This is the final post of a three part series on the Biblical teaching of the cross as the propitiation of God. In Part One of this series I attempted to lay down the basic groundwork of why propitiation is necessary. In Part Two I discussed what propitiation is according to the four New Testament verses that speak of it in the context of Christ’s death on the cross. In this third and final part, I hope to address a few thoughts about why it is absolutely necessary to speak about propitiation; especially in a culture that is offended by it.

So why is speaking about propitiation of God in Jesus Christ necessary to speak about? Let me give you a few reasons:

The Bible Clearly Speaks of It: The Bible clearly says that God is angry with sin and sinners who sin. (Ex. 4:14; 15:7; Lev. 26:27-33; Num. 11:1; 12:9; 22:22; 25:3; Deut. 3:17; 29:24-29; Josh. 7:1; Judg. 2:14; 2 Sam. 24:1; 1 Kings 14:15; 15:30; 16:2; 25:53; 2 Kings 13:3; 17:11; 23:19; 1 Chron. 13:10; 2 Chron. 28:25; Ps. 7:11; ; Heb. 10:27). He does not pass over evil without care and He does not look over injustice with no concern. The Bible also clearly says that all people are guilty rebels who have nothing but evil in their hearts (Genesis 6:5; Psalms 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Eccles. 7:20; Psalm 5:9; Psalm 140:3; Psalm 10:7; Isaiah 59:7,8; Psalm 36:1; Romans 3:9-18). Since God gets very angry with sin and sinners the Bible logically concludes that Jesus death is God’s gracious propitiation that turns His righteous anger away from Man (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10) and it is only through the propitiation of Jesus that we can be saved from the coming wrath of God (1 Thessalonians 1:10; Acts 4:12). If we desire to be faithful to God’s Word, we cannot ignore or be silent about propitiation. If we deny propitiation, we deny the Bible.

It is the Central Idea of Atonement: Ideas of forgiveness, redemption, deliverance, reconciliation or justification cannot take place unless God’s righteous anger against Man’s wicked sin is satisfied. The Old Testament sacrificial system was put into place to teach that propitiation is necessary for forgiveness. According to the Law (which is a shadow of Jesus; Hebrews 10:1), there was no forgiveness without the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22); that is, a propitiation. The thought is not lost in the New Testament, but it applied to what Jesus did on the cross (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10). We must speak about propitiation because propitiation is central to the idea of atonement. There is no forgiveness without atonement. There is no atonement that is not propitiatory is nature. We cannot understand the cross if we do not understand propitiation. The gospel is not proclaimed if the cross is not God gracious means of averting His wrath away from man so they may enjoy His endless affection for His eternal glory.

It Proclaims God’s Amazingly Gracious Love: God is not excited about sinners. Sinners do not make Him feel ooey gooey inside. He is not attracted to Man because they aren’t attractive at all. There is nothing in Man that arouses God’s love. But the good news, the gospel, tells us that He has loved us anyway. Not because of anything in us, but because of His love, mercy and kindness (Titus 3:3-5). If we talk about God saving us because we are special, beautiful, wonderful, excellent or worthy then we demean His wonderful love; we deny the beauty of the gospel. Propitiation is necessary to talk about because it clearly proclaims the gospel: God in love sent Jesus to turn His righteous anger away from us. He did this, not because of us, but in spite of us. The gospel is that God has loved us as an action and not a response. He did not feel kindly about who we were outside of Jesus, but He acted kindly by sending Jesus to satisfy His righteous anger. We praise God because He acted contrary to our actions. The good news is I am loved though I haven’t deserved it. How did He love me? By sending His One and Only Son to endure my hell. The Son drank my wrath. “Till on that cross when Jesus died / The wrath of God was satisfied / For every sin on Him was laid / Here in the death of Christ I live.” God’s love is amazing because He paid unknowable suffering for my redemption. God does not say He loves us, He works for our good. His love has done something in His Son.

It Reveals Most Clearly Who God Is: People often make a practice of exalting one attribute of God over another. Because of this we end up hearing a lot of “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and rarely hear “God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). The problem of making one of God’s attributes more important than the others is that in the end we make up an image of God that is not Biblical. It may be Biblically based, that is, they may be ideas taken from the Bible, but it is not Biblically sound. God is revealed in the whole counsel of God, not part of it. Propitiation is necessary because it helps to keep us from making God into something that He is not. God gets angry at sin and sinners and He demands that something be done to account for their evil. If we deny the reality of God’s anger and the need for it to be averted then the God we speak of is not the God of the Bible, but one we have conjured up from our own sentiments.