Romans Chapter
Three Lesson 44
Paul
immediately links the redemption effected by Christ, [the release effected by
the payment of a price] which is through faith in His cross work to another
aspect of His work on the cross that of propitiation,
which also accrues to us through faith!
- What Paul demonstrates here is that in the historical
death of Jesus ("in His
blood") this wrath of God found adequate
judicial satisfaction.
- What's in view is the turning away of the wrath of God
by an offering that provides satisfaction.
Propitiation
speaks of the placating or satisfying the wrath of God through the atoning
sacrifice of Christ; not by anything we
can do!
Meaning of Propitiation
In
examining the important truth related to our salvation in view with this term
propitiation we need to note that there are 3 major elements involved:
#1.
Propitiation considers the demands of the Father; by His character;
God can
condone nothing because of His holiness; +R/J;
Sin
deserves punishment and death;
What His
+R demands He must have - perfect holiness/righteousness
What His
Justice demands it must have - sin must be punished.
There
can be no reconciliation between God and man without judicial satisfaction;
This
satisfaction is what propitiation deals with.
#2. The
Cross must be included in any understanding of propitiation.
With a
focus on 2 aspects:
1. The
substitution aspect; He took our place!
2. He
satisfied all of God's demands!
#3. The faith of the unbeliever, the sinner, must be directed toward the only object of
faith, that is, in that finished work of Christ that satisfies the holiness of
God!
Definition: Propitiation is the accomplishment of Christ
whereby the demands of God's righteousness are satisfied.
But this
satisfaction of God is directed only towards those who believe.
It is
available to all; but only effective or realized by faith!
Everything
that my justice requires in terms of punishment for sin has been dealt
with! I am satisfied with what I see
with what Christ did on the Cross!
And all
of this becomes real, effective to each one the moment that they believe, just
believe! Nothing else!!
> Let's look a little closer
at the word propitiation and its use in the New Testament. i`lasth,rion
- its
only used 2x's here and Heb 9:5
1) Christ is not only the propitiation as we find here in
But in
Heb 9:5 we get a slightly different shade of meaning of i`lasth,rion;
that of the place of propitiation; the "mercy seat";
where it is linked back to the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies.
What
Paul is saying here in our context is that Christ is set before all as the one
in whom propitiation is realized and therefore the Cross is now our place of
meeting a Holy God.
2) i`lasmo,j
1 Jn 2:2;
He is
the propitiation for our sins, His work on the cross judicially satisfies the
+R/J of the Father!
* What we have here is the reality that the Shadow of Lev.
16 portrayed very vividly to the
Israelites.
- What I want to focus on is the taking of two goats and bringing them
to the gate of the Tabernacle;
Lev 16
- All this time over the mercy-seat above the Cherubim was the
Shekinah glory, the presence of YHWH looking down.
- What's inside the ark? Just under the mercy seat.
- urn of manna
- Aaron's rod that
budded
- Broken tablets of
the Law
- So what do we have here, a holy and righteous God looking down on
the mercy-seat, the place of covering, and what does He see??
What a
clear illustration; what does God see when he looks at the believer? His sins?? No!!
- The effectiveness of this covering/atonement lay in the fact that it
was a shadow of what we have in Rom 3:25 the reality, Christ becoming the
propitiatory sacrifice which paid the penalty God demanded for man's sin for
all time.
- He passed over in the sense we will find of delaying the actual
payment for the sins of
* After the high priest had finished cleansing the tabernacle and the
altar sprinkling the blood of the first goat, which was for the people of
Israel; he went back out to the 2nd goat, the goat of dismissal or departure or
removal;
There he
confessed the sins of the people over the goat with both his hands on its head;
then it was taken out into the wilderness and turned loose, never to be seen
again!
This was
the overt evidence to the believing Israelite that his/her sins were indeed
forgiven; the covering out of
sight. Psa. 103:11-12
- The many sacrifices offered were never the basis for
forgiveness; the sin was merely covered
until the reality, the cross. Heb 10:4
What about
the reality, Christ as the
"mercy-seat," the place of
propitiation is a "once and for all sacrifice." Heb