Christ has not been constituted the High Priest according to the powerless letters of the law but according to the powerful element of an indestructible life (7:16). Nothing can dissolve this life. It is an endless life, being the eternal, divine, uncreated, resurrection life that has passed through the test of death and Hades (Acts 2:24; Rev. 1:18). It is by such a life that Christ ministers today as our High Priest. Hence, He is able to save us to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25). Christ as our High Priest is the living Son of God Himself. As the powerful One, Christ is simultaneously both in heaven and in our spirit. Between these two ends, heaven and our spirit, there is the traffic on the heavenly ladder because His priesthood is continually flowing from the throne into our spirit. It does not flow with knowledge but with the power of an indestructible life.
In Christ, our High Priest, not only is there no worldliness or sin, but there is absolutely no death. Death has been completely swallowed up by His divine life. Christ lives forever (Rev. 1:18). Death cannot prevent Him from continuing as the High Priest. All of the Levitical priests lived until a certain age and then died. Death prevented them from continuing as priests. After the first high priest died, he was replaced by the second who, in turn, was replaced by the third, because death prevented them from continuing in the office of high priest. Not only were those priests unable to save others; they were unable to save even themselves. Christ’s priesthood is different. While the Aaronic priesthood was still subject to death, the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek, constituted with the element of life, is the absence of death. The life with which it is constituted has passed through death and has swallowed up death. This life is indestructible.
We know that this life is indestructible because it has been tested by everything and by every kind of situation. It was tested by the Lord’s mother in the flesh, by all the members of His fleshly family, by all the sufferings of His human life, and by all the temptations of the devil, Satan. Ultimately, it was tested by death, the grave, Hades, and the power of darkness. This life has been tested by everything, and nothing can destroy it. It is absolutely indestructible. Our High Priest is constituted with the element of such an indestructible life.
This wonderful High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek has not been constituted “according to the law of a fleshy commandment but according to the power of an indestructible life” (Heb. 7:16), for “the law perfected nothing” (v. 19). In verse 16 there are two sources: the law and the life. The law is on the side of the tree of knowledge, and the life is on the side of the tree of life. Since the law did not perfect anything, we need to stay away from the law. Our High Priest has not been constituted with the law but with the power of an indestructible life. We have this life, the life that is the Son of God Himself.
Aaron was constituted high priest according to the powerless letter of the law; Christ was constituted according to the powerful element of an indestructible life. In other words, Aaron and all the priests according to the order of Aaron served according to the outward rules and regulations, but today Christ as our High Priest ministers according to the power of an indestructible life. He works not according to the regulations of the letter but according to the power of an indestructible life. Our High Priest is constituted of a life that nothing can conquer but rather conquers everything. It is a life that cannot be destroyed, a life that saves to the uttermost. It is the resurrection life, which has passed the test of death and Hades.
According to the type in the Old Testament, God’s people were weak and sinful, under the conviction that they could do nothing to please God. When they came to the priests, the priests did something according to the regulations written in the books of Moses to help the weak and sinful ones, to care for them so that they could be reconciled to God. Today Christ is our High Priest. If we are under the conviction that we are sinful, weak, wrong, and doing things against God, Christ as our High Priest sympathizes with us and cares for us, not according to rules and regulations in letter but by the power of an indestructible life within. This is not an objective matter but a subjective one. The power of an indestructible life is the eternal Spirit, and the eternal Spirit is the reality of resurrection. The eternal Spirit is the power of the indestructible life. In acting as our High Priest, Christ cares for our case by this power.
Many times we may be disappointed by our weakness, circumstances, and failures. However, we sense and experience that there is a living power within us, sustaining us, taking care of us, and reconciling us to God to bridge the gap between God and us. This is not by outward regulations or rules but by something living and powerful within. There is something living and powerful within us, taking care of our case. This is our High Priest taking care of us by the power of an indestructible life, which is transmitted from the heavens into our spirit.
Christ, our High Priest, is actively taking care of our case in the heavens and transmitting Himself into our spirit. There is no need for us to worry about anything. We must come simply and boldly to the throne of grace to contact Him, to look to Him, to receive mercy, and to find grace for timely help. We must learn to contact Him in our spirit and see the heavenly “television.” Then we will receive mercy and find grace. He is such a High Priest according to the heavenly order to minister the life supply to us, according to the power of an indestructible life, not merely to redeem us, reconcile us, and deal with our sins but also to minister into us the heavenly life supply, the heavenly power, the heavenly strength, and the heavenly riches, as Melchizedek did to Abraham.