Lesson for the Lord’s Day
Herein 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
How many times in the past week did you use the word ‘propitiation’? That’s what I thought. If you had used that word, and somebody were to ask you what it meant, would you be able to answer? It’s a good word, filled with meaning. This word is used three times in our Bible, four if you count Hebrews 2:17 where it is translated ‘reconciliation’ in the King James Version. But the Greek word ‘hilasterion’ from which propitiation is based is used many times throughout the Bible. We find it particularly in the Old Testament descriptions of the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle, which was covered with the Mercy Seat. Mercy Seat = propitiation. As the high priest entered inside the veil with blood from an acceptable sacrifice, and applied that blood to the Mercy Seat, God looked upon it as everything that He required for the atonement of the people. This makes for a lovely picture for us today as we consider Jesus Christ as the Mercy Seat that God looks upon with acceptance on our behalf.
Think of the words of Isaiah 53:11: ‘He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied’. What a concept: a satisfied God! Everything that He demanded in payment for sin, everything that He expected in perfection of a sacrifice, everything that He required of infinite value was there at Calvary. Nothing was missing. That’s why the Lord Jesus could proclaim ‘Finished!’ He came in obedience, He lived in righteousness, and He died in sinless perfection. The love that He displayed was infinite as was the value of the precious blood that He shed. It is no wonder that God’s people assemble and worship Him with deep reverence and thanksgiving as we appreciate Him as the propitiation for our sins.
The sins were our idea. But the propitiation was God’s purpose. He never wanted us to perish in our own foolishness and disobedience. Even as we rebelled and refused, He made the great provision, and extended the great invitation. By faith we draw near today and appreciate that when we failed to love God, He still loved us enough to send His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. – Jim MacIntosh