Christ our Kapharet

God gives the mercy seat

Exodus 25:17–22 ““You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.”

The **Mercy Seat**, located in the Holy of Holies above the Ark of the Covenant, was the most sacred object in the tabernacle. The Ark contained the **Tables of the Law** (the Ten Commandments), which represented God's moral government. The Mercy Seat, a golden lid placed on the Ark, symbolized God's mercy covering humanity’s sin.

The Mercy Seat was the "covering" or "atonement" place, where the blood of sacrifices was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement. It acted as a covering for the broken law inside the Ark. Without this covering, no one could approach the holy presence of God, for all humanity had broken God's law. The Hebrew word for "mercy seat" is **kapharet**, meaning "covering." We’ve discussed this idea of the kapharet or kapparot/kapparah before. In Judaism, the ‘kapparot’ is a chicken that is taken and swung around the head three times as the one repenting declares, “this is my kapparah,” with the idea that any looming misfortune as a result of sin somehow be transferred to the animal. Further, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) is the day of kapparah. While the practitioner is responsible for the action, remembering and regretting past sins, it is God’s grace that erases the memory and consequences of sin.

That’s a pretty vivid picture of atonement, the kapharet, and the need for a covering for our sin. Now, let’s flesh it out in terms of Jesus, our great kapharet.

The Need for Righteousness

Romans 3:21–23 “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Righteousness apart from the law

Paul emphasizes that the righteousness from God revealed in the gospel is not based on the law, which can only expose sin but cannot save. With the phrase "but now," Paul highlights the arrival of salvation through Jesus Christ, a righteousness from God that is apart from the law, which cannot justify but only reveals sin.

The Law and the Prophets bear witness to this truth, showing that salvation by grace through faith is not a new idea but a fulfillment of God's eternal purpose. The gospel reveals God's solution to humanity's universal sinfulness, offering righteousness apart from works, and fulfilling what the Law and the Prophets anticipated—salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Righteousness through faith in Jesus

Paul emphasizes that righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ. He highlights that the faith required for salvation is not a merit-based action but the means through which God's gift of righteousness is received, stressing that all people, regardless of distinction, must come to God through this way of faith. No one can be declared righteous by keeping the law; instead, God’s righteousness, revealed through faith in Jesus Christ, is a gift that is available to all who believe.

God’s righteousness is made effective in human lives "through faith in Jesus Christ," which specifies Jesus Christ as the necessary object of faith.

What does faith look like, then? Biblically, it is belief that leads to surrender. (Hebrews 11:8–9 “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.”) Faith is taking God at His word and responding accordingly.

Righteousness through Christ because we have none

All have sinned, and as a result, all fall short of God's glory. This is regardless of social distinction, because all people, Jew or Gentile, have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Sin has separated humans from God’s glory, and this makes it impossible return or gain righteousness through their own efforts. It highlights our need for God's redemptive intervention. We’ve lost the privilege of direct fellowship with God, originally enjoyed by Adam and Eve but now restricted due to sin.

This is perhaps the Christian doctrine — the fact that all have sinned — that is the most empirically observable doctrine of them all!

The Provision of Righteousness

Romans 3:24–26 “and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

What we earn vs. what God gives

Romans 3:24 “and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”

Paul explains that believers are justified—declared righteous by God—through Christ’s saving work, which is a free gift of grace, not earned by human merit. It’s not that we are made virtuous. Instead, we are acquitted by God’s justice because Christ has fulfilled the law’s demands on our behalf.

The emphasis is that God justifies believers and delivers them from His eschatological wrath not because of any compliance with the law, but purely by His grace, which is freely given. We can’t “good person” our way into God’s good graces.

What’s the condition for receiving this gift? Belief. The phrase "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" in Romans 3:23 must be understood alongside the condition "to all who believe" in verse 22. Therefore, the doctrine of justification applies only to those who have faith in Christ, not to all universally. Those who believe are justified, which means God has legally declared the believer righteous based on their faith in Christ.

This justification is a gift from God, granted freely by His grace, without any merit on the part of the sinner, and it is based solely on our relationship to Christ, not our actions.

How God grants grace

Romans 3:24–25 “and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

Paul further speaks of redemption, a concept rooted in the liberation of prisoners or slaves through the payment of a price, emphasizing that Christ’s sacrifice freed sinners from slavery to sin and the penalty of death, offering them new freedom in Christ. Redemption emphasizes God’s rescue of believers from sin and its consequences. It’s a term derived from the slave market, underscores the idea of deliverance where a price would be paid for another’s freedom or deliverance. The price of our redemption was the blood of Christ, His sacrificial death.

And now, we get to the kapharet! Romans 3:25 “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” Paul uses the term "propitiation" to refer to Christ's death as the means by which God's wrath is averted from believers. God’s rescue of believers centers on the death of Christ as the ultimate sacrifice, which removes God’s wrath against sin for all who have faith. Christ's death is described as the "mercy seat," symbolizing the place of reconciliation between God and humanity.

The term propitiation encompasses both the ideas of propitiation (appeasement of God’s wrath) and expiation (removal of sin’s guilt), indicating that Christ's death addresses both the justice of God and the need for forgiveness. In this sense, Paul is presenting Jesus not just as the sacrificial offering but as the very place where reconciliation between God and humanity occurs.

Through His sacrificial death, Christ, as the kapharet…propitiation…atoning sacrifice, or as JTB calls Him, ‘the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world’, reconciles mankind to God, offering a once-for-all, infinitely valuable atonement that secures the forgiveness of sins and restores a right relationship with God.

How can there be justice and mercy?

Romans 3:25–26 “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Paul addresses God's justice, as the sins committed before Christ's sacrifice were not immediately punished. Through the cross, God’s justice is clearly revealed—sin is not ignored but is paid for through Christ's sacrifice. This act upholds both God's mercy and His righteousness. The cross shows that God's forbearance in not immediately punishing sin does not mean He condones evil; instead, Christ’s atoning death displays that God's justice is fully satisfied. The sins of the past, whether committed before or after Christ, are forgiven through faith in Christ, demonstrating both God's righteousness and His loving provision for sinners. The tension between God’s justice and mercy, particularly as it relates to His withholding of punishment for sin, is resolved through the cross of Christ. While God could have punished sinners to demonstrate His justice, such an action would have overshadowed His mercy.

The cross serves as the ultimate demonstration of God's righteousness, showing that He is just in punishing sin and merciful in justifying the sinner. God's justice and mercy are not opposed but are harmonized in the gospel, where grace and justice meet in the person of Jesus.

All of this begs the question, both today’s sermon and our entire “Christ and the Tabernacle” series: what are we going to do with Jesus? Three choices stand before us today:

Reject Him altogether. But I would say this: how can you look at the evidence we’ve examined the past several weeks and walk away saying, “Rubbish. Hogwash. Stories made up by man to oppress the masses and brainwash them into a more-easily-controlled people.” When you think about the shadow things put in place by God that are fulfilled and given substance in the person of Jesus, it seems illogical and dishonest at best to walk away and say, “Yeah, not for me.”

Wait and see. Maybe you’re persuaded by the arguments and the evidence, but you’re not quite ready for the surrender…for the faith…that’s involved. Maybe you like your life and you don’t want anyone to rearrange the good thing you’ve got going on. I’d caution with this story: Luke 12:16–21 “And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”” Instead, hear the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:2 “… Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” and Hebrews 4:7 “again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” because tomorrow is a day in a fool’s calendar.

Finally, there are some who are and have been persuaded that the point of it all is Jesus. The OT looks forward and the NT looks back at Jesus being the center of it all while waiting for His glorious return. To those of you who surrender and are surrendered to Jesus today, I say this: Ephesians 6:10 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” 1 Timothy 6:12“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,” and Romans 12:1–2 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Let us pray.