I feel led to speak about the shallowness of the intake of the Word of God in the Body of Christ. In the Emergent Church movement which by description is twenty miles wide and ½ inch deep, and brings its own hot rod version of the Bible, The Message or as I coin it The Massage. This to me epitomizes the “Shallow” end of the pool; you know, 1-3 feet deep where arm floaties are required.
We are all called to maturity, to grow by the washing of the Word of God. That means the deep end of the pool, where there is no bottom and the Word of God washes us with the intent of making the mind of Christ resident in us.

2. For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the Lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the Holy Place.3. and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All, 4. Which had the golden censor and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; 5. And above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. Hebrews 9:2-5  NKJV.

Mercy seat, hilasterion, Strong’s # 2435: The lid or covering of the Ark of the Covenant, made of pure gold, on and before which the high priest was to sprinkle the blood of the expiatory sacrifices on the great day of atonement, and where the lord promised to meet His people (ex.2517,22, 29:42; 30:36; Lev 16:2, 14,15).

The Apostle Paul, by applying this name to Christ in Romans 3:25, assures us that Christ was the true mercy seat, the reality of cover of the Ark of the Covenant (Heb.9:5). Therefore it means a place of conciliation, of expiation (atonement), what the ancients called thusiasterion (2379), altar or place of sacrifice.
It does not refer to the expiatory sacrifices themselves. Jesus Christ is designated as hilasterion in Heb. 9:5 and Rom 3:25 because He is designated not only as the place where the sinner deposits his sin, but He himself is the means of expiation.

He is not like the high priest of the OT whose expiation of the people was accomplished through the blood of another and not of himself (Heb.9:25).
Through His voluntary expiatory(act of atonement) sacrifice in the shedding of His blood, under Divine judgment upon sin, and through His Resurrection, Christ has become the Mercy Seat for His people.