WHAT THE CROSS MEANT TO GOD THE FATHER: PROPITITATION ---

Romans 3:25

When it comes to the cross most church-going people know the story pretty well. We know the….

...who of the cross—Jesus Christ.

...where of the cross—Jerusalem, Palestine.

...when of the cross—early first century. A.D., in the year of our Lord.

...what of the cross—Roman crucifixion.

But it is the….

...why of the cross that remains unanswered for most people.

A few years back when the movie “The Passion of the Christ” came out there was a huge initial controversy. The Jewish community felt the movie blamed them for initiating Jesus’ death and was thus anti-Semitic. Well, they were behind the crucifixion. The Romans were depicted as blood-thirsty, heartless, brutal men as portrayed by the soldiers, and they were. In fact, we are all guilt of Jesus’ death because of our sins. But the bottom-line, which may surprise and shock you is, God the Father had Jesus killed! The death of Jesus was not a human accident; it was a divine appointment.

- Acts 2:22-23 “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.”

- Revelation 13:8 declares that Christ was ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Did you get that? It says that before God ever created anything, seen or unseen, through God’s omniscience He foresaw man’s sin and the joint determination was made that God the Son would die. God saw the need and provided His own remedy. “The cross was already a fact in eternity in the mind of God, though it had not yet appeared in time,” F. J. Huegel, The Cross through the Scriptures, p. 13.

- 1 Peter 1:18-20 “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were...redeemed...with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last time for you.”

How many enjoy learning difficult stuff? If given the choice, how many would rather stay with the simple stuff? That would be all of us. When it comes to terms and concepts in the Bible our usually reaction is either to ignore them or to dumb down anything that might offend us or contradict human wisdom.

Let’s work on one of those difficult Bible words: propitiation. That word only appears in three New Testament passages, but it is essential to our understanding of God’s the Father’s view of the cross.

· “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare his righteousness for sins that are past, through the forbearance of God,” Romans 3:25.

· Referring to Jesus Christ 1 John 2:2 says, “And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

· The final verses is in 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 for our sins.”

Definition: Propitiation...to satisfy the demands of divine justice; an offering that turns away wrath.

1. Propitiation Confirms Man’s Guilt.

Look over these three references that speak about “propitiation” and what do you see? All three of these Scriptures connect it to our sin.

· 1 John 2:2 “Propitiation for our sins...the sins of the whole world.”

· 1 John 4:10 “Propitiation for our sins.”

· Romans 3:25 “Propitiation...for the remission of sins.”

There you have it in no uncertain terms: we are sinners. Not slight sinners, but serious sinners. The whole planet is infested with sin. Every human being is a sinner by birth, a sinner by nature and a sinner by choice. Our sin is our rebellion against God, a determined defiance of God, a calloused choice to disobey God in the face of everything we know is right.

God cannot just overlook our sins, because He is a God of holiness and justice. He can’t pretend they do not exist because He is a God of truth.

And because of the love of God, in the face how serious our sinful condition is, God’s only option was to do what would otherwise be impossible.

2. Propitiation Conveyed God’s Gift.

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 for our sins.”

That first phrase, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us,” is only half the equation. God’s love cannot cancel God’s holy hatred of sin, our sin, yet there is no conflict between love and anger.

God’s only answer for our sins was in love to put His Son on the cross to turn away His own wrath. God sent his Son to shield us from what J. I . Packer calls, “the nightmare prospect of retributive justice by becoming our representative substitute, in obedience to His Father’s will, and receiving the wages of sin in our place,” Knowing God, p. 189. John Piper says Christ was send “to absorb the wrath of God,” Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, pp. 20-21.

In pagan circles devotees offer their best to appease or placate idol deities that they presume are powerful and potentially angry. In India, Hindus worship 330 million gods that they must somehow satisfy. People who practice “voodoo” in Haiti set out dishes of food to appeals their gods.

But, the teaching of the Bible is God Himself propitiated His wrath by His own offering! And God’s anger is not capricious, arbitrary, or petty. God’s wrath is His righteous reaction toward sinful behavior that contradicts His holiness. God himself took the initiative in quenching his own wrath against those whom he loved and had chosen to save in Christ.

3. Propitiation Called for Christ’s Grief.

· Isaiah 53:10-11b “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied…”

Oh, the “grief” of our Savior! He was a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” To us, His grief was immeasurable. How could we possible measure what Jesus Christ endured on the cross?

· One Man, suffering for billions of people - past, present and future.

· One who was sinless, dying for the sins of sinners.

· One who suffered in time for our eternity.

Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

Three things are absolutely astonishing about the suffering and death of Christ for sinner.

First, all of it was God’s idea. The crucifixion was not a plan gone bad, with Jesus dying by a unforeseen crucifixion.

Second, that God was totally satisfied by the offering of His Son for our sins. How could the Lord be “pleased” to have His Son “bruised”? God the Father would see the “travail of his soul” and “be satisfied.” Ephesians 5:2 that to God the Father Christ’s death was “a sweetsmelling savour.” Christ’s suffering was like a fragrance to God.

Third, that for our sakes God would do the improbable: His holy wrath was poured out on His own perfect, sinless Son so that we would not have to be punished for our sins.

God could not extend His saving grace to sinners until His holy justice was satisfied.

God does not wait in some kind of angry pout until we come to Him and bring some gift to appease Him. What could we bring God?

Jesus did not “win over” a hard-hearted, reluctant, angry Father through His painful death.

It was only the work of Christ on the cross that has perfectly satisfied God with regard to sin. Why did God do it this way? “Because He is an infinite God of infinite holiness, all sins committed against Him are infinite in magnitude. Only a gift of infinite value could turn away the infinite wrath of God. And only God Himself (in the Person of His Son) could make such an infinite gift,” Ray Pritchard, In the Shadow of the Cross, p. 112.

In the 14th century, Robert the Bruce, next in line to the Scottish crown, led the fight to gain independence from England. At one point in the conflict, the English were about to capture him. He escaped into the forest, so they put bloodhounds on his trail.

When Robert the Bruce heard the dogs baying loudly as they closed in on him, he headed for a stream that flowed through the forest, plunged in, and waded upstream a distance. Coming out on the other bank, he was now in the depths of the forest.

Within minutes, the hounds, tracing Robert the Bruce's steps, came to the bank, but they went no farther. The English soldiers urged them on, but the trail was broken. The stream had carried the scent away. A short time later, the crown of Scotland rested on the head of Robert the Bruce.

The wrath of God pursues us like those baying dogs. But a stream flows red with the blood of God's own Son. This stream breaks the trail of God's anger.

The Bible says…

Propitiation’s Reach is Universal. “...propitiation for our sins: and...also for the sins of the whole world,” 1 John 2:2.

Propitiation’s Reason is God’s Love.

· 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 for our sins.”

· 1 John 4:19 “We love Him, because He first loved us.”

· John 3:16 “God so loved the world that He gave…”

Propitiation Required Christ’s Blood. “Propitiation through faith in His blood,” Romans 3:25. God does not require: penance, performance; or promises. For anyone to add anything to the blood of Christ is absurd. It was not Jesus’ life or teaching or example, but His blood that now shields us from God’s punishment.

Propitiation Restrains God’s Wrath, Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” Propitiation is necessary because sin arouses the wrath of God. God’s wrath is never unpredictable, but always predictable, because it is provoked by evil. Liberal theology declares that there is in God no such thing as anger occasioned by human sin. John Murray said, “God loved the objects of His wrath so much that He gave His own Son to the end that He by His blood should make provision for the removal of His wrath.” Think about it. God made the children of wrath the children of His pleasure. You see, man was alienated from God by sin and God was alienated from man by wrath. And by Jesus Christ, sin is overcome and wrath is averted. Now, God can look on man without displeasure and man can look on God without fear.

Propitiation Reveals God’s Righteousness. “...to declare His righteousness,” Romans 3:25. That word “declare” means to “put on public display.”

Propitiation is Received by Personal Faith. “Propitiation through faith in His blood,” Romans 3:25.

Every sinner is now invited to humbly receive Christ and His work by faith, just simple, child-like trust.

Try to imagine a heaven full of people who had earned their right to be there, like a political dinner where the supporters pay $1,000 a plate to attend. What arrogance and boasting. What cliques and class distinctions. What arguments and suspicions. Heaven would not be heaven long under all those circumstances.

Now think about heaven the way the Bible talks about it. Since salvation is God’s gift that is freely offered based only on Christ’s sacrifice that was willingly made, there will not be a trace of boasting. While salvation benefits us for eternity, salvation is to the praise of God’s glory and grace.

Now consider Romans 3:24 and 26, the verses that surround the doctrine of “propitiation.”

· v. 24. The Bible says we are “justified freely.” The word “freely” means “without a cause.” God saves us, in spite of the fact, that there isn’t a single reason to do so. Salvation is a “free gift” to those who believe. This is so, so hard for most people. They want to “do” something to help God save them. If I said you can be justified for $50, we would scrap it together and pay it. Right? If we had to walk 100 miles, we would lace them up, get in a line, and make our way toward the finish line. But when I say, “Free, free, God’s salvation is free,” something in us rebels against it. Either you take it freely, or you don’t take it at all!

· v. 26. By God doing what He did, the way He did it, He remains “just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” This means, God is just to punish the unbeliever for eternity and God is the justifier of those who turn and believe in Jesus Christ.

What God demanded He supplied only in His own Son. The objects of God’s wrath can now be the objects of God’s forgiveness through the offering made by God’s Son.

There is only one hope for us. The infinite wisdom of God made a way for the love of God to satisfy the wrath of God through the Son of God so that we might receive freely the gift of God and become forever the children of God.

William Cowper lived in England more than 200 years ago. He had a nervous disposition and often struggled with bouts and severe depression. At one point he become extremely depressed, fearing he was under the wrath of God.

“I flung myself into a chair by the window and there saw the Bible on the table by the chair. I opened it up and my eyes fell on Romans 3:25, which says of Christ, ‘Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood.’ Then and there, I realized what Christ’s blood had accomplished and I realized the effects of His atonement for me. I realized God was willing to justify me, and then and there, I trusted Jesus Christ and a great burden was lifted from my soul.”

Looking back on that day, William Cowper wrote a hymn that we now stand and sing.

“There is a fountain filled with blood

Drawn from Immanuel’s veins.

And sinners plunged beneath that flood

Lose all their guilty stain.”