729 What Is The Mercy Seat? - Romans 3:25

What is the mercy seat and why does it matter to us? 

Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast. From time to time, I pick different verses and remember that I want to talk about them on the podcast and this is one of those verses where I've always wanted to talk about this mercy seat in the concept of a mercy seat.

We're gonna use Romans 3:25 as our verse today, and I'm reading from the Christian Standard Version. "God presented Him as the mercy seat by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness because, in His restraint, God passed over the sins previously committed."

The author of Romans, probably Paul, is talking about Jesus. He's the "He" that he's talking about here. "God presented Him, Jesus, as the mercy seat, by His blood." Some translations, some of the older translations, use the word propitiation. He's the payment for our sins. He's the transaction if you will. He's our side. He represents our side of the transaction to pay for our sins.

The mercy seat was the cover of the Arc of the Covenant, and it was used to represent the throne of God.  When they made sacrifices, when the Jews made sacrifices for the thousands of years of the sacrificial system, they would sprinkle the blood of those sacrifices on the mercy seat. But Jesus became our mercy seat.

His life became the payment for our sins. His blood was on Him and spilled for us so that we wouldn't have to pay for our sins, that we get to come to God freely.  This is important. Often, I think we all assume this freeness. We don't want to believe in an angry God and God's not angry. I don't believe he's angry at all. God is love, the Bible tells us, but love is just, and there's justice that's required.  In this passage, it says, "God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness  because, in His restraint, God passed over the sins previously committed." 

God is restraining himself, and this mercy seat is how he does that. Why is this important for us as believers in the marketplace? My question for us is, do you keep score? Do you get even? Do you kind of get back at the people who mess with you? We're called to be merciful and graceful. That means that we offer mercy where none exists and we bring grace where there is none.

Our job as believers in the marketplace is to represent Jesus, and He died on the cross for our sins, and it was his idea. We were still dead when He did it. Today, as marketplace Christians, I want to challenge us. Let's go into the workplace and find ways to be merciful. Just ask God. God, who can I show mercy to today? How would you have me be a blessing to other people? Is it by giving something away, by being merciful, by offering grace? When we bring mercy and grace to our coworkers and to the people that we interact with, we begin to demonstrate how we live according to a different standard. 

In the back and forth of our world, everybody's trying to get even and use someone else's actions as an excuse for their actions. Let's use what Jesus did for us as an excuse for our actions. Let's bring mercy and grace to our workplaces today.  That's my prayer for all of us that we will bring mercy and grace to the people that we interact with today. Please remember two that Follower of One is donor support.  If you enjoy the podcasts, if you've taken part in our Marketplace Mission Trip, consider going to our website in the upper right-hand corner, there's a donate button there. Why not make a one-time contribution or consider making an ongoing contribution so that we can continue to make these podcasts available. We want to be full-time ministers in our workplace. Let's drive a stake in the ground today and change our lives forever by committing to doing God's work in our workplace every day.

Thanks very much.