Transcript
>Article: What Do We Mean By Propitiation? Does It
Only Count If We Accept It?
My subject this morning is, what do we mean by propitiation? And my subtitle is, does it only count if we accept it?
Have you ever heard an illustration like this? A man is spending his last week on death row. Suddenly the warden appears and shows him a piece of paper. The paper is a full pardon from the governor. After the man looks it over he says, “I don’t want it.” Then he hands it back to the warden. The illustration ends with the execution of the condemned man.
What is wrong with this story? Well, to begin with there is no way a state would execute a pardoned man. The prisoner would be ushered unceremoniously out of his cell, at least eventually, depending on legal technicalities. Yet users of such an illustration think it is a good one. If human beings reject the pardon that Jesus Christ bought for them by His death on the cross, they will go to hell and pay for their sins. Can this be true? No, it cannot.
Part One. Jesus, Our Propitiation.
The illustration I just told you cannot be correct. The reason is that it denies the reality of the propitiation that the Lord Jesus Christ made on the cross.
Before I go any further, let me confront and reject an objection. Someone might argue this way. The propitiation that Jesus made on the cross is real. It is fully adequate for all men. However, it is only effective if men believe it.
This view leads to a new illustration. A man deposits a billion dollars in the bank. Any debtor can come and draw freely on the account. It is sufficient to meet his needs. If he does not draw on it, the account does not pay for his debt. He has to pay for it.
What is wrong with this story? The same thing as before. It denies the reality of the propitiation that Jesus made on the cross. Nothing has really been paid for.
I submit to you today that such illustrations fly in the face of the word of God. Listen to the words of the apostle John in first John 2:2. Referring to Jesus Christ,
And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
According to the standard lexicon, propitiation means either appeasement necessitated by sin or expiation. I am going to ignore the long-running debate centering on the difference between appeasement and expiation. It does not really make a difference to my case today. I am comfortable with the word appeasement or with the softer word satisfaction.
The concept of propitiation refers to something that appeases or satisfies the righteous justice of God. The word satisfaction is a pretty good equivalent.
Did you hear anything in first John 2:2 about Jesus Christ being potentially the satisfaction for the sins of the world? Neither did I. The apostle flatly states that Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. He is that. Not that He can be or potentially is, but He simply is.
Note that this statement is exactly parallel to the truth that He is the propitiation for our sins. In whatever sense He is the propitiation for our sins, He is also the propitiation for the sins of the whole world.
Very simply put, the propitiatory work of our Lord Jesus Christ is universally effective. That is true whether anyone believes it or not. On the cross, my friends, Jesus paid for every single sin that has ever been committed by any person who has ever lived on the face of the earth. If you ask me, that is magnificent and overwhelming.
Of course the same truth is stated by the apostle Paul in second Corinthians 5:19, where he writes,
God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.
At the cross God imputed the sins of the entire world to Jesus Christ and did not impute them to the world.
Paul also expresses this truth in first Timothy 2:5-6.
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
Again, in whatever sense He is a ransom for us, He is a ransom for all.
For the same reason John the Baptist declared in John 1:29,
Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Unfortunately many born-again Christians do not understand the splendid universal sufficiency of the work of Christ on the cross. They frequently misrepresent it when they evangelize the unconverted. Fortunately you do not have to have a perfect understanding of the cross to be saved. If that were the case probably no one would be saved.
Part Two. Propitiation and Final Judgment.
At this point someone is going to be asking, but how can God send anybody to hell if Jesus paid for all their sins on the cross? Good question. In fact so good that it is a shame that grace people have not tried very often to answer it clearly.
Reformed people, however, have faced this issue and have an answer of their own. In their view, if Christ died for all of a man’s sins, that man cannot be sent to hell. Therefore he must be among the elect. This leads directly to the conclusion that Christ really died only for the elect. This is the doctrine we usually call limited atonement. Christ did not die effectively for the sins of all humanity.
The key word of course is effectively. In some sense a Reformed person might suggest the cross may be viewed as sufficient for all but effective only for the elect.
I will not bother you this morning with the tortured way Reformed thinkers try to explain the scriptures that I have already quoted. Obviously the Reformed answer is inadequate for grace people. But what should our answer be like?
Let me state it and then try to support it. Here it is. Since Christ died effectively for the sins of the entire world, nobody goes to hell for their sins. They go to hell because they do not have eternal life.
This suggested answer is confirmed, I believe, by the biblical account of the final judgment. As you know that account is found in Revelation 20:11-15.
The first thing that strikes us about this account is that there is no mention of sin. Let me repeat that. There is no mention of sin in Revelation 20:11 to 15.
Of course there is mention of men’s works. We are told in verse 12,
And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
Clearly the things men have done in their lives, their works, are reviewed at the great white throne judgment. This is both natural and very much to be expected. Countless human beings have gone out into eternity convinced that their works will make them acceptable to God on the day of judgment. They are wrong of course. Paul makes this plain in Romans and Galatians.
But many people are still convinced to the day of their death that the deciding issue will be their works. They hope that their good works will outweigh their bad works. They hope that God’s verdict on their works will result in them going to heaven.
Naturally God will not ignore this issue in the final judgment. That would be like a judge on earth refusing to hear evidence that a defendant thought would help him. Everything that any man or woman has ever done will be reviewed at the great white throne.
Interestingly enough Revelation 20 does not state the result of this review. But the book of Revelation was written to Christian churches that already knew what the result would be. Anyone who understands God’s plan of salvation also knows that the result of such a review will be negative. It will reinforce the testimony of Scripture that by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight (Romans 3:20).
To be sure, a review of anyone’s works will involve looking at his or her sins. But at the great white throne the issue will not be sins as such but works, both good and bad. And even so, notice one important fact. Men are not condemned to hell even on the basis of their works. Let me repeat that. Men are not sent to hell on the basis of their works.
As the text of Revelation makes clear there is another book open at the great white throne. That is the book of life. But this book is consulted only after the review of men’s works based on the other books. Yet when it is consulted the verdict is clear. We are told,
And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Men do not go to hell because of their sins or their wicked works. They go to hell because their names are not found in the book of life. They do not have eternal life.
Part Three. Where Do You Send the Unrighteous?
We all understand that human beings suffer the consequences of their sinful conduct while they are here on earth. Trouble, sickness, rejection and dozens of other experiences, including physical death, are included in the ways in which sinners suffer these consequences. We often call this the law of sowing and reaping. Thank you, Bob.
Paul tells us in Galatians 6:7 that whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. God has built this law into human experience. As long as a man remains a sinner he is subject to this unchanging law.
Note well, born-again Christians are also subject to the law of sowing and reaping. Paul makes that clear in Galatians 6:7-8. He tells the Galatians,
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
When any man, including a believer, lives sinfully and thereby sows to his flesh, he reaps corruption. Paul insists on that. But a believer has another option. He can also sow to the Spirit and reap an enrichment of his experience of eternal life.
This last fact is important. But today I am concerned with the first part of the statement. Sowing to the flesh produces corruption no matter who does it. The death of Christ does not affect this law either for the believer or the non-believer.
This fact is very important. The word Paul uses for corruption in Galatians 6:8 is the Greek word phthora, which fundamentally refers to the breakdown of organic matter. By extension it can refer to moral or spiritual ruin or decay of one kind or another.
The Lord Jesus Christ spoke more often about hell than any person in the New Testament. In one of His most striking discussions of hell He described it in terms of corruption. Let me quote Mark 9:45-46 to illustrate this. I give you my own rendering of the verse.
And if your foot causes your downfall, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than having two feet to be cast into Gehenna, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
This memorable description vividly describes a sense and a scene of decay and ruin. In Gehenna there is an endlessly burning fire and there are worms whose activity is unceasing. Gehenna, or hell, may be described as a place of eternal corruption.
We may think of hell therefore as an extension of the law of sowing and reaping. Those who go there are reaping eternal corruption. In fact it is the only suitable place to put unsaved sinners. It is the only place that suitably fits their sinful nature and character.
Hell is justified therefore because its inhabitants do not share God’s kind of life. They do not have eternal life. And as a result they cannot live with Him. Instead they must endure everlasting corruption.
The cross of Christ eliminated sin as the grounds for judicial condemnation. It satisfied God’s righteous demand for a judicial punishment for human sin. It made possible the justification and new birth of all who believe. As Paul puts it so beautifully in Romans 3:26, God can now be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
In all cultures that I am aware of there is a distinction made between natural or circumstantial retribution and judicial retribution. This can be easily illustrated. Here is a man who has long been a drug dealer. One day in a drug war He is shot and killed. This is clearly a consequence of his drug-dealing ways. But it is a natural consequence in the sense that circumstances led to it.
On the other hand He might be arrested and sentenced to death for murdering another dealer. When He is executed He is suffering the judicial consequence of his drug dealing.
As I say, the distinction I have just made is perfectly natural and quite common whenever we talk about consequences.
At the cross Jesus Christ suffered the punishment that God, the judge of all men, demands for sin. It cannot ever be paid again. No one will ever suffer a judicial punishment for sin because Jesus paid for that.
The suffering that Christ endured on the cross was excruciatingly painful both physically and emotionally. But what He suffered is enough to remove judicial punishment from all humanity for all time.
In the following illustration that I am about to use, please do not hold me to a strict literal sense. I only mean the illustration to be suggestive and thought provoking. So please take it that way.
Going to hell can be compared to being marooned on a rotting boat that is going in circles on a sea of boiling water. That is the natural future consequence of human sin.
The judicial consequence would be like a man who is on the same boat but chained to the oars night and day, compelled to row the boat without relief or let up. The first is dreadful enough. The second is far worse.
What is the bottom line? It is this. Men are not sent to hell for their sins. They are sent there because they are not listed in the book of life. But the death of Christ does not cancel the law of sowing and reaping.
When people who are dead in trespasses and sins go to hell they are eternally reaping what they have sown. Hell was originally prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). But hell is the only appropriate place to send unregenerate people who die in their sins. As Jesus said in John 8:24,
If you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.
Part Four. And Life.
Perhaps you noticed in Galatians 6:7-8 that the apostle Paul contrasts corruption with everlasting life. The Lord Jesus does the same thing in Mark 9:45-46. There He states it is better to enter life than to be cast into Gehenna where their worm does not die.
Both Jesus and Paul set life and corruption before us as opposites. Of course for the believer here and now there is the potential experience of both things, depending on where he sows, whether to the flesh or to the Spirit. But this of course is due to the fact that the believer’s inward nature is regenerate and his body still awaits transformation.
However the believer yearns for his eternal body as Paul tells us in second Corinthians 5:1-4. Paul’s words are vivid.
For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
Just a little earlier in second Corinthians 4:16 Paul had stated that our outward man is perishing, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day. In other words we have eternal life within us. But our physical body is subject to corruption and death. Those of us who are getting older know that with increasing painful awareness.
When the Lord comes, however, our bodies will be changed so that they can fully express the life that is within us. At that point our mortality, Paul says, will be swallowed up by life. From then on we will no longer experience corruption. Our whole experience will be that of eternal life.
What about the unregenerate person? When He is raised from the dead to stand before the great white throne his body will still be untransformed. It will still be an appropriate habitation for his equally untransformed inward man.
Where then should such a person be sent? The unsaved man cannot enter into life because He has no divine life within Him. Thus He must be put into the one habitat that is suitable for Him. That is Gehenna, where the fire shall never be quenched and where their worm does not die.
The spiritually dead sinner is cast into the lake of fire where He continues to reap unending corruption. Lacking eternal life, his doom in Gehenna is sealed. At the great white throne He can claim nothing based on his works. And when his name is not found written in the book of life, the lake of fire is his only possible destination.
Hell is the inevitable consequence of remaining dead in trespasses and sins. This deadness leads first to the death of our physical bodies and then it leads to the second death as well. That is, it leads to the lake of fire.
Conclusion.
I hope that the result of this brief discussion will be to magnify our view of the cross of Christ. So splendid is the propitiation accomplished at the cross that every human being that has ever lived is freed from judicial condemnation for his or her sins.
When we sing “Jesus paid it all” we mean it. God does not exact from any man the judicial penalty that Jesus paid at the cross. Jesus Christ’s completely sufficient suffering on the cross for the sins of the world will never be repeated in the case of any human being whatsoever.
Furthermore, as a result of the cross every man or woman is eligible for the free gift of eternal life. All they need to do is believe in Jesus for that gift. But those who do not believe remain dead in their sins and subject to the corruption that sin always brings.
Though eligible for life they have remained in spiritual death. Hell is the consequence of remaining dead to God. In hell the law of sowing and reaping goes on and on and on. The fire is never put out and the worms of corruption never die.
In hell the superlative gift of life paid for by our Savior’s blood has been missed forever. But that splendid gift is for everybody for the simple reason that Christ died for everybody equally. That is wonderful. Let us go out there and tell people about this.
Thank you.
I’m being signaled to stay up here. Okay, number three. Let me go back to it. Where do you send the unrighteous? Where do you send the unrighteous? Are they back there? Okay. Can we get this one, Bob? Is this one coming up? No. Okay. So maybe you can just read them. Okay. Oh wait, I got this one now. Here, I can remember. Okay. All right.
You stated no one goes to hell because of his sin. Rather one goes to hell because his name is not written in the book of life. When is one’s name written in the book of life? At what point in time?
I do not know.
Next question.
Okay. Is the principle of universal propitiation reflected in Romans 5:18? And I do not have Romans 5:18 off the top of my head. Maybe somebody can... What is Romans 5:18? “Justification of life passed to all men.” Yeah, that would reflect it. As well as the statement made in Titus, the saving work of God is manifested to all men, teaching us so the saving work is toward all men. But we are the ones who get it all or something like that.
Okay. Here is a simple one. If there is no judicial condemnation then how can there be a judicial declaration of righteousness which comes to the believer?
Well the fact that a person has been freed from a judicial penalty does not make him a righteous person automatically. If he is a murderer on death row and he is freed from the penalty of being executed that does not mean he is not a murderer. So if a person is going to live with God they must share God’s righteousness. But this is available free to us because Jesus paid the judicial penalty.
Okay. That ties in with this next one. If a man does not go to hell because of his sins and evil works then why does he need imputed righteousness?
Well that is the same reason. Because what we are talking about is the fact that the man remains in his sins but is not subject to judicial condemnation. He is however, because He remains in his sins, subject to the continuing working of the law of sowing and reaping. Because He is unrighteous, because He is unregenerate, dead to God. And God says I have got a solution for that and it does not cost you a thing because everything has been paid so that you might experience this solution.
Okay. Here is another one. Can we infer that the judgment of works which are different for each man coupled with the principle of reaping according to what one sows indicates there will be degrees of punishment in hell or degrees of corruption in hell?
Yes, I think that there is some evidence in the Bible that there are degrees of, we have used the word punishment so I do not like it too well in the context of my paper, but there are degrees to which people suffer in hell. But the law of sowing and reaping is true that way in everyday life, is it not? I mean drug dealers or drug users usually reap heavy consequences in a very short period of time. Whereas somebody else who does not do that sin but does some other less offensive sin nevertheless reaps the consequences more slowly. So we would expect that kind of principle to continue into the eternal situation. And I think there are some clues in the New Testament that suggest that. But I would not want to go to the stake and be burned alive for that.
Okay. Here is another one. It ties in with your Romans commentary. Why does Paul spend Romans 1 through 3 convincing us of everyone’s sin if all sins are paid for?
Well if people think they are going to be accepted before God because of their character or their behavior they need to be convinced that they are unacceptable. Presumably when we present the gospel to people we are presenting it to people who realize they need a Savior. It is not very likely that people are going to trust Christ as their Savior who do not have a sense of any real need for Him.
So that is why oftentimes we are in the position of having to tell people, look you are a sinner. But I have often said to people I have yet to talk to one person who is unsaved who is not already aware that He is a sinner. But perhaps there are people and they do not happen to have crossed my path who think that even though they are sinners on balance they are good enough. I know there are people like that. On balance they think they are good enough to be accepted before God. And that has to be disproved too. And Paul is showing that by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight. The Jews did not think everybody would be justified. But they thought they would.
All right. How about this one? Has the sin of unbelief been forgiven judicially?
Yeah. There is no judicial punishment for any sin whatsoever. Unbelief is what keeps me from getting regenerated, from getting God’s life, from getting God’s righteousness. And therefore being equipped to live with Him.
You know one of the basic points I made in this paper is the law of sowing and reaping applies as long as you are a sinner. And that is why it applies in real measure to us as Christians. Because we are still sinners. We are regenerate. We are on our way to heaven. But we are looking forward to the time we will no longer be sinners and therefore no longer subject at all to the law of sowing and reaping.
But the unsaved man is a sinner until He dies. And He is a sinner when He is raised at the great white throne. And He continues to reap the consequences of being a sinner. So that is why it is necessary for God to pull them out of that condition into a new condition that is suitable for His kingdom.
You mentioned in your talk that from Ephesians 2 the unbeliever is dead in his trespasses and sins. How can anyone remain dead in sins if his sins were paid for?
Well being dead in your sins describes your personal condition. We all understand that a man can be a murderer and not suffer the judicial consequence of that. Right? That does not mean He is not a murderer. So He is dead. He is a sinner. Yeah. When we talk about people who are dead in trespasses and sins we mean they are alienated from God’s kind of life because of their sinful nature and all the things that they have done. They may be free from the judicial penalty of that. But that does not change their nature.
What God is offering to do in the offer of salvation is to change your nature. And He starts on the inside and works from the inside out. And that is why we have the struggle of the Christian life. Because the work is only partly done right now. And we are learning how within the limited capacities that are possible in this life to express the new life that we have inside of us through the old body.
If you are aware at all of my book entitled Six Secrets of the Christian Life one of the main points I make is that the physical body is spiritually dead. It is absolutely spiritually dead. So here I am. I am a person who has the life of God inside of him and I am living in a corpse spiritually. That is a problem. And it is a problem that Paul wrestles with very overtly in Romans chapter 7. And we all know what that is. We all know that struggle. And that struggle will continue in some measure and in some degree until the Lord comes back. And remember He will transform our mortal bodies so that they are like His immortal body.
What we are looking for at the coming of the Lord is the transformation of this physical corpse of mine into something as alive and vibrant as the resurrection body of Jesus Christ. That is splendid. Amen.
Okay. Well we will close with that. Thank you so much.