Christ Our Propitiation

Please don’t let that title scare you off. That is a beautiful and profound word.

Christ’s death turns away the wrath of God. The apostle Paul said Christ is our propitiation. He is a propitiatory sacrifice. It refers to what Christ did on our behalf before God.

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).

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). A. T. Robertson said, “God could not let sin go as if a mere slip. God demanded the atonement and provided it.” It was “by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9).

The word “propitiate” in its classical form was used of the act of appeasing the Greek gods by a sacrifice, of rendering them favorable toward the worshipper. The sacrifice was offered by the pagan worshiper to buy off the anger of the god and buy his love. Note very carefully that this idea is not brought over into the New Testament. The LORD God does not need to be appeased nor is His love for sale.

In the New Testament it refers to the act of getting rid of sin which has come between God and man. The word hilasterion is used in the Greek translation of Leviticus 16:14 to refer to the golden cover on top of the Ark of the Covenant. In the Ark, below this lid, were placed the tablets of stone upon which were written the Ten Commandments, which Israel had violated. On the Day of Atonement before the Ark stood the High Priest representing the people who had sinned. When the sacrificial blood is sprinkled on this cover, it ceases to be a place of judgment and becomes a place of mercy. The blood comes between the violated law and the violators, the people. The blood of Jesus satisfies the just requirements of God’s holy law which mankind broke, pays the penalty for man, and thus removes that which had separated between a holy God and sinful man, sin, its guilt and penalty. This is far removed from the pagan idea of propitiation. Jesus Christ is God’s High Priest who was both the Mercy Seat and the Sacrifice, which transforms the former from a judgment seat to one where mercy is offered a sinner on the basis of justice satisfied.

Bengel observed that God, “’placed before the eyes of all’ unlike the ark of the covenant which was veiled and approached only by the high priest.”

The LORD God set forth His Son, the Lord Jesus, as the One who would be the satisfaction for our sins. Because God is satisfied with the payment of the sin debt, His wrath is turned aside, away from the believing sinner. Christ absorbed the wrath of God on our behalf. He bore our punishment as our substitute.

When God looked down upon the sacrifice He judged man 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. That mercy seat is the place were God met man in His grace since the sacrifice turned away the wrath of God because His righteousness was satisfied. 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. He is our expiatory sacrifice that satisfied the righteousness of God. His death paid our debt in full and a holy God was satisfied.

All of the lambs in the sacrifices in the Old Testament pointed to God’s perfect Lamb who would wholly remove our death penalty.

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 on His Son as their sinless sacrifice who died as their propitiation. Bloody sacrifices came to an end in the temple because the death of Christ alone met all the holy demands of a thrice-holy God.

Have you placed your trust in God’s Lamb?

“Christ Much and Christ More”

 Have you ever thought what it would be like if you could not die? How terrible it would be if your body had wasted away with a terrible disease and you could not die. I have conducted many funerals when loved ones have reluctantly said the deceased was better off because he was no longer suffering.

On the other hand, Francis Bacon echoed the attitude of many when he said, “men fear death as children fear the dark.” Apart from an intimate love relationship with Jesus Christ no man is prepared for his encounter with death.

Moreover, death for the believer in Christ is presented in the Bible as an improvement over the very best in this life. How wonderful it would be if Jesus came for us on the very best day this life could offer when everything is going great. It would not be a terrible tragedy. The Apostle Paul’s life was full and he could write, “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain” (Philippians 2:21 NET).

Paul did not say his death would be “better by far” because he wanted to escape this life. The death of the Christian is never portrayed as an escape or improvement on the worst of life.

The heartbeat of Paul’s life was Christ. “For to me to live is Christ and to die is better yet.” Christ was everything to Him.

H. C. G. Moule with keen insight said, “Life and death . . . look to him like two immense blessings, of which he knows not which is the better. On either side of the veil, Jesus Christ is all things to him.” The only difference will be that “on the other side” everything Paul longed for in this life “in Christ” will be more perfectly realized there.

The apostle’s desire was to “depart” and be with Christ. He had tasted the delights of God’s righteousness and longed for freedom from evil that he would never have in this life on the earth. He would know perfect freedom.

For the Christian death will be freedom from all sin, pain, suffering, persecution, cares, etc.

I am sure the apostle Paul had in mind that this freedom would mean that finally he would be like Christ in His perfect righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8). Crowned with His righteousness! It is not our self-righteousness, but our being clothed in righteousness that Christ imputes to us (2 Cor. 5:21).

We will know him as he is known. Every spiritual truth that has puzzled us in this life will be clearly revealed to us in Christ. In that day we will know as he knows (1 Cor. 13:12).

But the blessed thought, most precious of all is we will be with him. Every born again believer will be with Christ. Yes, we know him and he is with us in our present life, but oh the fullness of our knowledge of him and his wonderful, glorious presence when we are with him clothed and crowned with his righteousness!

The Psalmist said, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15 NASB).

For the unbeliever death is an eternal separation from a righteous, loving God. It is something to be feared and dreaded. However, for the believer death is just the opposite; it is also precious to the believer just as it is to God. There will be no separation from him.

Moule says it well. For Paul it was a dilemma “between Christ and Christ, Christ much and Christ more, Christ by faith and Christ by sight.” And that is our dilemma, too.

As you read these words is it true of you? Do you long to be like Christ? Do you long to see Him in all His gory? Do you earnestly desire to be perfect as he is perfect?

The apostle John said, “And everyone who has this hope focused on him purifies himself, just as Jesus is pure” (1 John 3:3 NET).

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

Jesus Will Repay.

And all thou spendest, Jesus will repay. Mary Ann Thompson

Yes We All go Through That

Yes we all go through that experience of fear no matter how long we have walked with Christ.

But He will calm our fears by reminding us of how He walked through difficult and dangerous times before, He will send a brother or sister to encourage us with their reflections on how Jesus walked through the tough and dangerous times with them and or He will assure us through Bible verses. Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah

Christ Died for Me

Salvation is entirely apart from any self-help. We are not saved by imitation of the crucifixion or by Christ’s example, but as Luther concluded, “that high crucifying whereby sin, the devil, and death, are crucified in Christ and not in me.”

The Bible says, “The soul that sins will surely die.” Christ died that we may live. He paid our debt to the righteousness of God. Two thousand years ago Christ paid a moral debt that belonged to you and me. His death secured our freedom from the debt and stamped the receipt “paid in full.” His death released us from all obligation to pay our spiritual debt.

The death of Christ is a historical fact at a time and place, but Christ crucified is also an eternal fact touching all time with equal nearness. The crucifixion of Christ is an ever-present reality in the mind and heart of God. Our reconciliation to God depends entirely upon that central fact of the ages.

By faith we lay our hands upon the head of the Lamb of God who was slain for our sins. In the sacrificial system of the Jewish tabernacle, the person offering the sacrifice laid his hands upon the head of the offering and declared by identification his sins upon that offering. The confessing Christian by faith lays his hand upon the head of God’s perfect sacrifice on his behalf. There is a solemn unity in the suffering of Christ and the believer. Christ made full atonement for the believing sinner. His death for the believer is intensely personal.

There is such an identification that the apostle Paul can say in Romans 6:6, “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.”

Not only did Christ die that we might live, but in a very real sense He died that we might die. “In one death for all, then all die.”

This is all true of us and we accept it by faith. Christ died for us. He bore our sins and paid our penalty. Because of our identity with Him through faith, we have been “crucified with Christ.” My soul says let me hear that Christ died in the stead of sinners, of whom I am chief; that He was forsaken of God, during these fearful agonies, because He had taken my place. On His cross He paid the penalty of my guilt. Let me hear the message that His blood cleanses from all sin, and that I may now appear before the bar of God, not only pardoned, but declared acquitted. I was in effect crucified on Calvary, and He will in effect stand before the throne in my person.

Because of my vital union with Christ, I can declare: His the penalty, mine the salvation; His the shame, mine the glory; His the thorns, mine the crown; His the merit, mine the reward.

May you have a grateful heart towards He who has given so much to you.

indeovi vas ( may you live with Jesus in Latin )

Seleh- stop and think about it.

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006 Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

God is Giving Me

God is giving me strength in my weakness… and He will be the One who finishes this fight instead of me. Petr Jasek

And That’s a Good Thing.

You just can’t hide from God. And that’s a good thing. Because God isn’t just watching you; He’s watching over you. Louie Giglio

Christ Died for Me

Christ Died for Me

Salvation is entirely apart from any self-help. We are not saved by imitation of the crucifixion or by Christ’s example, but as Luther concluded, “that high crucifying whereby sin, the devil, and death, are crucified in Christ and not in me.”

The Bible says, “The soul that sins will surely die.” Christ died that we may live. He paid our debt to the righteousness of God. Two thousand years ago Christ paid a moral debt that belonged to you and me. His death secured our freedom from the debt and stamped the receipt “paid in full.” His death released us from all obligation to pay our spiritual debt.

The death of Christ is a historical fact at a time and place, but Christ crucified is also an eternal fact touching all time with equal nearness. The crucifixion of Christ is an ever-present reality in the mind and heart of God. Our reconciliation to God depends entirely upon that central fact of the ages.

By faith we lay our hands upon the head of the Lamb of God who was slain for our sins. In the sacrificial system of the Jewish tabernacle, the person offering the sacrifice laid his hands upon the head of the offering and declared by identification his sins upon that offering. The confessing Christian by faith lays his hand upon the head of God’s perfect sacrifice on his behalf. There is a solemn unity in the suffering of Christ and the believer. Christ made full atonement for the believing sinner. His death for the believer is intensely personal.

There is such an identification that the apostle Paul can say in Romans 6:6, “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.”

Not only did Christ die that we might live, but in a very real sense He died that we might die. “In one death for all, then all die.”

This is all true of us and we accept it by faith. Christ died for us. He bore our sins and paid our penalty. Because of our identity with Him through faith, we have been “crucified with Christ.” My soul says let me hear that Christ died in the stead of sinners, of whom I am chief; that He was forsaken of God, during these fearful agonies, because He had taken my place. On His cross He paid the penalty of my guilt. Let me hear the message that His blood cleanses from all sin, and that I may now appear before the bar of God, not only pardoned, but declared acquitted. I was in effect crucified on Calvary, and He will in effect stand before the throne in my person.

Because of my vital union with Christ, I can declare: His the penalty, mine the salvation; His the shame, mine the glory; His the thorns, mine the crown; His the merit, mine the reward.

SELAH! Pause – reflect- just think of that!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006 Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

And Still Loves Us.

Jesus has seen us at our worst and still loves us. Randy Alcorn

It is so Sure and Certain That

“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. It is so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.” — Martin Luther