Hebrews 7:7-10 And without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better…

We need to understand the union of the two natures of Jesus Christ. He constantly spoke of Himself as a single person and not as two persons in one. There is no interchange of speech between the two natures as between two persons. The attributes and powers of both natures are ascribed to one person so that they are operated as part of a single individual. There is no double personality, but one single unit of characteristics of both the human and the divine. Just as any father and mother impart certain traits to the offspring, making a single person with characteristics of both parents, so the human and the divine were united in the one person of Jesus Christ – with one body, soul, and spirit and with one consciousness and one will.

The Fatherhood of God and the motherhood of Mary produced a single personality. After all, it must be remembered that God made man with the same body parts as He has in His Spirit-body, only our bodies are earthly and human and His is spiritual and divine. He made man with the same kind of soul with feelings, emotions, passions, desires, and appetites, capable of the same soul-acts as He was; only our soul is finite and His is infinite. He made man with a spirit with all the attributes and powers that He has, capable of the same acts; only our spirits are finite and His is infinite. In other words, man is endowed with the same traits, characteristics, attributes, powers, feelings, and passions as God, only on a finite scale.

With this in mind, one can see that the soul and spirit faculties that were born in Jesus Christ by a divine Father and a human mother were the same as in any other being like God; so when Christ acted and used any one attribute or power as a man it was like the exercise of God in the same aspects, only His faculties were perfectly untainted with the Fall and its effects. When Christ acted, He was like man before the Fall and not like sinful man since the Fall. Every fallen man when he is recreated in Christ and made a new creature is capable of proper exercise of his faculties in holy and lawful uses.

Hebrews 7:7-10 And without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die received tithes; but there he received them, of whom it is witnessed that he lived. And as I may so say, Levi also, who received tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him. 

‘The better’ – Christ is better than Abraham: Christ is a member of the Godhead that made the covenant with Abraham and gave him promises (6:13-15; 1Jn. 5:7). Christ is the hope of Abraham (6:16-20; Col. 1:27). Christ is eternal (1:8; 6:20; John 8:58; Rev. 1:8-11). Christ is the Saviour and Blesser of Abraham (6:20; 7:7; Gal. 3:13-18, 26-29). Christ is Abraham’s eternal High Priest of which Melchizedek was only a type (6:20; 7:3, 7-10, 14-21). Abraham paid tithes to Christ’s eternal priesthood (7:2, 4-10). Christ is only begotten Son of Abraham’s God (7:3; John 1:14, 18; 3:16)

‘And here men that die receive tithes; but there he received them.’ If men who die receive tithes, how much more should they who live receive them? That is, if temporary priests have received them, how much more should the eternal priests [future calling for Christians – see Revelations 1:6 – no priests were assigned for the New Testament period before the rapture except Jesus Christ] receive them?

‘Of whom it is witnessed that he lived.’ As there is no record of his death or the end of his priesthood, Melchizedek is an illustration of the perpetuity of life, a type of Christ who is eternal (1:8; Isa. 9:6; Mic. 5:2; Rev. 1:8-11).

‘Levi also, who received tithes, paid tithes in Abraham.’ Those who receive tithes also pay them on their own income. In this, Abraham was the representative tithe payer for all his seed to come (7:9-10).

‘In the loins of his father.’ In the loins of his ancestral father.

To be continued…