The Propitiation—the Mighty Argument of the Cross
“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Heb. 9:27.
Really, not often does the Bible refer to the final judgment. It is alluded to with the worldwide flood, and Sodom and Gomorrah. Other than that, I find only about 3 dozen verses referring to it. Out of the thousands of verses of the Bible, 3 dozen is not many. Yet it is central in our thinking as if the whole Bible constantly reminds us about it. Why this discrepancy? It is because pagan kings and priests used it to frighten their people into submission, a practice adopted by Christianity in the Dark Ages. It is also because we tend to focus on the negative things about God, whom we’re convinced is our number one enemy. But although it is mentioned sparingly in the Bible, the few times that it is written at the inspiration of God is enough to let us know He is serious about it.
But the judgment is not the topic of this post today. I want to talk about the Great Propitiation—that is, the great solution to the final judgment. Not what, since the beginning of human history, the whole world did ignorantly in their animal and human sacrifices, but the true sacrifice of God, which all the corrupted sacrificial systems attempted to look forward to at least at their beginning.
God in Christ—Father and Son, suffering together—in order to reconcile man back to the Father. (2Cor. 5:19). Theme for the most profound meditation! Our study throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity! “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin.” 2Cor. 5:21. In the course of making Christ to be sin, the King of love must abhor His only begotten Son and ignore Him until His Son’s life was snuffed out. “He hath put Him to grief,” contain the ancient and mysterious words that foretell this magnificent event of the ages. (Is. 53:10) The Son, to whom the Spirit of comfort and peace was given without measure, must have that Spirit completely removed. “It was the burden of sin, the sense of its terrible enormity, of its separation of the soul from God—it was this that broke the heart of the Son of God.” Steps to Christ, p.13. To a depth of despair never known even by the most destitute sinner controlled by the devil, Christ, the Son of God, knew complete and absolute separation from His beloved Father, Him who alone gave purpose to Christ, and the source of all His life and love—the Great Propitiation—when Christ satisfied the Father’s demands of punishment for a broken law of perfect righteousness and perfect love, broken by His children—a law God’s most precious creation had repudiated to His face!
A mutual appreciation of love, a bond of trust unfathomable by finite creatures, was brought to an end when the Father slowly separated from His Son and Jesus’ life was crushed out from Gethsemane to the cross. The Father died with His Son, Both paid the price for our sin. Perhaps the best illustration of the bond between them that came to an end reveals itself in the tremendous power released by the splitting of an atom’s nucleus. When the infinite Ones do anything, it is incomprehensible to us, even in the attachment of love, especially that love which exists between Them.
Do we really understand the Propitiation? Or is it just the canned cliché, “Jesus died for my sins!” That’s OK for the littlest ones to begin learning of Christ’s death; but Youth Leaders, are you going to lead your charge into a deeper understanding of this galactic event? Pastors, the older crowd needs to study this also. Have you known confusion of face? Have you known hopelessness? Rather, do we recognize its perpetual intrusion? It holds us captives; confusion possesses us. Who walks with God? Who among us walks by faith, like Enoch and the other great people of the Bible? How many have that calm, trusting, consistent obedience in every situation? How many of us know constant connection with God? Or, how many of us like Peter, think that we are doing pretty good? But then the smallest test reveals that, when we thought our faith was firm, we were really running on our own steam. God laid on Jesus the separation of us all, and now He has earned the right to meet us in our helplessness and to teach us the lesson over and over again, of how to walk by faith.
“A seed shall serve Him: it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done this.” Ps. 22:30,31. Forever that theme will be our song, shouldn’t it be our study and meditation now?
It is the full and complete separation known at the final judgment of the wicked, that Christ felt that day at Calvary, a gulf of despair that none need experience except those for whom it is prepared—the devil and his angels. (Matt. 25:41.) Christ experienced that bottomless chasm of hopeless desperation and painful anxiety so that we would not have to. He laid down His eternal life, so willingly in our place, with His character so infinitely pure and free from all taint of sin and rebellion, that God accepted His self-sacrifice. His death passed the test that would forever silence any question of God’s innocence in the false charges brought against Him by Lucifer. The Father’s kingdom is secure, His creation can forever regain the depth of trust they had in Him before this rebellion began. And the redeemed of Earth, of all creation, will trust in Him the deepest, having been caught in the middle of the foray, but having been saved from the worst of Satan’s cunning and vengefulness.
Christ’s death having passed the test, there was absolutely no argument to leave Him separated from His Father. His resurrection signaled the complete victory over His adversary; and in His continued faith through that dark separation and in His resurrection, resides the promise of our resurrection also, if we, through His grace, will learn continued faith, even through the dark times.
“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1Jn.2:1,2.
Really, not often does the Bible refer to the final judgment. It is alluded to with the worldwide flood, and Sodom and Gomorrah. Other than that, I find only about 3 dozen verses referring to it. Out of the thousands of verses of the Bible, 3 dozen is not many. Yet it is central in our thinking as if the whole Bible constantly reminds us about it. Why this discrepancy? It is because pagan kings and priests used it to frighten their people into submission, a practice adopted by Christianity in the Dark Ages. It is also because we tend to focus on the negative things about God, whom we’re convinced is our number one enemy. But although it is mentioned sparingly in the Bible, the few times that it is written at the inspiration of God is enough to let us know He is serious about it.
But the judgment is not the topic of this post today. I want to talk about the Great Propitiation—that is, the great solution to the final judgment. Not what, since the beginning of human history, the whole world did ignorantly in their animal and human sacrifices, but the true sacrifice of God, which all the corrupted sacrificial systems attempted to look forward to at least at their beginning.
God in Christ—Father and Son, suffering together—in order to reconcile man back to the Father. (2Cor. 5:19). Theme for the most profound meditation! Our study throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity! “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin.” 2Cor. 5:21. In the course of making Christ to be sin, the King of love must abhor His only begotten Son and ignore Him until His Son’s life was snuffed out. “He hath put Him to grief,” contain the ancient and mysterious words that foretell this magnificent event of the ages. (Is. 53:10) The Son, to whom the Spirit of comfort and peace was given without measure, must have that Spirit completely removed. “It was the burden of sin, the sense of its terrible enormity, of its separation of the soul from God—it was this that broke the heart of the Son of God.” Steps to Christ, p.13. To a depth of despair never known even by the most destitute sinner controlled by the devil, Christ, the Son of God, knew complete and absolute separation from His beloved Father, Him who alone gave purpose to Christ, and the source of all His life and love—the Great Propitiation—when Christ satisfied the Father’s demands of punishment for a broken law of perfect righteousness and perfect love, broken by His children—a law God’s most precious creation had repudiated to His face!
A mutual appreciation of love, a bond of trust unfathomable by finite creatures, was brought to an end when the Father slowly separated from His Son and Jesus’ life was crushed out from Gethsemane to the cross. The Father died with His Son, Both paid the price for our sin. Perhaps the best illustration of the bond between them that came to an end reveals itself in the tremendous power released by the splitting of an atom’s nucleus. When the infinite Ones do anything, it is incomprehensible to us, even in the attachment of love, especially that love which exists between Them.
Do we really understand the Propitiation? Or is it just the canned cliché, “Jesus died for my sins!” That’s OK for the littlest ones to begin learning of Christ’s death; but Youth Leaders, are you going to lead your charge into a deeper understanding of this galactic event? Pastors, the older crowd needs to study this also. Have you known confusion of face? Have you known hopelessness? Rather, do we recognize its perpetual intrusion? It holds us captives; confusion possesses us. Who walks with God? Who among us walks by faith, like Enoch and the other great people of the Bible? How many have that calm, trusting, consistent obedience in every situation? How many of us know constant connection with God? Or, how many of us like Peter, think that we are doing pretty good? But then the smallest test reveals that, when we thought our faith was firm, we were really running on our own steam. God laid on Jesus the separation of us all, and now He has earned the right to meet us in our helplessness and to teach us the lesson over and over again, of how to walk by faith.
“A seed shall serve Him: it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done this.” Ps. 22:30,31. Forever that theme will be our song, shouldn’t it be our study and meditation now?
It is the full and complete separation known at the final judgment of the wicked, that Christ felt that day at Calvary, a gulf of despair that none need experience except those for whom it is prepared—the devil and his angels. (Matt. 25:41.) Christ experienced that bottomless chasm of hopeless desperation and painful anxiety so that we would not have to. He laid down His eternal life, so willingly in our place, with His character so infinitely pure and free from all taint of sin and rebellion, that God accepted His self-sacrifice. His death passed the test that would forever silence any question of God’s innocence in the false charges brought against Him by Lucifer. The Father’s kingdom is secure, His creation can forever regain the depth of trust they had in Him before this rebellion began. And the redeemed of Earth, of all creation, will trust in Him the deepest, having been caught in the middle of the foray, but having been saved from the worst of Satan’s cunning and vengefulness.
Christ’s death having passed the test, there was absolutely no argument to leave Him separated from His Father. His resurrection signaled the complete victory over His adversary; and in His continued faith through that dark separation and in His resurrection, resides the promise of our resurrection also, if we, through His grace, will learn continued faith, even through the dark times.
“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1Jn.2:1,2.
“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, 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 believeth in Jesus.” Rom 3:24-26.
“Oh, the unspeakable greatness of that exchange,—the Sinless One is condemned, and he who is guilty goes free; the Blessing bears the curse, and the cursed is brought into blessing; the Life dies, and the dead live; the Glory is whelmed in darkness, and he who knew nothing but confusion of face is clothed with glory.” —Protestant reformer, Lefevre.
posted by David | 4:59 PM
2 Comments:
Interestingly enough, I wrote a song this week called 'The Seed'. It's about Christ's birth and death. God planted His son in the earth to die so He could reap a harvest of souls. Deep thought. It would appear we are thinking along the same lines... :o)
Yes, a very deep thought. Our salvation over sin took a giant step into death that will be the cause of praise and wonder for ever and ever.
Trailady, I'm glad we are on the same page! Thanks for the visit.
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