G. K. Beale on the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Our Melchizedekian Priest-King

Psalm 110:1 is arguably the most quoted and alluded to verse in the New Testament. Many of those quotations are found in the book of Hebrews (1:3, 1:13, 8:1, 10:12, 12:2). Psalm 110:4 is also quoted in Hebrews (5:6, 5:10, 6:20, 7:17, 7:21), indicating that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Melchizedekian priest-king who has inaugurated a new and better covenant. As Melchizedek was both a priest and king, so is Jesus. In the following paragraph, Beale reminds us that Jesus, by his resurrection from the dead, becomes the fulfillment of the Melchizedekian priest-king, while also reminding us that Jesus is the “last Adam.” He writes,

The resurrection demonstrates not only Jesus’s kingship but also his priesthood: “We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.” (Heb. 4:14). Psalm 2:7, in addition to supporting Jesus’s kingly inheritance in Heb. 1:2-4, is adduced to support Jesus becoming “high priest” at the time of his resurrection. Conceptually, this also has an analogue with Gen. 1-2, where we saw that Adam, being a king in God’s image, was also a priest. And it is not likely coincidental that the first mention of priesthood in Hebrews is at 2:17, right on the heels of Jesus’s portrayal as the “last Adam” figure (cf. 2:6-9). That it was the resurrection that also clearly indicated Christ’s eternal priesthood is clear from 7:16-17: Christ “has become [a Melchizedekian priest] not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life. For it is attested of Him, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’” Consequently, Jesus “abides forever” and “holds his priesthood permanently,” so that “he always lives to make intercession” for his people (7:24-25). 

Here we see at least two ways that Jesus fulfills the Old Testament expectation. He is the new and better Adam, the Man who achieved what the first Adam failed to achieve. Jesus is also the new and better Melchizedek, the priest-king who reigns from heaven where he is seated at the right hand of the Father (Ps 110:1). From there, he intercedes for his people. Beale continues with the significance of Jesus’ ascension:

Now, in Heb. 8, the author puts together formally what has been implied in the preceding chapters: Christ’s kingship and priesthood are of a piece and are a result of his ascension: “Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (v. 1). That Christ’s ascension propelled him as a priest into a new creation is apparent from 9:11: “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation.” He became a priest in a temple of the new creation (cf. similarly 9:24). Again, 10:12-13 underscores the combination of priesthood and kingship in the one person of Jesus: “He, having offered [as a priest] one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.”

The old creation was corrupted by sin, but in the ascended Christ, the new creation has come. Finally, a man–the Man Jesus Christ–has fulfilled the mission that Adam failed to achieve. Christ, by his redemptive work and through gospel proclamation, is filling the earth and subduing it. He is bringing all things into submission under his feet, and he will reign until all his enemies are made his footstool. May his Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven!

​Beale, G. K. A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011, p. 318-19.