Monday, March 3, 2014

Perfect Sacrifices Require a Perfect Lamb and Priest: God Provided Both

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
    of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

And he will swallow up on this mountain
    the covering that is cast over all peoples,
    the veil that is spread over all nations.

He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
    and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
    for the Lord has spoken.

It will be said on that day,
    “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
    This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”  (Isa 25:6-9)

This was the reason he likened not Christ the Lord to Melchizedek, but Melchizedek to Christ the Lord: one was a type of the other, and the other the realization of the type. [Heb 6:19-20]  In respect of the priesthood, of course, Melchizedek did not imitate Christ the Lord; rather, Christ the Lord is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.  Being a priest belongs to human being, whereas accepting offerings belongs to God.  Yet by becoming incarnate, the only-begotten son of God also became our high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, not by aggregating to himself the position but by concealing the divine status and accepting the lowly condition for the sake of our salvation.  This is why he was called lamb, sin, curse, way, door, and many other names like that.

Theodoret of Cyrus, “The Epistle to the Hebrews”

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