The Christ in heaven who can be experienced by us subjectively in our spirit is mainly the High Priest. The book of Hebrews is focused on the heavenly Christ, and the chief point of this heavenly Christ is that He is the High Priest. The main point here is not that Christ is the Savior or Redeemer but that He, as the heavenly Christ, is the High Priest. This is the reason why the book of Hebrews is primarily concerned with the priesthood of Christ. Please remember the following statements: the focus of Hebrews is the heavenly Christ, the main point of the heavenly Christ is that He is the High Priest, and Hebrews is concerned primarily with the priesthood of Christ.
Among most Christians, the priesthood of Christ has been very much lowered. Whenever most Christians speak about Christ as our High Priest, they still cling to the concept that He is the High Priest offering sacrifices to God for our sins. This, of course, is correct. But it is on the negative side. Christ as the High Priest offering sacrifices to God for our sins is typified by Aaron. That was in the past. Today Christ is no longer offering sacrifices for our sins but ministering God to us as our supply. In the past, Christ offered sacrifices to God for our sins as typified by Aaron. Today He is ministering God to us as our supply according to the order of Melchisedec.
This is proved by the coming of Melchisedec to Abraham (Gen. 14:18-22). The first mention of the word priest in the Bible is with Melchisedec. Melchisedec was the priest of the Most High God. As the priest of the Most High God, Melchisedec did not offer sacrifices to God for Abraham’s sin; he ministered bread and wine to him. As indicated by the symbols of the Lord’s table in the Bible bread and wine signify the processed God as our supply. Our High Priest, Christ, is not according to the order of Aaron offering sacrifices to God; He is according to the order of Melchisedec ministering the processed God to us.
Who are we? We are no longer poor sinners but victorious fighters. When Melchisedec came to Abraham, Abraham was not a pitiful sinner, begging, “O priest Melchisedec, be merciful to me. Look at how sinful I am. You need to take care of my sins. My situation is so poor. You need to bring all the offerings to God for me.” Abraham was not in such a situation. When Melchisedec came to him, Abraham was the victor, the fighter, the slaughterer. Abraham had just slaughtered Chedorlaomer and the other kings (Gen. 14:17). Abraham was a victorious fighter who had taken many spoils. What are you—poor sinners or victorious fighters? I am glad to say that in the church life we are not pitiful sinners but victorious fighters.
No longer are we in the book of Leviticus with Aaron; we are in Genesis 14 with Melchisedec. We do not have Aaron any longer, for Aaron is past. We are now with Melchisedec. Our Christ today is much superior to Aaron. In the book of Leviticus we need to appreciate Aaron, but when we come to Hebrews, we must say that Aaron is past. In the book of Hebrews, Melchisedec is our High Priest. We do not want to linger in Leviticus but go all the way back to the beginning in Genesis. This is a real recovery. Let us go back to Genesis 14 where we see that the priest did not offer sacrifices for pitiful sinners but ministered bread and wine to glorious victors.
How happy we would be if, before we went to bed at night, Melchisedec would come ministering to us the bread and the wine because during the whole day we had slaughtered many Chedorlaomers. We need to slaughter some Chedorlaomers all day long. We need to slaughter Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and so many negative things. If we slaughter the enemies during the day, every evening we shall have the chief spoils. Then our Melchisedec will come and say, “Are you tired after your victory? Here is bread and wine, the processed God for your enjoyment.” This is the ministry of the priest of the Most High God who comes not to offer sin offerings for pitiful sinners but to minister God to victorious fighters. Tell me honestly, have you ever seen before that we have such a High Priest? I never saw this when I was in religion.