God Has Propitiated Your Need for Propitiation

Hello Church Family: What would you do, where would you start, what would you say, if you were told that today, that due to your sins this past week you needed to get busy working to satisfy an angry, wrathful god who is against you? What a hopeless thought. By the way, that is the thought of followers of every other religion in this world. Unfortunately, that still may be the practice of followers of Christ who do not understand the Gospel and God's work of propitiation. "Propitiation" is one of those words we do not use much but as those who embrace the gospel we rest in the truth of propitiation every second of our existence.

To escape the hopelessness of the life that is always trying to satisfy a holy God you must understand God's work of propitiation. And to understand propitiation we must completely accept the truth that God feels anger and wrath every day (Psalm 7:11) and that wrath and anger is directed towards our personal sin. But wait, we need to be clear, God’s anger and wrath is always a righteous response to sin. God is not some kind of irrational, vindictive, angry God that blows up emotionally creating some distorted drama wherever He goes. Instead, God’s anger is always a righteous response to our sin. God’s holy indignation and fury is directed against sinful injustice, cruelty, evil, immorality, corruption and the like. Why? Because God is absolute purity and sin belittles His holiness. Sin slanders God and lies about who He is and His purposes. Sin separates us from Him, sin comes in between us and God and He does not like that. Actually, God hates that. But again, wait! Do not ever forget, God’s anger pours forth from His love for us. The Gospel tells us that God loves us, the objects of His wrath, so much that He gave His own Son to be sacrificed on the cross (John 3:16). Do not miss that. And through God’s provision of His Son unto death, God removed His wrath and anger which was directed towards our sin (Romans 6:23). This is what the Bible calls “propitiation" (1 John 2:1-2; 4:7-11; Hebrews 9:1-5) Propitiation is the appeasing (satisfying) the wrath of God that was directed towards me because of my sin and then as a result I am reconciled to Him. This propitiation only comes through the sacrificed blood of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:25-26)
 
The depth of this incredible truth is difficult to grasp. So, to clarify, God, in His holy wrath against my sin, needs to be propitiated (satisfied) because I have offended Him in His holiness. God, out of His love for me, did the work of propitiating (satisfying His holy demand), through His Son, Jesus Christ, who was given to die for the propitiation (satisfying God's holy standard) of our sins. So, God took His own loving initiative to satisfy His own righteous anger by taking it all Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ's death for us on the cross. Why? All for God’s glory and my enjoyment. In Christ, God is satisfied with you as being holy and righteous. Let us love to live up to that truth.