The most important word in the Bible!
Propitiation sermon
Years ago one of my professors said,
“If I had to chose between the OT or the NT, I would not want to have to choose but if I had to choose, I would choose the New Testament.
If I had to choose my favorite book of the New Testament I would choose the book of Romans.
If I had to choose my favorite chapter of Romans I would choose chapter 3.
If I had to choose my favorite paragraph in Romans chapter 3 I would choose verses 23-26.
If I had to choose my favorite verse in verses 23-26 I would choose verse 25.
If I had to choose my favorite word in verse 25 I would choose propitiation.”
When I heard this rhetorical flourish I wondered if my professor was engaging in hyperbole. I no longer wonder. I think propitiation is one of the most important words in the bible. It is also my favorite word in the Bible. That is because if we understand propitiation we understand the very heart and soul of the Christian faith.
I recently wrote a paper on propitiation for a class I took. While writing this paper I became more and more convinced that I needed to preach a sermon on this topic. The paper goes into much more detail than the sermon can and there are ten copies of the paper at the welcome center free for the taking.
To convince you that Propitiation is one of the most important words in the Bible we will look at three things-
Propitiation defined
Propitiation defended
Propitiation applied
First, propitiation defined
What does the word propitiation mean?
Propitiation is found in most Standard English dictionaries and it means to exhaust wrath. This word shows up four times in the NT (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2; and 1 John 4:10).
A little knowledge of Bible translation theory is helpful here (don’t worry not too much). The New Testament was written 2000 years ago in Greek. Four times in the NT the Greek word group Hilaskomai shows up. All Greek scholars agree that the Greek word group Hilaskomai meant to exhaust wrath. So Bible translators look for a word today that also means to exhaust wrath and the word the best fits that description is the word English word propitiation.
So propitiation means that God’s wrath has been exhausted. The key word is exhausted. Let me illustrate this…
Illustration-
I recently played tennis with my friend Nate Williams who played for the Naval Academy in college. I have only played tennis twice in the last 5 months or so and so I new I was going to be a bit out of shape for Tuesdays match up. But I had no clue how out of shape I really was. Within 30 minutes I was totally exhausted.
Sprinting across the baseline, sprinting to the net, back to the baseline, across the baseline, and Nate never missed. Every ball came back…. This went on for about 30 minutes. I knew I was in trouble because we usually play tennis for 90 minutes and I was not even 1/3 of the way done.
Several times I had to stop and put my hands on my knees.
I was drenched in sweat (socks, shorts, shirt, headband)
My lungs were on fire, my stomach muscles were on fire, my thighs were about to cramp up. Now I asked for a water break about every four minutes.
Towards the end I had nothing left. I was exhausted. If Nate had offered me $100 to play 1 more minutes I would have said no. There was nothing left in the tank… I was exhausted.
Propitiation means that God’s wrath is exhausted. There is no wrath in the tank. There is none left for us if we are Christians because it has all been spent on Jesus. This is the essence of propitiation.
No matter what you have done, there is no wrath, no punishment, and no judgment for you!!! Because of propitiation it would be unjust of God to ever punish Christians if he already punished his son.
Objection!
Some Bible translations don’t use the word propitiation in the four verses where Hilaskomai is used.
Why? There are several reasons but the main reason the word propitiation is not used is because the word propitiation assumes that God is angry and this deeply offends certain people.
CH Dodd dropped a bomb in the world of Biblical Studies when he published The Bible and the Greeks in 1935. This book overturned the view that propitiation should be used when translating the Hilaskomai word group. To make a long story short he argued that a better translation of Hilaskomai is not propitiation but expiation. To expiate means to remove sin and to propitiate means to appease wrath.
As a result some Bible translations do not use the word propitiation.
I’m sure many of you can sympathize with CH Dodd. The thought of the wrath of God may seem to contradict the love of God. Hopefully when I’m done this morning you will understand that the wrath of God does not contradict the love of God on the contrary it highlights the love of God.
I firmly believe that the word propitiation and not expiation should be used in Romans 3:25. But can I prove this???
Propitiation defined
Second, propitiation defended
Propitiation can be defended Biblically!
In a moment we will look at Romans 3:23-26. But first we must understand the surrounding context of this paragraph, which many argue is the most important paragraph in the Bible. Context determines the meaning of words in the Bible and there are several hints of God’s wrath in the surrounding context justifying the use of propitiation in 3:25.
Romans 1:18 (ESV) — 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Romans 2:5,9-10 (ESV) — 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed…9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.
Romans 3:5–6 (ESV) — 5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world?
Romans 1:18-3:20 is graphic description of God’s wrath hurdling towards sinners.
We had a major problem, all of us! Because of our sins we deserve to face the unmitigated wrath of God. This is where many of us really struggle.
God I’m not that bad! (The standard is Jesus)
God why can’t you just overlook my sins? (God’s Justice is perfect)
God why are you so angry with us? (God takes our sin personally because we break his laws)
My window shattering!!!
The bottom line is that it is very difficult for us to comprehend how perfect and pure God is. Because of his perfections he must punish sinners. His wrath is his perfect justice in action.
The context of Romans 1-3 is the wrath of God. With this in mind we can now look at Romans 3:23-26, focusing on verse 25a.
Romans 3:23–26 (ESV) — 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Paul tells us in Romans 3:25a that God the Father put forward his son as a propitiation by his blood.
Romans chapters 1-3 make it clear that we deserve to experience the wrath of God because of our sins. But 3:25 tells us that Jesus was put forward as a propitiation by his blood. Which means that Jesus exhausted the wrath of God by dying (shedding his blood).
But why was Jesus placed on the cross? He was placed on the cross because all of the guilt for all our sins was transferred from our shoulders to his shoulders. As a result of this transfer he took the wrath that we deserved. Since he took the wrath that we deserved there is no wrath remaining for us. God’s wrath has been exhausted in his son in our place.
Since the Father knew that Jesus would be a propitiatory sacrifice he was able to pass over the sins of all the Old Testament saints (see the last clause of verse 25) while remaining Just. He did not pour out wrath on David, Joseph, Abraham, or Rahab because he know he would pour it out on his son in their place.
Jesus knew wrath was coming towards him while he was in the garden. While in the Garden of Gethseme a few days before his death Jesus asks his father if he can avoid drinking “the cup”. The cup was an Old Testament metaphor for the wrath of God (Ps. 75:8, Isa. 51:17, Jer 25:15-28, Ezek. 23:32-34, Hab 2:16). The thought of absorbing the stored up wrath of God on the cross for all the saints of all time distressed Christ, and you can see why.
But he did not back down from this assignment but he drank every last drop of the cup of his father’s wrath in the place of sinners.
All of this leads us to the incredibly good news of Romans 5:1-2….
Romans 5:1–2 (ESV) — 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
The only way to get from Romans 1:18-3:20 to Paul’s glorious declaration in Romans 5:1 is through propitiation. There was once wrath hurdling towards us but now we are at peace with God. The only possible explanation that maintains the integrity of God’s justice and Love is the concept of propitiation.
Through propitiation a Christian is no longer an enemy of God but at peace with God!
Not only can propitiation be defended biblically….
Propitiation can be defended theologically!
I mentioned earlier that CHDodd argued against propitiation on linguistic grounds but behind this was his distaste for the notion of a God of retributive wrath. In response Leon Morris argued that the wrath of God is mentioned over 580 times in the Old Testament alone using 20 different words.[1] Dodd admitted that the wrath of God was in the Bible but it was an impersonal non-retributive wrath that allowed people to experience the natural consequences for their sins. Dodd could not stomach the notion that God was angry with sinners. The overall problem with Dodd’s portrayal of God’s wrath is the fact that the Bible describe God’s wrath as very personal (Is. 30: 27-30; 45:7; Eze 7:8-9: Ps. 60:1-3).
Furthermore, if God is not angry with sinners it is hard to understand the graphic descriptions of hell in the Bible. Hell is described as
Darkness (Matt 8:10-12),
destruction (Matt 7:13),
eternal fire (Jude 7),
eternal punishment (Matt 25:46),
everlasting destruction (2 Thes 1:8-9),
a lake of fire (Rev 20:14-15),
unquenchable fire (Luke 3:17),
and a place of intense suffering (Rev 14:9-11).
God does not merely give sinners over to their desires he punishes them for all eternity because he is deeply offended and angry.
Key differences
At this point it is important to explain some key distinctions between God’s anger and our anger.
What is the first thing you think of when you hear anger? A three year old who wants his toy back, spouses yelling and screaming, or a severe case of road rage!
God’s anger is not like any of these things. The Bible says over and over again that God is very slow to anger and his anger is always justified.
James Packer writes,
“What manner of thing is the wrath of God that was propitiated at the Calvary? It is not the capricious, arbitrary, bad-tempered, and conceited anger that pagans attribute to their gods. It is not the sinful, resentful, malicious, infantile anger that we find among humans. It is a function of that holiness which is expressed in the demands of God’s moral law (‘be holy, because I am holy’ 1 Peter 1:16), and of that righteousness which is expressed in God’s acts of judgment and reward.”[2]
We have defended the use of propitiation in our English Bible’s biblically and theologically.
It means to exhaust the wrath of God!
Illustration: listen to this recent news story.
“Grammy award-winning singer Lauryn Hill was sentenced Monday to three months in federal prison for failing to pay taxes on more than $2 million in earnings during a five-year period.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in Newark, N.J. federal court also sentenced the famed rapper and actress to three months of home confinement with electronic monitoring after the prison term. Hill must also serve a year of supervised release and pay a $60,000 fine in addition to paying her tax debt to the IRS.
Hill is a 37-year-old South Orange, N.J. resident who won fame as a member of the Fugees and then launched a solo career that included the Grammy-winning The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill . She pleaded guilty last year in the tax case.
In a courtroom statement to Arleo, Hill said she had always intended to pay the overdue taxes eventually, but found herself unable to raise the money during a period when she had dropped out of the music business.”
Lauryn Hill broke the law by not paying her taxes as a result she needs to pay a penalty which includes 3 months in prison, 3 months of house arrest, and paying some hefty fines.
Lets pretend it is a year from now. Ms. Hill has down her time in Jail and she has paid her fines. What it be just if she was sent back to prison for the same crimes? Of course not! She already paid her penalty. Justice has been served.
In a similar sense Justice has been served for us but so many of us walk around thinking that God is still out to get us. He is still waiting to pounce on us. Yes God’s disciplines those he loves but there is no wrath remaining for us because of propitiation.
Since God poured out all the wrath that we deserved on his son there is absolutely no wrath remaining for us. Not even a little drop.
Even if you keep on sinning….
Propitiation defined
Propitiation defended
Third, propitiation applied
Propitiation can be applied in many different ways…
Propitiation displays the Father’s love!
The fact that the father would crush his only beloved son instead of crushing sinners is hard to even comprehend. It sounds scandalous and in one sense it is.
So often we think of Jesus as the one who loves us but we are not too sure about the father. He seems so angry. But we must never forget that it was Jesus who sent the son to suffer and die for us. Jesus did not die quietly in his sleep, he did not die quickly from a knife wound, and he did not die with his friends around. The Father knew all of this. He knew that his son would be tortured, humiliated, and unjustly accused yet he still sent him because he loves sinners.
Love motivated him to send the son and the son came willingly. If you’re a Christian it is because the triune God loves you!
The wrath of the Father highlights the love of the Father (we can only see the stars against the back drop of darkness).
Propitiation displays the Father’s love.
Propitiationkeeps us from Doubt!
When do you doubt God’s love?
Loss of a loved one?
Loss of a job?
Crippling depression?
Mean boss?
Marital conflict?
Your kids are driving you crazy?
No job?
When life gets touch it is easy to think that God no longer loves us. But we must never ever forget that he loved us so much that he has taken care of our greatest problem.
It is hard to imagine what else God could do to show you he loves you by crushing his son in your place????
God sending his son to be your propitiation is more loving than
God giving you a billion dollars
God giving you a lifetime of perfect health
God giving you that promotion you have wanted…
Etc…
Because he crushed his son in your place you will go to heaven for all eternity, you will have all your sins removed, you will be adopted by God, and someday you will never know pain, suffering, or want. All of this because of propitiation.
When your doubt God’s love remind yourself of propitiation.
Propitiation displays the father’s love
Propitiation keeps us from doubt
Propitiation ensures Gospel astonishment
If you’re like me you go through seasons where you are frequently un- astonished by the gospel. The older I get the more I realize that the key to any spiritual growth in any area of my life is being routinely amazed by the grace of God. One of the main reasons we are not amazed by the grace of God and therefore not transformed by the grace of God is that we forget what we deserved.