Christ, the Propitiation – Part 1

Romans 3:25

Preached December 28, 2008, Grace Family Church of Americus

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Here is an excerpt from the sermon transcript:

Propitiation means something that appeases anger, something that provides satisfaction. God, to declare Himself righteous, must do so through propitiation. Some argue that the word is not to mean the means by which to appease anger, but to restore or move an obstacle of fellowship. Therefore they would rather translate it expiation,
meaning more like something that removes the guilt of sin in man, therefore removing the barrier that prevented fellowship with God (man's guilt). There is a teaching out there that says that God is love and nothing but love, and that He is not a God of wrath and anger. How, they say, can God be angry and wrathful, and be loving, since, as the Scripture says, 'God is love'? This idea that God is nothing but love, and in Him is no wrath at all is blasphemous. It denies the Scripture. It denies all that we have been taught by Paul from 1:18 to here. It denies the fact that the wrath of God is revealed. It says that all that is needed is for man to admit His guilt and sin, and when he does that, he can have a personal relationship with God. Now, mind you, there is some truth in that statement, but if we go out on a limb and say that God is not angry with sinners every day, then we are in great danger of cutting the limb off and falling to our death.

NO, the character and nature of God would not merely be satisfied to restore fellowship. The Scripture teaches that there is no fellowship with God, since all are born into Adam's sin. All are born enemies of God. And there is no fellowship with an enemy, but wrath that awaits, and anger that will be satisfied by the punishment of the offenders. So Jesus did not die simply to restore fellowship. He died to appease the just and holy anger….the wrath of a holy God against our sin, our rebellion, against Him by our multiplied millions of sins, shattering His Law: God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day. (Psalm 7:11, NKJV)

Jesus Christ did not die as a "fellowship restorer"……no, He died as a "wrath absorber." He did not die as a martyr, but He was "put forth" by God as one who would bear the wrath of God for all who believe. It was the will of God to CRUSH Him….and because God crushed His One and Only Son, He can now justly draw sinners to come to Himself…..He can now cancel the record of debt, through the blood of His Son…..He can now rightfully call His own out of darkness, and into His marvelous Light…..He can now be satisfied because justice is fulfilled, because the sins which so anger Him have been punished…..born not by we who believe, but by the precious Son of God, by the will of His Father:

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise [crush] him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:10-12, KJV)