mission and guarantees His success!

Beloved, ought not this great Truth of God bring many tremblers to
believe in Jesus Christ? The Christ we preach is not an enthusiastic
amateur who has come among men with high purpose but without
commission–with good intentions but without authority. No, God,
Himself, has appointed Him to His office and settled Him in it in the
most solemn manner, swearing, "Your are a Priest forever after the
order of Melchisedec." Will you not trust Him with your soul since God
entrusts Him with His honor? Will you not accept the Priest whom God
Himself has ordained? Will you not accept the Sacrifice which He has
presented, whose efficacy abides forever before God?

I beseech you, men and brethren, as many of you as have not believed in
Jesus Christ, look well to it that you do not reject a Gospel more
certain than certainty itself! I know not how else to express the
sureness of that to which God has set no less a seal than His own oath!
Right joyfully do we see the whole Nature of the infinite God
guaranteeing the office of our glorious High Priest, for, by swearing
by Himself, the great Jehovah has made His very Being a hostage for the
performance of the Covenant of which Jesus is the Surety and put
forward His own Character for Truth as the pledge of Christ's eternal
Priesthood! May no soul among us dare to refuse a Priest so surely
ordained to His office and settled in it by Jehovah Himself!

II. Secondly, we ought to believe on the Lord Jesus because OF THE
SPECIAL CHARACTER OF HIS PRIESTHOOD. This is seen in the tenor of the
Divine oath, which runs thus–"You are a Priest forever after the order
of Mel-chisedec." Very briefly, let me mention some of the respects in
which our Lord Jesus is a Priest after the order of Melchis-edec. These
ought all to be reasons for our faith and I pray the Holy Spirit to use
them for that purpose. First, our Lord is of the order of Melchisedec
as surpassing and superseding all other priests. As surpassing–for
Melchisedec comes before human view as priest of the Most High God,
blessing Abraham, "and without doubt the less is blessed of the
greater."

Abraham, and Levi in his loins, pay Melchisedec homage! Now, whatever
may be said about the priesthood of other men, there can be no doubt
about the superior Priesthood of Melchisedec. Abraham acknowledged it
at once, so that before there were any Aaronic priests, there was a
greater Priest. Before the foundation of the world, when there was no
word concerning a priest of the house of Levi, our Lord Jesus Christ
was looked upon by God as Priest and Sacrifice for men. It is not said,
"Your shall be a priest," but, "You are a Priest forever." The verb is
left out, but the word, "are," in the present tense, is correctly
enough supplied by the translators. "You are a Priest forever after the
order of Melchisedec." He was a Priest before Aaron and his sons were
born or thought of!

Moreover, consider that the decree registered by the Psalmist in the
110th Psalm was published by Revelation hundreds of years after the Law
had been given, so that it was not an old decree invalidated by the Law
of Moses, but a newly published decree abrogating, in due time, that
which had gone before. Even while the Law was in its palmy days and the
priest wore the Urim and the Thummim, there was a note struck in the
Psalms of David which intimated the ending of it all because there was
another Priest, not of the house of Aaron, who surpassed all of them,
being made a Priest by oath, even while they were priests without an
oath. Whatever priesthood there may have been of God's ordaining under
the Old Testament, it was evidently all subordinate to the superior
Melchisedec-Priesthood of Jesus Christ our Savior and was predestinated
to give place to it.

It was a Priesthood which united with itself the dignity of kingship.
This Melchisedec, Priest of the Most High God, was king even as Jesus
Christ is King of kings, as well as High Priest over the house of God.
Jesus is, first, Melek Zadok, King of Righteousness, setting up a
kingdom of righteousness and fulfilling all righteousness Himself. And
then he is King of Salem, or of peace, bringing peace to those that
believe in Him and follow after righteousness. Now, it is a main ground
of trust in Jesus that He is King as well as Priest, with power in His
arm as well as merit in His blood–with power to rule and govern and
protect us–as well as with an efficacious Sacrifice to purge our sins.

We ought to trust implicitly in One whose royal Omnipotence supports
His sacred merit. Double faith should be bestowed on Him who exercises
the double office of the King and the Priesthood. Our faith should also
rest on the fact that our Lord was, like Melchisedec, "without father,
without mother." We find no father or mother mentioned in the case of
Melchisedec because he did not come to the Priesthood by natural
descent as did the sons of Aaron and in this he is the great type of
Jesus, who is not one of a line, but the only Priest of His order! As a
Priest, He is "without beginning of

days or end of years," neither taking the Priesthood from a
predecessor, nor passing it on to a successor, nor laying it down
because of old age.

There was no beginning to our Lord's Priesthood, for the witness is,
"You are a Priest forever," and there will be no end to it, for even in
the glory He–

"Looks like a Lamb that has been slain, And wears His Priesthood
still." Our Lord has not left off being a Priest today, poor Sinner!
Come to Him with your sins and seek reconciliation! He is able to hear
your confession and grant you absolution–He will present your praise
and offer your prayer, for He always lives and because of this He is
able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.
Melchisedec had no predecessor, no assessor and no successor–and so is
it with our Lord. Of His order there was none before Him–He is the
only Priest of His line. None stood side by side with Him, for He
needed none. And none can be compared with Him–by His one Sacrifice He
has perfected all who accept His Priesthood–what more is needed?

None can follow our Lord in His office. How can there be any successor
to Him since He has an endless life and in the power of that endless
life always lives to make intercession for us? Listen, you that need a
priest to reconcile you to God! Here is One ordained to that office
from of old who performs His office even now and ceases not from it for
a moment! He, at this moment, asks no help from you, nor from a priest
of Rome or Canterbury, or any other place, but is able, Himself, alone,
with His own precious blood and prevalent intercession, to save you to
the uttermost! This great Priest of ours is Master of all, for as
Melchisedec received homage from Abraham in the form of tithes, so does
our blessed Lord receive the reverence of all who believe.

The day comes when every knee shall bow to Him and every tongue shall
confess that He is Lord to the Glory of God the Father! Therefore come
and trust Him–trust the Lord of All! O you guilty ones who desire
salvation, I beseech you repose upon Him, for He must reign and you
must either kiss Him with the homage of your heart, or else He will
break you as with a rod of iron in the day of His power! Perhaps one of
the main points about Melchisedec is that he is represented as
bestowing blessings. When he came to meet Abraham, the chief thing he
did was to bless the Patriarch. The Apostle does not refer to the
bringing forth of bread and wine by Melchisedec because he regarded it
as a temporal blessing included in the greater spiritual one.

Our Lord Jesus blesses all that trust Him–blesses them with the riches
of Heaven and earth–with the eternal Word of God which sustains their
souls and with supplies for this mortal life so that they live and
praise Him. It is inevitable that blessing should flow forth wherever
He comes. He never touches without healing. He never speaks without
consoling. He never comes to dwell with a man without enriching. He
never belongs to a man without sanctifying and perfecting him. Oh, what
a blessed Priest He is! Who would refuse Him, since He is all blessing?
"Virtue has gone out of Me," He said and virtue is going out of Him
every day to the sons of men! "In Him shall the families of the earth
be blessed."

Once again, Christ is never to be changed or superseded. He is a Priest
forever. As we read nothing of Melchisedec's having given up the
priesthood, so depend upon it, Christ never will lay down His office
while there remains a single man to be saved. "Once a priest always a
priest" is true of the Lord Jesus Christ though true of nobody else!
Once was He ordained and none can take Him from His Priesthood. When
once the Father set Him upon the hill of Zion as King, the kings of the
earth cannot dash Him from His Throne! O you who pine for certainty and
seek everlasting life, come and rest your everlasting hopes on His
everlasting Priesthood!

That is my point all the way through. You have not to trust a mere man.
You have not to rely upon one who will die, or leave his office to
another who may not know you or care for you. You are to trust One who
cannot change or die! If I were called upon to be the advocate of human
priests this morning. If I were ordained to tell you to trust to the
shavelings of Rome, my tongue would cleave to the roof of my mouth for
lack of arguments–for what can there be in them that we should trust
them? O Sirs, the most brutish delusion in the world is to rely upon
any priest of our own sinful race! I would as soon trust my salvation
with the Norwood Gypsy as with a Cardinal Archbishop! Her imposture is
not so daring as his!

What can priests do for us? "They can give absolution" you say? The
Lord absolve them from the blasphemy of such a pretense! There is ONE
pardoning Priest! There is none other under Heaven! He has made all His
people, in another sense, to be priests unto Himself, but as atoning
priests, or as men that offer a propitiatory sacrifice, He has ordained

none–and all who pretend to such power must answer for it before the
bar of God! Think of Roman and Anglican priests as priests of Baal and
have no fellowship with such deceivers! Pray God to open their eyes
that they may, themselves, be delivered from the delusion!

As for you and for me, let us keep to the one Melchisedec Priest and
yield subjection to none other. In Jesus we are complete–to look
elsewhere would be to dishonor His perfection!

III. I beg you, next, to notice that our text speaks OF THE SUPERIORITY
OF THE TESTAMENT UNDER

WHICH OUR LORD OFFICIATES in which, also, we shall find abundant
argument for believing in Jesus. It says, "By so much was Jesus made a
Surety of a better Testament." Learned men have fought each other very
earnestly over the word translated, "testament." Some say that it
means, "testament." Others answer that in the Septuagint Greek it is
used as the interpretation of the Hebrew word which signifies,
"covenant." I feel quite sure that the combatants are both right. I am
always glad when I can conscientiously take both sides in a battle and
I do so in this instance, because it matters nothing which of the two
conquers, though it would be a loss for either side to be defeated.

The word means both testament and covenant. God's Covenant of Grace has
had the conditional side of it so completely fulfilled that it has
virtually become a "testament," or a deed of free gift in which the one
party is a donor and the other has become simply a receiver. Though the
economy of Grace is a covenant under one aspect, under another it is
not a covenant, not requiring something from each of two parties–but
it has become a testament or will as to its practical result. The old
Covenant was on this wise–if the Israelite people kept to God as their
God and if the priests obeyed His Law and offered sacrifices according
to Divine rule, God would accept and bless them. Thus there was an,
"if," in the Covenant. It was conditional and, therefore, liable to
failure.

The people said, "All that You have spoken we will do." Eagerly, with
all hands up, they cried, "We will do it. We will do it all!" Within 40
days they had broken the Law and the Covenant went to pieces. A man's
covenant is sure to be broken if it promises holiness on the part of
the sinful and perseverance on the part of the fickle-minded! Man
cannot bear the burden of the necessary requirements of a covenant with
God. Our great High Priest represents another and surer Covenant. There
is no, "if," in the Covenant of Grace! It runs thus–"I will," and,
"You shall." That is the tenor of it. "For this is the Covenant that I
will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I
will put My Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts: and I
will be to them a God and they shall be to Me a people: and they shall
not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest.
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and
their iniquities will I remember no more."

Its essence lies in the supreme words, "I will." Therefore, because the
conditions of the Covenant of Grace have been fulfilled, it is in no
danger of abrogation and Christ Jesus has become the Surety of a better
Testament. The first Covenant was typical and shadowy–it was but a
school lesson for children. Just as we give to our boys models of
churches or models of ships, so was the ceremonial Law a model of good
things to come, but it did not contain the things themselves. Christ is
no Surety of a mere model or pattern of things in the heavens, but of a
Covenant which deals with the heavenly things themselves, with real
blessings, with true gifts from God! The first Covenant was
temporary–it was meant to be so. It was meant, in part, to teach the
coming Covenant and, in part, to show the weakness of man and the
necessity of Divine Grace, but it was never meant to stand.

This Covenant of which Christ is the Surety stands forever and ever.
The everlasting hills may bow and the heavens, themselves, be rolled up
like a worn-out vesture, but God's Covenant shall stand forever and
forever while Christ, its Surety lives. The old Covenant was a Covenant
in which there were imperfections, as Paul says, "For if that first
Covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for
the second. For finding fault with them, He says, Behold, the days
come, says the Lord, when I will make a new Covenant with the house of
Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the Covenant that
I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to
lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in My
Covenant, and I regarded them not, says the Lord."

In the economy of Grace of which our Lord is the Surety, no fault can
be found! And in it there is no fuel for decay to feed upon. There is
nothing about it that is weak and unprofitable, for it is, "ordered in
all things and sure." "He takes away the first," not that He may set up
another which shall be removed in its turn, but, "that He may establish
the sec-

ond." In this second we have Covenant purposes unalterable from
eternity; love infinite and changeless; promises sure and inviolable
and pledges given that can never be withdrawn, for the Lord has sworn
and will not repent.

How earnestly do I pray that you may have a part in this Covenant! It
includes all Believers within its lines. O that you would believe and
so lay hold upon the Covenant once and for all. If you have already
believed, I pray you to rejoice in this Covenant and bless the Lord
Jesus who has made it sure for you by His blood.

IV. Now, of such a Covenant or Testament has Jesus Christ become the
Priest and Surety. And with that we shall

close dwelling upon THE RELATIONSHIP IN WHICH HE STANDS TO THAT
COVENANT. This is our fourth

point. I am sure we did not expect, as we were reading this passage,
that we should come upon the word, "surety." The Apostle was speaking
of our Lord as a Priest and he puts it thus, "By so much"–that is, by
reason of His being inducted into His office by an oath–"was Christ
made a Surety of a better Testament." However there is the word,
"surety," and doubtless there is excellent reason for the unexpected
turn in the sense.

Testaments do not need sureties, therefore the passage should be read,
"Covenant." But why did he turn from the idea of priesthood to that of
suretyship? How is our Lord Jesus a Surety? He is so, first, because we
are absolutely certain that the Covenant of Grace will stand because
the Redeemer has come into the world and has died for us. Brothers and
Sisters, the gift of Christ is a pledge that the Covenant, of which He
is the Substance, cannot be dissolved! Christ has been born into the
world! God Himself has become Incarnate–that is done and can never be
undone! How can the Lord draw back after going so far?

More, Christ has died! He bears in His flesh, today, the scars of His
Crucifixion–that, also, is done, and can never be undone. If God had
ever meant that this Covenant should be temporary, He would never have
given His Son to bleed and die as the Substance of that Covenant! It
cannot be that so vast an expense should be laid out upon a transient
business. Moreover, Jesus lives and as long as He lives, the Covenant
must be regarded as a reality. It cannot possibly be that a work should
be regarded as fiction when it has been worked out by such an One as He
is! The ever-living Son of God did not die to perform a mere
representation–the abiding essence of the matter is in His work and He
lives to prove that it is so.

The priests of the house of Aaron were poor sureties of the former
Covenant, for they could not keep it themselves! But Christ has kept
the Covenant of Grace. He has fulfilled all that was conditional in it
and carried out all that was demanded on man's part. It was conditional
that Christ should present a perfect Righteousness and a perfect
Atonement– He has effected this to the fullest and now there is no,
"if," in it. The Covenant now reads as a legacy, or a will–the will of
God–the New Testament of the Most High! Christ has made it so and the
very fact that there is such a Person as Jesus Christ, the Son of Man,
living, bleeding, dying, risen, reigning–is the proof that this
Covenant stands secure though earth's old columns bow!

But next, Christ is a Surety on God's part. I know that divines say
that God does not need a surety, that He is to be trusted without it.
This is true and He is to be relied upon without an oath, but even as
He takes an oath for our sake, so He provides a Surety for our sake
that we may believe with stronger confidence. Christ is the Bondsman of
God on the Father's behalf, that the Covenant shall be fulfilled.
"Look," says the Father, "have you ever doubted Me? Believe My Son.
Have I not given Him to you? Is He not one with you in your nature? Has
He not died for you? Surely, if I seem too great and, therefore, too
terrible for the grip of your faith, you may lay hold on the
Well-Beloved, your friend and kins-man–and you may see that I give Him
to be for Me the pledge that I intend to keep the Covenant of Grace."

Now, as long as there is a Christ, God's Covenant evidently stands
fast, for all the promises are, "Yes and amen in Christ Jesus to the
glory of God by us." And until it can be proven that Christ has ceased
to be, no man that believes in Him is in any mortal danger. Has He not
said it, "Because I live, you shall live, also"? The life of every
believing man and woman is bound up with the very existence of Christ
as the gift of God! And that existence is Divine as well as human– and
unless He can cease to be, He cannot cease to love, bless, keep His
people and be for them all that a high priest and surety can be! He is
God's pledge to us that every word of promise shall stand.

But, then, He is mainly a Surety of the new Covenant on our behalf.
Adam entered into a Covenant with God for us, but that Covenant went to
pieces in a very short time. Then the Second Adam became our Covenant
Head and Surety and represented us before God. "Lo, I come," says
He–this is the brief of it–"to stand in their place, to roll away the
reproach of Your Law, and so to save that which is lost." Now, the
sinner is not saved in a way which casts a slight on Jus-

tice, for Jesus has honored the Law and borne its penalty on the behalf
of the men whom the Father gave Him. It was a wonderful act of Grace,
on Christ's part, to become our Surety before the Throne of Justice,
but He did it and smarted for it–and fulfilled all that it involved.

Beloved, I would not like to have gone to Heaven over a broken Law–no
right-minded man could be eternally happy and yet know that the Law of
God had to be dishonored before he could be rescued from Hell. What
would the universe say but that God was unrighteous, for He had saved
the ungodly and tarnished the honor of His justice by allowing sin to
go unpunished–thus proving that the Law was needless and the
punishment superfluous. But now they cannot thus speak concerning any
of us who are saved in Christ Jesus! The saved one's sins have been
punished–every Believer has borne the punishment of his guilt in the
Person of his great Substitute! The Law is satisfied–we owe it
nothing, for we have obeyed it actively and passively in the Person of
our Surety!

Even the infinite holiness of God can demand nothing of any Believer
but what the Lord beholds and accepts on the Believer's behalf in
Christ Jesus our Representative. "Who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? God that justifies?" No, the very act of justifying
proves that He cannot lay anything to our charge, for that would be to
nullify His own act. "Who is he that condemns? Christ that died?" What?
Condemn those for whom He has shed His atoning blood? Rather, Christ
has risen again. Shall He condemn those whom He has justified by His
Resurrection? If so, He rose in vain! "Who sits at the right hand of
God, who also makes intercession for us." Shall He condemn those for
whom He has taken possession of Heaven and for whom He offers perpetual
intercession?

Impossible! Impossible! Our Surety, then, has rendered to the Law all
its demands. Sing, O Zion! Rejoice, O you people of God, for God has
rendered unto you double for all your sins! In the Person of your
Substitute all that the Law could demand has been exacted and you are
free! O blessed Melchisedec, High Priest forever living, we rejoice in
You as the Surety of the Covenant, itself, and also the Surety for both
parties of that Covenant! We rejoice that You are the guarantee on both
sides–Surety for God as you are God and Surety for man as you are
Man–Surety of the Covenant as God-Man in one divinely blessed Person!

It comes to this, that we must believe in Jesus Christ and take Him to
be our Priest or be out of the Covenant of Grace. God will not deal
with us without a Mediator and, "there is one Mediator between God and
men, the Man Christ Jesus." Will you have Him? Will you have Him, or
forever be excluded from the Covenant of Grace and, consequently,
condemned under the Covenant of Works and cast away forever and ever?
Will you, O unbelievers? Will you despise the oath of God? I spoke of
it with trembling just now, feeling a solemn awe at the very mention of
the oath of God. Will you give the lie to that oath? Will you say, "You
have sworn to Christ that He shall be Priest, but He shall never be
mine"? This would be the honest expression of what your heart feels if
you refuse Jesus–will you venture to speak so? Will you reject
Heaven's own appointed Savior and deny the witness of the Lord?

See that you do not do this, for the Lord your God is a jealous God and
if you touch His dignity, so far as to strike at His oath, what more
atrocious crime can you commit? "He that believes not has made God a
liar, because He has not believed on the Son of God." Will you refuse
the ever-living Savior? Is there one here so foolish as to be trusting
to another priest? Oh, can it be that you are so far gone as to look to
a man instead of looking to the Son of God? Dear Friends, if Christ
deigns to be Priest for us, we ought gladly to accept Him–there ought
to be a rush at Him! We are bound to cry, "Great Priest, intercede for
me! Let Your Sacrifice avail for me! Wash me in the cleansing blood."
It ought to be a joy to all mankind to accept this Heaven-sent Priest
and Surety! Will you refuse Him? Will you neglect His salvation?

If you do so, remember you shut yourselves out from the better hope and
the better Covenant and the better promises–you are barring the door
of Heaven against yourselves! He who rejects the Savior commits eternal
suicide! His blood shall be upon his own head. This shall be the Hell
of his Hell, the very center of its fire, the worm that never dies,
that he, himself, put from him everlasting life and counted himself
unworthy of the kingdom and would not have Christ, whom with an oath,
God had set up that whoever believes in Him might live! God bless these
all-important Truths of God to every heart for Christ's sake. Amen.
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The Substance Of True Religion