What is propitiation?

The word ἱλασμός is from the verb 'to be propitious.' Propitiation represents in scripture that aspect of the death of Christ in which has been vindicated the holy and righteous character of God, and in virtue of which He is enabled to be propitious, or merciful, to the whole world. 1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10. A kindred word (the verb) occurs in Heb. 2:17, where, instead of 'to make reconciliation,' should be read "to make 'propitiation' for the sins of the people." In Rom. 3:25, 'propitiation' (ἱλαστήριον) should be 'mercy seat,' as the same word is, and must be, translated in Heb. 9:5. See ATONEMENT.

The word propitiation occurs but a few times in the New Testament scriptures, yet as presenting to us the redemption work of Christ in its bearing Godward, rather than manward, it is of the greatest possible importance. It is the first and most fundamental thought connected with the death of Christ.

He who is our Advocate on high is also "the propitiation for our sins." This fact brings us back to the rock foundation upon which all rests. By His propitiatory sacrifice every claim of God against us has been met, and He takes up His advocacy with the Father upon that righteous basis. His propitiation has settled for us as sinners the eternal questions which our sins have raised. His advocacy now settles the paternal questions which are raised. when as children of God we sin.

Propitiation is what we may call the Godward side of the death of Christ. It is concerned with the most fundamental matter of all; the meeting of the Divine claims against sin. The meeting of the sinner's need must be secondary to that. Hence when we have the Gospel unfolded by Paul in the epistle to the Romans, we find that the first mention of the death of Christ is "a propitiation through faith in His blood" (Romans 3:25). We do not get substitution clearly stated until reaching Romans 4:25, we read of Him as "delivered for our offences."

Being the Godward aspect of His death the widest possible circle is in view — "the whole world." When the substitutionary side is stated believers only are in view: it is "our offences," or, "the sins of many." But though only believers stand in the realized benefits of the death of Christ, God needs to be propitiated in regard to every sin that ever has been committed by men, in regard to the whole great outrage which sin has wrought. He has been thus propitiated in the death of Christ, and because of this He can freely offer forgiveness to men without compromising in the smallest degree one feature of His nature and character.

Propitiation is a word which often rouses to much wrath and scorn! fulness many opponents of the Gospel. They assume that it means what it does among the heathen — the pacifying by much blood-shedding of some angry, antagonistic and blood-thirsty power. But in the Scriptures the word is lifted on to an altogether higher plane. It still carries the general sense of appeasing or rendering favourable by sacrifice, but there is no ground for regarding God as antagonistic or blood-thirsty. He is infinitely holy. He is righteous in all His ways. He is of eternal majesty. His very nature, all His attributes must receive their due, and be magnified in the exaction of the appropriate penalty: yet He is not against man but for him, for what righteousness has demanded love has supplied. As we read presently in our epistle, "He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). God Himself provided the propitiation. His own Son, who was God, became it. Propitiation, rightly understood, is not a degrading idea but uplifting and ennobling. The only thing degrading is the idea of the matter falsely entertained by those who oppose. They attempt to foist their degraded idea into the Gospel, but the Word of God refutes their idea.

"Christ Jesus … set forth a propitiation through faith in His blood." The word used here is one which signifies the place where propitiation was typically accomplished under law, viz. the mercy-seat. Christ Jesus then is set forth as the mercy-seat, and the propitiation is made in His blood.

Propitiation is presenting to a holy God what the righteousness and holiness of that God necessarily claim, while infinite love has provided, and infinite love has offered, the spotless sacrifice.

By asserting two things. First, that the teaching of the Bible is NOT that God is ill-disposed toward us, a frowning Deity to be continually pacified by propitiatory sacrifices which change His feelings toward us. That is the corrupt heathen conception. The Bible presentation of the truth runs thus, "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 4:10). Far from our having to change His heart toward us by a propitiatory sacrifice, His heart which is toward man is the very source of all our blessing. Our sins had made propitiation necessary, but He Himself provided the necessary sacrifice.

This is the sense of the word in the New Testament--propitiation; God's wrath being appeased in Christ through the shedding of His blood (1 John 2:2; and 4:10).

[3] Propitiation defines the act of covering sin on the basic of a sacrifice. In the tabernacle, the golden propitiatory (the mercy seat) was the cover of the ark (precious symbol of Christ). The blood of the sin offering was placed upon it, a figure of Christ’s blood which makes atonement for sin.

As a general remark it may be said that the blood of the sacrifices in the old dispensation, and therefore the blood of Christ which this typified, was wholly for God. That is, while, as we shall see, there are blessed applications to, and efficacies for, the believer, the blood was offered before all to vindicate the glory and to meet the claims of God on the sinner. Accordingly the first aspect of the value of the blood of Christ is that of PROPITIATION. The meaning and truth of this may be gathered from the action of Aaron with the blood of the sin-offering on the day of atonement. It is said, "And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat eastward," etc. In like manner he was to act with the blood of the goat of the sin-offering. (Lev. 16:14-15.) In addition to this, the blood was to be sprinkled before the mercy-seat, and here seven times because it was for the eye of man. Once was enough for the eye of God. That this spoke of the blood of Christ is shown from the statement of the apostle. He says, "Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth a propitiation (a mercy-seat) through faith in His blood." (Rom. 3: 24, 25.) What, then, did the sprinkling of the blood on the mercy-seat accomplish? To answer this question it must be borne in mind that the mercy-seat in the tabernacle in the wilderness represented God's throne — the throne of Jehovah in the midst of Israel. Hence He was said to dwell between the cherubim. (Ps. 80:1, etc.) The blood put upon the mercy-seat met, therefore, the claims of God's throne upon the sinner. It answered all the claims of a holy God (we speak now of the blood of Christ) upon guilty sinners. It was the vindication of His holy government, and inasmuch as it both satisfied His righteous claims upon man as a sinner, and glorified Him in every attribute of His character, it laid the ground on which He could righteously pardon every sinner that approached Him trusting in the value of the sprinkled blood. This was propitiation — the propitiation which is the foundation on which God can now deal in grace with the whole world, and thus send out, through His ambassadors, the entreating message to all - the vilest and the guiltiest — to be reconciled to Him. (2 Cor. 5:20-21.) Hence, too, John, speaking of Christ, says, "And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." (1 John 2:2.)

As a general remark it may be said that the blood of the sacrifices in the old dispensation, and therefore the blood of Christ which this typified, was wholly for God. That is, while, as we shall see, there are blessed applications to, and efficacies for, the believer, the blood was offered before all to vindicate the glory and to meet the claims of God on the sinner. Accordingly the first aspect of the value of the blood of Christ is that of PROPITIATION. The meaning and truth of this may be gathered from the action of Aaron with the blood of the sin-offering on the day of atonement. It is said, "And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat eastward," etc. In like manner he was to act with the blood of the goat of the sin-offering. (Lev. 16:14-15.) In addition to this, the blood was to be sprinkled before the mercy-seat, and here seven times because it was for the eye of man. Once was enough for the eye of God. That this spoke of the blood of Christ is shown from the statement of the apostle. He says, "Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth a propitiation (a mercy-seat) through faith in His blood." (Rom. 3:24-25.) What, then, did the sprinkling of the blood on the mercy-seat accomplish? To answer this question it must be borne in mind that the mercy-seat in the tabernacle in the wilderness represented God's throne — the throne of Jehovah in the midst of Israel. Hence He was said to dwell between the cherubim. (Ps. 80:1, etc.) The blood put upon the mercy-seat met, therefore, the claims of God's throne upon the sinner. It answered all the claims of a holy God (we speak now of the blood of Christ) upon guilty sinners. It was the vindication of His holy government, and inasmuch as it both satisfied His righteous claims upon man as a sinner, and glorified Him in every attribute of His character, it laid the ground on which He could righteously pardon every sinner that approached Him trusting in the value of the sprinkled blood. This was propitiation — the propitiation which is the foundation on which God can now deal in grace with the whole world, and thus send out, through His ambassadors, the entreating message to all - the vilest and the guiltiest — to be reconciled to Him. (2 Cor. 5:20-21.) Hence, too, John, speaking of Christ, says, "And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." (1 John 2:2.)