Thursday, June 11, 2015

Propitiation Christ – The Acceptable Substitute


1 John 4:9-10In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Propitiation is such a big word, both physically and theologically, yet penned by a first century Galilean fisherman. The definition of this important word, that we almost never hear or use, is the act of appeasing wrath and conciliating the favor of an offended person; the act of making propitious. Jesus Christ, being the propitiation for our sins, is the only acceptable atonement or satisfactory atoning sacrifice offered to God to assuage his wrath and render him propitious to sinners per Webster’s 1828 dictionary. God’s forgiveness is astounding! Knowing that all have sinned against our just and holy God, and the wages of sin is spiritual death of our spirit and eternal damnation of our soul (Romans 6:23), I hope that we realize that all of our sins are wiped away in Christ alone by God, who cannot forget anything because He is omniscient and knows all things. One of the greatest mysteries of the Scriptures is this:

 Ephesians 2:1-6 You He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

I may hear many people ask, “Why would God only make one way to forgiveness of sins in Jesus? Or say, “Jesus could not possibly be the only way, truth and life”, ignorantly missing that it is amazing that there is any way at all! Sovereign God, Creator of the Cosmos and all that lives, has no obligation to provide salvation to any guilty sinner, who deserves the wages they earned for them.  But, God, out of His love and mercy, did extend his grace to provide His Son Jesus Christ as that propitiation. It is not bought, it is not bargained for, it is not earned, and (in no way, shape, or form) is God’s grace deserved by us. We are washed of our sin in the blood of Jesus, as our sins are placed upon Him alone on that cross, when we repent and accept the gift of God. He died for you and I.


Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

Micah 7:19 He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities.
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”

One daily devotional that I read pointed out that in Christ, we have the blessed assurance that all of our sin has been washed away and we are reconciled unto God, invited back into His favor, into the fellowship of His commission, adopted into His family, given His name, invited to His table, made His heir everlasting. Our inheritance in Christ cannot possibly be measured. That is what Christ has done for us on the cross as our atoning sacrifice for sin. Do we take this lightly?

Romans 3:23-26 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 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, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

What I have just described is called “propitiation”. This means that the wrath of God towards us is set aside and falls not on Believers, but on our substitute Jesus Christ. Secondly, it means our sin is wiped away forever and God will remember them no more. Thirdly, we who had our backs to God, sinning against Him and deserving His wrath, are reconciled and drawn into the fellow ship of His Love. This is God’s forgiveness; this is God’s love. This is the gospel truth.
May God bless you.

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


In Christ, Brian (1000th Post)

4 comments:

Larri said...

Excellent post, Brian!

"Jesus could not possibly be the only way, truth and life”, ignorantly missing that it is amazing that there is any way at all!

Amen to this...that there is any way...that He is the only way.

The Greek word for propitiation is hilasmos. When I studied it, I loved finding it was a root word in its etymology. You can't go back any further in time to find another origin for it. He is the only way, the expiator. What a humbling thought!

Congrats on your 1000th post! :)

Gregg Metcalf said...

Congrats on your 1000th post! Yes, such a great verse in 1 John. Christ is the sacrifice that appeased God for the Jew and the Gentile, for all types or kinds of people from every tongue, tribe, and race - yet not for all people. What an amazing and sovereign God to have chose me to be the recipient of His grace!

child of God said...

Hi Brian,
Congratulations on your 1000th post!! That's so awesome! :)

What a great word of reassurance of our being set free and made new! There is nothing we can do to earn salvation. Jesus did it all for us when He bled and died on that cross. We just need to believe in Him, repent of our sins and turn from our fleshy desires and follow Him.

Blessings brother,
<><

Brian Ray Todd said...

Thank you Larri for the great comment. Being that the word Propitiation is the original work, it reminds me of the first five words of the Bible: "In the beginning God". The origin of everything! And what amazing things God has done. Thank you for always being a blessing.

Pastor Gregg, Always inspiring to hear what you have to say. It is because of you that I started writing daily. You write: "Christ is the sacrifice that appeased God ... yet not for all people." It is sad that many reject the gift of God, so we write Blogs to reach them. Thank you for writing today.

Child of God, my dear Canadian Christ Soldier and warrior for ill children. Thank you for always pointing us to the Great Physician, Savior and Lord Jesus. The Truth sets us free and the Truth makes us new, for Christ is Truth. The power of the gospel flows from you to a lost world in need of the Light of Truth. Thank you for shining that light for us all.

I am honored to call these fellow Christian Blogger friends. May the Holy Spirit bring all those who He intends to hear their messages to their blessed Blog sites, and may God receive the glory. Amen.