Jesus: Both Priest and King

November 12th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Hebrews 5:5-6 So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You”; 6 just as He says also in another passage, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

This context reveals how Jesus Christ met all the credentials set forth in the OT concerning the earthly high priest. First, “Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest.” Jesus Himself said in John 8:54: “If I glorify myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ ” Jesus was therefore appointed by God (5:1).

Hebrews 5:5 says, “So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.’ ” This is a quote from Psalm 2:7, written 1000 years prior, and the Hebrews author uses it again (cf. 1:5) to refer to Jesus’ eternal Sonship—a reference to His royal office as King. But then in v. 6, he quotes another Messianic Psalm, saying, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Ps. 110:4). Jesus was therefore divinely chosen in eternity past for two offices—the definitive royal office and the definitive priestly office. He is thus both Priest and King.

The author’s quote from Psalm 110:4 in v. 6 concerning Jesus’ priestly office would have been an eyebrow-raising statement to his Jewish hearers. Why? Having previously quoted Psalm 110:1 in 1:13 and applying it to Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God sitting at the right hand of God the Father, Hebrews 5:6 is the first time that Jesus was identified with the enigmatic priesthood of Melchizedek. R. Kent Hughes says, “Not only that, but Psalm 110:4 now becomes the virtual theme-text of the heart of the letter to Hebrews (that text is quoted three times, in 5:6; 7:17, 21; and there are an additional eight allusions to it in chapters 5 and 6). It is especially important here to realize that Melchizedek, according to Genesis 14, was both king of Salem and priest of God Most High (Genesis 14:18; Hebrews 7:1).”

Melchizedek himself is explained further in Hebrews 7, but to comprehend the author’s motive here in Hebrews 5, something must be said here as well. Melchizedek lived during the time of Abraham, circa 2000 BC (Gen. 14), and he was both the king and priest of Salem (modern Jerusalem). His priesthood not only preceded the Levitical priests, which came 600 years later, but his priesthood was unending. Whereas the Levitical priesthood began with Aaron (circa 1450 BC) and ended in AD 70 when Jerusalem was destroyed, Melchizedek’s priesthood never ended. He was therefore superior to Aaron’s priesthood, not only in the duration of his position but also in the fact that he was not only a priest but a king; Aaron was merely a priest.

So the truth that every reader of the Epistle of Hebrews is given is that Jesus of Nazareth, born of a virgin as God in flesh, is both our eternal King and our eternal Priest. How did this occur? God the Father ordained it; it was not an office sought by Jesus. As a man, Jesus never considered equality with God a thing to be grasped; rather, in taking on human flesh, Jesus took the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Phil. 2:6-7). In being submissive to God the Father, God the Son glorified His Father. As a result, Jesus’ heavenly priesthood is superior to the earthly priesthood of Aaron. Aaron’s was temporal and later expired when the temple was destroyed and Levi’s lineage was lost. Yet Jesus, whose priesthood is eternal in the line of Melchizedek, remains the Priest for all believers for all eternity. And King too!

Food For Thought
Jesus is King in that we bow to Him as Lord and Savior. He is our Priest in that He mediates between us and God. We celebrate our Priest-King for who He is and for what He did and for what He does, namely intercede for us daily at the right hand of God the Father (Rom. 8:34).