In Christianity, the word for appeasing God is PROPITIATION. For some, this doctrine is not very popular because it entails God’s wrath and the necessity of placating that wrath. Because the necessity of appeasing God is common to many religions and because pagans do this with their gods, some think this teaching is also pagan and not fitting for Christian thought or doctrine.
However, the Bible uses the word and teaches the idea behind it. It says that Jesus Christ, God the Son, is our propitiation for sin. Could it be that these offerings to appease gods or God is part of a deep understanding within the human heart that we all fall short, that our sin has separated us from fellowship with our Creator? Could it be, like many other ‘religious’ activities and rituals, a human attempt to restore that relationship? Or at least remove the guilt felt about sinful failures?
Christian thinking on this matter is not the same as what the pagans think. For them, their efforts are their ‘faith’ but for those who are Christian, our efforts are useless. This is the bad news about the ‘good news’ and once a person acknowledges their sin and even their sinful efforts to save themselves, then they are open to knowing and receiving the grace of God. It is He that makes an offering for our salvation — because all our offerings fall short. Isaiah even calls them “filthy rags” in the OT. The NT says this:
Romans 3:23–25. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins."
As most dictionaries say, propitiation is about appeasement or satisfaction, specifically toward God. It is a two-part act that involves appeasing the wrath of an offended person and being reconciled to that person. In this case, the offense is our ungodly sin against a holy God who has every reason to be offended, yet in love He provided an offering, the perfect life of His Son, that we could be reconciled to Him.
In other words, God says that He provided the only means through which His wrath can be appeased and sinful man can be reconciled to Him. In the New Testament, the act of propitiation always refers to the work of God and not the sacrifices or gifts offered by man. We are totally incapable of satisfying God’s justice. We have nothing and can do nothing to make it happen. As Hebrews 2:17 says, “Therefore (Jesus) had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
This thought is repeated in 1 John. 1 John 2:2 declares this offering is sufficient for everyone, pagans included: “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” and 1 John 4:10 tells us why God did it: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Another word for propitiation is atonement. Both are sobering and for those with pride and confidence in their own abilities, hard words to heed. Human heart do not want to admit that we fall short of the glory of God. We would rather offer our meagre sacrifices to Him than humbly admit our need for His sacrifice offered to us.
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Everything God teaches and does is contrary to human reasoning. It makes no sense to us that our efforts to get on God’s good side are not acceptable, and even less sense that He should make an offering of Himself that takes the place of our shortfall. Yet this is what He did. I shake my head marveling at God’s plan and even more that He showed to me that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one can come to the Father except through Him and His offered propitiation.
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