Word Study - Propitiation

We are told that Jesus is our Propitiation.  Propitiation is a word that most of us don’t use on a normal day-to-day basis, its root is the word Propitiate which is defined as follows:

To make favorably inclined; appease; conciliate.

The point of studying this word is not to increase our vocabulary, but instead to increase our understanding of Jesus death on the cross as both an amazing gift and an outrageous sacrifice, and to attempt to fully grasp the fact that without Jesus sacrificial death on our behalves we’d have absolutely no hope whatsoever of reconciliation with God.

What does Jesus being our Propitiation mean?  First we need to understand our own position with God before we can answer this question.  Prior to faith in Christ, prior to inviting Him in to be our Savior & Lord we are lost, unable to have a relationship with God.

Romans 3:10-12 & 23:

There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

In addition to this, we were under God’s wrath, subject to judgement under God’s perfect justice.  In God’s perfect justice sin must be destroyed - it cannot be allowed to exist in His presence - and the sinner destroyed as well.  Who or what can withstand the wrath of God?

Nahum 1:6:

Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him

Revelation 6:15-17 (People - future):

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Isaiah 34:4 (Heavens):

All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.

Revelation 20:11 (Earth):

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.

Only those/that which can pass God’s perfect judgement can escape God’s wrath, but we’re all sinners, we’re all imperfect people, we can’t pass His perfect judgement on our own, even the creation itself can’t pass His perfect judgement. On top of that we know that Nothing & Nobody can withstand the wrath of God... except... God Himself!!  

This is where Jesus steps in, Jesus is fully God and fully man, as such Jesus is able to pass the test of God’s perfect judgement on man, and thus is not subject to God’s wrath.  However, Jesus chose to trade places with us, to trade with us His righteousness for our sinfulness, and He’s willing to trade with whoever will come to Him.  Jesus put Himself in our place on the cross, He became the perfect spotless sacrifice God required, He took the wrath of God on Himself, He suffered in ways we cannot even fathom, He suffered not just as a man but as God.  So we needed God Himself in the person of Jesus, to take our place, to absorb the wrath of God’s Perfect Justice, in order to provide a way for sinful man to be in a Love Relationship with Him.

Romans 5:6, 9-11:

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ... Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Romans 9:22-23

What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory

The good news is this: those of us who have come into a relationship with Jesus Christ now have His righteousness and are no longer objects of God’s wrath.  We are among those who are objects of God’s mercy - and blessed so much more beyond that with amazing blessings from God!

Back to Propitiation - Propitiate: appease, conciliate, make favorably inclined.

Jesus is our Propitiation: Jesus is our wrath-absorber, Jesus appeased the wrath of God.  Jesus reconciled us to God, allowing sinful man to be righteous & enter into relationship with a perfect God.  Jesus causes us to be objects of God’s mercy, God is favorably inclined to us when we have faith in Jesus as our Lord & Savior.