AFTER THE DARKNESS OF CONDEMNATION - THE LIGHT OF PROPITIATION — Part6
“Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, THROUGH FAITH, to declare His righteousness through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which BELIEVES in Jesus” (Romans 3:25a & 24).
Today we conclude this series on the vital issue of propitiation. So, let’s state again that when a sinner places ‘saving faith in Jesus’ blood,’ it is far more than merely an emotional religious experience. Millions have had exciting religious experiences that have proven to be utterly counterfeit, because they never became new creations. ‘Faith in His blood’ must be rooted and grounded in the objective truth of the Person of the Lord Jesus and His propitiatory work. In biblical words, this personal ‘saving faith’ must be personally placed (committed) in “Christ and Him crucified”.
Moreover, the objective truths concerning His Person and His work are not primarily focused on the fringe benefits of the work of Christ. Let me clarify briefly: for instance, having Heaven as your eternal home; coming to know a full and meaningful life; enjoying God’s wonderful plan for your life; peace with God; or any other felt need that a person may conjure in their mind. The content of this ‘saving faith in His blood’ is always centered on 'Who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what He has accomplished' to satisfy the justice of God and appease the wrath of God for a hell-deserving sinner like you and me!
Observe these words: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved!” Please notice carefully that Paul and Silas responded to the Philippian jailor’s inquiry (What must I do to be saved?) with a clear and concise imperative! They gave this needy sinner an authoritative summons that derives directly from the throne room of the King of kings. Paul and Silas stood on behalf of the Lord and Savior and issued the jailer a personal mandate to “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ””.
Again, notice closely that this was not merely a ‘non-compulsory invitation’ (as in an invitation to a birthday party that can be accepted, rejected, or neglected). Paul and Silas were heralding a Gospel duty which called for immediate obedience!
Therefore, churches and believers too must inform the person to whom they are witnessing that this call to 'believe on the Lord Jesus Christ' (or as our present text says ‘to place faith in His blood’) is a divine decree to be promptly obeyed. This call is never an optional suggestion just to be considered. As Creator and Sustainer, God the Son has the sovereign right to command and demand that they believe on Him and his saving work alone unto salvation!
The apostle John in the letter of 1 John 3:23a declares, “And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ.” We must faithfully seek to persuade a sinner that they are personally responsible to obey this command. If they continue to reject or neglect this command, they do so at the eternal peril of their soul.”
Consequently, if this sinner dies without repenting and placing their faith in the Person and Word of the Lord Jesus Christ, they will die in their sins. Without complying with this divine dictate to ‘place personal faith in His blood’, it would have been better for them if they had never been born!
Paul writes in Romans 1:5, calling this, “the obedience of faith.” The Word of God often uses “obedience” as a synonym for faith. The beloved apostle John writes in that tremendous chapter of John 3: “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; and he who does not believe (obey) the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).
Please do not miss this truth: No sin can condemn a person who obeys this command to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. However, nothing can save a person who refuses to obey this Gospel imperative. Consider this phrase: “Faith in His blood.” Faith in His blood is not a human work. If it were a human work, that would make ‘a Christ out of our faith’. On the contrary, saving faith justifies the sinner as they lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ and His propitiatory work. This 'penitent faith' is simply the channel by which the sinner receives the salvation which is in Jesus Christ the Lord. Paul states this beautiful truth, stating, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves” (Ephesians 2:8a).
AFTER THE DARKNESS OF CONDEMNATION - THE LIGHT OF PROPITIATION — Part 5
“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at present His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:24-26).
The purpose of the Old Testament propitiatory sacrifices was not divinely designed to influence men, but to propitiate God. The propitiation of God was secured to satisfy the justice of God and to appease the wrath of God, which was unequivocally fixed against sin and sinners. The vicarious punishment of a spotless animal effected the propitiation of God (in the Old Covenant), which was sacrificed as a substitute for the sinner and by the sinner. The effect of this spotless and substitutionary offering resulted in the pardon of the offender, by the temporary covering of his sin, and his restoration into the ‘favor and fellowship of God’.
The blood of the animal had to be produced, as the final evidence that there had been a ‘satisfactory shedding of blood unto the death of the animal’. For without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Remember, the wages of sin is death. On the very day that Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, the sentence of death was passed on them; and all of their posterity. The scriptures powerfully proclaim that the soul that sins shall surely die. Every one of those Old Testament substitutionary sacrifices (which poured out their blood unto their death) was pointing toward the sinless and substitutionary sacrifice of God the Son on the Cross. The perfect and astounding example is seen with the words of Abraham. God called for a sacrifice, the sacrifice of Abraham’s son. As they journeyed on the mountain to make the sacrifice, Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the Lamb for the burnt offering.”
That verse was ultimately fulfilled many centuries later, when God set Jesus forth as the propitiation for our sins. The very God, whom all had rebelliously and continuously offended, provided the sinless substitute for a propitiatory sacrifice for Himself. God the Son born our sins and our guilt. It pleased Jehovah God the Father to crush Jehovah God the Son. God laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all. The just wrath which all of us so richly deserved to receive, for our mountains of sins against God, fell upon the Lord Jesus as the sinless substitute. God had smitten Him in our place and on our behalf. The punishment that should have come to you and me came to Him instead.
Yes, God so loved the world that He spared not His own Son, but He delivered Him up for us all. This is precisely why God the Son cried out of the darkness, “My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me?’ This is exactly why the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father in the garden of Gethsemane, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” The Lord Jesus knew that He was going to suffer the full equivalent of an eternity of the just wrath and holy fury of God, in the place of repenting and believing sinners. After Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the Great High Priest entered into the Holiest in glory with His own blood (which had been poured out unto the death of the Cross) and presented His finished work in the Holy of Holies in the presence of God the Father. Now, we have confidence to enter into the Holiest, by the substitutionary and sacrificial death of the Lamb of God!
The genuine believer can now walk in the light, as He is in the light. And when we do stumble and fall, as we walk on the narrow road, the blood of Jesus Christ continually cleanses us from all sins. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One. We have a new and better covenant which has been sealed with the blood of Christ.
Every covenant was always ratified by blood. The substitutionary sacrificial death of the Holy Son of God ratifies this New Covenant. Our Lord and Savior has bequeathed to His disciples every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in union with Him. Recall the blessed hymn, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains! E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.”
After the Darkness of Condemnation, The Light of Propitiation — Part 4
‘For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a PROPITIATION BY HIS BLOOD, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness” (Romans 3:22b-25b).
When a lost soul comes under the supernatural and powerful conviction of the Spirit of God, there is an ‘anguish and alarm’ in that broken and contrite heart. That sinner is deeply impressed with the inevitable consequences of their ‘mountains of sins' against this just and holy God. The Scriptures clearly declare that “God is a just God and He is angry with the wicked every day”.
God (in His pristine holiness and inflexible justice) not only detests sin, but He maintains a just animosity and holy hostility against those who continue to indulge in it. God’s oven is always blazing hot with wrath, which abides over those who have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. God is the Judge of all the earth, and He must do right by His justice.
Additionally, the bottomless lake of fire continually declares the awesome and awful vengeance of a ‘sin-despising God’ against the iniquities and transgressions of rebellious mankind. Oh, dear reader, God MUST GIVE His inflexible justice its satisfaction in full measure. God MUST GIVE full vindication of His shattered moral law. Every transgression must have its just recompense of reward.
Let’s consider this query: If God is the holy Lord God, and He is; that requires God to be perfectly just and must punish sin; then how is it possible for God to be faithful and just, and yet be the Forgiver of a sinner? Oh friend, the glorious answer is found in the PROPITIATORY WORK of the LORD JESUS CHRIST!
When man shattered the moral law of God, His justice demanded that man be punished with the wages of sin. Oh, but thank the Lord that the God of holiness, righteousness, and justice is also the God of astounding love, amazing grace, and marvelous mercy! It is true that the wages of death entered into the world when the first Adam sinned. However, the infinite mind of God had already established a magnificent plan of salvation, from before the beginning of time and space!
What is God’s plan for these deplorable acts? God established the plan for salvation. The Lamb of God was slain, in the mind of the Godhead, from before the foundation of the world! The Lord of glory, God the Son (the second Adam), was coming to earth in the fullness of time, as the covenant Head of His bride. He lived a perfectly righteous life on this earth. Then, the Creator God Himself voluntarily took the position of the sinless substitute. The Lord Jesus willingly and obediently bore the full equivalent of an eternity of God’s just wrath, which had been abiding over the innumerable vast hordes of sinners. It pleased Jehovah God the Father to crush Jehovah God the Son under the unimaginable weight of all of the sins of each sinner who will ever repent of their sins and believe the Gospel!
Observe these precious words, “BY HIS BLOOD.” It can be clearly demonstrated, in the pages of the scriptures, that the phrase “HIS BLOOD” pictures ‘God the Son’s life being laid down and poured out unto the death of the Cross’. The Jews never thought of ‘a human life apart from a human body’. They never believed that you can have a human life in the blood, apart from the human body itself. They always connected the life of the blood with the life of a human body.
So, when you hear the phrase ‘the life of a creature is in the blood’, our thinking might mistakenly think of a human’s life being solely in the blood. However, a Hebrew mind would never consider that for a moment. That would be contradictory to their way of thinking. A human life was always intimately connected with the human body. Now we know that when a spotless animal was sacrificed to God, the shedding of its blood meant that it had been put to death! The punishment of the wages of sin, that should have come upon the Jews, had come upon the sacrificial animal as a substitute. The ‘blood of the animal’, which was presented by the High Priest, proved the fact that there was a ‘sacrificial and substitutionary death’ of the lamb. Furthermore, remember that the divine design of the sacrificial and substitutionary death was directed toward God, and not toward man! The shedding of the blood unto the death of the animal was primarily to propitiate (appease) God!
Secondly, the blood was poured out unto death for the purpose of expiating the guilt of the sinner. That propitiation was effected by the substitutionary punishment of the lamb, by which he was substituted for the sinner! Thus, the sinner was pardoned and restored into fellowship!
However, it was not merely enough that the animal would be killed as the substitute. The BLOOD had to be produced to prove that the sacrifice shed his blood unto his death. As the scripture state: “For without the shedding of blood, the is no remission of sins. So, dear one, when we find the phrase ‘the blood of Jesus’ in the New Testament, we know that this phrase is speaking of “the life of the Lord Jesus, being poured out (in the shedding of His blood) unto the death of the Cross, to satisfy the justice of God and to appease the wrath of God!
AFTER THE DARKNESS OF CONDEMNATION- THE LIGHT OF PROPITIATION — Part 3
“For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation BY HIS BLOOD, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness” (Romans 3:22b-25b).
The biblical truth of ‘propitiating the just wrath of God by the Cross-work of the Lord Jesus Christ’ is absolutely abhorrent to the carnal ideas of the contemporary religion of the day. Why? We began to consider this truth in the previous devotion. But now the simple reason is that any concept of the ‘just wrath of God’ is offensive to the thought processes of self-centered men.
However, despite their thoroughly corrupted view of true spiritual reality, it is a biblical verity that “the only way that any sinner (who justly deserves the eternal wrath of God) can be justified before a holy God, is by the propitiating work of Christ Jesus the Lord. On that glorious Cross, God has publicly displayed the Lord Jesus as a propitiatory sacrifice, to both appease His wrath and satisfy His justice.
But friend, the question that must be clearly and concisely answered is, “How did the Lord Jesus Christ accomplish His propitiatory sacrifice”? The scriptures clearly declare that God set Him forth as a propitiation “BY HIS BLOOD”. Paul states in Acts 20:28, “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which HE PURCHASED WITH HIS OWN BLOOD.” Furthermore, if you turn to Romans 5:9, you can discover another tremendous testimony of the propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus: “Much more then, having now been JUSTIFIED BY HIS BLOOD, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
Additionally, Ephesians 1:7 reveals these glorious words, “In Him we have REDEMPTION THROUGH HIS BLOOD, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Dear reader, these are glorious truths.
The Lord Jesus voluntarily marched to Calvary and presented Himself as both the Great High Priest and the Lamb of God. He gave Himself as both the ‘offeror of the sacrifice and the offering itself’! Moreover, the risen Lord ascended into Heaven and entered into the holy place in glory. He purchased (obtained) eternal redemption for every sinner who will come to Him on His conditions of conversion!
I am emphasizing that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished this propitiatory sacrifice ‘by His blood’. But why do all of these biblical writers mention His blood, instead of only speaking of His substitutionary death? The primary reason that the word “blood” is continually employed in a multitude of passages is that the New Testament writers are bringing the ‘propitiatory death’ of God the Son into ‘oneness’ with the fulfillment of the entirety of the Old Testament sacrificial system.
The teachings of the New Testament must never contradict the teachings of the Old Testament. The New Testament is the final fulfillment of all of the types, symbols, and shadows demonstrated in the Old Testament. Consequently, the apostles employed the term ‘blood’ to prove that this is the same God and the same salvation, even though the dispensation is different.
The New Testament scriptures clearly reveal that ‘the teaching of the propitiatory death of the Lord Jesus Christ’ is couched in the Old Testament sacrificial system. Recall those initial words of testimony from John the Baptist, “Behold the LAMB OF GOD.” By using the word ‘LAMB,’ John was employing Old Testament sacrificial terminology.
John the Baptist knew that the Lord Jesus Christ was going to be the final fulfillment of all the types, symbols, and shadows. God the Son is the Great High Priest who offered Himself as a propitiation to fully and perfectly satisfy the justice of God and fully and perfectly appease the wrath of God, ONCE AND FOR ALL!
This is why I will worship Him forever with the glorified saints, with these words of praise and thanksgiving: “Unto Him that loved us and has washed us in HIS OWN BLOOD.”
AFTER THE DARKNESS OF CONDEMNATION-THE LIGHT OF PROPITIATION — Part 2
“For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness” (Romans 3:22b-25b)
Sadly, there is a growing portion of ‘contemporary religiosity’ that utterly rejects the truth that the just wrath of God abides on unconverted sinners. Many refuse even to consider the possibility that God’s holy animosity and just hostility is fixed against sin and impenitent sinners. The ‘god whom they conceived’ is a god of all love, grace and mercy; but not a god of holiness, justice and wrath.
Consequently, since they belittle and blaspheme the concept of the ‘just wrath of God’, they simultaneously belittle and blaspheme the gracious, merciful, and loving ‘Cross-work of God the Son’. If it were left up to them, they would utterly banish any mention of a God of justice and wrath. However, when one attempts to erase the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ on final judgment, they are simultaneously attempting to either totally eradicate or tragically diminish the biblical meaning of His saving work on the Cross and His glorious resurrection.
Friend, it is the Lord Jesus Christ who pointedly warned, only two verses following John 3:16, that those who have not truly believed on Him are condemned already. It is the same inspired Word of God which warned twenty verses after John 3:16 that those who have not authentically believed on the Lord Jesus Christ are present objects of the wrath of God. Additionally, the teaching of the wrath of God is declared on ten different occasions in this same epistle to the church at Rome!
Some have accused me of describing God as some infuriated Potentate, who is continually losing control of Himself and boiling over in unbridled rage. However, that is not an accurate biblical concept of the just wrath of God. The wrath of God is biblically described as God’s ‘settled and fixed’ opposition against anything and everything sinful. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. God is holy! holy! holy! His nature is so holy that, of necessity, He must maintain a holy hatred for every sin of every kind. Furthermore, remember that sin is always attached to a person. It is a person who sins. For that reason, when God judges and punishes sin, He must deal with the sinner! The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of MEN.
How can God be both the just and the justifier of the sinner? The true and living God has set forth His divine solution for this mind-boggling dilemma. The answer is unveiled in the incredible reality that there is a sinless Substitute who has made PROPITIATION. The God of holiness, justice, and wrath has provided a Lamb!
Notice closely what Paul says, “whom GOD SET FORTH as a PROPITIATION by His blood.” Oh dear friend, God Himself provided the propitiation to appease His wrath and satisfy His justice, on behalf of every sinner who will come to Him on His Gospel terms. In those three hours of the supernatural and miraculous ‘blackness of the darkness’ on the Cross, “God Himself -Gave Himself- to save us from Himself- and unto Himself!
God the Father voluntarily and willingly delivered up His co-equal, co-eternal, and co-existent Son, to be the sinless, substitutionary sacrifice. God gave His Son to be the sinless object of an equivalent of an eternity of the just wrath of God, which we as sinners deserved to receive forever in that dreadful destination called hell.
Yet, in God’s astounding love, marvelous mercy and amazing grace, GOD SET FORTH His sinless Son, so that God’s just wrath could be fully and finally vented on the Lord Jesus Christ, on behalf of and in the place of ‘any and every sinner’ who will come to His Son, in repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ! By the Lamb of Glory’s sacrifice, God’s justice was satisfied, and God’s wrath appeased.
I think of the Lyrics of this song:
How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
AFTER THE DARKNESS OF CONDEMNATION- THE LIGHT OF PROPITIATION — Part 1
“For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being JUSTIFIED FREELY by His grace through the redemption that is in CHRIST JESUS, whom God set forth as a PROPITIATION by HIS BLOOD, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness” (Romans 3:22b-25b).
If one begins reading the New Testament at Romans 1:18, and reads to the conclusion of this passage, they would be confronted with the following biblical fact. That biblical fact is that the entire world of sinners is culpable and condemned before the inflexible justice of God, and all have shattered the moral law of God. Every one of those sinners is fully deserving of the undiluted wrath of God. All of unredeemed humanity is (by their very sinful nature and actions) marching toward an inevitable appointment with the final judgment of God. Each one of them is in desperate need of salvation from the just wrath of God. This is man’s terrible problem before the true and living God, and heading to a dreadful destination!
Dear reader, stop for a moment and carefully consider: that if God requires perfect righteousness both to enter into His presence in glory and to escape His everlasting wrath in hell, then how can a sinner be righteous before God? Remember, God is a God of pristine holiness, unadulterated righteousness and intractable justice! So, how can anyone, anywhere, at any time become acceptable to God?
The Lord Jesus Christ has called us to be “perfect, even as God is perfect.” God will not lower this divine requirement of perfect righteousness. But no one can produce this brand of righteousness! The bible clearly states that there is none righteous, no not one! Moreover, the best performance of any human righteousness, which a sinner could produce, would be as filthy rags to a holy God. So then, an unequivocal question is: How can a sinful man or woman, who deserves an eternity of the undiluted wrath of God, be reconciled to a perfectly holy and just God?
The answer to this eternally essential question has been revealed in this most precious passage! Friend, this is one of the most important passages in the scriptures. All must possess a sound understanding of the ‘one and only way’ of salvation from the wrath to come. The key word we will focus on today is the word ‘PROPITIATION’! What is the vital meaning of the sinless, substitutionary, and sacrificial death of God the Son on Calvary’s Cross? The foundational answer to that question is discovered within the biblical definition of the word “PROPITIATION”.
It is quite interesting that the Greek word, translated “propitiation,” is the same Greek word found in the book of Hebrews 9:5, where the writer declares: “and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the MERCY SEAT.”
Recall the significance of the ‘mercy seat’ in the Old Testament tabernacle? The mercy seat was located in the Holy of Holies, the innermost sacred place of the tabernacle. A thick protective veil separated it from the outer court. Only one man (the High Priest) was allowed to enter into the ‘Holy of Holies’; and that man could only enter once a year on the Day of Atonement. On that day, the High Priest would bring the blood of a spotless animal. He would sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat, as well as in front of the mercy seat. The High Priest offered the blood of that sacrificed animal to the Lord God, as a substitutionary sacrifice, to appease the just wrath and holy animosity of God against the sins of the people. When God accepted that substitutionary sacrifice, it assured the people that the blood covered their sins and provided atonement for another year.
But what is the New Testament definition of this word “propitiation”, as it relates to the work of God the Son? The word actually means to appease God’s righteous wrath to avert God’s just animosity and holy hostility against our sin. A propitiation assumes that there is: an offense which needs to be taken away; a Person who has been offended, who must be appeased; there is justice which must be satisfied; there is an offender who is guilty of the offense; and there must be a spotless sacrifice to make atonement for the offense.
Friends, God the Son’s death upon the Cross perfectly appeased the just wrath of God, on behalf of any sinner and every sinner who will come to Jesus in ‘repentance toward God and saving faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ’.
AFTER THE DARKNESS OF CONDEMNATION- THE LIGHT OF PROPITIATION — Part 1
“For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being JUSTIFIED FREELY by His grace through the redemption that is in CHRIST JESUS, whom God set forth as a PROPITIATION by HIS BLOOD, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness” (Romans 3:22b-25b).
If one begins reading the New Testament at Romans 1:18, and reads to the conclusion of this passage, they would be confronted with the following biblical fact. That biblical fact is that the entire world of sinners is culpable and condemned before the inflexible justice of God, and all have shattered the moral law of God. Every one of those sinners is fully deserving of the undiluted wrath of God. All of unredeemed humanity is (by their very sinful nature and actions) marching toward an inevitable appointment with the final judgment of God. Each one of them is in desperate need of salvation from the just wrath of God. This is man’s terrible problem before the true and living God, and heading to a dreadful destination!
Dear reader, stop for a moment and carefully consider: that if God requires perfect righteousness both to enter into His presence in glory and to escape His everlasting wrath in hell, then how can a sinner be righteous before God? Remember, God is a God of pristine holiness, unadulterated righteousness and intractable justice! So, how can anyone, anywhere, at any time become acceptable to God?
The Lord Jesus Christ has called us to be “perfect, even as God is perfect.” God will not lower this divine requirement of perfect righteousness. But no one can produce this brand of righteousness! The bible clearly states that there is none righteous, no not one! Moreover, the best performance of any human righteousness, which a sinner could produce, would be as filthy rags to a holy God. So then, an unequivocal question is: How can a sinful man or woman, who deserves an eternity of the undiluted wrath of God, be reconciled to a perfectly holy and just God?
The answer to this eternally essential question has been revealed in this most precious passage! Friend, this is one of the most important passages in the scriptures. All must possess a sound understanding of the ‘one and only way’ of salvation from the wrath to come. The key word we will focus on today is the word ‘PROPITIATION’! What is the vital meaning of the sinless, substitutionary, and sacrificial death of God the Son on Calvary’s Cross? The foundational answer to that question is discovered within the biblical definition of the word “PROPITIATION”.
It is quite interesting that the Greek word, translated “propitiation,” is the same Greek word found in the book of Hebrews 9:5, where the writer declares: “and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the MERCY SEAT.”
Recall the significance of the ‘mercy seat’ in the Old Testament tabernacle? The mercy seat was located in the Holy of Holies, the innermost sacred place of the tabernacle. A thick protective veil separated it from the outer court. Only one man (the High Priest) was allowed to enter into the ‘Holy of Holies’; and that man could only enter once a year on the Day of Atonement. On that day, the High Priest would bring the blood of a spotless animal. He would sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat, as well as in front of the mercy seat. The High Priest offered the blood of that sacrificed animal to the Lord God, as a substitutionary sacrifice, to appease the just wrath and holy animosity of God against the sins of the people. When God accepted that substitutionary sacrifice, it assured the people that the blood covered their sins and provided atonement for another year.
But what is the New Testament definition of this word “propitiation”, as it relates to the work of God the Son? The word actually means to appease God’s righteous wrath to avert God’s just animosity and holy hostility against our sin. A propitiation assumes that there is: an offense which needs to be taken away; a Person who has been offended, who must be appeased; there is justice which must be satisfied; there is an offender who is guilty of the offense; and there must be a spotless sacrifice to make atonement for the offense.
Friends, God the Son’s death upon the Cross perfectly appeased the just wrath of God, on behalf of any sinner and every sinner who will come to Jesus in ‘repentance toward God and saving faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ’.
THE DREADFUL DESTINATION OF THE IMPENITENT SINNER — PART 15
Today, this series, considering the ghastly doom of the unconverted, comes to a close. For that reason, I would like to remind you that Matthew 23 overflows with a cavalcade of repetitive “woes” (judgments) which the Lord Jesus Christ called down on the Jewish religious leaders.
The religious leaders had wickedly lived and led the entire nation into a dead, ritualistic, ceremonial, and apostate religion. The Lord Jesus was acutely aware that these leaders and the mass of followers were slated for eternal judgment. Yet, the Lord closed that chapter with tears of lament over these very people.
Jesus grievously weeps, saying: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” When the Lord Jesus taught of the coming judgment which was slated for the overwhelmingly unrepentant city of Jerusalem, He could not proclaim those words of wrath without His compassionate heart being deeply stirred; even unto uncontrollable wailing over their lost souls. Dear one, God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
The Apostle Paul, whose life was being moved along by the Spirit of Christ, expressed the same ‘Spirit-given’ compassionate and burdened heart, in words of personal testimony. He wrote: “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” Paul knew that the ‘day of the Lord’ was coming! He was fully aware that every person will soon hear one of these two phrases from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ. The narrow road people will hear, “Come, YOU BLESSED of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” But the broad road audience will hear, “Depart from Me, YOU CURSED, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
See, Paul had come to enter into a saving knowledge of God’s astounding love, even though he was previously a sinner, a blaspheming persecutor. But the amazing love of Jesus, which had now been shed abroad in his heart, was compelling him to have earnest desires for the salvation of his fellow countrymen.
The supernatural and sacrificial love of Jesus that had reached down to Paul, in his condition of utter rebellion, was now compelling him to reach out to his fellow countrymen with both the ‘bad news of God’s judgment to come and the Good News of Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.’
May I say to each of us that, “This shocking and sobering doctrine of the dreadful destination of the impenitent sinner should also be compelling a personal incentive to all born-again believers. Each one who has been born from above and made a new creation, saved from eternal judgment, should be earnest and opportunistic in our evangelistic intercession and personal witnessing to the unbelievers headed to eternal judgment.
Look at the heartbeat of the Apostle, as he considered the coming condemnation of his fellow countrymen. He writes, “I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed (separated) from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh.” Paul was writing these words with a profound burden and a sincere compassion for the very people who had made themselves his sworn enemies.
Consequently, he wholeheartedly testified that he was very willing to take his countrymen’s place in this dreadful destination of eternal hell, if only his brethren would run to Christ and be saved.
Why and how does Paul say such things? Because the reality of the doctrine of hell had overwhelmed his heart with a passionate passion for souls. He is the one who had penned these words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, which declare that ‘the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men’. He was also the one who had written that ‘all the world was guilty before God’; and that ‘the wages of sin is death, spiritual separation from God forever’.
However, Paul also fully understood that his fellow citizens’ only hope for salvation was to be justified by grace alone; through faith alone; in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
Through sharing God’s word in these devotions, I have been stating that the Lord Jesus Christ was the primary theologian concerning the doctrine of hell. The One who proclaimed “I am the TRUTH” had far more to say about it than anyone else. Yet, we also find that the One who preached most about the reality of hell is the very One who is solely able to deliver us from its awful reality!
The very Person (God the Son) who came to warn sinners about this dreadful destination is the only One who can save us from it. This is the incredible beauty of God’s gracious warnings to sinners. God the Father primarily sent His warnings by the means of the One who is the one and only Deliverer! He came to save sinners!
These multiple warnings written in these devotions have certainly been unpleasant, to say the least. And most of the time, they are unwelcome by many, if not attacked by the people of the world. However, if a warning is based on spiritual reality, it then becomes a compelling, loving, and extremely beneficial warning to those who will “hear, heed, repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
THE DREADFUL DESTINATION OF THE IMPENITENT SINNER — PART 14
“Then He shall say to those on his left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into EVERLASTING FIRE prepared for the devil and his angels’” (Matthew 25:41).
“These shall go away into EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT” (Matthew 25:46a).
There is not a single human being on this planet who would know what lies beyond our ‘physical and temporary’ life, if God had not revealed these truths in His inerrant, infallible and authoritative Word. The scriptures unquestionably declare that, ‘Every person will occupy an eternal destiny, either in the everlasting glories of Heaven or the timeless torments of hell.’
Let us continue considering the clear and concise teaching of God the Son on this essential issue concerning the unending perdition of the impenitent sinner. The Lord Jesus has repeatedly taught that hell is ‘a place and condition’ of CONSCIOUS and EVERLASTING suffering, misery, and woe. This divine truth is certainly the most unsettling reality involved in all of the Lord's teachings on the subject of hell.
Furthermore, I would submit that this aspect of God the Son’s teaching on the doctrine of the ‘eternality of hell’ is probably the most despised and detested doctrine. May I say personally that there is only one reason that I would ever believe these startling teachings, concerning the ‘everlasting torments of the condemned’. That reason is that I am a bona fide disciple of the Lord Jesus. I believe that Jesus Christ is the second Person of the Godhead. I am fully convinced that Jesus Christ is God made manifest in the flesh. Moreover, my conscience is held captive by the teachings of my Savior and Lord.
Additionally, considering the truth that “No human being (who is a sinner deserving of judgment himself) would ever conceive of such a doctrine as eternal hell." Only the Creator God, who is the God of pristine holiness and inflexible justice, would author and authorize such a place of unending abandonment and agony, as the eternal exhibition of the glory of His holiness and justice!
Adhere closely to the words employed by God the Son to describe the duration of the torments of hell. “If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the EVERLASTING FIRE” (Matthew 18:8).
Then Paul was instructed to write these starkly potent words: “In flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9). Also, John writes in Revelation 14:11a: “And the smoke of their torment ascends FOREVER AND EVER; and they have no rest day or night.”
Oh, these few verses are a mere sampling of the multitudes of other passages concerning Jesus’ teaching on the ETERNALITY of this dreadful destination. All of these words describe a state of reality which is without termination. In fact, the same Greek word (which is translated eternal or everlasting) is used to describe the everlasting life of the glorified believer. The words, ‘eternal life’ not only speak of a divine quality of life; they also speak of an endless quantity of time.
Additionally, please be reminded that God Himself is called the “Everlasting God”. The same word is also used to describe God the Son in Revelation 1:18, when He declares, “I am alive forevermore.” That same Greek word is also employed to describe the Holy Spirit in Hebrews 9:14, when the Word of God proclaims, “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the ETERNAL SPIRIT offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Furthermore, this same concept is in the familiar words of John 3:16, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have ETERNAL LIFE.”
Notice the contrast of both of the eternal destinations in the Book of Revelation. First, the eternal destination for the redeemed: “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign FOREVER AND EVER (Revelation 11:15)!
Next, the contrast of the condemned condition of the unconverted, in which precisely the same terminology is utilized by the same writer, the apostle John, “And the smoke of their torment ascends FOREVER AND EVER; and they have no rest day or night.” John does not say, ‘The smoke of their annihilation will rise up forever and ever! He describes it as the “smoke of their everlasting torment" that will rise up forever and ever.