Acts: Two Men in White and the Gospel

In Acts 1 we read:

And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

What is the significance, if any, of the two men in white?

When reading the New Testament, it is often helpful to ask yourself, “Hey, have I seen this before?” In this case, the question would be, “Have I read of two angels before?” And usually the first use or first instance is the most important.

Three instances come to mind: (i) outside the Garden; (ii) with Abraham and then Lot; and (iii) on the ark of the covenant.

Outside the garden, the cherubim were to keep man out and to keep man from eternal life, which without any redemption event at that point, would have meant everlasting dying. What was martial in aspect was actually merciful. Who would want to always die and never die at the same time and forever? But the point nevertheless is the way to eternal life was not open to us.

The next instance you are all familiar with. God had heard the cry and would soon act. He sent two angels to save Lot and his family. The entire event was a tragedy. The angels brought a mixture of judgment, condemnation for many, and mercy for Lot and his two daughters.

The two cherubim above the atonement cover carried mercy much further than the mercy shown at the garden gate, and significantly further than the mercy shown to Abraham and his nephew, Lot. In the Tabernacle, God would meet with man through a representative nation, Israel, and a high, individual representative of that nation, the high priest. But the point is God wanted to meet with man, and the way was opening, a little. Within His desire expressed by His manifest presence and glory on the mercy seat, between the two cherubim, in the Tabernacle was a wonderful promise of fulfillment, which will culminate as stated in Revelation 21.

All of these three instances figure in the two angels standing upon the earth while Jesus ascended in the cloud into the heavens.

First, the two men have no flaming sword, no judgment or condemnation with them, no earnest snatching from destruction. They are there in peace, and they announce peace: Christ will come for them again.

Through these two men in white, God is saying two things, reflective of the Old Testament types we have reviewed: First, the way of eternal life is now open—the gate (in the New Testament, a rolled away stone) is wide open. Life, true life, is available to man through the one obedient man, Christ Jesus. No more flaming sword. No terrible guardians. He struck down his One and Only, that the way to everlasting fellowship with Him might be restored. Second, the mercy seat is the earth, no longer isolated to a tent, a people, and a high priest, one day a year. The two men in white are not affixed to the ark of the covenant; they are standing on the earth—Christ’s blood sprinkled within Jerusalem, and poured outside the city on the cross, has purified the earth—leaving open the possibility through Christ Jesus for each of us to become a tabernacle of the living God: “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Cor. 3:16)—something the Holy Spirit will begin in earnest on Pentecost in Chapter 2.

This is good news. We are at peace with God, through Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.