Christ is the Propitiation for our Sins, and we Died to Sins to Live to Righteousness

Christ bore up our sins in His body on the cross in order that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins. The very first item in the gospel is that Christ died for our sins.

He didn’t leave us in sin and sins, but came in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, and He condemned sin in the flesh; furthermore, He died for our sins. Christ died a vicarious death – He died as our Substitute.

It is us who should have been judged and suffered death, but Christ came and died in our stead. He represented us to die for our sins in order to accomplish redemption. Jesus Christ is our Savior, and He came to save us from our sins.

He’s the Savior of sinners, and He gave Himself that He may redeem us from all lawlessness. He was the Righteous One, yet He died on behalf of the unrighteous, so that He might bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18).

Christ also has suffered once for sins, the Righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, so that we through faith in Him might be brought to God. He died to take away all the sins in our conduct; He died not as a martyr but as a Redeemer, to accomplish redemption for us.

He removed all the barriers between us and God through His death on the cross. Now we can come forward to God with boldness in the new and living way opened by God on the cross, based on the precious blood of Christ, so that we may enjoy God.

We sinners can have access to God because on the cross Christ opened a new and living way through His blood for sinners to have access to God and enjoy God.

How we love and praise the Lord as the Lamb of God who took away all our sins, thus removing all the barriers between us and God so that we may come forward to God and enjoy Him!

Christ died for our sins, carrying up our sins on the cross, that our sins might be forgiven by God. He became sin, bore our sins, and took away the sin of the world that the problem of our sin might be solved.

He as the righteous One died on behalf of the unrighteous so that we may be redeemed back to God from our sins and from our unrighteous manner of life.

Now through faith in Him we can be saved from our sins, cleansed from sin, and forgiven before God, and we can be at peace with God because Christ made propitiation for our sins, so God is appeased and happy with us in Christ.

Hallelujah for Christ as our trespass offering! May we have an increased appreciation of Christ as the trespass offering in our experience.

In Christ’s Death we Died to Sins so that we might Live to Righteousness in Resurrection

As the reality of the trespass offering, Christ bore up our sins in His body on the tree, in order that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24).

When the Lord offered Himself up as a sacrifice on the cross, He bore up our sins in His body on the cross; the cross became the true altar for propitiation (Heb. 7:27).

The Lord offered Himself on the cross and was nailed there; while He was hanging on the tree, all our sins – all the innumerable sins of in the history of mankind – were on His body on the cross. There, He made propitiation to God for us by appeasing God, by satisfying His righteous requirement.

In the death of Christ, we also died to sins, so that we might live to righteousness. We have died to Christ so that we may live to Him, live to righteousness; we no longer live to sin but to righteousness in the resurrection of Christ (see Rom. 6:8, 10-11, 18; Eph. 2:6; John 14:19; 2 Tim. 1:11).

He died to sin once for all, and the life He lives is to God; so we also reckon ourselves to be dead to sin and living to God in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah, we are enslaved to sin no more – we are now enslaved to righteousness!

Righteousness is a matter of God’s government (Psa. 89:14); we the unrighteous ones were saved so that we might live rightly under the government of God.

The righteous One died on behalf of the unrighteous, by His wounds we are healed, in His death we died to sin, and now we live in a way that matches the righteous requirement of God’s government.

The best way for a person to be kept from sins is for him to be put to death; no matter how many sins someone commits, death separates him from his sins. Peter speaks of being away from sins (1 Pet. 2:24) and Paul speaks of dying to be free from sins (Rom. 6:1-11).

When we enjoy Christ and experience Him in His death, we are kept away from sins so that we may live to righteousness. Apparently, being kept away from sin terminates us, but actually, it enlivens us in resurrection so that we may live to righteousness.

We were dead and full of sin; we were dead in sins and offenses (Eph. 2:1), but Christ came, put our sins on Himself, bore our sins on the tree, and He suffered God’s righteous judgment for all our sins.

Christ’s death on the cross was a bruise, and that bruise – that death – healed our death. By His bruise on the cross we are healed.

On the one hand, Christ’s bruise that heals us keeps us away from sins through His death, and on the other hand, this healing enlivens us so that we may live to righteousness.

Because of Christ’s death on the cross, we are kept away from sins; at the same time, His death leads us into His resurrection that we may live to righteousness.

We need to remain here one with Christ, enjoying Him and experiencing Him in His death, so that we may live to righteousness in resurrection.

Thank You Lord for dying for us to bear our sins; now we no longer live to sin but to righteousness! Hallelujah, in the death of Christ we died to sins so that we might live to righteousness in the resurrection of Christ! We reckon ourselves to be dead to sin and living to God in Christ Jesus. We died with Christ, and now we also live with Him and in Him a life in righteousness. Thank You Lord for Your death which healed us, keeping us away from sins and enlivening us that we may live to righteousness.

As the Reality of the Trespass Offering, Christ Himself is the Propitiation for our Sins

Christ is the reality of the trespass offering; He Himself is the propitiation for our sins – and not only for our sins, but also for those of the whole world (1 John 2:2).

The blood of Jesus cleanses us from every sin (1 John 1:7); the Person of Christ is our advocate (1 John 2:1); and Christ Himself is the propitiation for our sins (v. 2). Our Advocate, Christ, shed His blood for the cleansing of our sins, and He is our propitiation.

He is not only the One who propitiates or the propitiation place, but He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, the propitiatory sacrifice.

Before God we have not only the problem of sins and sin, but also being enemies with God, and He is not happy with us because we are wrong with Him; therefore, Christ came as the Peacemaker, the Appeaser, the propitiation sacrifice to appease the Father.

In Rom. 3:25 Paul said that God set forth Christ as a propitiation place through faith in His blood, for the demonstrating of His righteousness, in that in His forbearance God passed over the sins that had previously occurred.

Christ is both the propitiation place, the One who propitiates, and the propitiatory sacrifice. Hallelujah! What kind of love is this – not that we loved God but that He loved us and He sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10)!

The Lord Jesus is the propitiatory sacrifice for our sins: Christ offered Himself to God as a sacrifice for our sins not only for our redemption from sins but also for God’s satisfaction (Heb. 9:28).

On our side, we have the problem of sins; on God’s side, He is not happy with us – so Christ came to offer Himself as a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins to both redeem us and appease God.

We need to be redeemed; God needs to be satisfied and appeased – so Christ came and did both. Through Christ’s vicarious death and in Him as our Substitute, God is satisfied and appeased; hence, Christ is the propitiation between God and us.

This is why we can meet God and enjoy Him – because Christ is our propitiation, and in Christ God is satisfied and we are redeemed. When God looks at us today and we are in Christ, he is happy with us. God is happy with whomever is in Christ, for Christ appeased God and He redeemed man.

When we see this, we appreciate Christ as our trespass offering, and we love Him to the uttermost. When we realize that in Christ we are pleasing to God and we are redeemed from our sins, we will come forward with boldness to God based on Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice and enjoy God in Christ and with Christ.

Thank You God for loving us so much that You sent Your Son as a propitiation for our sins. Thank You Lord Jesus for coming to be the One who propitiates, the propitiation place, and the very propitiation for our sins. Thank You Lord for dying on the cross not only to redeem us from our sins but also to make propitiation for our sins. Now we can come forward to God based on the Lord’s propitiatory sacrifice, and God is satisfied with Christ and happy with us. Hallelujah for our Christ, the One who is the propitiation for our sins!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 John, msgs. 10, 13 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 9, Appreciating Christ as the Reality of the Trespass Offering.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # He died for me that I might live; / I live for Him who died, / My life, my love to Him I give— / Jesus, the Crucified. / O Jesus, my Lord and Savior, / Help me to fully follow Thee / In life and death and loving service, / As Thou hast lived and died for me. (Hymns #362)
  # When I am in Adam, though I may not sin, / Unto death, a sinner, sentenced I have been; / When in Christ I need not righteously to act, / I’m already righteous, justified in fact. (Hymns #593)
  # Through Christ’s vicarious death / Our trespass is appeased, / For I am reconciled / And God is really pleased; / The trespass offering made for me / Has met all God’s demands; / All praise to Jesus, Lamb of God! (Song on, Our Trespass Offering)