The gigantic embrace

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2020

The gigantic embrace

“We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” (1Jn. 4:16).

“My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies." (Song 2:16).

The Koine Greek had several words for love. Two of those words were eros and agape. In the Song of Solomon Solomon used the Hebraism that appropriated the second Greek concept of love to express the first and greatest concept of love, divine love. 

Every requirement and every privilege of the Holy Writ is ours. Not only for people way back then; not just for people way over there. “The beauty of the Lord our God be upon us” (Psa. 90:17), here and now. For the purpose of this post, the embrace is not between lovers, but is a parent to child, friend to friend embrace, purest and most holy. But more than anything earthly, the God-man embrace is most assuredly arms-wrapped-around-bodies love. The God-man embrace is the Creators’ SPIRIT joyfully engulfing, and the creatures’ spirits happily being engulfed.

“The relationship! The relationship! It’s all about the relationship!” I hear people cry. True, it is all about our relationship with God through Jesus. But, is our relationship with God valid? Is it honest? are the big questions. It must go way beyond formal. It must be true, and it must be in Spirit. And of course, it must be more than superheated on the outside while zero degrees Kelvin on the inside fanaticism. 

Jesus said we must be “in Spirit”. And not only in Spirit but truly “in Spirit”. “God is a Spirit (that is, God expresses His selfless soul in supreme holiness and ever debars dissimulation): and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24). “The Father seeketh such to worship Him.” (John 4:23). Such people will have no pretense. “In their mouth was found no guile.” (Rev. 14:5).

Am I genuine before God? Or is my profession only for show? Do I follow hard after the God of Abraham and king David and Paul like they did, all the time? These must be the most important questions for constant self-examination in this quickly shrinking Investigative Judgment period, when deceptions and delusions abound in us and around us. It’s not simply that worship is the big test of Revelation. But true worship is the big Revelation test.

The embrace, the embrace! Heaven is all about the embrace between the Creators’ Spirit and creation. And Earth is certainly included in that boon of health.

Another thought connected to the embrace of God: the union of your heart in worship cannot go simply to any supernatural person other than the Father and Son, even if that person takes it upon himself to capitalize his name and his title in all the religious literature of the Christian religion, and be central to the other world religions.

True worship must be a union directed to the correct supernatural Person, One begotten into the purest, most holy love of God the Father and into submission to the holy Law of His kingdom, the law of self-sacrificing love.  Being born again we can have true worship in His embrace. The real relationship is all about being engulfed by the Father’s love! True worship is all about being invited into the Father’s infinite love for His children, especially His only begotten Child. His Son was dead and is alive again; He was lost for our sakes but now He is found. It’s about the Father’s promised reconciliation with an alienated Earth!

Jesus always had the embrace of His Father, from the very beginning. “The only begotten Son... in the bosom of the Father....”(John 1:18). He prayed for His disciples, “I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me.” (John 17:8). Before Jesus came out from God in order to impregnate Miriam, He was in, or within, God and His comforting glory. Can we see Jesus forever dwelling in His Father’s love? Can we see ourselves also forever dwelling in the Father’s bosom with Jesus? 

If we overcome sin through our own diligent effort that is empowered by God’s embrace we will sit with Jesus on His throne, engulfed in His glory that comes from our being loved, which is His Spirit to us, which is His own self in us, which is His embrace around us. But, it's also His Father’s glory and bosom and embrace that engulfs His Son because He overcame the devil through His own diligent effort that was empowered by His Father’s embrace.

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us.... I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one.” (John 17:20-23).

The Father’s union with His only Begotten was inexpressible. So at Jesus’ baptism straight from the Almighty’s heart sped a package of glory, emblematic of His Spirit without reservation, given to Jesus’ heart that day. “Direct from the throne issue the beams of His glory....purest light—fit emblem of Him, the meek and lowly one.” Desire of Ages, p. 112.

Unceasingly in the Father’s bosom, surrounded and filled with the essence of His Father’s own self, the Son could minister non-stop to a resistant nation and world. Compared to the majestic peace and comfort from union with His God the daily need for food, water, sleep, warmth, or coolness, even loving acceptance from family and friends, were much lesser necessities. “Jesus saith unto them, My [food] and my drink, is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34). To His beloved Son “God giveth not the Spirit by measure.” (John 3:34). In His Father’s bosom, the embrace was not euphoria or ecstasy, but an abiding peaceful trust. 

The definition of Embrace: “To hold someone closely in one’s arms, especially as a sign of affection. To accept or support willingly and enthusiastically. The act of holding someone closely in one's arms.”

The Spirit of God through Jesus’ embrace, brings with it the embrace of God. The Spirit is God’s embrace. What exactly does the embrace look like? It is what Paul called, “the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge”, being “filled with all the fulness of God”, “the peace of God”.

“That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” (Eph. 3:16-19).

“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:7).

The divine embrace “shall keep your hearts and minds”. By God’s reconciliation we are “in Him” (Eph. 1:10), and in His peace that the world doesn’t possess, and therefore cannot give us. His love brings life and light to our brains and bodies. By His love the dead and blind have life and light. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4).

The beauty of the Lord our God gives us soundness of mind. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2Tim. 1:7).

His imparted love keeps our minds sound. It’s not by modern psychology or psychiatry that the mind receives health. The sound mind comes only by the “new Spirit” (Eze. 36:26) that He promises, “I will give you”. By His love (Spirit) we can have real, long-lasting mental health. No one who doesn’t have the embrace of God has true mental health.

In His embrace obedience to the Law of God is ours for the taking. This was Paul’s great discovery in Romans 7:6, 25.

“In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” (Col. 2:11).

No earthly, human means, not even human relationships, can heal the emptiness caused by alienation from the God of love. Only by the operation of the great Physician, through faith in the Physician, can spiritual things be injected into our newly re-made spirit. And our follow-up is simple—constant, tight union with the Physician, receiving His embrace continually and doing for Him. 

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power.” (Col. 2:6-10).

Our oneness with God comes from the embrace from Jesus. “He that is joined (G. kollao,  ‘glued’, ‘stuck’) unto the Lord is one Spirit.” (1Cor. 6:17).

God’s true bonding to and real embracing of our spirits must come by hearts divinely humbled, made unselfish and willing to serve others. Then the Spirit of divine love can unify us and bind our hearts to the Father and Son, and to each other. The counsel of peace between Father and Son reverberates Their union to all by Their one Spirit that pervades Their one universe. The flux of Their pervading Spirit cuts through our unloved dominion of Satan and its unloved inhabitants, giving us life and blessings and salvation. 

No one can avoid the benefits of the Spirit of union that emanates from Them. But, Satan can distract the children of Adam and disallow Christ’s Spirit in the humans’ spirits , and thus the humans focus their thoughts upon their deleterious errors and on the ugly self-exaltation of the destroyer.

“With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling.” (Eph. 4:2-4).

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. 

Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.” (1Jn. 4:9-13).

To exterminate the Son of God, and to usurp His one and only unique place with the Father has ever been Satan’s effort, even calling himself a third person of the Godhead Spirit. By this Trinity Satan has effectively taken the place of the precious Child of God, so that, rather than embrace Christ here and now, the world is embracing Satan, “whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.” (Acts 19:27). Everyone who embraces someone from heaven besides Jesus, embraces Satan. And everyone who pours out his soul to the Trinity god cannot know the embrace of the Lord or of the only true God, and so does not know life and peace.

Nowadays when one says that the Trinity god is not the scriptural God but of man-made construction he finds that the Trinity god is protected by rather violent guardians, just as it was 2,000 years ago. 

“Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands: so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.” (Acts 19:26,27). A few minutes later Paul was almost martyred.

Everybody who pours his heart into the third person of a Trinity god misses out on the gigantic embrace from God’s holy Spirit. He does not know the embrace from the Son of “the only true God”. And everyone who does not have the embrace of the Son does not know life and health. Those worshipers are subsisting off of a forbidden tree. 

Satan promised Eve everlasting life if she would trust and depend upon him. Then she immediately evangelized her best friend, and Adam became a disciple of the new god who his Father, Jesus, never knew.

“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” (Gen. 3:1-6).

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.... And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” (1Jn. 4:1-5,14,15).

Satan has so effectively deceived this world that many would as verily say today as did people of old, “We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.” (Acts 19:2). They would say this not because they have never heard of the term, “Holy Ghost”, but because they haven't known it as the wonderful embrace of God. The unknown, but true, non-Trinity God has had an unknown, un-felt, un-received embrace, which has the sole purpose of bringing life and health to souls, minds, and bodies of humanity. But, “whosoever will” must seek out that unknown, unpopular, anti-Queen of heaven, non-Trinity God.

Obedience to the Law of God comes through the loving embrace of the Spirit of the God of Law. The Spirit is the Father’s truth and embrace, the embrace of His reconciliation, His gladly embracing reconciled Spirit, the gift of His reconciliation to the repentant sinner. The Spirit is God’s reconciled embrace for all who have surrendered to His strong convictions. To them He gives “the Spirit of His Son” (Gal. 4:6). And by His loving embrace our love is brought to life.

“Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan. This work only one Being in all the universe could do. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it known. Upon the world’s dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise, ‘with healing in His wings.’” Malach 4:2.

The soundness of mind from the great Creator, through His Son’s Spirit, allows us to love God’s will and His Law. Through His Spirit embrace dominating us we will finally learn how the Law of God is a Law of love. Through the embrace of the embracing Father and Son we possess the power of God unto salvation.

“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat loveth Him also that is begotten of Him.

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments.

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1Jn. 5:1-5).

Through the embrace of God we receive the powerful will of God to do righteousness. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom. 8:1,2). “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Heb. 10:10).

The Spirit of God, the embrace of God, is the love of both God and His Son. When we see Their close embrace we naturally want to be part of that because we were made in Their spiritual image. Then we embrace Them and everything They stand for because They first embraced us, Their children.

We see Their love of embracing in Jesus’ ministry to little children. “He took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when He had taken him in His arms...” (Mark 9:36). “Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.” (Mark 10:15,16).

Little children are naturally meek and diffident, and belittled by life. When we can be belittled and meek by the mighty power of God that towers over our self-proclaimed greatness; when we hate our pride and dispense with it like the filthy rags that it is, then we can enter the embrace of God like the little ones did that day long ago. Only little children can enter and appreciate the gigantic union of a holy Godhead.

“He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.… If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:21,23).

Through the embrace of God we are empowered to speak the truth calmly, but fearlessly. We have no fear of loss, for God’s love for us is greater than a world that doesn’t love us.

“Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before Me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.

And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord.

And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.” (Jer. 15:19-21).

Wrapped in the Spirit of God we are bound in a bundle of life with Jesus.

“The soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall He sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.” (1Sam. 25:29).

The surety of Him who is faithful and true

"The surety is the guarantee of the debts of one party by another. A surety is an organization or person that assumes the responsibility of paying the debt in case the debtor policy defaults or is unable to make the payments. The party that guarantees the debt is referred to as the surety, or as the guarantor.Mar 1, 2018

Suretyship is a very specialized line of insurance that is created whenever one party guarantees performance of an obligation by another party. There are three parties to the agreement:

·         The principal is the party that undertakes the obligation.

·         The surety guarantees the obligation will be performed.

·         The obligee is the party who receives the benefit of the bond.

 I think I understand.

The obligee is the party owed.

The principal is the party that owes.

The surety pays the obligee if the principal can't pay.

If that's correct then let us apply suretyship to the sin dilemma.

It's simple but complex.

God the Father is the great Obligee, the party who owns the kingdom. Hence, the phrase, Kingdom of God. He holds the deed to the universe of animate and inanimate creation. His title is "the Ancient of days", "Him that liveth for ever and ever", "who only hath immortality" (1Tim. 6:16). To Him all war reparations and glory are owed.

The principal party that owes is humanity, made especially in the image of the Father and Son, but sold themselves to the manipulator.

The Surety is Jesus, the Son of God, Messiah the Prince. Why or how did He get that hard duty?

Some biblical history throws light on this. Jacob (ya 'aqob) means "heel catcher" maybe like "stumbling stone" or "someone who trips up others", or in our venacular, liar, cheat, thief. He had the gene for deception, and although Jesus redeemed Jacob of lying, the lie gene passed down to his boys.

So, along the way his boys lied to him about selling their own brother into slavery (Judah's idea). So they saw Joseph off while counting the money. For all their dreaming about what to buy with all that money, they couldn't hear Joseph's cries for mercy.

But they couldn't dare let Daddy know or they would be sure to suffer. So they killed a kid goat, wiped it's blood on Joseph's coat and gave it to Jacob. Certainly, Jacob's favorite son, Joseph, was killed by a wild animal. Oh, the bitter grieving! Jacob was still paying for his past mistakes.

But his boys, who hated Joseph, didn't know how deep their father's love went. He had always been affectionate, but they didn't care for it like Jacob and Joseph did. After many years of mourning on their father's part and some suffering and maturity on their part, they inched more and more toward feeling for their dad and accepting a disturbed conscience.

At this point Providence could send a drought and famine that affected the whole Middle East. The boys were men now and went down to Egypt to buy grain. But the Prime Minister of Egypt treated them like spies and threw the most belligerent brother in jail and said if they wanted more food later, they better bring their youngest brother. Other things happened that made them even more scared.

Eventually, the famine didn't break and the family needed more grain. But Jacob utterly refused to give up Benjamin, like the Prime Minister required in order to get more food. Jacob wailed, "My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave." (Gen. 42:38).

That was the end of that. But a few weeks went by and all the food was almost eaten. So, Jacob told his sons to buy grain again. Now Judah got more involved because he held the position of highest authority among the sons.

"If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food: but if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down: for the man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you." (Gen. 43:4,5).

When it began to look like his father was going to over extend the camps' food supply by clinging to Benjamin that's when Judah pulled out his last card.

"Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones. I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever." (Vs. 8,9).

Well, the Prime Minister was Joseph, their brother who they never had suspected could be almost royalty in the mightiest nation in the world.

Then it got real complicated again as Joseph continued his cat and mouse disciplining to know if his brothers were repentant and humbler. He finally got his brothers to rip their coats for the thought of their father dying soon because his children were stuck in a dungeon somewhere, especially the only reminder he had of Joseph, his young son, Benjamin. The Prime Minister wanted to keep Benjamin in ward.

So Judah boldly but meekly spoke to the second in Egyptian power.

"Now therefore when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad be not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life; it shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die: and thy servants shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever. Now therefore, I

pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren." (Vs. 33,34).

Judah pleaded with Joseph to make him a slave and to let Benjamin go back to Jacob.

This is what Jesus did. Jesus was surety for His human race. "By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament." (Heb. 7:22).

We were so beloved to Him and His Father, the Father's life was bound up in ours, that He promised His Father that He would bring us safely back to Their home again and set us before the King. Or, He if He failed to redeem us then He would take our place in the grave and bear the blame forever. And knowing all this was the plan since the great controversy during His earthly ministry, He maintained a steady mind and constant mercy and truth, patience and kindness for disciples, multitudes, and religious enemies. Especially at the very night of His Gethsemane tribulation and the mock trial, the Jewish beatings and Roman whippings, He held a king's mein and spoke with appropriate tones. Till His last minute of life, His Father was His earnest counselor and comforter, though No one would answer. "Jesus, made an High Priest ever."

"For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath...maketh the Son (a High Priest), who is consecrated for evermore." (Vs. 28).

"Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest ever after the order of Melchisedec." (Heb. 6:17-20).

The worth of the human being

"What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt. 16:26).

"What is the cost of a human body, in terms of the different elements that make it up?

Anatomy & Physiology  Organization of the Human Body

1 Answer

WARNING! Long answer! The elements in the human body are worth about $600 US.

Explanation:

99% of the mass of the human body are worth about $600 US.

Explanation:

99% of the mass of the human body consists of six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus.

They are worth about $576. All the other elements taken together are worth only about $9 more.

For the calculations, I have assumed a mass of 80 kg (176 lbs), and the prices are the best estimates I could find.

Here are my calculations for the 16 most valuable elements. All the others add only another $0.13 to the total."

https://socratic.org/questions/what-is-the-cost-of-a-human-body-in-terms-of-the-different-elements-that-make-it

Then Mr. Ernest breaks all the math down by each individual chemical. That was 2016, so add a few dollars for inflation. $600 total for human worth in 2020?

Now, there are other values for our worth depending on whether you are a civil servant working on a safety or economic project, or a hospital administrator and an insurance adjuster working on health care. For them individual worth is in the millions or billions of dollars. That's more accurate for human worth. Right?

But, what worth did God tag in each individual? Now we go where no man has gone before.

What is God's perspective on life? The Lifegiver's love for every single child (7.8 billion of us) that He has brought forth (women are middle men in creating babies), whose sense of bedside manner is unsurpassable, whose quantity and quality of care for His children, concern for them, desire for their safekeeping "until the redemption of the purchased possession" (Eph. 1:14), and all of the above is infinely unaffected by sinful selfishness. What yearning for our communion, a pure communion, makes His loss for Adam and the human race all the more unbearable!

Let's guestimate that the total human population since Adam comes to 10 billion minimum. Based on that, then Christ's propitiation must cover at least 10 billion souls. For the sake of suretyship, like insurance, let's double the population. We don't want to overlook anyone, and more so the Godhead's wouldn't to.

Propitiation and suretyship are old biblical terminology. I'll fact check for you.

Suretyship:

Suretyship is a very specialized line of insurance that is created whenever one party guarantees performance of an obligation by another party. There are three parties to the agreement:

·         The principal is the party that undertakes the obligation.

·         The surety guarantees the obligation will be performed.

·         The obligee is the party who receives the benefit of the bond.

 Propitiation:

"1) The action of propitiating or appeasing a god, spirit, or person.

'he lifted his hands in propitiation'

2) atonement, especially that of Jesus Christ."

https://www.google.com/search?q=propitiation+meaning&oq=propitia&aqs=chrome.1.0l3j69i57.4872j1j7&client=ms-android-cricket-us-revc&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

I prefer the following definition because it is not connected with the devil's perversion of the biblical self-sacrificing love of God.

"Propitiation [N] [B]

that by which God is rendered propitious, i.e., by which it becomes consistent with his character and government to pardon and bless the sinner. The propitiation does not procure his love or make him loving; it only renders it consistent for him to execise his love towards sinners.

In Romans 3:25 and Hebrews 9:5 (A.V., 'mercy-seat') the Greek wordhilasterion is used. It is the word employed by the LXX. translators inExodus 25:17 and elsewhere as the equivalent for the Hebrew kapporeth , which means 'covering,' and is used of 

the lid of the ark of the covenant ( Exodus 25:21 ; 30:6 ). This Greek word (hilasterion) came to denote not only the mercy-seat or lid of the ark, but also propitation or reconciliation by blood. On the great day of atonement the high priest carried the blood of the sacrifice he offered for all the people within the veil and sprinkled with it the 'mercy-seat,' and so made propitiation.

In 1 John 2:2 ; 4:10 , Christ is called the 'propitiation for our sins.' Here a different Greek word is used (hilasmos). Christ is 'the propitiation,' because by his becoming our substitute and assuming our obligations he expiated our guilt, covered it, by the vicarious punishment which he endured. (Compare Hebrews 2:17 , where the expression 'make reconciliation' of the A.V. is more correctly in the RSV 'make propitiation.')

https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/eastons-bible-dictionary/propitiation.html

We see the Bible's own definition in the context of Paul's deep, magnificent, collosal (and clausal), "dynamic answer to man’s lostness—that in justification God imputes divine righteousness to all who have faith in Jesus Christ."

"...all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 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. 3:23-26).

In my mind propitiation centers around the upholding of the Law of God and His universe kingdom. Earth, a strategic but invisible dot in the cosmos, accepted the Satan's attempt to usurp Jehovah's throne by siding with the deceiver at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Adam's world was strategic because it was created after the controversy among the angelic hosts and in the Godhead's very presence. Therefore, Adam and Eve had the high privilege of vindicating God without a knowledge or bias concerning the issues of heaven. And they were exonerating the Father beautifully, and naturally. They were living proof that Lucifer's argument was false, that God's Law set a standard too high. Adam and Eve were everything God required of the Law--through love for their Maker. He was a Father to them, and they were His most precious children. We see David's affection in them, or vice versa. There was not another creation like them in the kingdom.

Lucifer knew God, that His Law was the foundation of the everything that He made--objects, laws, personal relationships throughout His vast kingdom. Therefore, the alteration, i.e. the destruction of God's Law was Lucifer's strategy. 

Having gained possession of the inhabitants of Earth, he used them for a human shield. While they had little idea their "friend" was just using them in a cosmic battle, he dominated overothem. Earth was his first occupation, and he planned for many more worlds. 

Lucifer put God in a hard position. He could care less about the humans. He wanted to destroy God. Somehow tempt God to overstep perfect justice in His fight against the inveterate adversary, and to overstep perfect mercy in the saving His darling humanity who were infected with the spirit of Lucifer and inescapably in close proximity to him. They loved their Creator, but they had a taste of sinful self-indulgence, self-exaltation, self-pity, self-sufficiency, self-justification, self-centeredness, basic selfishness, and they immediately got addicted to it all. Now sin and self were largely eclipsing all the love and purity of heart that had so much overwhelmed them in the Garden. 

It would take all that God could bring to the work of propitiation, but the precious children of Earth could be saved because they hadn't revolted to the extent that Lucifer and his angels had. They stopped running from Jesus in the Garden, and were horrified and their pride was decimated when they had to kill their beloved lambs at their Lord's command. 

"For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope." (Rom. 8:20).

But nothing less than death could remove their rebellion due to Satan's spirit. Still they could be only partially reclaimed until "the redemption of our body" (Rom. 8:23) at the very end. "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." ( Titus 2:13).

Propitiation. In faith Adam and Eve looked to the Messiah who would live beautifully like God wanted all His children to imitate, and then die in their place, shocking them all in horror and out of rebellion. In the love and sorrow of each sinful soul who acknowledged that they should have been destroyed instead the spotless Son of God the Law of God was satisfied.

Upon repentance, new strength returned to each new humbled and grieving saint, giving God a stronger position in the angelic court to bring humanity home again, and giving Him a stronger position in the hearts of His precious children of Adam. Each repentance also gave Him a stronger position against the adversary. 

What are we worth to God? M

Billions of dollars?

More precious to Him than humanity was His only Begotten. But, to make it eternally known that He was worthy to reign, and that His Law was able to be kept through His Spirit, and that He had trained up His Son in the way of self sacrificing love, so that when He would be grown He would not depart from His Father's training, God risked everything by sending His Son, not in His almighty divine form, but as a son of Adam in a body that was weakened by 4,000 years of Satan's destructive rulership.

As for us, because of our great need, we somehow, as a race, ranked equally with the royal Prince of heaven who exchanged His high and glorious position with our horrible, dangerous position. 

"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Rom. 8:3,4).

 "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:6-8).

Christ's desire was to save us and to uplift us to such holiness that we could sit next to His throne and stand before His Most Holy Father. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne." (Rev. 3:21).

Suretyship? It's woven into the above explanations, but that will be covered next time. 

Godspeed. : )

Back in the '70s I once heard that the human body was worth 19 cents.