If there is a new order of priesthood, there must obviously be a new law. (Melchizedek reveals a new basis for righteousness, related not to a person’s effort to keep the law by their own willpower, but based upon the perfect work of Christ. This new law is called the law of faith [Rom 3:27], the law of perfect liberty [Jas 1:25], and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus [Rom 8:2].)

7:13 The person who is prophetically implicated as being the leader of this new priesthood belongs to a completely different tribe. This implies a complete break with tradition because no one from any tribe other than the Levites ever touched the altar.

7:14 History is clear that the Lord’s lineage is from Judah, concerning whom Moses made no mention of a priestly office.

7:15 Of far greater significance and even more apparent is the fact that Jesus is mirrored in Melchizedek in whom the new priestly office arises.

7:16 This new office is not based on the law of precepts constrained by the frailty of the flesh, but by the authority of an indestructible life. (As demonstrated in his resurrection.)

7:17 Thus Scripture confirms his perpetual priesthood exactly according to the pattern of Melchizedek.

7:18 This new order brought about an immediate end to the previous inferior and useless system of laws and commandments.

7:19 In its ability to reunite mankind with God, the law did not succeed even once; that is why it was superseded by the introduction of a far superior hope, a new order in which we are perfectly represented before God.

7:20 The previous priesthood was reduced to a mere tradition and passed on through natural descent from father to son. God had no say in the matter.

7:21 To give irrefutable integrity to the new Messianic priesthood, it was written, “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.’” (Psalm 110:4.)

7:22 Melchizedek mirrors Christ in the highest office of priesthood as 1endorsing the human race. Jesus is now the living proof of God’s covenant pledge to benefit mankind in a far better way than under any previous arrangement. (The word ἔγγυος 1egguos, surety, official endorsement.)

7:23 The fact that there were so many priests shows how frequently they died and had to be replaced.

7:24 But there will be no successor to the Priesthood of Jesus because he remains forever.