Propitiation

... whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Rom 3:25-26)

An important text. You can see from the outset that it's the middle of a thought. You know, "all have sinned" and such, where we are "justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus" (Rom 3:23-24) ... which is the "whom" to whom that "whom" is referring at the beginning of the text above. It says that God displayed Jesus Christ publicly as "a propitiation." Now, just what is a "propitiation"? We have a related term -- propitious. It originally meant "favorably disposed toward someone." Propitiation is "atonement" with its root idea being to "appease." That is, the idea is to appease someone for an offense given. To take away wrath.

Well, now, that won't do, right? I mean God isn't a God of wrath, right? He's a God of love. He smiles down on us. We don't need some ancient version of an angry god. At least, that's what we tell ourselves. Scripture says something different. The text above is in the third chapter of Paul's letter to Rome. That letter set out in the first chapter to explain how "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth" (Rom 1:18). He spent most of three chapters laying out our big, big problem of sin -- a problem for which God is rightly angry. So, when we get to verse 21 of the third chapter, we're left standing with a load of God's wrath over our shoulders and no way out.

This is when we arrive at "propitiation." No one is justified by the law, Paul says (Rom 3:20), but God's righteousness is manifested apart from the law (Rom 3:21). God's righteousness is manifested by justifying those who believe "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom 3:24). How does God justly declare the unjust just? Because Jesus paid the price ("redemption"). In that, God's just wrath was propitiated. In Christ's shed blood (Rom 3:24) God was appeased. One of the most amazing parts of that reality is that God initiated it (Rom 3:25).

A lot of people get a little uptight about "propitiation." They don't want to think about an angry God. God, on the other hand, declares it. Demands it. And in that righteous anger we discover a truly remarkable gospel -- Good News. We discover a just God who justifies (Rom 3:26) people who were without hope. I need that propitiation.