Hebrews 7:16 Commentary and Bible Study

The language appears complicated, but it is really very easy. Christ did not come from the ceremonial law. The ceremonial law is all about washings, ablutions, vestments, and earthly sacrifices. The Levitical priests came from the same law. That law was good, it was given by God, it illustrated wonderful things to come. It illustrated God's holiness, the difficulty of approaching him, the need of a great, future sacrifice: not the Levitical sacrifices, but the one that would come. But its ordinances were about ceremonies and rituals which were performed with physical things, with animals, and in an earthly tabernacle. Its implements of worship wore out and had to be mended or replaced. When Christ came, he did not come from that law but from the power of an endless life. His power is not in ceremonial and rites and things of that kind. His power is that he has an endless life. He fulfilled every detail of the law given earlier, but he offered up not animal sacrifices but he offered up himself. He came, suffered, died, took all our sin, and rose from the dead. He presented his blood not in a temple on earth, but in heaven. To demonstrate that he had succeeded in making a complete atonement for all his people, he now lives forever. That endless life was in him from the beginning but it was revealed to us by his resurrection. The power of Christ to save comes from the fact that he is God as well as man and he is everlasting and he saves us forever; that is the reasoning.