Bible Questions Answered:
“I need to know what propitation is.”
Glenda/ Trussville, Alabama U.S.A.
Bible Answer:
Propitiation: Reconciliation
between God and man.
From the Latin word propitiate, meaning
“made favorable.
Homily:
If you own a car, and you drive over
the speed limit, you've broken the law. The law demands that if you
wish to drive again, you pay a fine.
When you pay your fine you have
satisfied the law, thus you are reconciled, and you may continue to
drive. Had you not reconciled, you could have been placed in jail.
Adam, broke the laws of God, when in
the garden he and his wife Eve, disobeyed, sinned against God.
Genesis 3:6,7,9-12,17-19,22-24 KJV
6 And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a
tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7 And the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves
together, and made themselves aprons.
9 And the Lord God called unto Adam,
and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in
the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And He said, Who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded
thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
17 And unto Adam he said, Because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the
tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it:
cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all
the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it
bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast
thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
22 And The Lord God said, Behold,
the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest
he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat,
and live for ever:
23 Therefore The Lord God sent him
forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was
taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he
placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming
sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
When Adam and Eve
sinned, the whole world came under the curse of sin.
I Kings 8:46 KJV
"...there is no man that
sinneth not..."
Job 25:4 KJV
(Bildad)
"...how can he be clean that is
born of a woman?
Psalm 14:2,3 KJV
2 The Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did
understand, and seek God.
3 They are all gone aside, they are
all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not
one.
Psalm 51:5 KJV
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Ecclesiastes
7:20 KJV
For there is not a just man upon
earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
Isaiah 64:6 KJV
But we are all as an unclean thing,
and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as
a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Romans 3:10,23
KJV
10 As it is written, There is none
righteous, no, not one:
23 For all have sinned, and come
short of the glory of God;
Galatians 3:22
KJV
But the scripture hath concluded all
under sin...
I John 1:8 KJV
If we say that we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and The Truth is not in us.
I John 5:19 KJV
"... the whole world lieth in
wickedness.
Question:
How could sinful man ever be reconciled to God, seeing how the debt
was greater than he could ever pay?
Answer: Only
one way, through the sacrificial gift of God's Son!
Isaiah 53:1-6
KJV (Be sure to read the whole chapter.)
1 Who hath believed our report? and
to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?2 For He (God's Son)shall
grow up before Him (God The Father) as a tender plant, and as a root
out of a dry ground: He (Jesus Christ, God's Eternal Son) hath no
form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty
that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected of
men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it
were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
4 Surely He hath borne our griefs,
and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of
God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our
transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement
of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and The Lord hath
laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Romans 3:23-25
KJV
23 For all have
sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God
hath set forth to be a propitiation* through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,
through the forbearance of God;
*Propitiation-Greek:
Hilasterion (Hil-as-tay-ree-on): Expiatory, Atoning,
propitiation.
Expiatory:
Having power to atone for, "expiatory (or propitiatory)
sacrifice".
Atonement:
Reconciliation with God accomplished through the life, suffering, and
death of Jesus Christ
Romans 6:23 KJV
For the wages of sin is death; but
The Gift Of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
II Corinthians
5:18-21 NLT
18 And all of this is A Gift from
God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given
us this task of reconciling people to Him.
19 For God was in Christ,
reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins
against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of
reconciliation.
20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors;
God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we
plead, “Come back to God!”
21 For God made Christ, who never
sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made
right with God through Christ.
When Adam sinned,
the world lost its relationship with God. Only one thing could ever
pay the debt of sin, that mankind had, that debt was forever paid by
the precious blood of The Lord Jesus Christ.
He is our
propitiation, our means of reconciliation to God!
Ephesians 2:8,9
KJV
8 For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is The Gift Of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man
should boast.
Titus 3:4-7 NLT
4 But—“When God our Savior
revealed His kindness and love,
5 He saved us, not because of
the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He
washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through The
Holy Spirit.
6 He generously poured out The
Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior.
7 Because of His grace He declared
us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal
life.”
I Peter 1:18,19
KJV
18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were
not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
19 But with The Precious Blood Of
Christ, as of A Lamb without blemish and without spot:
I John 2:1,2 KJV
1 My little children, these things
write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
Advocate with The Father, Jesus Christ The Righteous:
2 And He is the propitiation* for
our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole
world.
*Propitiation-Greek:
Hilasterion (Hil-as-tay-ree-on): Expiatory, Atoning,
propitiation.
Expiatory:
Having power to atone for, "expiatory (or propitiatory)
sacrifice".
Atonement:
Reconciliation with God accomplished through the life, suffering, and
death of Jesus Christ
I John 4:9,10
KJV
9 In this was manifested the love of
God toward us, because that God sent His Only Begotten Son into the
world, that we might live through Him.
10 Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation*
for our sins.
*Propitiation-Greek:
Hilasterion (Hil-as-tay-ree-on): Expiatory, Atoning,
propitiation.
Expiatory:
Having power to atone for, "expiatory (or propitiatory)
sacrifice".
Atonement:
Reconciliation with God accomplished through the life, suffering,
and death of Jesus Christ
God's message of
reconciliation:
John 3:15-18 KJV
15 That whosoever believeth in Him
(Jesus) should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that
He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not His Son into the
world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be
saved.
18 He that believeth on Him is not
condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he
hath not believed in the name of The Only Begotten Son Of God.
