"Crucifixion" by Simon Vouet
(1590-1649)
The Awesome Truth About the Cross - Christ Is the Propitiation for Our Sins
Sermon Notes
1. Because of God’s holiness and truth, He is a God who is settled in His anger/wrath against sin.
God is a righteous judge,
And a God who has indignation/wrath every day.
If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword;
He has bent His bow and made it ready.
He has also prepared for Himself deadly weapons;
He makes His arrows fiery shafts (Psalm 7.11-13).
His wrath is not a capricious wrath. It is this divine judgment against human rebellion which constitutes the barrier to fellowship with God. There can be no expiation of man’s sin without a propitiation of God’s wrath. God’s holy antagonism to sin must somehow be turned away if sin is to be forgiven and the sinner restored.
But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them;
And often He restrained His anger
And did not arouse all His wrath (Psalm 78.38).
2. Therefore, His anger and wrath against sin must be satisfied. That is why He instituted the sacrificial system in the Old Testament. The OT word “atonement” reflects the truth of God’s wrath being satisfied by the sacrifice of an innocent animal.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement. (Leviticus 17.11).
Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O LORD, and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.' And the bloodguiltiness shall be forgiven them. So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the LORD (Deuteronomy 21.8-9).
But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering (Isa 53.10)
3. The satisfaction of God’s wrath against sin is summed up in the New Testament word “propitiation.”
“Propitiation” is a reminder that God is implacably opposed to everything that is evil, that His opposition may be properly described as “wrath”, and that this wrath is put away only by the atoning work of Christ.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (1 John 2.1-2).
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4.10).
Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make a propitiation for the sins of the people (Hebrews 2.17).
Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3.24-26).
Summary
1. There is the need for propitiation.
2. The nature of the propitiation is Jesus Christ Himself.
3. The source of the propitiation is God Himself
“Propitiation is an appeasement of the wrath of God by the love of God through the gift of God. The initiative is not taken by us, nor even Christ, but by God Himself in sheer unmerited love. His wrath is averted not by any external gift, but by His own self-giving to die the death of sinners” (John Stott, The Letters of John, p.93).
• Will you receive God’s love in Christ for you today?
• Will you take time to meditate on the cross throughout this week? And every day for the rest of your life?
• Will you make the changes God calls you to make that reflect the dominance of and overwhelming priority of His kingdom?
But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6.14).