© F.O’Donoghue 2007
Propitiation is the doctrine that the person & death of Jesus Christ appeases God’s wrath & satisfies His holiness, meeting the righteous demands of God, thereby enabling the sinner to be reconciled unto Him. Propitiation is that part of God’s work of reconciliation in Christ which deals with satisfying the holiness of God. Propitiation is toward God, just as reconciliation is toward man.
God’s love, grace & mercy are boundless, and He desires to forgive the sinner, and bestow the full blessings of His grace on man. However, God is also perfect in holiness and He must judge the sinner. God’s attributes of love and Holiness are infinite, absolute, and immutable. This means neither His love nor His holiness can be compromised at the expense of one over the other, both must be satisfied. In His love, God cannot receive the sinner unto Himself because of His holiness, but neither can God in His holiness override His love and send the sinner to the Lake of Fire without providing a way out. Each aspect of God’s character must be satisfied, and this is only possible through the person and work of His own Son, the Lord Jesus, who by His life and death, reconciled the antinomy of God’s eternal attributes.
It is important to understand God’s holiness in relation to salvation. God is inherently holy. He wills holiness because He is holy, and not in order to be holy. He cannot be anything else. He perfectly, necessarily, universally, and perpetually abhors evil, and can never even look upon it. The legislative side of God’s holiness, is His perfect righteousness, and the judicial side is His perfect justice.
God is perfect righteousness, and for this reason He cannot have fellowship with anything less than His own perfect righteousness;
Hab 1:13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
Isa 59:2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
God, who is perfect in justice, must by His own character condemn, pass judgment and deliver the penalty of death and separation to the sinner who falls short of God’s righteousness;
Rom 3:9-23 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
The cross is more than the ultimate display of God’s love, it is also the ultimate display of God’s absolute holiness. It shows that God can still be just and accept the sinner through the person, life, and death of Christ.
Greek words used for propitiation:
The word Hilasmos occurs twice;
1 John 2:2 And he is the propitiation [Hilasmos] for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation [Hilasmos] for our sins.
‘Hilasmos’ means ‘an appeasement/satisfaction, or a propitiation.’ Jesus Christ is the only means of satisfying God’s holiness and appeasing His holy wrath.
The noun Hilasterion also occurs twice (note; in Hebrews 9 it refers to the mercyseat) ;
Rom 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation [Hilasterion] through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
Heb 9:5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat [Hilasterion]; of which we cannot now speak particularly.
(Note; the second part of this word terion often indicates a place of something, i.e; the place of propitiation or satisfaction)
The verb [Hilaskomai ] means ‘to make propitiation’ or ‘be propitiated’. It is used twice;
Heb 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 [Hilaskomai ] for the sins of the people.
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 [Hilaskomai ]to me a sinner.
Note; in Luke 18, the Pharisee thought that he had something in his own self-righteousness which could change his standing before and make him acceptable in His sight. By contrast, we can literally translate the Publican’s words to say “Oh God, be propitiated to me, a sinner”. He recognised that because of his sin and God’s perfect righteousness, he had nothing that could satisfy and meet the just and righteous demands of God, and therefore confessed his sin. Jesus declared that this Publican went down to his house justified (verse 14).
Redemption is sinward, reconciliation is manward, and propitiation is Godward. Therefore, because God is propitiated by the work of Christ, He is free to justify the sinner and accept him into His presence;
Rom 3:25,26 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; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
