Mary Magdalene and the Mercy Seat

There is an interesting parallel between the scene of the empty tomb as witnessed by Mary Magdalene and the description of the mercy seat in the Old Testament.

In John 20:11-12 we read, "But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying."

Hebrews 9:5 tells us, "And above it [the ark of the covenant] were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat…" The word translated "mercy seat" is hilastērion. This word is also found in Romans 3:25, where it is translated "propitiation."

Paul wrote, "Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation [hilastērion] in His blood through faith. … (Romans 3:24-25)."

Paul portrays Jesus Christ as the hilastērion or mercy seat. The mercy seat was a picture or type of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross. Jesus was the realization of the Old Testament mercy seat. It could very well be that what Mary saw at the empty tomb that day was evidence of this Old Testament picture of propitiation. She saw the two angels, one at either end of where Jesus' body was laid. The angels in the tomb seem to correspond to the cherubim on either end of mercy seat.

Someone might object saying that when Mary saw these angels, Jesus' body was gone because He had been raised from the dead. However, Hebrews tells us: "… we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered 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. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified (Hebrews 10:10-14)." Since the sacrifice had been completed at the cross, Jesus sat down at the right hand of God. The earthly mercy seat in the Old Testament was needed for continual sacrifices unlike the perfect, final sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus was offered once and then He was raised for our justification (Romans 4:25). When Jesus died on the cross, He said "it is finished!" The hilastērion—propitiation for sins—was complete. The objective of the mercy seat had been accomplished. Now Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father as our throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).

Dr. David Reagan wrote, "Jesus fulfilled every prophetic type of the Ark."

May God richly bless you as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord!

Because of Calvary,

Bob

* * *

From every stormy wind that blows,

From every swelling tide of woes,

There is a calm, a sure retreat:

'Tis found beneath the mercy seat.

 

Its more complicated than you think -- or is it?

Paul wrote, “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Cor. 11:3).”

Satan’s first attack upon mankind in the garden was to question the Word of God. He hissed those insidious words into the ear of Eve, “Did God really say (Gen. 3:1)?” His deceptive tactics have not changed much since that first attack in the garden. He continues to challenge the veracity of God’s written Word. He questions the simplicity of God’s good news of salvation. Unfortunately, he uses theologians to distort the gospel.

Dr. Alan Stanley wrote a book entitled Salvation Is More Complicated Than You Think. Dr. Stanley is not the only Bible teacher who thinks that salvation is complicated.

• John Piper wrote: “Saving faith is no simple thing. It has many dimensions. ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus’ is a massive command. It contains a hundred other things. Unless we see this, the array of conditions for salvation in the New Testament will be utterly perplexing.”
• Michael Horton wrote: “The New Testament lays before us a vast array of conditions for final salvation. Not only initial repentance and faith, but perseverance in both…”
• R. C. Sproul wrote: “There are all sorts of conditions that must be met for someone to be saved. Chief among them is that we must have faith in Christ. The Reformed view does, in a narrow sense, see obedience as a ‘condition’ (but never the ground) of justification.”

Sadly, many theologians complicate the simplicity of the gospel by not distinguishing the difference between the requirements for salvation and the requirements for discipleship. The requirements for discipleship are not the same as the requirements for salvation. Discipleship is costly. Salvation is free. God’s Word teaches that the only condition for salvation is to believe. The single requirement for salvation is vastly different than the many conditions for discipleship. To be a disciple, you must deny yourself, take up your cross, follow Christ, abide in His Word, love Christ more than your family, etc. The commitments of discipleship should be the result of salvation, not requirements for salvation.

Blessings,

Bob

* * *

Imputed Righteousness
by Lance Latham

There is simply no possibility whatsoever that a person can achieve standing before God on the basis of his own defaced, despicable righteousness. A Christian, therefore, is not merely one who has been through the emotion of a moment, or who has newly purposed or has newly promised. Rather, a Christian has abandoned all hope of his own personal moral credentials and receives as his sole and complete basis for standing before God the finished and complete righteousness which Jesus Christ purchased on Calvary’s cross and imputed to him. To “impute” means to “ascribe,” to “put to one’s account.” Personal righteousness does not save us; imputed righteousness alone satisfies divine holiness and makes the sinner acceptable before God.