For the past several weeks, we have with due diligence considered what the Bible teaches us concerning atonement and why Christ’s atonement is necessary for our salvation. In the Old Testament, the animal sacrifices that were offered as burnt offerings to atone for sin foreshadowed the bloody and substitutionary nature of Christ’s atonement. The sacrifices that were performed in the tabernacle, under the Aaronic priesthood, according to the Mosaic Law, and on behalf of the Israelites, foreshadowed the particularity of that ultimate atonement. Mankind has sinned against a holy God, and because of that, a payment of death is required. Lest we bear the eternal punishment ourselves, we need an atonement for our sin, a lamb that is without blemish. We need a high priest who can offer up the perfect sacrifice that would not just cover up our sin as the Old Testament sacrifices did, but to be a once-for-all sacrifice that would be acceptable to God on behalf of God’s chosen people. Jesus Himself is our great High Priest, who offered up Himself as our perfect sacrifice. He is the Lamb of God who is without blemish and “…was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25).

In fact, the atonement of Christ is so complete in its removal of sin for all the elect from all the ages, that the New Testament writers use another word to describe this transaction: propitiation. Now there’s a word I don’t hear in most people’s everyday vocabulary! Yet, the meaning behind this word is central to the gospel itself, and the New Testament writers were not shy in using it in their gospel presentations. According to Paul, Jesus Christ is the one “…whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith” (Romans 3:25). The writer of Hebrews had this to say regarding Christ’s propitiation: “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). And finally, the apostle John wrote, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2), and “In this 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 4:10).

What does it mean to propitiate? Simply speaking, to propitiate is to appease or gain the favor of God. God is holy, and because of the Fall we are sinful and unholy by nature. Consider these striking words from the apostle Paul: “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds” (Romans 2:5-6). This is not talking about merely storing up a sin debt that you will one day be held accountable for, as though somehow God is not wrathful toward you now but will just unleash it all on Judgment Day: it’s much worse than that. If you are outside of Christ and still in your sin, God’s anger is kindled against you right now! The Bible warns that God is angry with the wicked every day (Psalm 7:11) and the wrath of God abides on you (John 3:36). But God, who is rich in mercy, provided the way of escape from His eternal wrath through His Son, Jesus Christ. If you repent of your sin and put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, God will forgive you of your sin on the basis of the bloody payment that Christ offered on the cross. You deserve to perish because of your sin, but instead Christ died and became your perfect substitute. Once you are in Christ, God is no longer storing up His wrath against you, because His wrath was satisfied through the finished work of Jesus!

Propitiation is indeed a wondrous doctrine that truly brings meaning to the gospel. A real transaction took place on that cross, Christ truly did bear your sin in His body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). Jesus did not die to provide a hypothetical atonement that can be applied to everyone as long as they make a decision to believe in Him: if you are numbered among Christ’s sheep, He propitiated the Father on behalf of you. He entered into the Holy of Holies as our faithful High Priest, and made atonement on behalf of you! Christ’s atonement is a definite atonement, and you can be absolutely sure that all your sins – past, present, and future – were paid in full by His blood. Have you ever wondered why the day of the crucifixion took place during Passover and not on the Day of Atonement? As we have touched on throughout this series, animal sacrifices were never meant to remove our sin, but only to cover it temporarily. Why? Because we need a human representative to take away our sin. God was able to, in His forbearance, pass over the sins previously committed (Romans 3:25), but His wrath ultimately remained unappeased. There was no real payment that could be made through a slain animal. But unlike the animal sacrifices of old, our Lord lived the perfect life as a man, and was therefore the only sacrifice that is acceptable to God. The shedding of Christ’s blood was a real propitiation, and the ultimate evidence of God’s validation of this propitiatory sacrifice is when He raised Christ from the dead three days later. Though the Day of Atonement was a fuzzy picture of the atoning work of Christ, the end result of Christ’s sacrifice is so vastly different from all the animal sacrifices that came before it. Jesus our Passover Lamb did what the Day of Atonement could never accomplish: He completely removed all of our sins! If you are in Christ, it is because of His shed blood that the wrath of God passes over you just as the Lord passed over the Israelites who had put the blood of lambs on their doorposts. Christ Himself drank the bitter cup of God’s wrath that was reserved for us!

The doctrine of limited atonement, when studied in depth, reveals itself to be a truly beautiful doctrine and sheds light on the very meaning of the gospel in a way that universal atonement simply cannot replicate. It is truly a joyous thing to know that Christ really died for me while I was yet a sinner. It brings me to a place of true humility to realize that my salvation has nothing to do with me; it is all for His eternal glory. I am part of an eternal love offering between God the Father and God the Son, and it is solely by His grace that I can “…know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1:18-19).