What Does Propitiation Mean To Me?

What Does Propitiation Mean To Me?

Romans 3:24 - 26 

24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

25 whom God set forth [as] a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

   So Jesus was became a propitiation for me.  Terrific.  What does that big word mean to me?  Short answer is that Jesus was made a substitute sacrifice in my place.  He was judged and found guilty of sin instead of me being judged and found guilty.  His blood was sacrificed instead of my blood.  He died in my place so that I could live. 

   God is a righteous God.  We were sinful and deserved to be condemned but we were rescued by Jesus and His death and resurrection.  This was all set up by God Himself, the Most Righteous Judge.  Looking at all this, I can see God being the Just Judge and condemning all sinners to hell.  As a Righteous and Just God, how could it be any other way?  But having experienced God’s love and His mercy, I can see Him being a Loving Justifier; simply telling every guilty sinner, "I declare a pardon. You are all declared 'not guilty.'"

   But here we see God taking on both roles.  He is the Righteous Judge AND He is the Loving Justifier.  He spoke the Law showing us our sin and then sent Jesus to intervene and become our propitiation so we can be free of our sins and their penalties. 

   The word “propitiation” itself comes from the Greek word hilasterion, used when a sacrifice was made to appease an angry god or goddess.  In other words, the sacrifice was offered to buy off the anger of the god.

   Other translations use other terms to better explain this idea, for example: the NIV translation uses “sacrifice of atonement” here.  In the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint Translation, hilasterion is used when talking about the part of the Ark of the Covenant called “the Mercy Seat.”  The Mercy Seat was the part of the lid where the High Priest sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement.  We might say that this verse in Romans tells us that Jesus is our Mercy Seat.

   The idea of the Mercy Seat fits in this verse.  Inside the Ark of the Covenant was the evidence of man's sin. First there were the tablets of Law.  The Law described what God’s standard of righteousness was, which generation after generation proved to be humanly impossible to follow completely.  Second, there was the manna received in the wilderness, which was received ungratefully.  They demanded food from God then complained that it was boring and demanded something else.  Thirdly, there was the rod of Aaron which budded showing man's rejection of God's leadership.  They rebelled against Moses and Aaron, but God reaffirmed His choice to all the Israelite leaders.  Placed over these items was the lid, and framing the top of the lid were the two cherubim.  We see in both Isaiah and Revelation that these cherubim spend their existence calling to each other “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty.”  Between the cherubim is the area called the Mercy Seat where the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled. 

   This was important to Israel because God's wrath was turned away when a substitute was slain on behalf of sinners by the High Priest. This blood was all that kept God’s Holiness from consuming the Israelites in their sin.  To me this means that for those who looked forward to the coming of the Messiah the blood of an animal sacrifice "covered" their sins like a sort of a promissory note.  That promissory note was redeemed by Christ with His own blood at the cross and God accepted it as full payment for all our sins.  God passed over sins committed before the cross by a substitution, but those sins were paid for, and paid for with a very high price.

   God justified us by the sacrifice of His Son and so could be our Loving Justifier while still remaining Just and Righteous.  Jesus became our propitiation by becoming sin for us while never having sinned and remaining righteous.  This all is a miracle I never get tired of meditating on.

Stephen Cram                            June 17, 2012                      Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8