Propitiation

(from Lesson 16 – 1 John 2:2)

 

1 John 2:2 NASB “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for {those of} the whole world.” John emphasises the fact that it is Jesus Christ Himself. The use of the reflexive pronoun there is to give emphasis to the person of Jesus Christ: that it is He who is the propitiation for our sins—not just His work on the cross but it is Christ Himself who is the propitiation. He was the propitiatory sacrifice. This introduces a couple of extremely crucial doctrines to understand the person and work of Jesus Christ.

 

The doctrine of propitiation

 

  1. Definition: Propitiation is that aspect of the saving work of God through the substitutionary spiritual death of Jesus Christ on the cross whereby the justice and righteousness of God are satisfied concerning the sins of mankind. Satisfaction is the key word. This is seen in two other verses. Romans 3:25 NASB “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in [by means of] His blood through faith. {This was} to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed.” The shedding of blood throughout Scripture is used to emphasise death. Hebrews 2:17 NASB “Therefore, He 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.” So Jesus Christ is the one who propitiates God.
  2. A key word we have to look at is hilasmos [i(lasmoj]. It means propitiation or satisfaction and it translates the Hebrew word in the Old Testament, kapporeth, from the verb kaphar which means to atone. Kapporeth is a noun, and it is a fascinating noun because it refers to a specific location and that is the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant was a box made of acacia wood which was overlaid with gold and it had a lid, on top of which were two gold cherubim which looked down to the centre point on the lid. That place was called the mercy seat because that was where the high priest of the day of atonement brought the blood to indicate the sacrifice done the nation Israel. Exodus 25:17 NASB “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide. [18] You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. [19] Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim {of one piece} with the mercy seat at its two ends. [20] The cherubim shall have {their} wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be {turned} toward the mercy seat. [21] You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you.” Inside the ark were three objects: the Ten Commandments, showing that Israel had broken God’s standards; Aaron’s rod which had budded. And the purpose for that was that the Israelites had rebelled against the Aaronic priesthood, and God was showing that Aaron was the chosen one by causing Aaron’s staff to bud; manna, because God had provided physical sustenance for them and they had rejected and rebelled against that because they wanted tastier food and wanted to go back to the garlic and leeks of Egypt. These were placed in the box to indicate their sinfulness. Over the top of that was the mercy indicating that God is going to deal with the sin and cover the sin of Israel. The two cherubs represented the righteousness and justice of God and they looked down on the shed blood on the mercy seat. The picture there is that the holiness of God, His righteousness and justice, is satisfied by the sacrifice. The sacrifice, then, has covered and paid the price the sins. So this is a tremendous visual teaching us about what would happen at the cross.
  3. Propitiation is then related to the work of Christ on the cross. The death of Christ covered or paid for our sins, satisfying the righteousness and justice of God. Leviticus 16:13-16.
  4. Propitiation is then appropriated to the believer by faith in Christ and is the basis for the imputation of divine righteousness. Propitiation occurred at the cross. God’s righteousness and justice were actually satisfied on the cross for every single believer. So the barrier is removed at the cross. But there is a problem. Man has three problems at least to keep him out of heaven. Problem # 1 is sin and the sin penalty. There has to be a death for that sin. Problem # 2 is that man is minus life. He does not have the life of God. Problem # 3 is that man is minus righteousness. When Jesus Christ died on the cross as our substitute He paid the sin penalty, 2 Corinthians 5:17. On the cross Jesus remained perfectly righteous but all of man’s sins are poured out on Him. That takes care of the sin penalty. The problem is that man still lacks righteousness. Somehow we have to receive +R, so at the instant of faith alone in Christ alone God credits to our account the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is called imputation. Now we possess perfect righteousness so that when God’s righteousness looks at us He approves of us. The justice of God is then free to bless us. God declares us to be just (justification) and then He imputes to us eternal life, so that by faith alone in Christ alone we receive the imputation of +R and the imputation of His eternal life. The result is that we can now be saved and can spend eternity in heaven. But because Christ paid the penalty for sin, sin is no longer the issue; all sins have been paid for. That point is important to understand the doctrine of unlimited atonement.
  5. Propitiation resolves the problem of the demands of God’s righteousness and justice. He is always propitiated so that those demands are always met for all time and eternity, therefore our sins, even post-salvation sins, are no longer an issue.

 

1 John 2:2 NASB “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins…” First person plural, referring primarily to John, it is an editorial “we”; secondarily it refers to his apostolic partners, and then by application we can see that it applies to us. Then he says, “and not for ours only, but also for {those of} the whole world.” The way it is constructed is for emphasis. He is the propitiation for our sins. If we are believers Christ has been propitiated, but it is not just for our sins, it is also for the sins of the whole world. What does he mean by the whole world?

 

1 John 5:4 NASB “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” That shows a distinction: who we are and the world. We have to see that John makes the distinction that the world is not the elect. The idea that the world refers only to the elect is totally contrary to John’s use of the word world.

 

1 John 4:1 NASB “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Notice the world is set apart as something distinct, it is not where the believer is, it is in opposition to the believer. [2] “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; [3] and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the {spirit} of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” The world is something outside of the realm of where the believer should be. So for John, world is not the world of the believer.