Christ is the One who makes propitiation to God for us, He is the propitiatory sacrifice, and He is also the propitiation place where God can meet with His people. God created man in His image and according to His likeness, but man fell, and God’s image and dominion were lost.
Because of sin, there is now a separation between sinful man and God. The problem of sin keeps man away from God and His purpose, and it also keeps God away from sinful man, for He cannot dwell with those who sin. For a sinner to come before God, there had to be a sacrifice with the shedding of blood.
Someone has to shed his blood and die for us to be redeemed. But if we sinners die and our blood is shed, we are not qualified to redeem others. So the Lord Jesus came as God becoming man, and He put on human nature.
He lived a perfect human life on earth, living a life without sin. He was the mingling of God and man, and He was the only man who lives but didn’t commit a sin.
This One, this unique God-man who lives a sinless life and has a sinless nature, went to the cross and died for us, the sinners, shedding His blood for our redemption. He offered Himself willingly as a sacrifice for sin, and He condemned and judged sin in the flesh.
When He was on the cross, God put all our sins upon Him, and He bore our sins upon His body on the tree. He was manifested in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, and He was fully qualified to bear our sins and accomplish redemption.
He brought His shed blood into the heavenly Holy of Holies and sprinkled it before God, on the lid of the ark, and God was satisfied.
The Lord Jesus satisfied and fulfilled all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, and His unique sacrifice on the cross with His shed blood became something eternally effective through the eternal Spirit, through whom Christ offered Himself to God. How wonderful!
Now in this universe there is an eternally effective blood that can be applied to us all in time and space when we believe into the Lord, and this blood has made propitiation for us.
Because of the Lord’s death for us on the cross, God is appeased – He is happy with Christ and His sacrifice, and He’s no longer angry with us when we take Christ and stay in Him.
How wonderful it is to see what the Lord Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross, and how easy it is for us to apply Him and come to Him! Christ Himself is the propitiation for our sins, He made propitiation, and He is also the propitiation place for us to meet with God in an atmosphere of peace. Hallelujah!
Christ is the One who makes Propitiation to God for us – He made Propitiation for our sins
In Greek there are three words related to propitiation; the first one is hilaskomai, which means to propitiate, to appease, to reconcile two parties by satisfying the demand of one upon the other (see Heb. 2:17).
God’s demand on us is too high and too great, and we as sinners can never pay the debt or fulfil His demand.
The punishment for sin is death, and unless there’s shedding of the blood, there’s no forgiveness of sins. We sinners cannot approach the holy, righteous, and glorious God, because His demands on us are too high and we are so full of sins.
But on the cross Christ propitiated for us and brought us back to God. He made propitiation for our sins, shedding His blood and sprinkling it before God, and now we can have peace with God in the blood of Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus made propitiation for our sins, thereby satisfying the demand of God’s righteousness and appeasing the relationship between God and us. Because of the sprinkled blood of Christ, God can be peacefully gracious to us.
Christ is the real High Priest who made propitiation for our sins, and we can now come forward to God. Thank You Lord Jesus!
Christ is the Propitiatory Sacrifice – He Himself is the Propitiation for our sins
Christ not only offered a sacrifice to God for our sins to make propitiation, but He Himself is the propitiation for our sins. The Greek word in this case is hilasmos, which means, that which propitiates, that is, a propitiatory sacrifice.
On the one hand Christ is the One who made propitiation for our sins, doing the action of propitiation, and on the other, He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, the sacrifice for our propitiation before God.
He was manifested to be offered once to bear the sins of many (Heb. 9:28), and He offered Himself on the cross for our sins. He is the unique sacrifice that replaced all the animal sacrifices, fulfilling them and bring their reality, and His perfect sacrifice satisfies God and gives man peace.
The Lord Jesus was uniquely qualified to make propitiation for us and to be the propitiatory sacrifice, for He was the perfect man with high humanity, and He also had divinity, which made the sacrifice He offered eternally effective.
Christ offered Himself to God as a sacrifice for our sins, not only for our redemption but also for satisfying God’s demands.
We could not fulfil God’s demands, and not even a righteous man could die for us and redeem us – only Christ, the Lamb of God, can be the propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, redeeming us before God and satisfying His demands.
God’s demands are satisfied by Christ, and His propitiation has opened a new and living way for us to come forward to God.
How we love and appreciate the Lord for dying for us, and how we thank Him that He has opened the way for us to come back to God to enjoy God, have His speaking, and be one with Him.
Because of Him making propitiation for us and even being the propitiatory sacrifice for us, we can come to God in peace to enjoy Him as grace and have His speaking.
Thank You Lord Jesus for making propitiation for our sins. Thank You for being the propitiatory sacrifice who satisfied God’s demands and redeemed us. Lord, we could not redeem ourselves, but You came as the perfect and sinless God-man to die for us. Thank You Lord Jesus for shedding Your own blood for us so that we may have a way to come to God and be His people, live in His presence, and receive His speaking. Amen, Lord, we come forward to God based on Your shed blood, based on Your propitiation!
Christ is the Propitiation Place – He is the Mercy Seat, the Expiation Cover, the Meeting Place of God and Man
In Rom. 3:25 a third Greek word is used, hilasterion, which denotes the place where propitiation is made. Propitiation was made in a particular place – the lid of the ark in the Holy of Holies, and it is here that God met with man.
God made Christ the propitiation place, the place where God meets with man.
This particular place is very awesome: here we have God’s glory (signified by the cherubim above the lid looking down on the lid), and God’s righteousness and holiness (signified by the tablets of the law inside the ark, which condemn and expose man according to God’s standard).
Inside the ark – under the propitiatory cover – is the law with its demands exposing and condemning us. Above the cover is God’s glory watching and observing everything that takes place.
So Christ came and fulfilled both the demands of God’s law and the requirements of His glory, and He Himself became the place where we can meet with God.
We can meet with God in glory on the propitiatory cover sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. Here, in Christ, God can meet with us, the people who broke His righteous law, without any governmental contradiction to His righteousness, even under the observing of the cherubim, which bear His glory.
Christ satisfied God with all His holy, righteous, and glorious requirements, and He became the meeting place for God and man.
When we apply the blood of Jesus Christ, He cleanses us, washes us, and removes the sins away from us; then, we can come forward to God with boldness, and He is happy with us.
We are happy with God because the burden and stain of our sin is removed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and He is happy with us because we are His children, having His life, and we have the blood of Jesus Christ applied to us.
Christ became the meeting place of God and man – He is the propitiation place – so that we may hear God’s word, live in His presence, and be infused with God and His heart’s desire. In Christ as the propitiation place we enjoy God as grace to us.
In the King James version the expression “propitiation place” is translated as “mercy-seat”, for it is here that God shows us mercy.
Where can we meet with God and be in His presence? Where can we enjoy God, and what is the place where God is happy with us? It is only in Christ as the propitiation place, the meeting place of God and man.
The propitiatory cover of the ark in the Holy of Holies is a type of Christ as the propitiation place; here, in Christ, we are redeemed, covered by the blood, and able to stand before God and enjoy God.
Hallelujah, Christ is the propitiation place, the meeting place of God and man! Thank You God for giving us Christ as the propitiation place, the mercy-seat, where we can be washed in the blood and qualified to enjoy God. We come forward with boldness to the throne of grace, the mercy-seat, the propitiation place, to enjoy mercy and find grace for timely help. Oh Lord Jesus, we come to the place where You can speak to us in grace and where we can be infused with God. Hallelujah!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 88-89 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (2), week 6, The Expiation.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Lord, I believe Thy precious blood, / Which, at the mercy-seat of God, / Forever doth for sinners plead, / For me, e’en for my soul, was shed. (Hymns #295)
# For we do not have a High Priest who cannot / Be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, / But One who has been tempted in all respects like us, / Yet without sin, yet without sin. / Let us therefore come forward / With boldness to the throne of grace / That we may receive mercy and find grace / For timely help. (Scripture song)
# Now we’re rejoicing, standing in grace, / Oh hallelujah! Sin is erased! / God, in us flowing, in our hearts growing, / We are saved in His life! / Propitiation made by the blood, / Jesus’ redemption bought us for God! / No condemnation, justification! / We have peace toward God! (Hymns #1131)
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