Christ: Our Propitiation

“All who believe … are justified … 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.”
—Romans 3:22, 24–25

The sacrifice of Christ upon the cross is one of those theological diamonds for which—no matter how many times we examine it—new facets of beauty are always being revealed. As many have said, the waters of the gospel are like a vast ocean in which we can plunge to the depths but we cannot reach the bottom.

The Bible speaks of Christ’s death not simply as a sacrifice but as a propitiatory sacrifice. The word “propitiation” is a theological term which means “averting the wrath of God by the offering of a gift.” On the cross, Christ received the full outpouring of His Father’s righteous wrath against the sins of His people, and with His own blood, He satisfied God’s just anger against sin and diverted God’s wrath from us to Himself. A simple way to understand this is to say Christ became our substitute.

We need a propitiator.

God’s Righteous Wrath

The idea of God’s wrath is a foreign topic nowadays. In fact, even to mention God’s wrath is to evoke rejection by our hearers. “God would never be that harsh.” “I thought God was love, not wrath.” “Surely God wouldn’t send anyone to hell.” “Doesn’t God say that He loves sinners?” These are but a few of the prevalent objections to this divine attribute that so often offends modern sensibilities.

Our problem with God’s wrath springs from the fact that we consider wrath in human categories rather than divine. That is, we conclude that God must be like us when He expresses His wrath, a morally monstrous and vindictive person who threatens, “You just watch out—I’m going to get you!” But this is not the God of Scripture, for God’s wrath is in perfect accord with His perfect righteousness, holiness, and justice. God can’t be divided into various parts, as if He had multiple personalities. Since He is both infinite mercy and infinite justice, this requires that every single one of our sins committed against His infinite holiness be punished. Paul reminds us: “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

The biblical authors do not shy away from speaking of God’s wrath:

• “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.” (Psalm 7:11)

• “I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes.” (Ezekiel 25:17)

• “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful.” (Nahum 1:2)

• “The wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:36)

• “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness…” (Romans 1:18)

While some divide God into a wrathful Old Testament “tyrant” and a benevolent New Testament “daddy,” a consistent reading of both Testaments reveals that the presentation of God’s wrath is wholly consistent throughout Scripture.

J. I. Packer rightly stated:

“God’s wrath in the Bible is never the capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is, instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil.”¹

There is no greater display of divine love than the horrific display of God’s wrath poured out on sin at the cross. There, God unleashed His holy fury upon our sin-bearer and substitute, Jesus Christ, who became for us “a propitiation by His blood” (Rom. 3:25). The good news is that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15).

Jesus is our propitiator.

What Is Propitiation?

The word propitiation may seem unfamiliar, but it is vital to understanding the gospel. The noun form appears in:

• “He is the propitiation for our sins…” (1 John 2:2)

• “God… sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10)

The verb form appears in Luke 18:13, where the tax collector prays, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” and again in Hebrews 2:17, “[Jesus] had to be made like His brothers… to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

Propitiation is also related to the “mercy seat” in Hebrews 9:5—the gold covering over the ark where the high priest sprinkled sacrificial blood. The mercy seat symbolized God's covering of sin through atonement. Christ is now that true mercy seat, offering His own blood in our place.

In Romans 3:24–25, Paul proclaims that Christ was “put forward as a propitiation by His blood.” In the Old Testament, animal sacrifices covered sin symbolically. But Christ, as our High Priest, offered not another's blood but His own. He fully removed our guilt by absorbing God’s wrath.

All the Old Testament sacrifices pointed forward to this: the ultimate, final offering on the cross. There, Jesus Christ turned aside the wrath of God from His people by fully satisfying divine justice.

Puritan theologian John Owen summarized propitiation this way:

1. An offense to be taken away (our sin)

2. A person offended (God)

3. An offender (sinners)

4. A sacrifice (Jesus Christ)²

God loved the very objects of His wrath so much that He gave His Son to bear it in their place. Those who were once enemies are now reconciled.

Reconciliation

Propitiation leads to reconciliation. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were cast out from God’s presence (Gen. 3:22–24). Their sin created an impassable chasm. As Isaiah wrote, “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God” (Isa. 59:2). No amount of human effort could span this gulf.

But even as God pronounced judgment, He declared hope (Gen. 3:15). From the beginning, reconciliation was in His plan.

In the New Testament, “to reconcile” means to exchange enmity for peace. Paul uses this word to describe the reconciliation of spouses (1 Cor. 7:11) and, most significantly, the restoration between God and man (Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:18–20).

In Colossians 1:20–22, Paul intensifies the term, teaching that God “reconciled to Himself all things… by the blood of His cross.” He reminds believers that through Christ’s death, we who were “hostile in mind” have now been “reconciled… in order to present [us] holy and blameless.”

In other words, the wrath once against us is gone. The guilt once ours is covered. God has made peace through the blood of His Son.

The Heart of the Gospel

J. I. Packer, in Knowing God, called propitiation “the heart of the gospel.” He writes:

“The word ‘propitiation’ is the central heart of the gospel… A gospel without propitiation at its heart is another gospel than that which Paul preached.”³

God must punish sin. But what He requires, He also provides. In Christ, the full fury of God’s holy anger is poured out—every drop. In those three hours of darkness at Calvary, Jesus drank the cup of divine wrath.

He bore it all.

And in doing so, He cried out, “It is finished.”

Through the blood of Christ, our debt is paid, God’s wrath is turned aside, and our relationship with Him is restored.

This is the gospel.

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Scripture for Meditation:

Isaiah 59:1–3; Nahum 1:2–15; Romans 3:21–26; Colossians 1:15–23; 1 John 4:7–12

Reflection Questions:

1. How do we biblically define God’s wrath?

2. Why must a penalty be paid for sin?

3. How does Christ bridge the separation between God and humanity?

4. Why is the blood of Christ sufficient for reconciliation?

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Notes:
1 J. I. Packer, Knowing God (InterVarsity Press, 1973), p. 136.
2 John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, Banner of Truth Trust.
3 Packer, Knowing God, pp. 136–137.