23.3 The Mercy Seat
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Love suffers long and is kind. Love bears for all, believes for all, hopes for all, endures for all. Love never fails.
The Mercy Seat is the form of God by which He makes Himself known. The Mercy Seat is the throne of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Mercy Seat is our hearts, hearts of flesh, filled with all the fullness of the love of God revealed.
Entering boldly into the Holiest with true hearts in full assurance of faith means one large thing among many (we never limit “ALL” of God). Entering boldly into the Holiest means BEING the Mercy Seat of God, turned entirely around, with hearts set on the Church.
The Father’s Opportunity
Our hearts becoming the Mercy Seat of God is the channel through which the Lord Jesus sets creation free. Our hearts becoming the Mercy Seat of God is the Father’s opportunity to show Himself as He really is.
Yet “creation” is way too big and way too general. The Lord Jesus has narrowed our focus onto two things first. We begin with one another, the Jerusalem of God. Then our focus goes out to all who belong to Jesus, to “Judea and Samaria” in this their hour of greatest need. Finally, when the entire Church of Christ is set in her glory, we will look further to all creation being delivered into our liberty.
Our Focus
You see, when I think of focusing on you and me loving one another, bearing each other in our hearts, I think, immediately, “Oh, we cannot leave out our brethren across this earth who do not know Jesus as their only life.” But when I think of focusing on the Bride of Christ, including those not yet born again, in her hour of need, I think: “Be careful, if our love for one another is not full and complete among us who walk together in this word, then there ain’t nothing but fuzzy feelings for anyone else.” Both views, all the time – the Mercy Seat.
But Jesus said this for the present season: I do not pray for the world, that is, for those whom the Father has not given Me.
Reconciliation
We don’t know, however, whom the Father has given to Jesus; thus we assume nothing, but treat all with the same tender love.
Just as God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, so God is in us reconciling all things to Himself. We are the ministers of that reconciliation.
The meaning of the Greek word, katallasso, used only by Paul, who used it ten times, either in noun or verb form, is partially lost by the English word “reconciliation.” Kata means down to the exact point, the finest detail, and allasso means, by itself, to change, to exchange. On the surface, katallasso means, brought to precise agreement.
A Full Exchange
But the Greeks actually used the word, katallasso, for the action of exchanging one currency for another, value for value, the old currency for the new currency.
Paul did not mean, “Now you can get saved, sinner.” Here is the context that Paul meant. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God (2 Corinthians 5:17-18).
A life for a life, the new in exchange for the old. The old is fully gone; the new is the only thing that exists. Our task is to cause substance to become everyone’s experience.
Judgment Committed to Us
That exchange, a life for a life, our ministry to others, takes place upon the Mercy Seat.
And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them (Revelation 20:4). Those thrones are the Mercy Seats of our hearts, and there we are seated, one Pperson with Christ, above the Blood. Judgment is committed to us. As the Father has sent Me, I also send you… If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained (John 20:21b-23).
The judgment of Mercy is a terrible thing.
By This We Know Love
There is no such thing as God “just forgiving everybody.” Gethsemane was and remains no light thing. To forgive is to bear in one’s own heart with the forgiven one until all darkness is gone and Christ shines upon each face.
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Paul said, Love suffers long. John said, And we also.
Just as faith is specific and substantial, so also is love. Love is not some mushy, all-pervasive “force.” Love is specific and substantial. Love is the scariest part of God and the most contrary.
Love Carries
If I love you, I am always setting you free of myself. You are free of me. Love is the deepest respect and the highest regard.
But Love is not just setting all others free of itself; Love is also bearing inside itself all costs of that freedom, all sorrow, all loss; all the pain of mistaken choices Love bears inside itself. Love stumbles with His enemies along their way. Love limits Himself to their limitation. Love carries those “enemies” all the way into death and all the way into Life upon the Mercy Seat of God, inside Himself as His close and dear friends.
Love Bears All Costs
Love bears all. Love endures all.
If I love you, I will always be setting you free of me, and I will always be bearing in my own being all cost of your freedom. To “force” others to do “what is right” is disrespect and not love. God never forces anyone, ever. Yet love is no permissive “anything goes.” In complete contrast to both of those human stupidities, Love sets free and then Love bears all the costs of freedom.
Bearing the cost of freedom IS the most powerful power in the universe. A Man laying down His life for His friends.
For the Sake of His Body
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church (Colossians 1:24).
This is not something we could ever think of “doing” apart from God Himself filling us full. We are filled with the God who shows Himself through a Man laying down His life for His friends. We know Him, and in knowing Him, we bear His heart inside of ours. Every part of our lives is the Lord Jesus Himself filling up in our bodies the cost of setting His beloved Church free. For the sake of His body. We are the intercession of Christ.
Authority
The throne of God, the Mercy Seat of heaven fills me full, pressing out to my rib cage, and overflowing beyond in rivers. As it does you. — God! And He has invested His authority absolutely in me. I have the right to become a son of God. I have the right to subject everything to the power by which Jesus subdues all things to Himself — LOVE!
The Mercy Seat of our hearts IS the channel through which Jesus subdues all things, that He might present all things back to the Father, fully restored. Judgment is committed to us.
Draw All Things into Love
And so I take the offense that is most frightening to me, when I am feeling the most vulnerable in close relationships with others, and I draw that offense and all my frightful vulnerability into the Love of God, into the Mercy Seat that fills me full. “God, I thank you for this difficulty and offense. I am so grateful. I love (name the person), and I love (name the offense) with all the Love that fills me full. They rest, both person and difficulty, in Love inside of me.”
The enemies of Jesus come into submission under His feet, and the person who committed the offense is now set free. When we draw all things into Love, we cause the offense to cease and the person to go free.
Sprinkled with Blood
The power of the Mercy Seat is the Blood stains that cover it. Those spots of Blood are an awful propitiation, God ripped open for all to see, His heart now beating as ours.
Mercy is full judgment against sin. Mercy is a terrible, terrible thing. Yet the moment that Mercy has accomplished its work, all offense is forgotten and no longer exists.
Love is rooted in Blood, the Blood sprinkled upon our hearts, the throne of heaven, the authority of God. Love bears for all; love believes for all; love hopes for all; love endures for all. Love never fails.
Poured Out
Let’s make this practical. Romans 5:5.
| He agape tou Theou | ekkechytai | en tais kardiais hemon |
| The love of God | has been poured out | into the hearts of us |
- Ekscheo: I pour out (liquid), I shed (blood), I bestow liberally.
Our hearts are FILLED with Love, that is, with Father. As we are conscious of Love in our hearts (by faith, first, not by feeling), we are conscious of God in our hearts. Thus we draw the substance of all into our hearts, into God.
Appearance versus Substance
We must always distinguish between appearance and substance; it is the substance of a person that we draw into our hearts. As that person dwells there, in our hearts, above the blood, their appearance, their outward deeds or words, their offenses, are judged by that Blood and cast off. Thus the person, by substance, is free in God from all darkness as far as we are concerned. By this act of love, we see as God sees; we see all things through the good speaking of Christ – as they ARE. This distinction between appearance and substance will become a very big deal for us.
For Father’s Sake
It is an easy thing to draw into our hearts those we love already. What about the one who is so offensive to us? What about the one who throws spears into us in public, spears that tear us all to pieces before the face of strangers? Can we separate between the person, a unique expression of the good speaking of Jesus, and the actions that have ripped us apart, their outward appearance?
We cannot do such a thing, but Love can. I have found this: I cannot do it for them, and I cannot do it for myself. But for Father’s sake, I can draw that person, out from the appearance, past the pain, into the Love I know fills my heart.
For Thy Sake, O Father
Jesus rose up from Gethsemane to walk the path of the Atonement – for Father’s sake. “For Thy sake, O Father.” – To share heart with God. It is the Blood sprinkled upon our hearts that washes away the sin and the offense; it is in the empty grave that all that opposes God vanishes.
My wife and I prayed together in this way for one we love inside a circumstance of great pain, just yesterday. You formulate the words in your own heart that would draw each one into Love and set them free above the Blood.
We together set creation free, for Thy sake, O Father.