Propitiation: The Wrath-Bearing Love of Christ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cVaKhObbdg

Today we are continuing our study on the atonement and exploring the various aspects of what Christ has done for us, and it truly is something that Christ alone has done, as we have masterfully seen by the account of Lazarus of Bethany. It is through the account of Lazarus of Bethany that we have examined multiple areas of the atonement.

We first started our studies with God’s original intention when He created man positionally and morally good, intended for eternal fellowship and rulership with Him.

The fall corrupted this, perverting man’s will and inclining him to determine position and morality for himself. Therefore, we have learned that sin is a perversion of man’s will and an act against God’s divine order; it is the practice of turning away from our Creator and turning to the created.

Being unable to save ourselves from this condition, God, who deeply loves us, graced us or provided His divine assistance to help restore us back into fellowship with Himself.

This He initiates by regenerating our ability to hear, respond, and align to His calling.

The regeneration then allows for the realization of our depraved state, prompting repentance.

Once realized, repentance occurs, which is the complete deconstruction of the old psyche and reconstruction of the new psyche, all initiated and governed by God. Once reconstructed into a new man, we are given faith. Faith is also a gift from God that enables us to believe in Him, trust in Him, and grow in Him. It is an anointed perspective given by God to see as He sees and will as He wills in obedience. And just as a reminder this “anointed” perspective is not something in addition to the Holy Spirit. Charismatic teachings have added to scripture, skewing the truth of what anointed is and means. Just as 1 John 2:27 tells us, the anointing in the Holy Spirit and remains with us. The Holy Spirit, who is God, is not partially given, cannot be enhanced, or taken away. So when I say anointed perspective, I literally mean the opposite of a human perspective or seeing things how God see them –and that requires faith.

So, now that we have faith, we arrive at propitiation. Propitiation is the act satisfying God's wrath against sin through a sacrifice; it is literally the act of appeasing.Now some of you may be thinking, doesn’t propitiation occur before faith? Since Christ had to die first in order for repentance to be granted. Well, technically yes. But, think of this this way, it’s like a gift that has already been purchased, but not opened yet. Or it’s similar to how a payment is made before someone claims the item. So, for example, Romans 3:25 (ESV) says that Christ was “put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”This shows that God initiated the propitiation through Christ’s blood before any individual expresses faith. Or that God took our place, appeasing God’s wrath (which is the gift before its opened or the payment to secure the item) before faith is employed to believe.

So why do I place faith after propitiation? That is because while propitiation precedes faith in its accomplishment; it is received through faith in its application. So, in our lived experience, the benefits of propitiation (peace with God, forgiveness, justification) are applied or experienced to us individually after we believe. This is why I am ordering it here in this way.

Well, I feel like we went down a technical road a bit here…Let’s return.

Here is a quote that really captures propitiation:J.I. Packer – Knowing God

“The wrath of God is not capricious, arbitrary, or irrational. It is His resolute action in punishing sin, and His settled opposition to all that is evil. The wonder of the gospel is that it proclaims that God turned His own wrath away—not by ignoring sin, but by bearing it Himself in the person of His Son. In biblical terms, Christ is our ‘propitiation’—He bore the wrath, so that we might bear it no more. If we are to understand the cross rightly, we must understand that Jesus did not merely die for us; He died instead of us. He stood in our place, absorbing the just judgment that sin deserved, and by doing so, reconciled us to a holy God. This is the heart of the gospel, and it is drenched in both justice and grace.”“Jesus did not merely die for us; He died instead of us.” This truth is at the heart of propitiation.

For today’s teaching we will not handle Lazarus as much, as in prior treatments. This is only because the account of Lazarus does not necessarily have direct parallels to propitiation. Although, just as Jesus states Lazarus’ death was for the glory of God. It was to highlight our state of depravity, the depth of our salvific inability, and ultimately foreshadow the only death adequate enough to save.

You see, Lazarus death was not

1.     Not substitutionary (not for others).

2.     It did not appease God’s wrath.

3.     It did not defeat death; in fact, Lazarus would die again eventually.

4.     It had no eternal power to free others from sin.

Now let’s go deeper into what propitiation is.

Again, propitiation is a term that refers to Jesus taking on our sins and becoming the object of God’s wrath so that our sin will be removed; it is the appeasement of or satisfying of God’s justice on sin. So here is how it works in short. Now that we have been regenerated and have been given the faith to believe in Him, one of the requirements for God accepting us, is if our debt has been paid; that when God checks our life’s ledger, that it has been justly satisfied. Otherwise, God would still see an unpaid balance and judge our sin. Therefore, when Jesus takes our place, justice is satisfied, and this specific act that Jesus does is called propitiation.

It also reveals the truth that we, me, you –each of us personally, have crucified Christ. What gravity is this!

Again, propitiation refers to the act satisfying God's wrath against sin through a sacrifice; it is the act of appeasing. Jesus’ death on the cross justly satisfied God’s wrath. This is substitutionary atonement

This is an important step that we often do not think about, and again, in the scheme of things, this has occurred all at once with one act of Jesus’ sacrifice. However, the reason it is so important is that it has to do with the object of God’s wrath. That object being sin…not necessarily you, but sin. We’ll get back to this truth a little later. First, let us handle some scripture.

Romans 3:23-25 (ESV): "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins."

Here, Paul explains that Jesus was put forward as a propitiation to satisfy God's wrath and demonstrate His righteousness. Sin demands justice, and through Christ's blood, that justice is met.

1 John 2:2 (ESV): "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world."

This verse emphasizes that Jesus’ death was the offering that turned away God’s wrath, not just for believers but for the entire world. This highlights the universal scope of Christ’s atoning work.

1 John 4:10 (ESV): "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

God’s love is demonstrated in that He sent Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins, showing that God initiated reconciliation even when humanity was undeserving.

Hebrews 2:17 (ESV): “Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

This verse emphasizes Jesus’ role as a high priest who makes propitiation for the sins of humanity, indicating His mediating work.

But why did Jesus have to die? Couldn’t God have done something else? Wasn’t there another way to satisfy sin and justice? The answer to this is NO! And this part is important. So I want you to take notes here and pay close attention.

Remember what sin is. Sin is a perversion of man’s will and an act against God’s divine order; it is the practice of turning away from our Creator and turning to the created. So, when sin occurred, it literally had a changing influence over the person. Sin has controlling power. Genesis 4:7 tells us that sin waits for us at the door and desires to control us! And the direction that it seeks to take us is down the road to death (James 1:14-16).

This should not surprise us, as we are told also in Genesis that the moment Adam ate of the tree was the moment sin entered, and as a result of sin and as a matter of judgment for sin –was death. The reason we die is that sin, being a perversion of man’s will and an act against God’s divine order, cuts us off from our source of life, who is God. Therefore, anything not submitted or tethered to God is cut off from life, thus, death.

So here is the problem, and it’s a big one: Through Adam, sin has impacted all of humanity. In that one moment! Now God is presented with figuring out how to redeem humanity while also upholding His judgment; one cannot contradict the other. It would be a violation of His righteousness to simply dismiss the penalty of death. It would also be a violation of His mercy to abandon humanity. This is the divine dilemma: how can a holy God remain just while also extending grace to the guilty? The answer is found in the cross of Christ, where God's justice and mercy meet. In Jesus, God does not ignore sin — He fully punishes it. But He does so by placing the penalty on a substitute, satisfying His wrath and opening the way for forgiveness.

But long before we get to that, the short-term solution was the sacrificial system of the Old Testament.

As part of this system, the cover of the Ark of the Covenant, also called the Mercy Seat (or Propitiatory), was sprinkled with the blood of a spotless sacrificial lamb to appease God’s anger towards sin. This then allowed the people to approach God. The Ark was located in the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctuary of the Tabernacle (and later the Temple). The Mercy Seat represented the dwelling place of God's presence. On the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would sprinkle the blood of a sacrificial animal (often a goat) on the Mercy Seat. The blood on the Mercy Seat stood between the law inside the Ark (which condemned them) and the holy presence of God above it. Only after this propitiatory act could the people be considered ceremonially clean and approach God without judgment. It was a shadow pointing forward to Christ, whose blood would not just cover sin, but completely remove it.

Additionally, Leviticus 16:10, 20-22 describes a second goat, the scapegoat, which was kept alive and symbolically burdened with the sins of the people. As Leviticus 16:20–22 explains, the high priest would lay his hands on the scapegoat’s head, confessing over it the sins of the people, and then send it into the wilderness, symbolizing the removal of sin (expiation). Together, these two goats portrayed the full work of atonement: one life given to satisfy God’s justice, the other sent away to represent the removal of guilt. These shadows find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who both bore the wrath of God and removed our sin forever (Hebrews 9:12, 10:10–14). This act also represents expiation, which is the very next teaching. Propitiation deals with God’s wrath being satisfied; expiation deals with our guilt being removed. Christ’s atonement achieves both; he absorbed the wrath and carried our sins away.

Now, of course, this system was only a shadow of what God ultimately had planned. The Old Testament system was only to serve as a temporary means of appeasing God’s anger toward sin until He would deal with it once and for all. This is where Jesus comes in.

In the New Testament, Jesus’ blood, being perfect with no sin, is the ultimate and final propitiation. His sacrifice on the cross once and for all satisfied God's wrath. Hebrews 9:12 makes this clear: “He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”

This is also why Jesus had to die. Sin and death are interconnected. When sin entered the world, death followed (Genesis 2:17). Jesus’ mission was not only to atone for sin but also to conquer death itself. To defeat death, Jesus had to experience it fully and then rise from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 says that through His death and resurrection, Jesus conquered death and took away its sting. If Jesus had only shed blood without actually dying, the victory over death would be incomplete. His death and resurrection demonstrated that He had broken the power of sin and death.

This also brings us back to the object of God’s wrath being sin…not necessarily you, but sin. God’s goal is to redeem what was lost and make straight what was made crooked. God’s wrath is consistently demonstrated throughout the Bible as His holy and just response to sin and rebellion. In the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve’s disobedience, God expelled them, introducing both physical and spiritual death as consequences of sin; this was His wrath or His anger toward sin. As humanity’s wickedness grew, God brought the flood in Noah’s time, cleansing the earth of widespread corruption. Later, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, known for immorality and injustice, were destroyed by fire from heaven, illustrating God’s intolerance of unrepentant sin; this was His wrath toward sin. The plagues on Egypt reflect God’s wrath against Pharaoh’s oppression and refusal to release the Israelites, culminating in the death of the Egyptian firstborn as a judgment on their idolatry and defiance.

When Israel persistently rebelled during their wilderness journey, God pronounced that they would not enter the Promised Land, revealing His wrath against disbelief and disobedience. Similarly, when Israel and Judah continued in idolatry and violated God’s covenant, He allowed them to be conquered and taken into exile, demonstrating that persistent sin would result in national judgment. In individual cases, such as Aaron’s two eldest sons, who offered unauthorized/strange fire, Korah’s rebellion against Moses, and Uzzah’s irreverent touch of the Ark, God’s wrath was immediate and served as a warning of the seriousness of disregarding His holiness.

Then we come to the New Testament, where the ultimate expression of God’s wrath is seen at the cross, where Jesus bore the full weight of punishment for humanity’s sin. This act of sacrifice demonstrates both God’s wrath against sin and His love for his people, as Jesus endured the consequences of sin on behalf of those who believe. Through His death, God’s justice was fully satisfied, making it possible for people to be forgiven and reconciled to Him. But His love was also on full display.

Now here’s the heaviest truth of all.The Bible also speaks of a future day of wrath, where God will bring final judgment upon all sin and evil, ultimately separating those who reject Him from His presence. This future judgment, often referred to as the Day of the Lord, reveals that God’s wrath is not just a past reality but an impending aspect of His final plan to restore righteousness and justice.

So, as we think about what propitiation means, let’s remember that it highlights both God’s justice in dealing with sin and His incredible love in giving us a way to be saved. While His patience and mercy provide opportunities for repentance and salvation, there will come a day when we all must give an account. And if you are left holding your sins instead of Jesus, will you be able to take on the full wrath of God? Assuredly not.