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. Romans 3:25
When the Babylonians ransacked Jerusalem and took prisoners and plunder back to Babylon in 587 BC, they made a detailed account of all the items they confiscated from the city, including the holy vessels of the temple. One item that was missing from the list, presumably because the Babylonians did not find it, was the ark of the covenant. Why did they not find it? And where is it today? If anybody knows, they are not saying, although it appears this holy item has been hidden all these many centuries. It is hard to imagine that it has been destroyed. This interesting item was composed of a gold-covered chest and an ornate covering, also made of gold. The covering, decorated with winged angels, held a critical role in the life of the nation of Israel. Between the angels’ wings was an area on which the high priest was to sprinkle blood on the day of atonement. If the blood was unacceptable, the high priest died and the people’s sins remained. If the blood was acceptable to God, the place where the blood was applied was recognized as the mercy seat – the place of propitiation.
Just as the Israelites required the mercy seat to be assured of God’s satisfaction with the sacrifice, we too must look to the mercy seat to find God’s satisfaction in the person of His own Son. On the cross, the Lord Jesus shed His own blood and presented it to God. Just as the emergence of a living high priest from the veil of the temple was proof that God accepted the sacrifice, so the emergence of the Lord Jesus from death is proof that God has accepted the sacrifice of Himself. His offering met all of God’s requirements to be the full payment of all that we owed. The Lord Jesus did not simply pay for our sins, He is the very payment for our sins, the propitiation of which our text speaks.
On what grounds does God accept us today? We know we are sinful and failing, and could never of ourselves enter into God’s presence. And yet we do enter, without hesitation or fear. What gives us this confidence, this knowledge that God’s presence can be so readily accessed? It is the mercy seat, the knowledge that the entrance to God’s presence is assured by a sacrifice appreciated, a payment accepted. Our text speaks of propitiation through faith in His blood. All of God’s satisfaction in the work of Calvary is ours through faith. We have no ark of the covenant today, no holy of holies, no veil or other physical object or instrument that captures our physical eye. But by faith, we view the precious blood of Christ, and know that the Lord Jesus is our propitiation. – Jim MacIntosh