When God is Satisfied

"Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood." (Romans 3:25 KJV)

Have you ever wondered about these long, hard words that are found in the Bible: expiation and propitiation? Both of these words are important for an understanding of the atoning work of Jesus; but what do they mean?

The word expiation begins with the prefix ex, which means “out of” or “from.” Expiation means to remove something. In biblical theology, it has to do with taking away or removing guilt by means of paying a ransom or offering an atonement. It means to pay the penalty for something.

Thus, the act of expiation removes the problem by paying for it in some way, in order to satisfy some demand. Christ’s expiation of our sin means that He paid the penalty for it and removed it from consideration against us.

On the other hand, propitiation has to do with the object of the expiation. The prefix, in this case, is pro, which means “for.” Propitiation has to do with what brings about a change in God’s attitude toward us, so that we are restored to the fellowship and favor of God.

In a sense, propitiation points to God’s being appeased. If I am angry because you have offended me, but you then appease me, the problem will be removed. Thus propitiation brings in the personal element and stresses that God is no longer angry with us. Propitiation is the result of expiation. The expiation is the act that results in God’s changing His attitude toward us. Expiation is what Christ did on the cross. The result of Christ’s act of expiation is that God is propitiated. It is the difference between the ransom that is paid and the attitude of the One receiving the ransom.

One of the great Puritan pastors, Richard Rogers, was once criticized: “You Puritans with your preciseness! Why are you so precise, making life uncomfortable for the rest of us?” Rogers responded, “Oh sir, I serve a precise God.” The Bible sometimes uses long and technical terms because God wants us to understand with precision what He has done for us in Christ Jesus so we can grow in understanding and appreciation for Him. Today ask God to give you an increased desire to learn even these more technical, yet very crucial, biblical insights.

Man's Indebtedness to God

"Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." (Matthew 6:12).

Sin has three dimensions or aspects that are dealt with in Christ’s atoning work. Sin involves debt, crime, and an estrangement between the persons of God and man. I want to focus on the difference between pecuniary and penal debt.

If I borrow $10,000 from Bill, I owe him a pecuniary debt. Suppose I simply cannot pay it back, but my best friend comes forward and says that he will give me the money to pay it back. Is Bill obligated to take this repayment? Certainly, because the only responsibility I have to Bill is to pay the money back. Once I’ve repaid him, even if it’s with my friend’s money, I am debt-free.

But now suppose I stole $10,000 from Bill, and I am arrested for robbery. Then my best friend comes forward and says that he will pay Bill the $10,000. Is Bill morally obligated to take that repayment? No, not at all, because in addition to the financial dimension, a crime has been committed. There is more involved than mere money.

In a robbery, there is a pecuniary debt that must be paid off with money, but there is also a penal debt that must be paid by punishing the criminal. Suppose my best friend also offers to take my punishment? He can offer it, but it will be up to Bill to accept.

In order for Jesus’ payment of our debts to be accepted, God had to decree that He would accept that payment on our behalf. Suppose Jesus had simply appeared and died for my sins. Would God be under any obligation to accept that payment? No. There first had to be a judgment by the Governor of the Universe that He would accept a substitutionary payment for my debts. This prior decision by God the Father is pure grace on His part.

In light of our two-fold indebtedness to God, consider how presumptuous it is when people refuse the work of Christ and replace it with their own “good” works. Aside from their inability to perform even a single “good” work, they would obligate God to accept their offering. In your prayer time today pray for those who teach and preach that they might have significant opportunities to speak the Gospel truth regarding the only way of salvation.

The Problem of Forgiveness

Our insistence that according to the Gospel the cross of Christ is the only ground on which God forgives sins bewilders many people. “Why should our forgiveness depend on Christ’s death?” they ask. “Why does God not simply forgive us, without the necessity of the Cross?” As the French cynic put it, “The good God will forgive me; that’s His job (or His specialty).” “After all,” the objector may continue, “if we sin against one another, we are required to forgive one another. We are even warned of dire consequences if we refuse. Why can’t God practice what He preaches and be equally generous? Nobody’s death is necessary before we forgive each other. Why does God make so much fuss about forgiving us and even declare it impossible without His Son’s ‘sacrifice for sin’? It sounds like a primitive superstition which modern people should long since have discarded.”

It is essential to ask and to face these questions. Two answers may be given to them immediately. The first was supplied by Anselm in his great book Cur Deus Homo? at the end of the eleventh century. If anybody imagines, he wrote, that God can simply forgive us as we forgive others, that person has “not yet considered the seriousness of sin,” or literally “what a heavy weight sin is” (i.xxi). The second answer might be expressed similarly: “You have not yet considered the majesty of God.” It is when our perception of God and man, or of holiness and sin, are askew that our understanding of the Atonement is bound to be askew also.

The fact is that the analogy between our forgiveness and God’s is far from being exact. True, Jesus taught us to pray: “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” But He was teaching the impossibility of the unforgiving being forgiven, and so the obligation of the forgiven to forgive, as is clear from the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant; He was not drawing any parallel between God and us in relation to the basis of forgiveness. For us to argue “we forgive each other unconditionally, let God do the same to us” betrays not sophistication but shallowness, since it overlooks the elementary fact that we are not God. We are private individuals, and other people’s misdemeanors are personal injuries. God is not a private individual, however, nor is sin just a personal injury. On the contrary, God is Himself the maker of the laws we break, and sin is rebellion against Him.

The crucial question we should ask, therefore, is a different one. It is not why God finds it difficult to forgive, but how He finds it possible to do so at all. In the words of Carnegie Simpson, “forgiveness is to man the plainest of duties; to God it is the profoundest of problems.”

The problem of forgiveness is constituted by the inevitable collision between divine perfection and human rebellion, between God as He is and us as we are. The obstacle to forgiveness is neither our sin alone, nor our guilt alone, but also the divine reaction in love and wrath toward guilty sinners. For, although indeed “God is love,” yet we have to remember that His love is “holy love,” love which yearns over sinners while at the same time refusing to condone their sin. How, then, could God express His holy love?—His love in forgiving sinners without compromising His holiness, and His holiness in judging sinners without frustrating His love?

At the Cross, in holy love, God through Christ paid the full penalty of our disobedience Himself. He bore the judgment we deserve in order to bring us the forgiveness we do not deserve. On the Cross, divine mercy and justice were equally expressed and eternally reconciled. God’s holy love was “satisfied.”

All inadequate doctrines of the Atonement are due to inadequate doctrines of God and man. If we bring God down to our level and raise ourselves to His, then, of course, we see no need for a radical salvation, let alone for a radical atonement to secure it. When, on the other hand, we have glimpsed the blinding glory of the holiness of God, and have been so convicted of our sin by the Holy Spirit that we tremble before God and acknowledge what we are, namely “hell-deserving sinners,” then and only then does the necessity of the Cross appear so obvious that we are astonished we never saw it before.

The essential background to the Cross, therefore, is a balanced understanding of the gravity of sin and the majesty of God. If we diminish either, we thereby diminish the Cross. If we reinterpret sin as a lapse instead of a rebellion, and God as indulgent instead of indignant, then naturally the Cross appears superfluous. But to dethrone God and enthrone ourselves not only dispenses with the Cross; it also degrades both God and man. A biblical view of God and ourselves, however, that is, of our sin and of God’s wrath, honors both.

Sin and Christ’s Atoning Work

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

The work of redemption is that which Jesus accomplished for us. In theology this is called the atoning work of Christ, or simply the Atonement. The atoning work of Jesus Christ was made necessary by human sin, and there are three aspects of sin that we need to consider.

First, sin is a failure to do what we are obligated to do. God as Creator has given us responsibilities for which He holds us accountable. If we fail to carry out these responsibilities, we incur a debt.

Next, sin is an expression of enmity, a violation of the personal relationship human beings are supposed to have with their Creator. When we sin against God we break that relationship. We express not love and devotion to Him but rather a kind of hostility that is serious and must be addressed.

Finally, the Presbyterian Westminster Shorter Catechism says that “sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God.” In modern English that means any time we break the law of God, we sin.

We have to keep these three concepts of sin clearly in mind if we are going to understand what is necessary to restore a relationship between God and fallen humanity. If a crime has been committed, then we have to deal with penal sanctions. If a debt has been incurred, then we have to come to grips with what we call pecuniary sanctions. Enmity has to do with personal relationships, and these need to be healed.

If I steal $1,000 from a man, I may not feel that I owe him anything, but I do. I may not feel that I have committed a crime, but I have. I may not feel that I’ve acted in a hostile fashion toward him, but he feels it. Whether I realize it or not, a bad situation exists, one that must be corrected or else I will suffer for it. Sooner or later, sin must be dealt with. God will hold each responsible to render a life’s account.

Whether men feel the need to be reconciled to God or not, the fact is they are facing a God who is a “consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). The Bible tells us that a proper fear of this God is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). Today ask God to give you a proper fear of His intolerance of sin, that you might cling to Jesus and His Atonement with greater desperation.

The Name Above all Names

"On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:16).

Some years ago, a theological seminary in the United States scheduled an academic convocation and invited a famous theologian to come in and give an address on Christology. It is important to understand that a convocation is not a pep rally or an informal meeting, but rather a very serious gathering where a renowned scholar will share his latest insights.

When this scholar arrived, all the students flocked to the auditorium to hear the lecture, and the faculty was there also, decked out in full academic regalia. All were ready to hear a technical dissertation on some aspect of the doctrine of Christ.

The great scholar, however, shocked his entire audience. He began by saying, “This is what I want you to hear today about Jesus.” But instead of delivering a theological lecture, all he did for 45 minutes was stand there and recite one after another all the titles that are found in the Bible for Jesus.

“Jesus is the Christ. He is the Lord. He is the Son of David. He is the Son of God. He is the Lion of Judah. He is the Lamb of God. He is our Righteousness. He is the Prince of Peace. He is the Suffering Servant. He is the Savior. He is the Lily of the Valley. He is the Rose of Sharon. He is our Great High Priest. He is the Mercy Seat.…” This went on for 45 minutes.

When he was done, the entire theological community was overwhelmed. What an experience, to hear all the titles of Jesus compressed into one long litany of majesty! Jesus is the incomparable Christ, and there is no limit to the wealth of glorious titles that can and must be given Him for all eternity.

The Bible is filled with names for Jesus. How many do you know? When you read and study the Bible, do you look for Jesus, or do you find yourself just acquiring interesting information? As you read through the Bible this year, or as you read the passages assigned with each lesson in this Bible study guide, ask yourself, “What name of Jesus do I see in this passage?” Compile your own list, including the biblical reference of its location. While you will never exhaust Christ’s character and personality, you will be able to explore new dimensions of His person and work. As with the psalmist, it can lead to more artful, heartfelt praise.