13 TERMS OF SALVATION – PROPITIATION
Most often
when we ponder the work of Christ on the cross, we think of its SIN-WARD and
MAN-WARD aspects. Sin was atoned for and man is justified by God the Judge when
he/she believes in Christ.
But, PROPITIATION
is the GOD-WARD effect of Christ’s “once for all” death for sin and sinners.
A key word to define it is SATISFACTION. PROPITIATION = SATISFACTION. What is
satisfied? God’s holiness and righteous demands toward the sinner were rendered
fully satisfied when His Son died in the sinners place. In the mind of God the
offense of sin has been cleared.
“My little children, these things write I unto
you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous: 2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the
sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:1-2
THE OLD TESTAMENT PERSPECTIVE
In the Old
Testament the Mercy Seat on top of the Ark of the Covenant in the holy of
holies had to be regularly made a place of PROPITIATION by sacrifice.
The writer of Hebrews describes this: “But
[inside] beyond the second curtain or veil, [there stood another] tabernacle
[division] known as the Holy of Holies. It had the golden altar of incense and
the ark (chest) of the covenant, covered over with wrought gold….But into the
second [division of the tabernacle] none but the high priest goes, and he only
once a year, and never without taking a sacrifice of blood with him, which he
offers for himself and for the errors and sins of ignorance and thoughtlessness
which the people have committed.” (Hebrews 9:3-4,7 AMP).
All this was a type of Jesus’ actual
and propitiatory fulfilment on the cross: “But [that appointed time
came] when Christ (the Messiah) appeared as a High Priest of the better things
that have come and are to come. [Then] through the greater and more perfect
tabernacle not made with [human] hands, that is, not a part of this material
creation, He went once for all into the [Holy of] Holies [of heaven], not by
virtue of the blood of goats and calves [by which to make reconciliation
between God and man], but His own blood, having found and secured a complete
redemption (an everlasting release for us)” (Hebrews 9:11-12).
THE NEW TESTAMENT PERSPECTIVE
NOW, the
blood-sprinkled body of Christ on the cross IS the Mercy Seat for sinners once
and for all. The prayer of the publican (Luke 18:13), “God be merciful to me,
the sinner!” can be translated “God, be Thou propitiated to me, the sinner.”
God was rendered satisfied a short time after the publican’s prayer when His
Son died. Now, we believe in Jesus for salvation and thank Him for the
propitiatory work of Jesus on the cross. The mercy has been extended
historically at Calvary.
OTHER NEW
TESTAMENT VERSES
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in
Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through
faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of
God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the
demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He
would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans
3:23-26).
“Therefore, He (Jesus) had to be made like His brethren in
all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in
things pertaining to God, to make propitiation
for the sins of the people” (Hebrews
2:17).
EASTON’S BIBLE DICTIONARY:
Propitiation
...that by which God is rendered propitious, i.e., by which it becomes consistent with his character and government to pardon and bless the sinner. The propitiation does not procure his love or make him loving; it only renders it consistent for him to execise his love towards sinners. In Rom 3:25 and Heb 9:5 (A.V., "mercy-seat") the Greek word _hilasterion_ is used. It is the word employed by the LXX. translators in Ex 25:17 and elsewhere as the equivalent for the Hebrew _kapporeth_, which means "covering," and is used of the lid of the ark of the covenant (Ex 25:21; 30:6. This Greek word (hilasterion) came to denote not only the mercy-seat or lid of the ark, but also propitation or reconciliation by blood. On the great day of atonement the high priest carried the blood of the sacrifice he offered for all the people within the veil and sprinkled with it the "mercy-seat," and so made propitiation.
In 1 John 2 Ex 2:2 4:10, Christ is called the "propitiation for our sins." Here a different Greek word is used (hilasmos). Christ is "the propitiation," because by his becoming our substitute and assuming our obligations he expiated our guilt, covered it, by the vicarious punishment which he endured. (Comp. Heb 2:17, where the expression "make reconciliation" of the A.V. is more correctly in the R.V. "make propitiation.")
-rdc
