Jesus Reshaped Mercy

What Did Jesus Do?

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace,
that we may receive mercy and find grace to endure in time of need.
Hebrews 4.16

For Israel, the Mercy Seat of God rested upon the Ark of the Covenant. Thus, its foundation could be understood to be the Law of Moses, in particular the Ten Commandments. The original tablets upon which the finger of God wrote the Commandments were kept in the Ark. The blood of sacrificed animals was sprinkled on the Ark as atonement. And the presence of God would come and rest upon the Ark, the Mercy Seat, there to dispense mercy and forgiveness. Thus it remained throughout Israel's tumultuous history from the time of Moses, to the period of the judges, and through the troubled centuries of the monarchies with the division of the kingdom, fall and exile, and restoration and occupation.

The struggle and suffering of Israel through all the years of the old covenant resulted from no fault of God, no deficiency of mercy, but of the habitual apostasy and idolatry of the nation. Ever and again people, priests, and kings fell away from their covenant obligations, and from their covenanting God of mercy.

Things continued in this dismal and disturbing way for hundreds and hundreds of years, until the Father sent the Son to reshape mercy. It was no accident that Jesus grew up the son of a carpenter, for his life's work would involve nothing less than the reshaping of the Mercy Seat of God into the Father's Throne of Grace. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ it would no longer be necessary to sprinkle the blood of animals upon the Ark, for the blood of the Lamb of God had been shed upon the Cross, a once and forever atonement for sin. Instead of the Ark sinners now come to the Cross, the place where the grace of God has now been enthroned for two thousand years.

All who come confessing and repenting of their sins may draw near to the cross in confidence, that there they will find mercy and grace to sustain them in any and all times of need. The Mercy Seat has been reshaped into the Throne of Grace. The Ark has been remade into the Anchor of our faith. While an ark may be tossed about upon troubled waters, an anchor holds secure. And so it is that Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12.2), is our hope, the sure and steadfast Anchor for our souls, who alone secures for us the Father's mercy and grace.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4