JTB.SDG
Puritan Board Junior
Christ is our High Priest. In the OT the high priest would enter the holy of holies only on the day of atonement, and he would take the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkle it on the mercy seat (Lev.16). The mercy seat also seems to signify Christ, for the Greek translation, hilastarion, is used in Romans 3:25 to say that God displayed Christ publicly as our "mercy seat." So, Christ is our mercy seat, as well as our high priest. I'm trying to think through the implications of all this as it relates to Jesus, our high priest, entering heaven, the reality of which the holy of holies signified. My question is essentially: Where did Jesus "apply" His blood? In the OT, again, the high priest applied the blood on the mercy seat. When Christ ascended into heaven itself as our high priest (Hebrews 9:23ff), where did He apply the blood on our behalf? Did He apply the blood, as it were, on himself? Or, did He enter into heaven before the Father as our High Priest who is also, at the same time, our sacrificial mercy seat?