What is Propitiation

Introduction

We started this three part word study with a study of Justification from vs 20-26. Today we will conclude by looking at the word propitiation from Romans 3:25 “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;” Since vs 21 Paul has been laying the case that we have been justified and redeemed through Jesus Christ and not by our works. Today we are going to look at the doctrine of propitiation. Out of all the words we have looked at this is probably the one that is the most foreign to us today.

Paul is arguing that the righteousness of God is seen in the fact that God’s wrath has been propitiated by the blood of Jesus Christ. for the sins that are past- Prior to Jesus Christ, sin had not truly been dealt with fully. All those who were considered righteous in the OT still had sin on their account and judgment was merely just postponed. through the forbearance of God- God had been patient with mankind. All those OT saints still needed a savior and when Jesus died on the cross for their sins their sins could be truly dealt with. A payment had to be made. Somewhere in all this is the idea of propitiation. So what does it mean? Today we are going to ask 4 questions about propitiation to help us understand what it means.

What is propitiation?

Romans 3:25 “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;”

If you look up the word propitiation in a lexicon, this is the definition that you are going to find: to appease an offended party’s wrath for some wrongdoing in order to regain goodwill. There are four parts to this definition:

the offender

the offended

the cost of our offense

the payment to restore us to his goodwill

This is a simple illustration but lets see if this helps you understand the meaning of propitiation. Imagine you were driving your friends car and trying to eat chicken strips and dip them in sauce while you drive. You didn’t see the car ahead of you stop and you just plowed on ahead into them totally the car. You called your friend and things just got out of hand. They started yelling and screaming at you because now they don’t have a car to get to work. You don’t have any money; so you didn’t offer to fix it and all they had was liability insurance. Unfortunately, the accident was your fault, so now they are stuck. They aren’t speaking to you anymore. The relationship is destroyed. What are you going to do to fix it? Maybe you spend the next month or so trying to earn the money to buy a new car. You work extra jobs until you have enough money. Finally, you give her the brand new car. This car is a whole lot better than her old one and she is excited to drive it. In that moment you propitiated her anger towards you and the relationship was reconciled.

Clearly God doesn’t respond in the same way that we would because God does not allow sin to enter into his anger, but we all sinned against God. Our relationship with Him has been destroyed and as chapter 2 showed us, we deserve judgement. Jesus Christ by dying on the cross payed the debt our sin created and appeased God’s wrath. Another word for propitiation is satisfied. God was satisfied by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

Propitiation has connections to the OT sacrificial system. In

Hebrews 9:5 “And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.”

The word mercyseat is a form of the word for propitiation in Greek. Back in OT times man incurred a debt because of their sin, but God has established a sacrificial system to temporarily pay for their sins until the permanent payment in Jesus Christ could be made. A pure lamb without an marks, scars, deformities was taken a killed and his blood was sprinkled on the mercyseat as an atonement for sin.

Heb 10:1-18 running commentary

Why do we need propitiation?

There are three reasons given for why we needed a propitiation. Why did God have to be appeased anyways?

Our sins

1 John 4:10 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Our sin was the reason we needed a propitiation. Think back to that story of when you wrecked your friends car. In a way you sinned against them. You were driving irresponsibly, you broke something of theirs and you did not replace it. Something we need to come to grips with: sin hurts relationships. When I sin against my wife, there are consequences. I may not realize it right away, but it affects her.

it may make her less loving in return to me

it might make her trust me less

it might make her angry

it might make her suspicious of me

but sin hurts relationships. Propitiation restores relationships

Hebrews 2:17 “Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.”

The KJV translators chose to translate here reconciliation, but the greek word is actually the word for propitiation not reconciliation. The difference between these two words is that reconciliation deals with a relationship while propitiation deals with an offense. Reconciliation is the result of propitiation. The translators probably had in focus the end result of the propitiation rather than the sacrifice.

The wrath of God

This reason isn’t stated in any of the verses on propitiation, but I want to point out two reason why I include it:

1. Paul is building off of what he said in chapters 1, 2

Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;”

2. The idea of appeasing that is part of the definition for propitiation implies appeasing anger or wrath.

People don’t like to think of God being a angry God because they want to think of God as being only a loving God. In fact some bible translations retranslate the word propitiation to avoid saying God is a God of wrath. This is a wrong understanding of love and wrath. Both these emotions can exist at the same time even in human beings.

Take for example if your daughter got into drugs. you just found out she has been stealing from you and sneaking out at night to get the drugs. How do you feel right now? Angry? probably, but let me ask you this do you love her? Of course you do. The reason you are so angry is because you love them so much. Love and anger do coexist because often love is the motive for anger. Now that doesn’t excuse sinful expressions of anger but they do exist together in us imperfectly, but how much more perfectly do they exist in God.

Propitiation isn’t about making God love us again because we lost his love. It isn’t about holding God back; rather it is God himself propitiating his own anger by sending his son to die for us. Ligon Duncan comments on this

“It is vital to understand that the picture is not Jesus pleading with his Father to be loving and merciful to us. Jesus is not trying to get God to love his people; rather, he is the provision of the loving Father so that he can love and his people with perfect rectitude and justice.”

“The Christian doctrine of propitiation is not that of our trying to get God to love and forgive us by placating him by a sacrifice that we take the initiative to bring to him”- Ligon Duncan

The righteousness of God

Romans 3:26 “To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”

The last reason we need a propitiation is found in our text. Prior to Jesus dying on the cross, God had been longsufferring with the saints, but God could not just ignore their sin. Paul says that the propitiation of Jesus Christ allows God to show his righteousness. The key reason is found in this phrase that he might be just and the justifier… As we saw in our message on justification, God cannot just ignore sin. To do so would make Him unjust.

Imagine if your wife had been murdered by a serial killer. They were finally caught and brought to trial. Imagine if the judge just said I feel sorry for you so I am letting you go. How would you feel? The serial killer would feel great but you not so much. That just would not be just.

The death of Jesus on the cross allowed God to both show mercy and still be just.

Who receives this propitiation?

1 John 2:2 “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

So who did Jesus die to pay the atonement for? Was it just those who are saved or was it all the world. Let’s look at this verse in detail to answer that question.

Notice how Paul builds in this verse. Jesus is the propitiation for us. Who is the us? Believers but he is also for the sins of the whole world. Who does that include? It seems to be a group in contrast to us.

Notice how John uses the word world in John’s writing John 17:9 “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.” Throughout John’s writing the world and the elect are contrasted groups of people. The overwhelming evidence shows that world either refers to the planet or the lost people on that planet or the lost system of beliefs of those lost people on the planet. It is very unlikely if not impossible that it refers to other Christians in this verse.

Notice the word whole before the word world. This speaks of the entirety of the world.

Here is what I am saying: according to this verse Jesus death on the cross did something on behalf of all the world. We clearly know that not everyone will be saved. John 3:18 “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” So what did Jesus death do for everyone? Because of verses like this I believe propitiation provides the opportunity of salvation for all of us, but it is only effective for those who place their faith in Jesus.

Kenneth Keithley in his book Salvation and Sovereignty which I highly recommend gives this historical illustration:

In the 1830s, a federal court found a man named George Wilson guilty of robbing the U.S. mail and sentenced him to death. President Andrew Jackson granted Wilson a pardon. However, Wilson refused to admit he was guilty and subsequently rejected the presidential pardon. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, with his lawyers arguing the double jeopardy principle that a man who had been pardoned could not be punished. The Court disagreed, with Chief Justice Marshall delivering the ruling:

There is nothing peculiar in a pardon which ought to distinguish it in this respect from other facts; no legal principle known to the court will sustain such a distinction. A pardon is a deed to the validity of which delivery is essential, and delivery is not complete without acceptance. It may then be rejected by the person to whom it is tendered, and if it be rejected, we have discovered no power in a court to force it on him. It may be supposed that no being condemned to death would reject a pardon, but the rule must be the same in capital cases and in misdemeanors. A pardon may be conditional, and the condition may be more objectionable than the punishment inflicted by the judgment.25

In other words, the Supreme Court ruled that principles of double jeopardy did not apply. President Jackson provided forgiveness for George Wilson, but Wilson refused the provision. Wilson was executed. Similarly, though Christ secured our forgiveness at infinite cost, we still must accept His pardon if we are to enjoy its benefits.

Keathley, Kenneth. Salvation and Sovereignty: A Molinist Approach (pp. 201-202). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

How is propitiation received?

This brings us to our final question, how do we receive the benefits of propitiation? Back in our text verse:

Romans 3:25 “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;”

Just like in George Wilson’s case, propitiation and the pardon, reconciliation, forgiveness it secures for us only becomes effective if we accept it. It is a gift that is freely offered. Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

but it is only received by faith in his blood- faith is dependence, trust. Do you believe and trust that Jesus can and will save you if you ask him. But it isn’t just faith in any old thing, it is faith in the fact that Jesus shed his blood for your sins.

Conclusion

As with many of these messages the primary application is clear, if you have never placed your faith in Jesus Christ to save you from your sins, you are under God’s wrath. That wrath must be satisfied either by your punishment in the lake of fire for eternity or by the blood of Jesus Christ. The choice is yours.

But for the believer, this doctrine still has application to us. Think back to the last time you sinned against God. What was your picture of God in your mind? Did you cringe back from that God?

Central to this idea of propitiation is that God’s wrath is appeased and our relationship with Him is reconciled. Ephesians 1:6 “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” How many of us cringe in terror when we sin? How many of us inwardly act as if God is waiting with a big stick to hit us over the head with it? As a believer, we do not have to fear the wrath of God; rather we serve by love and reverence for God. The wrath of God has been propitiated for us and it still is and will always be. We do not have to live in cringing fear of a lightning bolt from heaven.

Realizing this honestly frees me up to serve him in love. Take for instance this illustration. If you had a one year old who was just learning to walk but every time they warbled and fell, you yelled at them. Do you think they would be motivated to continue learning to walk? Would they not rather give up? I want you to see a verse in

Galatians 5:5–6 “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.”

The Christian life is not intended to be lived in terror of God toward us, but true growth and holiness is accomplished by the Spirit as we step out by faith in love. Love for God and love for others. We have no reason to go back to living as if we had never been saved. We have no reason to act like God’s wrath hasn’t already been propitiated on our behalf.