violation, as inevitable as the suffering which follows when one thrusts his hand into the fire.
Thus by this translation the mercy seat was made to be—a truly heathenish idea—man's need to propitiate Inexorable Justice by expiation for the sin of Adam and for his own failure to live according to the laws of life.
The basic idea of the Mercy Seat is that Jesus is the manifestation of the divine mercy for our waywardness, or missing the mark. Jesus is not the expiation of our sins to another Deity who demands our death. But God coming forth to view in mercy in order to beg men to come back to their Heavenly Father's home and happiness, If it were not so, why was the word "mercy" used? Thus by the "mercy seat"
God appears in Jesus as Mercy Itself, supplicating men to come into heavenly order, Jesus was thus the Mercy Seat, not as the Supplicator to another Divine Being, or as the Expiation for man's sins, but as representing Gods effort to rescue men from their enemies of the underworld, indeed as God pleading with men, a perpetual Saviour of the human race, the supreme expression of the Divine mercy.
There are two other passages in the New Testament in the Authorized Version where "propitiation" is used, and "expiation" in the Revised Standard Version— the most recent. These passages are 1 John 2:2 and 4:10. The first one reads: "And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." To many minds this proves the truth of the Plan of Salvation. Let us examine it.
The Greek word here used in the original is Hilasmos, of kindred origin with Hilasterion, from the same root word Hileos, meaning primarily "mercy," or "to be merciful." Translating Hilasmos as "propitiation" or "expiation" emphasizes the work of Jesus as Expiation rather than as Conciliation. Why not follow the true meaning of Mercy and render it as expressing God's desire to be merciful, not by demanding death for sin, but as His desire for reconciliation with man? Render it, for example, as, "He is the reconciliation for our sins?" This would conform to Paul's suggestion of God's desire to have us reconciled to Him.
