LEADERSHIP CAPSULE
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Thursday, December 29, 2016

TITLE : UNDERSTANDING THE GIFT OF SALVATION THROUGH JESUS CHRIST 4

By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."—Hebrews 11:7.

Acts 4:12 "There is no salvation by anyone else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.”

Yesterday we considered how the Ark of Noah #1. shows God’s ultimate provision of salvation in Christ Jesus. The Ark was God’s provision for the salvation of Noah, as Christ is God’s provision for the salvation of sinners, and has been so in the mind of God “from the foundation of the world.” Today I am going to share briefly with you other ways that the Ark prefigures, or typifies, our salvation, security, safety, preservation and other realities through the Lord Jesus Christ.

God told Noah,
“The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch” (Genesis 6:13-14).

#2. Second, the Ark shows that we are spared from God’s wrath or judgement through Christ, our substitute. The Ark of Noah was a place of safety. It protected its inhabitants from the outpoured wrath of God on a sinful world. This speaks of the propitiatory work of Christ.

This is certainly typified in the Ark of Noah. The judgment of God fell on the Ark (the type of Christ) not on those within the Ark.  Thats amazing isn't it? Those in the Ark typified those today who are sheltered from the wrath or judgement of God because they are in Christ, as Noah was in the Ark. Thus, they could not be partaker of God’s wrath because it had fallen upon the Ark, instead of them. What a wonderful picture of Christ the Ark is. It bore God’s wrath in the Flood, while Noah and his family were preserved inside, just as the true Christian is preserved when he is “in Christ Jesus” (I Corinthians 1:30). No judgment can fall on the one who is “in Christ” because the propitiatory wrath of God falls on Jesus, not on the true Christian, who, like Noah, is safe in Christ – just as Noah was safe in the Ark. The wrath of God falls on Christ, just as the wrath of God fell on the Ark rather than those inside, for
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

The Bible says,
“And he is the propitiation for our sins” (I John 2:2). “He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins”  1 John 4:10

The word propitiation, comes from the Greek word “hilasterion.” propitiation is the work of Christ on the cross in which He met the demands of the righteousness of God against sin…satisfying the requirements of God’s justice”
It means to appease, atone for. In His propitiatory work on the Cross, Christ bore the wrath of God. God bruised Him in our place. God put Him to grief on our place, so the wrath of God fell on Christ and not on the true Christian. Thus the wrath of God was propitiated by Christ’s vicarious work on the Cross, where God “bruised him” and “put him to grief” in our place, when the judgment that should have fallen on sinners, fell on Christ, our vicarious substitute. The punishment that should have fallen on sinful man fell on Christ instead.

Those outside the Ark had to bear the full force of the Flood. God’s holy wrath was poured out on them in full measure not because they sinned but because they were not in the Ark. So it will be to all who are not “in Christ Jesus” when the judgment of God falls on them.

To be continued........
Kindly share with your loved ones.

Your friend,
David Oyeleye