Biblical Propitiation
When confronted with God’s wrath, many people find it difficult to reconcile it with his love. Deeds of justice and mercy are often viewed as mutually exclusive, as though one cannot be merciful without sacrificing some sense of justice. Likewise, one cannot be just without sacrificing mercy. Thankfully, this is not true. Justice and love are not Biblically contradictory. They are complementary. In fact, the righteous requirements of God’s law demand mercy. Micah 6:8 is a great example, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
The Bible’s use of the term propitiation is another example. As a Christian, one of the words you must know is propitiation. As a companion word for the phrase cup of wrath, it has the potential to deeply enrich our devotion to Christ. It only occurs 3 times in the New Testament but captures an incredibly important concept. A propitiation is a sacrifice that appeases the wrath of God. For many, the question is whether Christ’s wrath-appeasing death is an act of justice or an act of love.
Thankfully, the death of Christ, like a multifaceted diamond, can never be reduced to a single issue. His death is not about justice or love; it is about justice and love. The Apostles Paul and John show us these two sides of propitiation. Both Apostles tell us Jesus has been put forth as a propitiation, but they emphasize two distinct, yet complementary, sources for his sacrifice.
The Apostle Paul explains how Jesus is our propitiation for a demonstration of righteousness in Romans 3:23-26,
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
As Paul surveyed the scope of history, it appeared God had played the role of doting Grandfather. The “sins previously committed” were the unpunished sins of human history. Had God blinked at sin? If so, God had ignored his law and could not be Holy. In answer, the cross stands on this landscape of history as the decisive moment God no longer “passed over the sins previously committed.” When Jesus hung between heaven and earth, he truly received the punishment of God’s people, manifesting God’s holiness. This wrath, displayed in Christ’s crucifixion and satisfied in Christ’s person, is God’s righteous response to the transgression of his holiness.
Make no mistake. This was no capricious temper tantrum of pagan deity. This was the judicial wrath of the Sovereign Creator of the world. The punishment Jesus bore is consistent with the principles of righteousness laid out in Scripture. The deeply wonderful impact of Paul’s message concerning how Jesus satisfies the righteous demands of God’s law, is that simultaneously a strong message of God’s mercy begins to emerge.
The Apostle John, in 1 John 4:8-10, turns the diamond of the crucifixion, enabling us to see the sparks of mercy emerging,
“The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world so 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.”
Same subject – different reason. One Apostle says Jesus is a propitiation for reasons of justice; the other says he is a propitiation because God loves. The only viable conclusion is that Jesus’ death is a wrath satisfying sacrifice simultaneously dispensing justice and mercy. Said a little differently – Though under no obligation to redeem sinful man, God’s heart of love moved him to provide the sacrifice necessary to meet his own righteous demands.
The Apostolic two-sided description of Jesus’ death as a propitiation helps the cross begin to make sense. Dr. Piper has rightly observed, “If God’s justice does not demand the death of his Son, then the extreme suffering of Jesus feels like a gross overreaction.” But, God’s justice does demand it. Let us therefore be thankful that God has not withheld it. Let us be thankful that in love our Lord has given it. We have transgressed God’s holy law, and that is no small thing. We are the ones who deserved the punishment of God’s wrath, but Jesus is the one who received the punishment on our behalf. This is the cup he drinks. Blessed be the name of our infinitely just and infinitely loving God.
In Awe of God,
Pastor Andy
The grace of understanding comes through thinking as opposed to not thinking. - John Piper
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