PROPITIATION Rom. 3:21 But now the righteousness of God without [separate and apart from] the law is manifested, being witnessed [i.e. being foretold and upheld] by the law and the prophets; 22 Even [i.e.] the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus [the ransom He paid to purchase us unto Himself]: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation [i`lasth,rion] through [dia,] faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission [ passing over ] of sins that are past, through the forbearance [endurance] of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. There are some terms in Scripture that often we don t consider as we ought. Sometimes it s because the word is thought to be too difficult words like predestination, foreknowledge, expiation, and propitiation. Yes, these are deep words. They require a commitment to study to discover what God means. Remember, He has given us His Word to make us wise unto our salvation through Christ Jesus (II Tim. 3:15) so therefore, He expects us to search out what He is saying to us and particularly regarding this subject of our salvation. In Rom. 3:21-26, salvation is seen from three perspectives, - justification, redemption and propitiation. We shall mention the first two very briefly, and then spend more time on the third. Being justified freely by his grace (v.24). The word, dikaio,w, means to render, to declare, to pronounce righteous. Therefore, the word justification is the declaration from God that we are righteous in His presence. The means by which He has accomplished this work of justification in each of His children individually is through Christ s atoning sacrifice, - what He did for us, - on the cross. The guilt and penalty of our sins have been removed forever and He now judges us worthy. By His death, - where He took our place and died for us, - the righteousness of God has been once-and-for-all credited to our account through faith in Christ alone as Saviour, and not by works. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (v.24). Redemption is the deliverance of the sinner from their sins, accomplished for us by Christ s death. He has fully paid the ransom and made us free so that we are no longer in bondage to sin and to death. He has redeemed us He has paid the purchase price to make us His own. Propitiation is then the third important term Paul used in this passage, v.25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood PROPITIATION, - WHAT IT MEANS
2 Propitiation has to do with offering a sacrifice to an angry God to appease His wrath that He may show grace to the one who brings the sacrifice. He, of course, has a right to be angry because the sinner consistently breaks His law. There is another word that is sometimes mistakenly used in place of propitiation and it is the word expiation. They are very close in their meaning but one goes further than the other. Expiation is the cancelling of sin, but it does not go quite as far as propitiation. Here is an example of expiation from the Old Testament, Dt. 21:1 If one be found slain in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him: 2 Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain: 3 And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke; 4 And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer s neck there in the valley: 5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried: 6 And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley: 7 And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. 8 Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel s charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them. 9 So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD. In this passage it is uncertain who carried out the murder. The elders and the judges are called in to deal with it. Then the elders of the town nearest to where the body was found had to take a heifer that had not been worked out in the fields, bring it into a rough valley (v.4), and kill it by beheading. Then, in a ceremony of absolution, all the elders of the nearby city had to wash their hands over the heifer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. 8 Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge. As a consequence, they would not bear any guilt in the eyes of the law for the death of that person. Expiation had to do with the cancellation of a person s sins whereas propitiation goes further in that God not only cancelled a person s sins but He also quenched His righteous anger against them by remembering the sin no more. It s like saying to someone who has wronged you I ll forgive you what you have done against me, - but I can t be able to forget it. If you come to me again, and you want something I cannot help but remember the wrong you have previously done towards me. The city closest to where the dead body had been found would be remembered for that dead body being discovered in its vicinity. Now yes, expiation means it had any notion of guilt removed from it
3 but its guilt could still be remembered. Propitiation, on the other hand, means that not only will the sin be cancelled but it also means the memory and the remembrance of the sin will be completely and forever forgotten by God. That is propitiation, and it is the relationship Christ enters into with the redeemed sinner. Not only has God forgiven you your sins, He has also totally and absolutely forgotten them, Jer. 31:34 I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. You see, God hates sin, - that is what He says in His Word. He hates it because it is contrary to His perfect and holy nature. Normally, it causes separation, Is. 59:2 your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you And this separation, - left undealt with, - will cause the unrepentant sinner to carry their burden alone, away from the presence of God and it will one day culminate in them standing in front of His judgment throne, carrying a load, that Christ would have carried if they had repented. However, their sinful pride hindered them so that they would not turn and seek His forgiveness Therefore, the consequence of their stubbornness will result in eternal condemnation in the torment of everlasting punishment because God will not accept them in their sin. And since they were not willing to let go of their sin, God must let go of them! They have refused to trust in what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross but had they believed in Him, He would have removed the wrath of God from them immediately and have borne their sin in His own body on the tree of Calvary. That is propitiation. Propitiation, - what it means PROPITIATION, - WHERE IT COMES FROM God took the initiative to provide us with a sufficient propitiation to deal with our sins, - He provided the only Solution whereby His wrath that was hanging over us would be removed and forgotten. In the Old Testament, the cover of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies was sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice on the annual Day of Atonement. This signified that on behalf of the sins of His people, the blood was offered to God and His wrath was appeased. When the fulfilment of this work was eventually completely carried out by Christ on the cross this came to be a better sacrifice, Heb. 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. In this way, it pleased the Lord, - it was the Lord s will and plan in the purpose of salvation for His people, - that He would bruise His own beloved Son and He only had to make that sacrifice once.
4 Once was enough it was sufficient because it was the perfect sacrifice. It is a blasphemy and a sacrilege and a denial of the true work of Christ when, - as in the doctrine of transubstantiation, - Rome crucifies His body symbolically time and again,. He died once He was crucified once only once did He take our sins upon His own body and that one and only time was sufficient to appease the eternal wrath of God so that our sins, - all our sins, the sins we personally committed, - would be no longer held or remembered against us for He suffered in our place. In other words, He is the originator, - the source, - of our propitiation. He is the Jehovah Jireh (YHWH provides) of all that is necessary for us to be saved and have everlasting life. According to His own pre-determinate will, - His will that drew up in eternity the plans of our salvation, - He worked in love and grace towards us in providing Christ as our Saviour so that His holiness and His mercy would meet on the cross, Jn. 3:16. God the Father delivered His own Son in sacrificial death to make atonement for our sins, - and that is the origin of propitiation God! Humanity would never have devised such a plan, - He was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification (Rom. 4:25). He was the Substitute that took my place, bore my sin, and carried my shame before His Father Who at the last moment turned His face away. Yes, the work was totally finished to His complete satisfaction so that God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). Propitiation, - what it means where it comes from PROPITIATION, - WHAT IT PROVES In the simplest of terms, it proves Jesus loves me, this I know. There are difficult and prolonged ways of how we could say it but the hymn says it as well as any volume of systematic theology. What Christ died on the cross, it proves how His Father loved us to send Him there. It also proves the love Jesus had to obey the command of God, and go there. And it demonstrates, too, the power of the Holy Spirit in working in us, - dead people spiritually, - to bring new life, and be born again unto salvation as a consequence of Christ s work on Calvary. You see, He just didn t die to show the loving heart of God He died to prove the love of God at work in the saving of sinners. The consequence of the public display of God s Son on the cross brought satisfaction and joy throughout Heaven because our salvation was accomplished to the glory of God. His blood, - His precious blood, - was shed. God is a Spirit (Jn. 4:24), and as such does not possess blood and so, in order to fulfil the requirements of the Law s demands,
5 His Son took upon Himself the human form/flesh, thereby making Himself of no reputation and He humbled Himself, and He was obedient to every portion of the plan the Godhead had drawn up for Him and for our salvation in eternity even to the very point of death on the cross (Phil. 2:6-8). That is far and beyond what any mortal could ever have imagined never mind planned! And, as a consequence, we know that we haven t been redeemed with corruptible things but we have been redeemed with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot (I Peter 1:19). For many years John Bunyan struggled with his sin. Then God showed him, "Sinner, thou thinkest that because of thy sins and infirmities, I cannot save thy soul; but behold, My Son is by Me, and upon Him I look, and not on thee, and shall deal with thee according as I am pleased with Him. Yes, Christ died in our place and we are accepted before God in Him. We are propitiated by His precious blood, and nothing of ourselves, and when God sees the blood of His Son sprinkled upon us, He passes over our sins for they have been punished fully and forever in Him. And so He is our Passover and Propitiation. And it proves God s righteousness, - He perfectly justifies the sinner who deserved His eternal judgment the sinner who turns to Him and recognises their need of Him to save them. He is wholly just, and so He provided Christ to wholly save. Not everyone s sin was punished in Christ when He died on the cross but only the sins of God s people, past, present and future whose trust for salvation would be in Him. Not a single drop of His precious blood was shed in vain! And so, propitiation upholds God s justice for he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all (Is. 53:5,6). On His merits alone, then, I m forgiven, and I have access into the presence of God Rebels we were, but now we are His children Now we can draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith holding fast to our profession of our faith (Heb. 10:23) that Christ died for us on the cross. We come humbly and truthfully before this table of remembrance, giving thanks to God for His great work whereby He saved us, is keeping us, and will continue to keep us until Christ comes again for we have been justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood (Rom. 3:24,25).