The way for us today to experience Christ as the propitiation place is through faith in His blood; He has made propitiation for our sins, and we simply need to exercise our spirit and come forward to the throne of grace in our spirit, applying the blood of Jesus Christ.
For us to come forward to God there’s the need for the shedding of blood, for we are sinners; therefore, Jesus Christ came and died for us on the cross, He shed His blood, and made propitiation for us.
In the New Testament there are three main aspects of propitiation as applied to the Lord and our experience, denoted by the three Greek words used.
Christ is the One who made propitiation for our sins; the Greek word used is hilaskomai, meaning to propitiate, to appease, to reconcile one by satisfying other’s demand.
God’s demands on us are too high and unattainable, and we as sinners can never redeem ourselves or shed our blood to be forgiven; we need Christ, the sinless sacrifice, to offer Himself once for sins and appease God on our behalf by satisfying the requirements of God.
Christ is the propitiatory sacrifice; the Greek word is hilasmos, denoting that which propitiates, that is, the propitiatory sacrifice.
He not only offered a sacrifice for us to appease God on our behalf, but He Himself became the propitiatory sacrifice, and He offered Himself once for our sins, bearing our sins on Himself on the cross and making propitiation for our sins.
Christ is the propitiation place; God set forth Christ to be the propitiation place, the lid of the ark where propitiation was made, and the Greek word used is hilasterion (Rom. 3:25).
In Christ we meet with God; in Christ we are qualified to enjoy God; in Christ God can meet with us and speak to us in a gracious way in peace, for in Christ we are in the very propitiation place where we have the blood of Christ covering us.
The propitiatory cover equals the throne of grace, where we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help (Heb. 4:16).
For us to enjoy God, we need to come forward to Him as the throne of grace in our spirit, where we can experience Christ as the propitiation place through faith in His blood, and we are washed, cleansed, and qualified to be in God’s presence and have His speaking.
Today we want to see what is the practical way for us to experience Christ as the propitiation place in our Christian life, so that we may be in God’s presence, enjoy His speaking, and have Him infused into us.
God set forth Christ as the Propitiation Place through the Process of Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension
In Rom. 3:25 we read that God has set forth Christ as a propitiation place; through the entire process of crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, God has set forth Christ as the propitiation place (see Rom. 3:24-25; Acts 2:24, 32-36; Heb. 9:5).
Propitiation began with Christ’s crucifixion, but it was completed when the ascended Christ entered into the heavenly Holy of Holies and sprinkled His own blood on the lid of the ark, the throne of grace in the heavens.
God began to set forth Christ as the propitiation place at the time when darkness came of the whole land during Christ’s crucifixion (Luke 23:44; Heb. 9:26).
On the cross Christ offered Himself as the unique sacrifice for sin, the reality of the sin offering, and it was then that God began to set Christ forth as the propitiation place. Then, on the third day, God resurrected Christ; His resurrection was also a part of the process of God setting Christ forth.
After His resurrection, Christ ascended to the heavens where God received Him and placed Him at His right hand, giving Him the highest place and all authority in heaven and on earth; this is also part of the setting forth of Christ as the propitiation place.
Through this entire process of crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, culminating in Him sitting down at the right hand of God, God placed Christ – He set Him forth – as the propitiation place. Hallelujah!
From the time that Christ shed His blood to the time that He ascended to sit at the right hand of God, God worked to set forth Christ as the propitiation place.
In the Old Testament this propitiation place was the expiation cover, the lid of the Ark, which was in the Holy of Holies, hidden from man’s eyes; only those qualified to enter in could come forth, and they bore God’s people on their heart and shoulders.
But praise the Lord, now in the New Testament God set forth Christ as the propitiation place – the reality of the expiation cover – openly before men, so that all who believe into Him may come forward and contact God and meet God in Christ. Hallelujah!
Christ has been openly set forth by God to be the propitiation place where God meets with man and man can be in God.
Christ sprinkled His blood in a complete way, and we have a complete and full redemption, based on which we can come forward to God to enjoy God, have His presence, and enjoy His speaking and infusion.
Because of the blood of redemption, now we can have fellowship with the righteous God in the glory of Christ (see Lev. 16:14-15; Heb. 10:19; Rev. 22:14). When we are in this place, we experience Christ as the propitiation place and we have fellowship with God!
Thank You Lord Jesus for becoming the propitiation place, the place where sinful man is justified by God because of the propitiation accomplished by Christ! Hallelujah, God set forth Christ as the propitiation place through the entire process of crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension! Praise You, Lord, You have been set forth by God as the reality of the propitiation place in an open way before all men! Hallelujah, we can now experience Christ as the propitiation place by faith in His blood, and we can meet with God and fellowship with God!
We Experience Christ as the Propitiation Place by Exercising our Spirit and having Faith in His Blood
It is so encouraging to see and understand the type of the expiation in Lev. 15-16 and to realize that Christ has fulfilled this type by His propitiation for our sins, but how can we experience this?
How can we experience Christ as the propitiation place today in our daily life, and how can this be real to us?
The way to experience Christ as the propitiation place is through faith in His blood, that is, by exercising our spirit to believe into the Lord and realize that His blood washes us and cleanses us.
We need to see the fact and exercise our spirit to declare the fact, and we will enter into God to be one with Him!
Because the blood of Jesus has been sprinkled on the propitiatory cover, and because God’s standing is on the blood, He can meet with us in the midst of His shining glory (Exo. 25:22).
God’s glory (typified by the cherubim), righteousness, and holiness (typified by the law of God) used to exclude us from God and condemn us, but Christ shed His blood, and now both God and us stand on the blood of Jesus Christ to fellowship.
God is standing on the blood and we also are standing on the blood; the blood covers us, we stand on the blood, and we fellowship with God.
God is here, man is here, and the blood of Christ is beneath us, covering and satisfying all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory. Amen!
Whenever we meet with God in glory, we have the sense deep within our spirit that we are washed by the precious blood of Christ; this is the propitiation place in our experience (see 1 John 1:7; Rev. 1:5; 7:13-14). Hallelujah!
In His ascension Christ is the place, the propitiation cover, for God to meet with us. He is the place where God can meet with man and man can come forward to God with no fear, no guilt, no shame, and no condemnation.
Christ is the propitiation place, the throne of grace, the mercy-seat; we can come forward to God to enjoy Him as mercy and grace.
Christ is a grace place; He’s the place we go to get grace. Christ is a dispensing place – here we enjoy the dispensing of God. Christ is a dispensing place – here we enjoy the dispensing of God into man. Christ is a mingling place – here, in Christ, we are mingled with God. Christ is a place of incorporation – here, in Christ, we get into God and God gets into us.
Hallelujah for such a place, which is Christ, and hallelujah for the fact that we can experience Christ as the propitiation place through faith in His precious blood!
This place, Jesus Christ as the propitiation place, is also called “the throne of grace” in Heb. 4:16; the throne of grace is the cover of the Ark on which Christ sprinkled the blood He shed on the cross for our redemption.
The throne of God is in heaven (Rev. 4:2), and this throne is the throne of authority toward all the universe (Dan. 7:9; Rev. 5:1) but toward us – the believers in Christ – it becomes the throne of grace. This throne is the throne both of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:1).
How can we, who live on earth, come to the throne of God in the heaven? The secret is our spirit, for it is in our spirit that Christ is (2 Tim. 4:22), and our spirit is the habitation of God (Eph. 2:22).
Christ is the heavenly ladder joining earth to heaven, and Christ today is in our spirit; our spirit is the gate of heaven, and when we turn to our spirit, we enter through the gate of heaven and touch the throne of grace in heaven through Christ as the heavenly ladder.
When we turn to our spirit and exercise our spirit, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from every sin, and we experience Christ as the propitiation place through faith. This Christ-place is in our spirit, and in our spirit we have the reality of the expiation cover in Lev. 16. Praise the Lord!
Lord, we believe that You have ascended to the throne, You brought Your own blood, and this blood allows us to stand before You with boldness, for God is at peace with us and we are at peace with Him! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to touch You, and we apply Your precious blood right now. Thank You, Lord, our spirit is joined to You, and when we turn to You we enter through the gate of heaven to touch the throne of grace! Amen, Lord, we come forward to You with boldness to receive mercy and find grace for timely help!
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, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 296 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (2), week 6, The Expiation.
- Similar article on this topic via holdingtotruth.com, How to Enjoy Jesus Christ as Your Propitiation.
- 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)
# 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)
# Jesus, where’er Thy people meet, / There they behold Thy mercy-seat; / Where’er they seek Thee, Thou art found, / With grace and mercy to abound. (Hymns #862)
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