The Mercy Seat

Exodus 25:17–22 — “And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.  And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.  And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end:  even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof.And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.  And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.  And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.”

Exodus 30:6 — “And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.“

This mercy seat of the Old Testament is the place where the LORD said that He would “meet and commune with thee”.  Think of the grace that caused the God of the universe to even want to commune with any of mankind.

Now the tabernacle and the ark are nowhere to be found.  But there is still a place where God will meet with and commune with guilty sinners:

Romans 3:24 – 26 — “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”

The propitiation through faith in His blood is now our mercy seat.  It is the place where all who have sinned, and come short of the glory of God will meet and commune with Him.  The guiltiest will find that God is completely satisfied with the blood of Christ, and the one who believes is justified freely by His grace.  There is no cause in us, only in His grace.

Those who think it wrong, narrow, or “unfair” that God would offer only one way of salvation do not understand the problem.  God has no obligation to offer any way at all.  His grace provides one way and one way alone, and that is through the finished work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Only the self-righteous pride of man would even dare to think that God owes more than this, for He owes us nothing.  We owe an unpayable debt that He paid in full (John 19:30).

2 Corinthians 9:15 — “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.”

Ephesians 1:7 — “In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace…”