Christ our
Mercy Seat

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.... Ro. 3:25

Scripture teaches us that God has set up two seats. One is the judgment seat for those who are proud and don’t acknowledge or want to confess their sins. The other is the mercy seat for the poor, timid consciences who feel their sins and confess them, who despair of God’s judgment, and who hope to find his grace.

In Romans 3:25, Paul says this mercy seat is Christ. God has given this seat to us as a place where we can find refuge, because we cannot withstand God’s judgment on our own. I want to find my refuge there too, for I have done and am still doing too little. I keep sinning against God’s law even after my justification and sanctification. My heart and conscience, no matter how pure they might appear to others, will count for nothing there. But they will be covered with a vaulted ceiling called mercy and forgiveness of sins. It will serve as a strong protection and defense for me. My heart and conscience will crawl under it and be safe.

For God has led his apostles to preach and proclaim that everyone who believes in his name will receive forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43). Likewise, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). And Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Therefore, God himself has established this mercy seat. He is the one who directs us away from the judgment seat and toward the mercy seat.

Source: Quoted in Faith Alone: A Daily Devotional, p. 282.  James C. Galvin. Zondervan (2009).