Made New In Righteousness And True Holiness

This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High.
Hebrews 7:1

Scripture records that Melchizedek was “without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God” (Hebrews 7:3).

And resembling Melchizedek, Christ is “king of righteousness” and “king of peace” (Hebrews 7:2).

But what does all this mean for the believer? Alexander Maclaren explains Jesus’ role as the righteous King.

WALK WITH ALEXANDER MACLAREN
“The very heart of the Christian doctrine is this: As soon as a person puts his trembling trust in Jesus Christ as his Savior, then he receives not merely pardon and the uninterrupted flow of the divine love in spite of his sin, but an imparting to him of that new life, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness.

“Do not suppose that the great message of the gospel is merely forgiveness. Do not suppose that its blessed gift is only that one is acquitted because Christ died.

“All that is true. But there is something more. By faith in Jesus Christ, I am so knit to him that there passes into me, by his gift, a life which is created after his life, and is in fact kindred with it.

“He is first of all King of righteousness. Let that which is first in all his gifts be first in all your efforts too; and do not seek so much for comfort as for grace to know and to do your duty, and strength to ‘put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light’ (Romans 13:12).”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
Because Jesus is righteous, you are forgiven and God sees you as righteous. Because Jesus is righteous, you can live a righteous life—through the power of his life in you.

Abraham gave to Melchizedek a “tenth of everything” (Genesis 14:20) as a sign of his subjection to one greater than he. Is it too much to ask that you, being made righteous by the King of righteousness, give him your life in return?