The word English word propitiation is found only three times
in the New Testament. In Romans it reads, “Whom God
hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the
forbearance of God;” (Romans 3:25); and in John’s first letter, “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours
only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2) and
again in that same letter, “Herein is love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. ” (1 John 4:10)
There are Greek words found in the New
Testament which are not translated propitiation such as in Hebrew 9:5 where the
word is translated “mercy seat”. It reads, “And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat;
of which we cannot now speak particularly.” but is exactly the same word
translated propitiation in Romans 3:25). Other forms of the Greek word are
found in Hebrews 2:17 “Wherefore in all things it
behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people. ” where it is translated reconciliation and in Luke 18:13 “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so
much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be
merciful to me a sinner.” where it is translated as merciful but means
propitiated. Now since I am not a Greek scholar I will not spend too much time
here as I am making an observation that any researcher could make.
We need to make a couple of points clear before we get into the main
point:
First, we must
understand that it is God Who takes the initiative regarding propitiation and
that as Lewis Sperry Chafer writes, “Nothing
happens to change God” in regards to propitiation. Second, when speaking of propitiation we understand that it goes
hand in hand with reconciliation. Man is separated from God and it is the
condition and circumstances of man that must be changed. With God, the Scripture
says, “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
(James 1:17) In other words, God did not turn His back on man; man turned his
back on God!
It’s Application
Man, from the original fall, has offended God! Everyman is born a
sinner, a child of wrath, a child of disobedience, without God, without Christ,
and having no hope outside of the Mercy of God (Ephesians 2). God, on the other hand is Holy
and Just and so if there is ever to be reconciliation between God and man, the
Justice of God must be satisfied. This is really, when you get right down to
the nuts and bolts of the matter, what the doctrine of propitiation is about…the
satisfaction of God’s justice so that the sinner may be reconciled to God.
In the Old Testament, the Mercy
Seat, the lid over the Ark of the Covenant, was the place where the blood of
animals was sprinkled as efficacious “to the extent that it provided a just
ground on which God could pass over the sins until Christ should come and shed
His own blood for them.” (Lewis S. Chafer) So God’s just demands were deferred until Christ’s
blood was shed “once for all” (Hebrews 10:10)
In the New Testament Christ becomes the Mercy Seat for all who will ever
be saved! And so, every person who receives Jesus Christ as Savior is the recipient
of those benefits, having to do with the riches of His Grace. And so, by
believing that Christ’s blood was shed on our behalf we are reconciled to God.
The Scripture says, “For Christ is not entered into the
holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:” (Hebrews
9:24) and again in Hebrews, “For by one offering he
hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” (10:14) Thus is the
Justice of God satisfied.
If it should happen that you are
reading this and know that you are not a Christian then I urge you to bow to
God now, acknowledge your sinfulness and believe that Jesus Christ shed His
blood on your behalf. If you’ve gotten this far
it is likely the Holy Spirit is calling you. Please don’t disregard that
call!
It’s Reach
Now up till now there will be relatively few who would argue what I've written but now we come to question the “reach” of this doctrine of
propitiation. We know that certain elect persons are reconciled to God and we
know that in order for them to be reconciled God’s justice had to have been
satisfied, but the question remains, how far is the reach? To whom? How far?
We know, for instance, that Paul writes to the Ephesian church, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in
Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself,
according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his
grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace;” (Ephesians 1:3-7) And he goes on to say, in chapter two
of this letter, that we have been, by Grace, and by faith in the redemptive work
of Christ, reconciled to God. So, every saved person is reconciled to God
and God is propitiated.
But where we
run into difficulty is with verses like “And he is the
propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of
the whole world.” (1 John 2:2) So some immediately say, “See Christ is the propitiation for the
whole world!” and by this they mean, apparently, that the justice of God is
satisfied regarding the sins of every person in the world. But can this be? If
God’s justice is satisfied for all mankind must it be that all men will be
saved? The Bible clearly teaches that all men will NOT be saved, but how can
they be condemned if God’s justice is satisfied toward them? Would't God then be unjust? Our understanding must be awry
some way! And, if God has specific persons in mind, is that not equal to our understanding
of election? So you say, “No, God knows
who will believe on Christ and His justice is satisfied for them, but not for
all men.” Isn’t this what we say about God’s elect? Well, you say, “I don’t mean that at all, I mean that God,
looking ahead in foreknowledge is propitiated for all who will believe”.
Well then, my friend, you believe in election and you don’t believe that God’s
justice is satisfied for all men! Or, if you believe that God IS propitiated
towards all men you are a universalist! Note:
Here I refer the reader to Davis W. Huckabee’s Studies
In Strong Doctrine, Appendix II, Studies on the Word “World” where you will find an
in-depth study of the many uses and applications of the world “world” which
NEVER refers to all of mankind.
It
would be helpful, regarding 1 John 2:2 to understand that John is writing to
Christians and his immediate audience was those Christians for whom he had
oversight. So when he says, “but
also for the sins of the whole world”
it cannot be understood to mean every
man in the world. It would probably be good for the reader to read the
Gospel of John, by the same writer, to grasp the way John uses the word “world”.
For instance, “I have manifested thy name unto the men
which thou gavest me out of the world:
thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.” (John 17:6),
or “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou
hast given me; for they are thine.” (John 17:9),
or “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I
come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast
given me, that they may be one, as we are.” (John 17:11), or once again, “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but
because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you.”
(John 15:19)
In
closing I submit to you that God’s justice is satisfied regarding the elect
only who are in the world, but not of the world and that as Paul points out in
Romans 3:25 “Whom God hath set forth to
be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;” it requires “faith in His blood” which is a gift of
God to His elect only. I would therefore suggest that those of you who ridicule
our conviction that words like “world”
and “all” be sufficiently studied and
particularly used, take the time to research them yourselves.
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