This is a word which does not occur frequently in the Scriptures,—in fact it is not found at all in the Old Testament, and only three times in the New. The first passage in which it occurs is Romans 3:25, where we read with respect to Jesus Christ—“Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.” The next instance is 1 John 2:2, “And he is the propitiation for our sins”; and the only other passage is 1 John 4:10, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
The use of this word by the translators is unfortunate. It probably conveys the ideas which they held with respect to the sacrifice of Christ, but certainly does not clearly place before us the Divine mind. To say that Jesus Christ was the propitiation for our sins, implies that for some reason, and in some way, God needed to be propitiated or appeased. This savours too strongly of the old doctrine of the vicarious or substitutionary death of Christ. It carries us back to our early recollections, when we were taught by hymns and other means, in Sunday Schools, that the Son of God (pre-existent, of course) viewed with alarm the attitude of his Father toward the children of men, and undertook to die in their stead. This idea is expressed in the last verse of one of Jane Taylor’s hymns, which reads:—
He knew how wicked man had been, And knew that God must punish sin; So out of pity, Jesus said, He’d bear the punishment instead.
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Author: Thomas W. Gamble
Keywords: Atonement, atone, make atonement, Making atonement, atonement for sins, Atoning for sins, reconciliation, atoning, propitiate, Propitiation, propitiation for sins, expiate, expiation, mercy seat, covering, remission of sins, forgiveness of sins, forgiveness
Bible reference(s): 1 Kings 8:30, 1 Samuel 12:3, 1 Samuel 26:19, 1 Samuel 3:14, 2 Chronicles 30:18, 2 Samuel 21:3, Amos 5:22, Colossians 1:20, Deuteronomy 21:8, Deuteronomy 25:3, Deuteronomy 30:15, Deuteronomy 32:43, Deuteronomy 9:18, Exodus 21:30, Exodus 30:12, Exodus 9:27, Ezekiel 16:63, Ezekiel 18:20, Ezekiel 45:18, Genesis 20:16, Genesis 32:21, Hebrews 10:12, Hebrews 9:22, Isaiah 1:13, Isaiah 22:14, Isaiah 27:9, Isaiah 42:1, Isaiah 53:4, Isaiah 55:7, Isaiah 56:7, Isaiah 57:15, Isaiah 58:1, Isaiah 6:7, Jeremiah 11:14, Jeremiah 14:8, Jeremiah 18:23, Jeremiah 2:13, Jeremiah 3:22, Job 42:8, John 1:29, Leviticus 1:4, Leviticus 16:7, Leviticus 17:11, Leviticus 23:32, Leviticus 4:26, Leviticus 5:5, Leviticus 9:7, Matthew 26:28, Micah 6:6, Micah 7:19, Numbers 15:26, Numbers 28:3, Numbers 31:50, Numbers 35:31, Numbers 5:7, Romans 3:25, Exodus 29:33, Exodus 29:36, Exodus 29:37, Exodus 30:10, Exodus 30:15, Exodus 30:16, Exodus 32:30, Leviticus 4:20, Leviticus 4:31, Leviticus 4:35, Leviticus 5:6, Leviticus 5:10, Leviticus 5:13, Leviticus 5:16, Leviticus 5:18, Leviticus 6:7, Leviticus 6:30, Leviticus 7:7, Leviticus 8:15, Leviticus 8:34, Leviticus 9:7, Leviticus 10:17, Leviticus 12:7, Leviticus 12:8, Leviticus 14:18, Leviticus 14:19, Leviticus 14:20, Leviticus 14:21, Leviticus 14:29, Leviticus 14:31, Leviticus 14:53, Leviticus 15:15, Leviticus 15:30, Leviticus 16:6, Leviticus 16:10, Leviticus 16:11, Leviticus 16:16, Leviticus 16:17, Leviticus 16:18, Leviticus 16:24, Leviticus 16:27, Leviticus 16:30, Leviticus 16:32, Leviticus 16:33, Leviticus 16:34, Leviticus 19:22, Leviticus 23:27, Leviticus 23:28, Leviticus 25:9, Numbers 5:8, Numbers 6:11, Numbers 8:12, Numbers 8:19, Numbers 8:21, Numbers 15:25, Numbers 15:28, Numbers 16:46, Numbers 16:47, Numbers 25:13, Numbers 28:22, Numbers 28:30, Numbers 29:5, Numbers 29:11, 1 Chronicles 6:49, 2 Chronicles 29:24, Nehemiah 10:33, Proverbs 16:6, Isaiah 47:11, Ezekiel 43:20, Ezekiel 43:26, Ezekiel 45:15, Ezekiel 45:17, Ezekiel 45:20, Daniel 9:24, 2 Maccabees 3:33, 2 Maccabees 12:45, Romans 3:25, Hebrews 2:17, 1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10
Source: “Propitiation,” The Christadelphian, Vol. 37, No. 430, April 1900.
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