A Sin Wiping, Wrath Satisfying Act of God!
It is hilastērion (ἱλαστηριον). The word in its classical form was used of the act of appeasing the Greek gods by a sacrifice, of rendering them favorable toward the worshipper. In other words, the sacrifice was offered to buy off the anger of the god and buy his love.
The word is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint (LXX), in the sense of an atonement or reconciliation. It refers to the act of getting rid of sin which has come between God and man.
The word hilastērion (ἱλαστηριον) is used in Leviticus 16:14 (LXX) to refer to the golden cover on the Ark of the Covenant. In the Ark, below this cover, were the tablets of stone upon which were written the ten commandments which Israel had violated. Before the Ark stood the High Priest representing the people. When the sacrificial blood is sprinkled on this cover, it ceases to be a place of judgment and becomes a place of mercy. The blood comes between the violated law and the violators, the people. The blood of Jesus satisfies the just requirements of God’s holy law which mankind broke, pays the penalty for man, and thus removes that which had separated between a holy God and sinful man, sin, its guilt and penalty.
This means neither indifference nor remission. God’s justice demands that every sin and sinner be punished. God would have been just, when Adam and Eve sinned, to destroy them, and with them, the entire human race. But in His goodness and forbearance (see 2:4), He withheld His judgment for a certain period of time (cf. Ps. 78:38, 39; Acts 17:30, 31; 2 Pet. 3:9).
THE RULER of the land one day passed a law that said you couldn’t do certain things in the country. It was discovered that his mother had broken the new laws. The law keepers of the land brought the mother to her son, the king.
“Your mother has broken the law. You said anyone who breaks these laws would receive twenty stripes.”
The ruler was caught in a catch-22. He had a standard that he could not change. It applied to everybody. He really did not want the rules or the consequences to apply to his mother. He loved his mother. How could he keep his standard of perfection and still honor and respect his mother. How could he show love to his mother without playing favorites?
The king unbuttoned his shirt, and told the law keepers to whip him. He told the man with the whip to lash him with the whip twenty times. He bent over and took the twenty lashes for his mother. He met the demands of the law, yet he showed love and mercy to his mother by taking the penalty that she deserved on himself.
Enter Jesus Christ. God says that the “soul that sinneth, it shall die.” The nature of death is eternal separation from a holy God. But Jesus Christ offered Himself to be hung instead. Jesus Christ took the penalty of Calvary that you and I deserved. God obeyed the law that He Himself had set, yet provided a substitute so that you and I could be delivered. He is both just and the justifier of all those who believe in Jesus Christ. The cross shows that any man’s attempt to come to God by his own works and his own power is not enough. There is no basis for self-congratulations.802
A YOUNG lady one day was speeding through a small Georgia town. She was traveling 70 mph in a 55 mph speed zone. The police pulled her over and wrote her a ticket that would cost her $100. She didn’t have the money to pay it and ended up having to go to court over the ticket.
In the courtroom, the judge said, “You were found guilty of going 70 miles an hour in a 55 mile speed zone. You have to pay $100.”
The young lady said, “I’m guilty, but I can’t pay it. I don’t have $100.”
“Well, if you don’t pay the ticket, we’ll have to lock you up for the weekend.”
“I can’t pay the ticket, but I don’t want to go to jail. Can you please just have mercy on me?”
The judge matter-of-factly replied, “I can’t change the law. The law says that you’ve got to pay $100, or you have to spend the weekend in jail. Those are the rules, and I can’t change the rules.”
Starting to tear up she spoke in a small voice. “Isn’t there something you can do? I can’t pay it, but I don’t want to get locked up. Have mercy on me.”
The judge looked down on her, pushed his chair back from the bench, zipped down his robe, and took it off. He went over to the side, picked up his jacket, and put it on. He walked down and stood beside the girl, reached in his wallet, and brought out a hundred-dollar bill. He put the $100 bill on the bench, took off his jacket, then went over and picked up his robe. He zipped his robe and got back behind his bench.
“Young lady, you’ve been found guilty of going 70 miles an hour in a 55-mile-per-hour speed zone. The law is the law. I can’t change it; the law says you must pay $100, or spend the weekend in jail. Ah! But I see somebody else has already paid the price.”
God saw us speeding down the highway of sin. He zipped down the independent use of His deity and put on the jacket of humanity. He came down, died on the cross, and paid the price that you and I could not pay. He picked up the tab, rose from the dead, zipped up his glorified body, and ascended up to heaven. The good news of the gospel is that a bill we could not pay has already been paid. It has been paid by God Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ. Isn’t that good news?416