By: Obed Pineda
When questioned about the authority that gave them the power to heal a man lame for forty years (cf. Acts 3:1-10, 4:22), Peter boldly proclaimed to the members of the Sanhedrin, “let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:10-12). Three extraordinary lessons are immediately revealed in the apostle’s response to the Sanhedrin. First, that the power of Jesus displayed by them as His apostles was so that it would provide them the opportunity to make the Gospel of Jesus known to all (cf. Hebrews 2:1-4). Second, that the lame man was made whole by Jesus, and not by the servants obeying His bidding (cf. Luke 17:5-10). Thirdly, that the rejection of Jesus by the chief priests and Jewish rulers had been foretold by God several centuries before, therefore confirming His identity as the promised Savior of the world (cf. Psalm 118:22-26). It is worth noting that these three lessons are not the only ones that can be extracted from Peter’s precious response to the Jewish leaders, but rather that they are those that appear first upon the surface of the Scripture. Yet, the thread that ties this threefold lesson together, is disclosed in the conclusion of the apostle’s proclamation: Without Jesus of Nazareth, none of these blessings could have been accomplished. Peter was establishing that Jesus’ authority exceeded beyond miracles of healing, upholding the Master’s triumphant decree, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). The inspired apostle was explaining to all who were listening that Jesus was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy promulgating, “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily” (Isaiah 28:16). Peter assured his audience that only through Jesus is man able to meet with God and reconcile for salvation, thus reflecting one of the Mercy Seat’s primary tasks (cf. Exodus 25:22, Leviticus 16:1-2, Numbers 7:89). The apostle Paul adds his voice to this affirmation as he demonstrated to the Christians who came out of the pagan world of the Gentiles that they, like the Christians who came out of Judaism, were reconciled to God by Jesus’ sacrifice and “through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:14-18). This likeness between the Mercy Seat and Jesus also validates the Lord being the sole Mediator between God and man (cf. 1st Timothy 2:5). Incredibly, it is not the only way that the Mercy Seat was prefiguring the Lamb of God. Remember that the second function of the Mercy Seat was in relation to the Day of Atonement (cf. Leviticus 16). The Hebrew writer alludes to this yearly ceremony as he makes manifest that “into the second part [of the tabernacle] the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance” (Hebrews 9:7, addition mine). Let us recall that on this day the high priest was commanded by God to bring forth two goats, one for the sin offering and the other as a scapegoat (cf. Leviticus 16:7-8). The high priest would cast lots upon both animals, to discover which goat would be sacrificed to the Lord as a sin offering and which one would be released into the wilderness as the scapegoat, making atonement for the sins of the people (cf. Leviticus 16:8-10). Then, he was required to bring the blood of the bull offered as a sin offering for himself and his household, along with a censer full of burning coals taken from the altar of the Lord, and sweet incense beaten fine, and enter into the Holiest Place, (cf. Leviticus 16:11-12). The blood of the bull offered for the high priest and his household, and the blood of the goat offered for the children of Israel was to be sprinkled on the east side of the Mercy Seat, and in front of the Mercy Seat seven times, thus purifying the sanctuary from Israel’s sins (cf. Leviticus 16:14-16). This is what the Hebrew writer refers to when he explains that the high priest could not enter into the Most Holy without blood. Jehovah God had cautioned Aaron “not to come at just any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat” (Leviticus 16:2). Since God had already designated when Aaron could enter behind the veil (the Day of Atonement), and the strict regiment he had to follow in order to enter on that day, this braces the Hebrew penman’s conclusion that “according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). This, the Hebrew amanuensis writes in reference to the Day of Atonement, leading to the revelation that this was foreshadowing the necessity of Jesus’ sacrifice for the sins of mankind, saying, “it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the High Priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another” (Hebrews 9:23-24). The Hebrew scribe is unveiling that the atoning process that the high priest would practice on the Day of Atonement, was heralding God’s scheme of redemption. Holy Writ emphasizes that “in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Hebrews 10:3). Observe that his reference to “those sacrifices” is about the sin offerings in accordance to the Levitical Law on the Day of Atonement, as alluded to by the specific animals chosen by the Hebrew penman; bulls and goats. Undoubtedly, his inspired goal is to verify that the sacrifice for the New Covenant is superior because “He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, o God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:9-10). It is undeniable that the blood of Jesus on the cross supersedes the blood of bulls and goats. However, why was this a better sacrifice? In other words, it is unwise to ignore the motive of God when He chose the blood of bulls and goats as emblems of His Son’s sacrifice. After all, it is the goal of this section of the Hebrew epistle to manifest the correlation between the earthly type to its counterpart, the Divine antitype. To be continued…