Propitiation - The Conflict of Love and Holiness

Man's predicament in his sinful state after the Fall was the stage for the greatest drama of all time. Man defied God and broke His specific command not to eat from the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. Man shook his fist at God and now must face the inevitable consequence of the holiness of the Almighty, whose very nature cannot tolerate even the shadow of sin.

Man was created to fellowship with God, yet right in the first opening scene, when all was perfect and peaceful in the Garden of Eden, this flawless relationship of Creator to creature was shattered by man's foolish act. In that one instant, a thunderous silence shook the heavens.

The angels froze in their tracks, the demons glaring with disbelieving eyes, watching man gulp the piece of the fruit as it sours in his mouth. All earth stands still as God's heart is broken in that fatal moment.

Dreadful silence reigns as the plot of the greatest play on earth is unfolded. What was a Celebration of Creation has become the Tragedy of Sin. God's perfect world is now tainted with the blackness of man's transgression.

At this scene, the heavenly curtains might as well have come down with the words The End written by God's hand across it. But God, in His unfathomable love and mercy decides do allow the story to continue, promising man a happy ending if he trusts in the Playwright.

Enter Jesus Christ, the hero of the story, who within the short time of three years manages to unite a nation around Him, rile the enemies of the people with His miraculous works, promise eternal life to all and have His offer rejected and find Himself on the cross in the outskirts of Jerusalem merely a week after entering the city in triumph amidst shouts of Hosanna!, Hosanna!

In a whirlwind of events, He gave life to the world by giving His life. Yet His death was not in vain because the divine Playwright was still working on the script and with a masterful twist in the drama, He pulls off the greatest heist in human history, perplexing the heavenly audience with the death of His own Son, three days of complete silence then a resurrected Christ and whole new set of Laws for the impending trial of mankind. What was an open-and-shut case of man's guiltiness now has a gaping loophole, with the name of Christ written in bold letters across it and another word written in small letters right under it.

What was that word? The heavenly audience leans forward and squints as they slowly read the word that would explain the unexplainable, that would somehow shed some light on what had just happened before their eyes. Propitiation.

If ever one word was ever synonymous with Christ, it would be propitiation. That is the essence and reason why He came to earth. And that is reason why man now has a legal escape from of the certain death penalty through justification in Christ.

"...And He Himself is the Propitiation for our sins; And not for ours only, But also for those of the whole world." - 1 John 2:2

But what exactly is propitiation?

Propitiation is the truth that the person and death of Jesus Christ appeased and turned away God's wrath, satisfying His holiness, and meeting God's righteous demands so that the sinner can be reconciled into God's holy presence.¹

It is the reconciliation that deals with the barrier of God's holiness, the obstacle erected or caused by man's sin. Thus, God's holiness becomes a key part in removing the alienation or enmity against God.

Holiness is the most central and epitomizing character or attribute of God's being. Not even love or grace surpasses it. In defense of this statement we should note that God is called holy more than anything else in Scripture. As a label to God's name "holy" is found the most. In fact, "holy" is one of the names of God. ²

"For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy" - Isaiah 57:15

Why did man need propitiation?

God's holiness required that a payment be made for man's transgression. From the Biblical standpoint God is not of Himself alienated from man. God, therefore, does not need to be changed, but rather man must change. Still, for righteousness sake, an infinite expiation is necessary so that He, out of His own love, may be able to continue the relationship with man begun at Eden.

This expiation had to be instituted by God, and it is motivated by His own love, not by any necessity or duty to be reconciled to man. Man, mired in his own sin and exposed to God's wrath, could neither venture nor find expiation.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." - Romans 3:23

But then God, in finding it, anticipates and meets the demands of His own righteousness. Nothing happens to change God. Therefore it is not God that must be reconciled; rather a way is opened to man, who now escapes the impending and certain wrath to come. ³

So we see that it had to be God that provided the way out. The root of the problem can be traced to antinomy-a contradiction of opposing laws or attributes-love and grace versus righteousness and justice. God in His infinite love and grace, desired to forgive man and restore the relationship they had before the Fall. Yet God is also infinitely holy and just and must judge mankind because of their sins. And that is where the conflict arises - His holiness and love are in direct opposition of each other. Since God's attributes are infinite, absolute and immutable, neither can give in and be bypassed at the expense of the other.

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. - Romans 3:25

All aspects of the character and attributes of God must be satisfied. Therefore, in His perfect wisdom, God provided the person and work of His own Son, the Lord Jesus, who by His life and death reconciled the conflict (antinomy) of God attributes by becoming the propitiation of mankind. ⁴ "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." - I John 4:10

Why Jesus?

In Jesus, God's righteousness is satisfied. God fully satisfied by the person of Christ and His life. He fulfilled the law perfectly. He was sinless and lived in perfect harmony and righteousness with the will of God. At Jesus' baptism, God said, "this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased". (Luke 3:22) God verified and attested to Christ' sinlessness and showed that He was qualified by His person and life to begin His ministry. By the miracles surrounding the events at the cross - the darkness, earthquakes, rending of the veil, and resurrection of the Christ - God proved that Christ was not only qualified as our sin bearer but that in His death He had successfully satisfied God's holiness and justice and had dealt with the problem of man's sins.

"That He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest…to make propitiation for the sins of the people" - Hebrews 2:17

The justice of God, which requires a penalty and judgment for sin, is likewise satisfied by the death of Christ as the substitutionary payment for our sin (Romans 3:25-26). Christ's death redeemed man from sin and its penalty by His judicial substitutionary death-the innocent for the guilty. As our substitute, at the cross He bore our penalty and thus satisfied the requirements of God's justice. The cross is not only a supreme display of God's love; it is also the ultimate display of God's holiness. It shows how God could by no means still be just and accept the sinner apart from the person, life, and death of Christ.

Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil…Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:14,17)

What about the Old Testament?

In the Old Testament, God instituted the sacrificial system as a temporary way to provide remission for sin and set it up purposefully as an imperfect system that would show the need for Christ. The sacrifices only allowed God to not remember the sins of the people. (Exodus 25:21-22; Leviticus 16:2, 13-14) It did not actually remove the sins from God's eyes. God had before stated in Leviticus that without the shedding of blood, there could be no remission for sin. Sin required death and the death of an animal only covered the sin. However, the blood of the sacrificed animal sprinkled on the mercy seat was efficacious only to the extent that it provided God with a just ground to pass over the sins. God was propitiated by the sacrifice merely to the extent of deferring judgment.

For the complete propitiation and remission of man's sins, a righteous, sinless person had to die and not only die, but rise again. Only when Christ came and shed His own blood was real propitiation available.

It was with this in mind that God throughout the whole Old Testament pointed to the necessity of Christ through the Law. Every time a man had to go to the Tabernacle or Temple to sacrifice, he would long for a time when no more sacrifices would be needed and when God's promise of the Redeemer to Adam and Abraham would be fulfilled.

What now?

Christ has become our mercy seat and our propitiation and His blood covers all our sins. (Hebrews 9:5) The mercy seat in the tabernacle was a type of Christ, who on the grounds of His own blood has made possible the reconciliation of sinful man to a holy, yet propitiated God. The flood-gates of divine mercy are open, the flow coming however only through that channel which Christ as Propitiator is. 5 Therefore, because God is propitiated by the work of Jesus Christ, He is now free to justify the sinner and accept him into His presence (Romans 3:25-26).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Soteriology - The Doctrine of Salvation; J. Hampton Keathley, III 1997
2. Ibid
3. Summarization of the Doctrine of Propitiation; L.S. Chafer
4. Soteriology - The Doctrine of Salvation; J. Hampton Keathley, III 1997
5. Summarization of the Doctrine of Propitiation; L.S. Chafer

Other sources used

1. Propitiation; Rev. Stanley L. Derickson Ph.D. 1992
2. Doctrine of Propitiation; David M. Williams
3. Christ: the Propitiation for the Sins of the World;
4. Propitiation; Dr. George E. Meisinger, Chafer Theological Seminary