My sin was placed on Christ to pay the price required of sin.

 

 

Romans 3:25 NKJV   whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

 

Romans 3:25 NIV  God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—

Romans 3:25 The Message  God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public — to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured.

The Mercy Seat

The Greek word hilastērion is translated atonement, propitiation, clear.  This word is also used in Hebrews 9:5 translated the Mercy Seat.  Hebrews 9:5 NKJV  and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

In Exodus 25 God instructed Moses to build the elements of the Holiest of Holies.  One was the Mercy Seat.  It was to be made of pure gold.  Above the mercy seat were to be two angels with stretched wings covering the seat.  The angels faces were to look toward each other to the mercy seat.  The mercy seat was to set on top of the ark of the covenant which would hold the instructions God gave Moses.  This is the place where God would meet with Moses.

Exodus 25:22 NKJV  And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.

God would meet with Moses above the mercy seat AFTER the sacrifice of an bull which would represent the cost of sin. Once a year a High Priest  would take the blood of a sacrificial bull and sprinkle it on the mercy seat to represent the sins of the people.  God, seeing the blood, would cover the sins of the people until Jesus paid the final price on the cross.   Atonement for all past sins.

Christ Jesus paid for us the final cost of our sins.  Now freed from our sin it is like meeting God above the mercy seat.  Christ’s mercy by taking my sin on Him.  He bore the consequences of my sin.  Now paid for I can go to God freely.  I have access to the very presence of God.

1 John 2:2 NIV  He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 4:10 NIV This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Christ is “the propitiation, atonement ” because by his becoming our substitute and assuming our obligations he paid our guilt, covered it, by the  punishment which he endured on the cross.

Hebrews 2:17 KJV

Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

Thank you Jesus!