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The Mercy Seat

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Let us therefore come boldly into the
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy,
and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16

 In chapter six of Isaiah, the prophet has seen the Lord, high and lifted up. He has watched as the seraphim (the expression of God's holiness) serve Him upon His Throne. He has heard them cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory."

Perhaps Isaiah ponders what is next, for the seraphim are approaching him as it were in slow motion, with a live coal taken from off the altar. Mind you, he has just honestly confessed to The Lord of Hosts that he has a sin problem. 

Surely not Isaiah 
… who is about to write with a clear view
of Grace the humiliations and sufferings of Messiah.
Surely not Isaiah
... who will prophesy of Israel's exile to and the return from Babylon.
Surely not Isaiah
...  who will write concerning David's Righteous Branch
in the Kingdom-Age.
Surely not Isaiah
... who will inform the masses of the new heavens and the new earth.

Yet here was his confession:
Woe is me! for I
am undone; because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst 
of a people of unclean lips; for mine
eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of Hosts.
Isaiah 6:5

So then how did God deal with the prophet with unclean lips who lived in a generation of unclean people? Sin was obviously all around him. and he had participated. 
God had the seraphim lay the coal directly on the problem.
I believe there was pain there.
A cleansing was taking place and
the hearing of the words,
"Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquity is taken away,
and thy sin purged" was surely music to his ears

And then Isaiah heard the voice he obviously
was longing to hear, the Lord, saying, "whom
shall I send, and who will go for us?
Then said I, Here am I; send me."
Forgiven and cleansed, Isaiah was ready for service to God.

But how is it for us who are born in this Dispensation of Grace (the Church Age) about which the prophet wrote? The age of the Priesthood of the believer (I Peter 2) when all believers are unconditionally constituted a kingdom of priests. We can come boldly to the Throne of Grace because we are with Christ, in Christ, and have access to God in the Holiest (Hebrews 10).

Let us therefore come boldly into the 
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, 
and find grace to help in time of need.
(Hebrews 4:16).

He wants us there. He made preparations for us to meet Him there. It is our place of refuge. What was, in dispensations past a judgment seat is now The Mercy Seat. It is the place of propitiation (hilasterion) the word used in the Septuagint for "Mercy Seat." (Hebrews 9; 4; Ex. 25)
In fulfillment of the type,
Christ is Himself the hilasmas:
(that which propitiates)
and the hilasterion,
(the place of propitiation) —the Mercy Seat
sprinkled with His own Blood.
Jesus can and does righteously show mercy,
for He met every demand of the law.
He paid the price at Calvary.
He shed His Blood to purchase our pardon.

The modern rendering of the song
erroneously implies that
Christ is seated upon the Mercy Seat.
Ah, much more than that—
He IS the Mercy Seat!
He IS the hilasmas (He Who Propitiates!)
He IS the hilasterion (The Place of Propitiation!)

Hebrews 9:5
I John 2:2
Romans 3:25
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