FIRST, KING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND AFTER THAT, KING OF PEACE – Charles Spurgeon
FIRST, KING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND AFTER THAT, KING OF PEACE
“First being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace.” Hebrews 7:2.
Introduction to Melchisedec and His Typology
WE will not enlarge upon the story of Melchisedec, nor discuss the question as to who he was. It is near enough for us to believe that he was one who worshipped God after the primitive fashion, a believer in God such as Job was in the land of Uz, one of the world’s gray fathers who had kept faithful to the Most High God. He combined in his own person the kingship and the priesthood—a conjunction by no means unusual in the first ages. Of this man we know very little, and it is partly because we know so little of him that he is all the better type of our Lord, of whom we may enquire, “Who shall declare His generation?” The very mystery which hangs about Melchisedec serves to set forth the mystery of the Person of our Divine Lord. “Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, he abides a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the Patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.”
Melchisedec’s Title and Its Significance
Melchisedec seems to have been, first by name, and then by place of office, doubly designated a king. First, his name is Melchisedec, which signifies by interpretation, “King of righteousness.” His personal name is “King of righteousness.” As a matter of fact, he was also the monarch of some town called Salem. It is not at all likely to have been Jerusalem, although that may have been the case. The interpretation of his official name is “King of peace.” A teaching was intended by the Holy Spirit in the names—so the Apostle instructs us in the passage before us. I believe in the verbal Inspiration of Scripture and, therefore, I can see how there can be instruction for us even in the proper names of persons and of places. Those who reject verbal Inspiration must, in effect, condemn the great Apostle of the Gentiles, whose teaching is so frequently based upon a Word of God. He makes more of words and names than any of us would have thought of doing and he was guided therein by the Spirit of the Lord and, therefore, he was right. For my part, I am far more afraid of making too little of the Word than of seeing too much in it.
Christ as King of Righteousness and Peace
This man is, first, named “Melchisedec”—“King of righteousness” by interpretation—and herein he is like our Divine Lord, whose name and Character can only come to us by interpretation. What He is and who He is and all His Character, no angel’s tongue could tell. No human language can ever describe to the full what Jesus is. He is King, but that is a poor word for such royalty as His. He reigns, but that word, “reigns,” is but a slender description of that supreme empire which He continually exercises. He is said to be King of Righteousness, but that is, by interpretation—by the toning down of His Character to our comprehension. Scripture might have called Him King of Holiness, for He is “glorious in holiness.” His Character, better known to spirits before the Throne of God than to us, is not to be comprehended in that one word, “righteousness.” It is but an interpretation and most things lose by translation, and so the perfect Character of the Son of God, as it stands before the Eternal Mind, cannot be fully expressed in human language. In fact, when our faculties are enlarged and our spirits raised to the highest platform, they can never reach the eternity of our Lord’s Sonship and the Glory of His Kingdom—the equity of His Character and the loveliness of His mind, both as God and Man, must still be far beyond us!
Righteousness as the Foundation of Peace
But this much is translated to us into our own tongue—that He is a King, and that He is a righteous King—yes, the very King of Righteousness—the Sovereign of the realm of equity, the Supreme Lord of everything that is good and holy. That, you see, is wrapped up in His name and Nature. Jesus is Righteousness and every righteous thing gathers beneath the right scepter of His Kingdom. But the second word, Salem, which, brought down to our tongues, signifies, “peace,” is in reference to a place rather than a person. You see, our Lord Jesus is essentially Righteousness—that is interwoven with His name and Person—but He gives, bestows, deposits and pours forth peace in a place which He has chosen. And upon a people whom He has ordained and whom He has brought near unto Himself—so that His Kingdom of peace links Him with His redeemed, to whom He has given the peace of God.
The Order of Righteousness and Peace
“First, King of righteousness.” How early that “first” was, I cannot tell you. “In the beginning was the Word,” but when that beginning was, who knows?—for is He not, indeed, without beginning? First and firstborn, from everlasting You are God, O mighty Son of Jehovah! First, King of Righteousness, and then afterwards, when men fell, when rebellion, strife and war had sprung up—then He came to heal the mischief and become, “King of Peace.” He comes Himself as the Divine Ambassador, our Peacemaker and Peace. He comes here into this place even into the midst of His Salem, into the midst of His people, and gives us, now, as He has long given, the vision of peace—opening up before the eyes of faith the completeness, the sureness and the delight of perfect peace in Himself. The one matter which I am going to set forth at this time is just this—“First King of righteousness, and after that also King of peace.”
Note well the order of these two and the dependence of the one upon the other, for there could be no true peace that was not grounded upon righteousness. And out of righteousness peace is sure to spring up. Righteousness is essential to peace. If it were not first, peace could not be second. If there could be a lying peace apart from righteousness, it would be dank, dark, deadly—a horrible peace ending in a worse misery than war, itself, could inflict! It is necessary, where an unrighteous peace exists, that it should be broken up, that a better peace should be established upon a true foundation which will last forever.
Admiring the King
I shall ask you—and may the Spirit of God help us to do it—first, to admire the King, and, secondly, to enjoy Him—to enter with holy delight into the full meaning of His name and Character as King of Righteousness and King of Peace.
Admiring God’s Righteousness in History
I. First, I ask you to ADMIRE THIS KING. This Melchisedec, whom we exhibit as a type, is such a king as God is. He is according to the Divine model. He is priest of the Most High God and he is like the Most High God, for the Lord Jehovah, Himself, is, first, King of Righteousness, and after that also King of Peace. The great Creator entered the Garden of Eden in that sorrowful hour when our parents had rebelled and were hiding among the trees to escape His call, and He bade them answer for their fault. When they stood trembling before Him in the nakedness of their conscious guilt, they knew Him as their King and their Judge. At that moment He was not first, the King of Peace to them, but first the King of Righteousness! He pronounced sentence upon the serpent, upon the woman and upon the man, gently making much of the punishment to fall, also, upon the ground; but yet vindicating justice before He spoke a word of peace. After that discourse, yes, in the midst of His sentences, He spoke of peace when He mentioned the woman’s Seed that should bruise the serpent’s head. Then, also, there happened the slaying of a victim, for the Lord God made unto them coats of skins, of beasts which had, no doubt, been slain in sacrifice—and with these they were covered. In beginning to deal with an apostate race, the Lord observed the fitting order of our text—He began first, righteousness, and afterwards went on to peace.
God’s Righteous Judgment and Mercy
At the gate of the Garden commenced the dispensation of mercy and peace, but first of all there was the pronouncing of the sentence that man should eat bread in the sweat of his face and that unto dust he should return. Substantial righteousness was dealt out to the guilty and then peace was provided for the troubled. At the Fall, God first set up a Judgment Seat and right speedily a Mercy Seat! Righteousness must always lead the van. Well, the times went on and men began to sin with a high hand. There were giants in those days and the people of God were mixed up with the men of the world. This is the worst sign of the world’s depravity—when there ceases to be a division between the people of God and the sons of men. There was an unholy alliance between sin and righteousness. And then the King came forth, again, and displayed His Countenance and began to judge, correct, and call to repentance. Men perceived that the Countenance of God towards them was the face of one who is first, King of Righteousness.
God’s Unchanging Righteousness
God has never forsaken righteousness, not even for the sake of love! He selected a people for Himself. He called His Son out of Egypt. He brought His chosen people through the Red Sea into the wilderness and there He communed with them. But they went astray after graven images. They defiled themselves with the vices of the surrounding heathen. They became degraded and polluted. And then He came again among them as the King of Righteousness, setting Sinai on a blaze, making even Moses to fear and quake, compelling the earth to open and swallow up rebels, causing the fire to break out among them, or fiery serpents to inflame their veins with death! Though to them He was a King of Peace and walked among them in tenderness, and by the fiery cloudy pillar led their band, and in the midst of the tabernacle by His Shekinah unveiled His Glory, yet it was then true, as it is now true—“The Lord your God is a jealous God.” He would not bear iniquity. He could not look upon sin without indignation. His anger smoked against it, for He is and always must be “first, King of righteousness, and after that also King of peace.”
Christ as King of Righteousness and Peace in Our Lives
That wonderful wilderness journey is bright with mercy, but it is equally dark with justice. Remember the graves of lusting and the burnings. Israel’s God was always sternly righteous though glorious in Grace. It is a high but terrible privilege to dwell near to God, for His holiness burns like a consuming fire and will not endure evil! Yes, and when He had brought His people into the promised land, and had given them their heritage by lot, we must remember how they sinned against Him—and it was not long before He brought upon them the Midianites, or the Philistines, or foes of one race or another, so that they were grievously oppressed, quieted and brought low. When they cried to Him, then He delivered them, but He took vengeance upon their inventions.
Peace Only Comes with Righteousness
He would not bear their sin—He took it exceedingly ill from them that a people so highly favored should so constantly rebel. He saId, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” He was, to His own elect nation, first, King of Righteousness, and then King of Peace! And so it went on until, at last, Israel provoked the Lord beyond measure and the chosen people went astray to their own confusion. And then, with the besom of destruction, He swept them off from the face of their land. He scattered them as a man scatters dung upon the field. Are they not divided to this day among all the people? Are they not, still, a by-word and a proverb, for men everywhere say, “These are the people that forgot their God and He banished them from their land and will keep them in banishment till they return unto their God in spirit and in truth”? Every Jew whom we see pacing our streets, far off from the city of his fathers, is a proof that the Lord of Heaven is, first, King of Righteousness.
Righteousness and Peace in Christ
All over the world, and everywhere, this is God’s way of dealing with men! Do not imagine that God will ever lay aside His righteousness for the sake of saving a sinner—that He will ever deal with men unrighteously in order that they may escape the penalty due to their transgression. He has never done so and He never will! Glorious in holiness is He forever and ever. That blazing Throne of God must consume iniquity! Transgression cannot stand before it! There can be no exception to this rule. The Judge of all the earth must do right. Whatever things may change, the Law of God cannot alter and the Character of God cannot deteriorate. High as the great mountains, deep as the abyss, eternal as His being is the righteousness of the Most High. Peace can never come to men from the Lord God Almighty except by righteousness. The two can never be separated without the most fearful consequences. Peace without righteousness is like the smooth surface of the stream before it takes its awful Niagara plunge. If there is to be peace between God and man, God must still be a righteous God—and by some means or other the transgression of man must be justly put away, for God cannot wink at it, or permit it to go unpunished. Salvation must first of all provide for righteousness, or peace will never lodge within its chambers. The Lord of Heaven is first King of Righteousness and then King of Peace, so that Melchisedec was such a king as God is.
Christ’s Kingship and the Desire for Righteousness
And now, next, the type is especially meant to teach us that He was such a king as Christ is, for when the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, He came with this everlasting and unchangeable rule girt about Him—that, though He should be a King, yet He would be first, King of Righteousness and after that also King of Peace. Why did He not set up a kingdom here below among the Jews? Many spirits would have welcomed Him. If He had only set Himself up to be a king, promising them sure conquest and abundant plunder, the zealots of the Jewish nation would have fought like tigers at His side. But, no, He came, first, to be a King of Righteousness, and that was a topic for which they cared nothing. He went into His own Father’s House like a king into his palace, but it was with a scourge of small cords, crying, “Take these things hence!” The Temple was no abode for Him while greed, self and mammon defiled its courts. In that Temple He looked round about Him with indignation, for He saw no trace of righteousness there, but every indication that up to the very veil of the Temple all was given over to human unrighteousness! They wanted an unrighteous kingdom, but He would not have it. His fan was in His hand and He would thoroughly purge His floor. His Laws were not to be like those of Caesar! His soldiers were not to fight with carnal weapons. He came not to set up a kingdom of power and force, but a kingdom of love and truth and righteousness and, therefore, His own people knew Him not and rendered Him no homage! His holiness stood in the way of such a kingdom as the Jews desired and, therefore, they turned upon Him and cried, “Let Him be crucified.”
Christ, the King of Righteousness and Peace
Though they would not acknowledge His Sovereignty, He was their King! And at His death He bore above His head the superscription, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” He would not set up a carnal kingdom of their sort. Church and State, truth and force united in some form or other, must have been suggested to Him, but no—He must be first, King of Righteousness, and then King of Peace. He preached no peace apart from purity. He never made little of vice or error. He was the deadly foe of all evil. He said, “I came not to bring peace, but a sword.” Until there is righteousness, there must be conflict—and peace can only enter when righteousness has won the field.
Conclusion: Enjoying the King of Righteousness and Peace
Oh, my Brothers and Sisters, I wish I had power to describe to you how our Divine Master, in all His lowliness, began to be the King of Righteousness by His superlative, unrivalled Character! Here among us there was never such Righteousness as His—such royal Righteousness throughout all His career in all the details of life. I see an imperial Righteousness in the Character of my Divine Lord—Righteousness that is master and superior of all others! Even those that hate Jesus cannot find fault with Him! Books written to disprove His Divine mission are, nevertheless, full of almost fulsome adulation of Him—I call it by no better word because I think that the praises which Infidels have given to our Lord are no more acceptable to Him than were the praises of devils when they said, “This is the Son of God!” Then He bade them hold their peace and I think He has the same wish at this moment touching His Unitarian and Infidel admirers! All sorts of men have been compelled to do homage to this kingly One who has passed across the pages of history, the very Sovereign of all that is right and good. But ah, I think He was most king of Righteousness when He said unto Himself, “My Father’s Law has been broken: I will restore its honor. Men have defied it and trampled on it: I will pay to it the highest homage.” With this strong desire upon Him, He went up to the Cross and gave His hands and feet to the nails, and His side to the spear! And with a crown of thorns upon His dying brow, He became, in very deed, the King of Righteousness!
As the Son of God, He rendered unto the Divine Majesty all the honor due to the Law by reason of the many insults which sin had heaped thereon. The transgressions of His people were laid upon their Great Shepherd—they were made to meet upon Him in one dreadful storm—and that hurricane spent itself upon Him! Our Great Substitute endured the consequences of human guilt on our behalf and thus He is able to pacify the troubled conscience. He is, first, King of Righteousness. He knew that He could not be King of Peace to us till, first of all, He had woven a perfect Righteousness in the loom of His life and dyed it in His own heart’s blood in His death! But when He had achieved this, then He became King of Righteousness, demonstrated to be so before the eyes of all—and then to you and to me He became, from then on— the King of Peace. How glorious is His name! Oh, for a voice of thunder with which to praise Him!
Today our Lord and Master has gone His way up to the eternal hills where He reigns. But His Kingdom, for which we daily pray, is coming and, mark you, it will come by righteousness! I say no word against those who endeavor to bring peace to the nations by the extension of commerce, facilities for travel and so forth. But it is not thus that the sword of war will be broken! Would God the sword of the Lord were quiet in its scabbard forever, but I never anticipate the reign of universal peace on earth till first, the King of Righteousness is acknowledged in every place. I do not think that we shall ever see the fruits without 5 the tree, or the stream without the source, or peace without the enthronement of the principle of righteousness from which it springs. There shall come a day when the lion shall eat straw like the ox and the wolf shall lie down with the lamb—when they shall hang the useless helmet in the hall and study war no more! But that reign of the joyous King—that era of plenty, love, and joy—can only commence as a reign of righteousness! It cannot be anything else! And until sin is dethroned, till iniquity is banished, we shall not see the Divine fruit of peace upon the face of the earth. Wherever Jesus is King, He must be first, King of Righteousness, and after that King of Peace. So, then, Melchisedec is such a king as God is, and such a king as Jesus is.
Our Desire for Righteousness and Peace
Note, next, that he is such a king as right-hearted minds desire. I say “right-hearted minds.” I mean not only those who are saved, but those in whom there is some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel. There is an honest and good ground not yet sown and we know what that soil waits for. I remember what my thoughts used to be when I was seeking the Lord. I longed to be saved. I desired to escape from my sin, but with it there always went this thought—“God must be just.” I had always a certain trembling sense of guilt, but at the same time a deep reverence for righteousness. In my heart of hearts I said, “Let not the Lord, even for my sake, do an unrighteous thing. I am nothing, but God and His Righteousness are All in All. It were a greater calamity for God to be unjust than for me to be lost! It were a dark day for all the aspirations of noble minds if it were possible for God to swerve from the strict rule of His integrity. Though He slay me, yet let His name be honored, and let His righteousness remain untarnished.”
I remember distinctly being the subject of that feeling. Sinner as I was, I had a care for the perfect Law of the Lord, and would by no means have agreed to its being dishonored in order to my own personal salvation. I needed this question answered—“How can God be just and yet the Justifier of him that believes?” I did not know, at that time, the sweet secret of Substitution, but when I did know it, no music ever sounded so sweetly in the human ear as that sounded in my heart! When I saw that, by the interposition of the Son of God and His bearing my guilt, God could be sternly, strictly, severely just to the letter—in every jot and tittle—and yet could put all my sin away and take me to His bosom and let me be His child, then I said, “This must be of God! This Divine secret bears upon its own face its own warranty of truthfulness, for no man could have invented a system at once so just to God, so safe to man.”
To be able to look for mercy as just and receive pardon on the ground of righteousness is certainly a high ground to reach! And yet every Believer stands there before God! I say that every right-minded man feels a deep concern for the Righteousness of God when he is soberly in his senses and thinking the matter over. He longs to be saved—that is more than natural—but he does not wish to be saved in a way that would derogate from the supreme splendor of the Righteousness of God! Let the Lord God be glorious in justice and then, if I can be saved, well and good! Blessed be God, we can be thus saved! Our entrance to Heaven can be as justly secured as our banishment to Hell was righteously deserved! How Justice and Peace have kissed each other is now made known! That secret is told us in the Word of God. Is it not written on the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ?
The Call to Repentance
And I am sure, again, that no right-hearted man wants Christ to come and be to him the King of Peace and then to let him live in sin. Brothers and Sisters, I want no peace in my heart concerning any fault. If I know myself before God, my heart’s inmost prayer is that I may never be able to rest till I am rid of every relic of evil. I do not want to make myself happy and yet to live in a single known sin. If I could have the offer of Heaven and be a drunk, I wish not for a drunk’s heaven! What could it be but a scene of riot, strife, and obscenity? If I could have Heaven and be a liar, I want not a liar’s heaven. What could the heaven of falsehood be but Hell in truth? No, I would not wish for a heaven in which I might freely indulge some minor sin, or be jovial in the commission of some unconsidered transgression. No, there can be no Heaven for me till evil in every form is expelled from my nature! My God, my longing is not for happiness, first, but for purity, first, and happiness afterwards and, therefore, it is my delight to read that my King is first, the King of Righteousness, and then the King of Peace!
Christ’s Salvation Requires Righteousness
My heart rejoices in a sin-killing King and then a peace-bestowing King, sweeping out the buyers and the sellers from the Temple, and then manifesting Himself there in all His majesty to His waiting people! Melchisedec, therefore, sets forth such a king as all right-minded people desire. Again, this wonderful Melchisedec is such a king as Jesus must be to every one of you who have not yet known Him, if you are ever to receive Him as your Savior. Let me not sew pillows to all arm-holes by preaching salvation to those who do not repent of their evil ways. I do not come here to chant in dulcet tones sweet lullabies to men who sleep in unrighteousness. If you would have peace with God, you must repent of sin! If you love evil you cannot love God. There must be a divorce between you and sin, or there can be no marriage between you and Christ.
Repentance is Necessary for Salvation
When Jesus comes to a soul, He comes as King of Righteousness first, and after that as King of Peace. We must have a positive righteousness of life, a cleanness of heart and hand—or we shall not be found at the right hand of the Judge! Let no man deceive himself. “Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” He that comes to Christ and takes Christ to be his Savior, must take Christ also to be his Ruler and, Christ ruling him, there must be in that man’s heart an active, energetic pursuit of everything that is good and holy, for, “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” He that lives in sin is dead while he lives and knows nothing of the life of God in his soul. Righteousness must hold the scepter, or Peace will not attend the court. I know that I speak to many who long to be saved, but will you give up your sin? Christ has come to save His people from their sins. If you do not wish to be saved from sinning, you will never be saved from damning! Do you hug your Delilah? Then shall you lose your eyes like Samson. Do you hold to the viper and press the asp to your bosom? Then shall the poison boil within your veins. Christ cannot save you while sin is loved and followed after, and has a reigning power in you, for it is an essential of His salvation that He should deliver you from the mastery of evil. I would to God that many here would cry, “That is the very thing I want. I long for it. Can I be helped to renounce sin?” O poor Heart, if you hunger after righteousness you shall be filled! You shall be helped to conquer evil—you are being helped by the fiery desire which has been breathed into you! “Oh,” says one, “can I break off the iron yoke and come out of the Egyptian bondage of my lust?” You can! For Christ has come to set you free. Trust in Him, the great Emancipator!
But if you say, “I will live in sin and yet go to Heaven,” you shall never do so! There shall, by no means, enter into the Celestial City anything that defiles. He that takes men to Heaven is first, King of Righteousness, and after that He is King of Peace.
Conclusion
I have closed this first head when I have noticed that that is the kind of king that God would have every one of us to be. We ought all to be first, kings of righteousness, and then kings of peace. The Lord has appointed each man his kingdom— let us see to it that we reign for good and not for evil. On all sides we hear voices inviting us to peace apart from righteousness. “Oh,” they say to us, “a confederacy, a confederacy.” What do you mean? You are to preach a lie and we are to preach the Truth of God, and yet we are to call each other brothers? We are not brothers and we will not, by our silence, aid the fraud. “Oh, but,” they say, “be charitable.” Charitable with what? Charitable with God’s Truth, flinging it down into the mire of error? Charitable by deceiving our fellow men? That we cannot be! Brothers and Sisters, we must so hold and love the Truth of God as to hate every false way, for the way of error is ruinous to the souls of men and it will go hard with us if, even by our silence, we lead men to run therein. If any man shall say to you, “Come and let us sin together,” reply to him, “I cannot enter into association with you, for I must first be pure and then peaceable, since I serve a Lord who is first, King of Righteousness, and after that King of Peace.”
“Hold your tongue,” says the world. “Do not fight against error. Why need you speak so loudly against a wrong thing?” We must speak and speak, sharply, too, for souls are in danger! We must uplift the banner of the Truth of God or we shall be the worst of all cowards! God has made us kings, and we must be first, kings of righteousness, and after that kings of peace.
Final Words on Christ’s Rule
God’s people are tempted, sometimes, to be a little too peaceable. Remember that our Lord Jesus has not come to make us live at peace with sin. He has come to set a man against his brother—to divide a household where iniquity holds sway. There can be no peace between the child of God and wrongdoing or wrong thinking of any kind. We must have “war to the knife” with that which would rob God of His Glory and men of their salvation! Our peace is on the footing of righteousness and on no other ground. We are for all that is good and right, but we dare not cry, “Peace, peace, where there is no peace.”