Continual access to grace from Jesus

Hebrews 7:3 Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually. Melchizedek was a very unusual man. Was he a real man? Was he an angel? Was He the angel of the Lord? The reason the author mentioned that he was without father, mother, genealogy, or any knowledge of a birthdate or day of death was that the way all of the priests in the Old Covenant received their appointment as priests was through birth. If they didn’t have proof of their genealogy, they couldn’t serve. Yet Melchizedek was a priest of the Most High God. The author said he was made like the Son of God and therefore remains a priest perpetually. In what way was he made like Jesus? Jesus did have a genealogy, but he didn’t have a beginning of days or an end of life. Jesus’ life is eternal life; therefore, his priesthood is also forever. We might recall God’s appointment of Jesus, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Our encouragement today is that because Jesus serves as our high priest forever, we have 24/7/365 access to God’s presence for grace to help. This is why the author encouraged his readers to draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that they might receive mercy and grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16). The apostle Paul obviously understood the continuous availability of grace from Jesus because he ended both of his Corinthian letters, as well as Philippians and Philemon, with some version of “The grace of the Lord be with you.” He blessed Timothy with, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1). I hope you see that the fact that Jesus is our high priest forever is only of benefit to us if we do something with what we believe. If we believe God has given Him to us so we might have continual access to His grace on a daily basis for the rest of our lives, then we should practice drawing near to Him all the time. It should be the habit of our lives. So the perpetuity of Jesus’ office as our high priest encourages us today to go to Him for grace to love those God puts in our paths. Since we are getting the grace from Jesus, we are loving with Jesus. We get the privilege to love, and He gets the glory for our loving.