Hebrews 7:20-22 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And in as much, &c.— The apostle produces here another argument to prove the superior excellence of the new covenant above the law of Moses; or rather, the superior dignity of the priesthood of Christ, above that of the Levitical priesthood. The reasoning is this: "The more solemn and aweful the manner is, in which any one is appointed to his office, the more important in general is the office: now God engaged himself by oath, in constituting Christ a priest; which he did not in the case of making the Levitical priests. And then, as to the covenant itself, that covenant is generally the best, which is most solemnly engaged in by the party who makes it: but the covenant made by Jesus was more solemnly engaged in than the covenant made by Moses; therefore it was a better covenant. Jesus Christ is the Mediator between God and man, 1 Timothy 2:5. Here he is called the surety, sponsor, or engager, that the conditions shall be observed by him from whom they were brought. If God then enters into a covenant, and promises eternal life upon the conditions of repentance, faith, and holiness, and sendshis only-begotten Son to offer this salvation, and to ratify the whole by his atoning Blood, and to assure mankind of God the Father's gracious disposition to them, if they will yield to be saved by his free unmerited grace; and if we find by comparing what is contained in the Old Testament, that God had sworn by himself that he would send such a person;—one cannot but infer that the Christian dispensation is infinitely more excellent than that, which was given or made without these solemnities and most glorious accompaniments."