Summarization of the Doctrine of Propitiation
*by L.S. Chafer
The Greek words employed in the doctrine of propitiation are: i9lasmo/j, signifying that which Christ became for the sinner (1 Jn. 2:2; 4:10), i9lasth/rion, the place of propitiation (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 9:5), i3lewj (Matt. 16:22; Heb. 8:12), and i9la&skomai (Luke 18:13; Heb. 2:17).
9Ila&skomai indicates that God has become gracious, reconciled. In profane Greek the word means "to render propitious by prayer and sacrifice." But from the Biblical standpoint God is not of Himself alienated from man. His sentiment, therefore, does not need to be changed. Still, in order that He may not for righteousness' sake be necessitated to comport Himself otherwise, an infinite expiation is necessary, which to be sure He Himself in His love institutes and gives. Man, all exposed to wrath, could neither venture nor find an expiation. But then God, in finding it, anticipates and meets the demands of His own righteousness. Nothing happens to change God, as in the heathen view. Therefore it is never read that God must be reconciled. Rather something happens to man, who now escapes the wrath to come. A cry for mere mercy would require use of the cry 0Ele/hson. When guilt and its punishment need to be acknowledged, however, the word i9la/skomai is used (Luke 18:13; Heb. 2:17).
Christ became the Propitiator and thus the Father is propitiated. The terminology in Hebrews 9:5 for mercy seat corresponds to the LXX translation of the word, namely, i9lasth/rion.
In the Old Testament. The mercy seat is a throne of grace because of there being propitiation. Sacrificial blood sprinkled on the lid of the ark, where Jehovah's presence was to be found, changed what would otherwise be a scene of awful judgment to one filled with mercy, making it in a measure the mercy seat. However, animal blood was efficacious only to the extent that it provided a just ground on which God could pass over the sins until Christ should come and shed His own blood for them. God was propitiated aforetime merely to the extent of deferring judgment. For this measure of grace nevertheless it was reasonable to pray (cf. Luke 18:13).
In the New
Testament. Christ by having His own blood sprinkled, as it were, over
His body at Golgotha, becomes the mercy seat in reality. He is the
Propitiator and has made propitiation by so answering the just demands of
God's holiness against sin that heaven is rendered propitious. This fact of
propitiation existing is to be believed. Certainly the adjustment is not to
be asked for if it has already been accomplished. The flood-gates of divine
mercy are open, the flow coming however only through that channel which
Christ as Propitiator is.
Propitiation
is the Godward side of the work of Christ on the cross. The death of Christ for
the sin of the world changed the whole position of mankind in its relation to
God, for He recognizes what Christ did in behalf of the world whether man enters
into it or not. God is never said to be reconciled, but His attitude toward the
world is altered when the world's relation to Him becomes radically changed
through the death of Christ.
God is propitious toward the unsaved and toward the sinning
saint: "And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but
also for the sins of the whole world" (1 Jn. 2:2). Attention should be
called to the fact that God saves a sinner or restores a saint without striking
a blow or even offering a word of criticism. It is too often supposed that human
repentance and sorrow soften the heart of God and render Him propitious. It is
the legal fact that Christ has borne all sin which renders God propitious.
The most determining truth to which all gospel preaching
should be harmonized is that God is propitious; thus all the burden is taken off
sinner or Christian, only leaving him to believe that through Christ's bearing
his sin God is propitious.
The publican went up to the temple to pray after having
presented his sacrifice, which was the custom (Lk. 18:13). The Authorized
Version reports him to have said: "God be merciful to me a sinner."
What he really prayed was (R.V. marg.): "God, be thou propitiated to me the
sinner." He did not ask for mercy as though he must persuade God to be
propitious, but in full harmony with the relationship existing between the Old
Testament covenant people and God, and on the ground of his offering or
sacrifice, he did ask God to be propitious on that special basis. Such a prayer
ever since Christ has died is wholly wrong. In the present age of grace one need
not ask God merely to be merciful toward sin, for that He cannot be, and
furthermore since Christ's death has rendered God propitious there is no
occasion even to ask God to be propitiated. In fact, to do so becomes rank
unbelief and unbelief can save no one. The mercy seat in the Old Testament could
be made a i9lasth/rion by
sacrifice (Heb. 9:5), but the blood-sprinkled body of Christ on the cross has
long ago become the mercy seat for the sinner once and for all. It is there
accordingly that God in righteousness can meet the sinner with salvation and
restore the saint to communion. The mercy seat becomes a perpetual throne of
grace. What otherwise would be an awful judgment throne is changed to one of
infinite mercy.
*Volume 7; Systematic Theology; pp. 258-260; Kregal Publications