MADE ACCEPTABLE BEFORE GOD – BY GOD!
Propitiation is a word used often leaving most people confused. Without a dictionary and a Christian teaching about this word, they have no idea what it could mean.
It might be best to think of “Propitiation” as a gift – a peace offering – a payment made. The exchange for this payment is that YOU, my dear friend, are made acceptable before God.
Who pays?
GOD pays!
God, in the form of The Christ Jesus, paid the price – which was a punishment more than any person could bear. By this gift from self to the law and to self, He can now justify to pardon and bless the sinner.
In 1 John 2:2 ; 4:10 , Christ is called the “propitiation for our sins.”
We are “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” (Romans 3:24-25).
The word propitiation carries the basic idea of appeasement or satisfaction, specifically toward God. A propitiation is a two-part act that involves appeasing the wrath of an offended person and being reconciled to him.
The necessity of appeasing God is something many religions have in common. In ancient pagan religions, as well as in many religions today, the idea is taught that man appeases God by offering various gifts or sacrifices. However, the Bible teaches that God Himself has provided the only means through which His wrath can be appeased and sinful man can be reconciled to Him.
In the New Testament, the act of propitiation always refers to the work of God and not the sacrifices or gifts offered by man. The only satisfaction, or propitiation, that could be acceptable to God and that could reconcile man to Him had to be made by God. For this reason, God the Son, Jesus Christ, came into the world in human flesh to be the perfect sacrifice for sin and make atonement or “propitiation for the sins of the people”. You can see more about this in detail here: https://www.gotquestions.org/propitiation.html
God gave His Son as the means of the propitiation, “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). “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” (1 John 4:10).
When God looked down upon the sacrifice He judged humankind guilty, the payment was paid in full, and in His righteousness could, therefore, acquit the believing sinner who put His trust in the Lamb of God, Jesus our Christ.
It is tragic to meet people who insist God won’t have them because they “are not good enough.” No one is good enough, and that is why only God can be good enough for each of us.
The guilty sinner is spared because of the death of Christ in our place. When God looks down upon the believing sinner He sees not our sins and guilt, but the blood of Jesus. Jesus made the sacrifice that satisfied the righteousness of God. His death paid our debt in full and a holy God was satisfied. Any man or woman who believes he or she must somehow be good enough is making a tragic, eternal error. Nothing you can do will make you good enough!
All of the lambs in the sacrifices in the Old Testament pointed to God’s perfect final sacrifice, who would wholly remove our death penalty. That “Lamb of God, that perfect final sacrifice, of course, was Jesus the Christ. No other can replace Him and what He did because indeed, He was part of God, a portion of The God Family, The Living Word of God.
How do we know this is all true? We know we can trust God because a holy and righteous God tore the veil in the temple from top to the bottom. The moment Christ died it was like God the Father reached in and took hold of His outer garment and tore it from the top to the bottom in His mourning for His only Son.
God tore the veil in two to open the way into His presence for all who believe the words of His Son, who was sent ultimately to be our sinless sacrifice. He died a torturous death as our propitiation. Bloody sacrifices came to an end in the temple because the death of Christ alone met all the holy demands of Our completely holy God, Creator of life, Creator of the Universe, Creator of Eternity – mine and yours!
SN: with inspired notes from http://www.abideinchrist.com/
561 total views, 1 views today
