The Propitiation Problem

The Bible (at least most translations) uses the word "propitiation" in a few places. So I looked it up. The dictionary says it is "The act of propitiating". Um ... thanks. No, really, what is it? Propitiation is the appeasement of anger, typically in reference to a deity (you know, God). Now, recently I wrote about God's wrath, without which we don't have justice or the righteous recognition of the violation of the Holy. Without wrath we don't have God. And, of course, we don't have ... propitiation.

It is this preference to deny the wrath of God that makes the concept of propitiation a problem. It sounds so ... primitive. There's an angry god and we have to appease him or he'll ... what ... do bad things? He'll explode the volcano? He'll stop the rain? Who knows, but it's not good, I'll tell you that. And, of course, while that god doesn't exist, we're still stuck with a God whose wrath "is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth" (Rom 1:18). While God is not capricious, spewing wrath whenever He is upset, He does have wrath against sin. And while we don't have the capacity of providing a virgin to throw into the volcano or any other sacrifice to appease this wrath, appeasement is still necessary if we're going to have any sort of a positive outcome. Appeasement of God's righteous wrath is expressed, then, in the biblical term, propitiation.

The term shows up at the end of Paul's initial diatribe against Man's sinful condition in Romans 1:18-3:23. He says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 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. 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" (Rom 3:23-26). There's that word -- "propitiation". So with God's wrath revealed, justice required either judgment or propitiation -- appeasement of God's wrath. His wrath was appeased by Christ's blood. The appeasement of God's wrath is applied "by faith". It's all there.

It's there in Hebrews 2:17 where Jesus, our High Priest, made "propitiation for the sins of the people." John assures us that even if we sin we have an Advocate who is "the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 2:1-2). John goes on to define love. It is "not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10).

There are some who have tried to eliminate propitiation. Too primitive. Makes God out to be some sort of monster. Some have substituted "expiation" for "propitiation". "There," they say, "that ought to do it." But expiation isn't propitiation. Expiation is "the act of expiating" (oh, come on!). No, it is simply the removal of sin. It's only the beginning of the story. Propitiation is the full story. Sin is removed -- atoned for -- and God's wrath against our sin is appeased. It is, in that sense, the heart of the Gospel. Christ died to remove our sin and appease God's wrath for our sin. He succeeded beautifully. It is the Atonement, without which we could not have a relationship with God. Expressed on the Cross as "It is finished", our sins are not merely removed, but God's wrath is turned away and we have been given, through no work of our own, a right relationship with God. God's wrath is real, but it's not the end of the story for those who are in Christ. Good news indeed!