Why Call Christ The Propitiation?

I trust that you prayed the LORD's prayer again this day. The fifth petition (Matt. 6:12) speaks about forgiveness. Most of us still pray it in its old English form:

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. 

But search as you will and you will not find that prayer anywhere in any of the translations of the Bible. So where'd we get that anyway? All the major translations (ESV,ASV,NASV,NRSV,KJV, NJ) read: our debts . . . our debtors. Not a single one has the word trespasses. How then did we get started with trespasses rather than debts? The answer: The Tyndale Bible (1526), a translation followed by the Book of Common Prayer (1549).  But all the English translations from the King James Version (1611) onward followed the Greek text to translate this petition as Forgive us our debts.

Let's take a look at the idea of debt and forgiveness of debts. 

In the third chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans we read about the insurmountable debt we all have piled up before God. Quoting Psalm 14:1-3, Paul writes,

"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." - Rom 3:10-12 ESV

I recently counseled with a lady who said that she owed something like $40,000 in credit card debt. She said she was trying to pay it off, but did not have the means. Because of the insurmountable interest, reaching as high as 29%, her debt keeps growing and growing each month even though she tries to pay it down as best she can. This frightening reality has trapped many who rely upon credit cards. It is the dreadful manner by which the banks behind those cards make so much. And it is all quite legal.

This compares to what the Bible points toward. We simply cannot and never will be able to pay our debts to God. Our accounts are not and cannot be reconciled. The debt continues to mount daily.

But here comes Jesus Christ to redeem us. The image is that of paying a ransom to set hostages or prisoners free. Paul also calls him the propitiation.

(we) 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. - Rom 3:24-25 ESV

No one ever uses that strange word propitiation any longer and it cannot be understood without some background from the Old Testament.

God commanded His people to create the Ark of the Covenant during the time of the Exodus from Egypt to the Holy Land (Exodus 25:10-28). Within the Ark they placed the golden pot of manna, Aaron’s almond rod, and the tables of stone inscribed with the ten commandments. The lid on top of the ark was called the “Mercy-seat” (propitiation). The ark was placed in that inner room of the traveling tabernacle, called the “Holy of holies.”

Symbolically, the Mercy-seat (propitiation) concealed  from the Lord’s view the commandments of the law. Looking down upon the Mercy-seat He could not see, if you will, the commandments the people had broken. Each year, on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:1-34; 23:23-32), the high priest entered the Holy of holies and sprinkled blood on the Mercy-seat. The blood of the sacrifice covered over their sins and indicated that mercy and forgiveness were available because of the death of the animal.

The Ark of the Covenant 

The writer to the Hebrews explains what this ritual pointed forward to. He points out that the way to the holy places, into the presence of God, was blocked. That is a symbol or a parable, a picture-story, for this present age. According to this parable all the sacrifices and gifts ultimately did not and could not pay the debt we and all men owe to God (Hebrews 9:1-10). They only pointed forward.

But now Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, has come as both the high priest and the sacrifice. He is the unblemished (Deut. 17:1) Lamb of God (John 1:29) whose blood was shed once and for all mankind (Romans 6:10). So the time of sacrifices came to an end and Christ has become the Mercy-seat (propitiation) for all as Paul said. 

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. - Rom 3:25 ESV

 So we may confidently pray in faith, "Forgive us our debts . . . " 

But what follows from that? More on that tomorrow.

Go Now And Sin No More

"Jesus was left alone with the woman the woman standing before him." So we come to the conclusion of the story John told.

Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more." - Jhn 8:10-11 ESV

Some say this story was never in John's Gospel. Some say it always was in one form or another. In any event it teaches us something very strange and wondrous about Jesus.

How could he not condemn her? Had she not trampled upon the very plan of God established when Adam was introduced to Eve? Is not the union of a man and woman for life? Is there ever any reason why adultery could be condoned? Had not Jesus himself taught that adultery begins in the very act of gazing upon a woman with lustful desire (Matt. 5:28)? The answers are obvious.

And yet Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you." Did he mean to say she had not committed adultery? Oh no. She had been caught red handed, in the very act—or at least so went the story (John 8:4). What then did he say? That he, like the other men, was not without sin and so not fit to pass judgment? Surely not, for Jesus was without sin, holy, blameless and pure (Heb. 7:26-27). What gave him the right to say to this woman that her sins were forgiven, that God no longer held her guilty?

Here is John's answer, the answer to which all sinners must cling:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. - 1Jo 2:1-2 ESV

This strange word propitiation (hilasmos in Greek) has a deep and profound meaning. It hearkens back to the great Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. The root for the word Kippur is kafar, a Hebrew word that comes from a word meaning "ranson." To ransom means to atone by offering a substitute. In the Old Covenant the blood of the sacrificial animals was required in exchange for the blood or lives of the worshippers who had broken covenant with the LORD by their sins and so deserved death. This was clarified particularly on the Day of Atonement when the High Priest, on behalf of all Israel, laid both of his hands upon the scapegoat and confessed all their transgressions, all their sins and all their iniquities before the LORD (Lev. 16:15-22). The same was true for the sacrifice of all the many animals killed during the days of the Old Covenant (Lev. 1:4-5).

Christ came as the final sinless sacrifice, the Lamb of God (John 1:29,36), to be sacrificed for the sins of all mankind from Adam to the end of this age. All the sacrifices before that were but parables or symbols pointing forward to the coming of this Lamb (Heb. 9:9). He himself was the High Priest who offered this sacrifice. Thus he became the mediator of a new covenant, because his death, his blood, is the Kippur, the all-atoning sacrifice, the propitiation, offered as the one, final substitute for all men.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. - Heb 9:11-15 ESV

Because Jesus was the Lamb of God, because he was to make atonement for this woman's sins upon the altar of Calvary, because he was the High Priest who was to offer the all-atoning sacrifice, he could say to her, "Neither do I condemn you!"

Cleansed and purified, he then gave her the power to change her life. With his Word and his mercy planted firmly in her heart, he could also say, "Go and from now on sin no more." In this Good News all sinners now find refuge and the power to change their lives.

The Sabbath and the Old Covenant—chp.4

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The Day of Rest

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Biblical Teaching About Time

—An online book about rest and worship—

By Dr. Al Franzmeier

Chapter 4

The Sabbath and the Old Covenant
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In the previous chapters we examined fifteen ways our world changed during the twentieth century.

 In Chap. 3 we studied the Biblical concept of the seven-day week and why the Sabbath, the seventh day and number seven were considered to be sacred. We now continue with a more detailed look at the Sabbath and the Old Covenant, that Covenant that has now been fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

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Thinking about the Sabbath, you may have considered how great it would be if everybody could stop working on the same day to rest, relax and spend time with the family. But think about it. This could never happen in our postmodern world.

For instance, what would happen in any city if no one was in charge of utilities or if no policemen or firemen were on duty for a whole day every week? And what about hospitals? We certainly wouldn’t want doctors, nurses and all the other support people to all take off for a whole day. Think also about bus and cab drivers, airplane pilots, the telephone companies, and the Internet. There are many examples. The whole Sabbath idea is very impractical and quite impossible in our world. Before we can apply these teachings of the Bible to our postmodern world, we have to understand them better. Applications will become more evident later.

It will also not be easy to wade into an extended discussion of this topic in an age that typically wants quick, easy answers. We’re too busy to spend much time reflecting on the past and how we got where we are.  Nevertheless, I invite you to work with me. We’re still a long ways from the end. If you agree, we’ll move on. I’d now like to look at how the people of the Old Testament handled the Sabbath.

Remember the Sabbath by Keeping It Holy
Let’s start with the commandment itself, first given through Moses to the people freed from slavery in Egypt.

‘Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maid servant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy’ (Exodus 20:8-11).

I want to emphasize several points from this passage, some very similar to the points made in the previous chapter.

1. The week was to be seven days long and the seventh day was always a Sabbath, a day of rest.
2. On the seventh day they were not to labor. Work was for the other days. The seventh was a day to rest. That presented a few difficulties, of course, especially since someone had to prepare meals and care for the animals. They worked around those problems in a variety of creative ways.
3. On the Sabbath no one was to work. That included the children and the servants. Even slaves and animals must rest on that day.
4. All this was a reminder that the same LORD who brought them out of bondage and had given them their beautiful land, was the Creator of all the vast heavens, the earth and the sea.
5. By His grace the LORD rescued their forefathers and fed them in the wilderness with manna. However, He gave them no manna on the Seventh Day. It was a day of rest. On the sixth day they could collect what they needed and it did not decay. So the Sabbath was a day to meditate upon the gracious God who continued to feed them. 
6. Their Creator rested on the Seventh Day, the day without end, and so they also would find eternal rest if they but trusted Him.
7. Above all, the Seventh Day was to be viewed as a blessing from the LORD for all believers throughout the long history of God’s people Israel.

 God had miraculously taken them out of slavery in Egypt to put them on a journey to the land he promised Abraham centuries before.

The same command given from the creation of the world to Adam and Eve and the believers descended from them was now restated in the period of the Exodus. That context is very important. In the the Ten Commandments the LORD said, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” They were free at last and must never throw away their freedom. Their freedom was intimately tied to the grace and mercy of the God who had delivered them from the tyranny of Pharaoh and his evil government. A difficult journey stood before the freed people, a journey through wild country. But by God’s grace they would arrive safely in the Promised Land. On that journey they were to set aside one day every week to rest and to remember the LORD who had set them free and was giving them the Promised Land.

The Apostle Paul calls Christians to meditate upon that same journey. In his letter to the believers in Corinth he writes,

 ‘I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ’” (1 Corinthians 10:1-4). 

What is Paul is talking about? How were they “baptized in the cloud and in the sea”? What does it mean to eat the same spiritual food and drink the same spiritual drink from the spiritual rock? And how is it that Christ is that rock?

Paul is saying that Christ was behind everything that took place in the Exodus. Christ is the goal, “the end” toward which everything moved. All the sacrifices, rituals and days pointed to Him. Believers in Christ now share in all that Christ has accomplished, as did the believers in the Old Covenant era. To understand Paul’s and all the Apostles’—and the early church’s—thinking about Christ as the LORD of the Old Covenant we must learn more about what was behind the Sabbath commandment and the number seven to which it was attached.

As pointed out in the previous chapter, seven is the important number in the Old Testament. For instance, the great Day of Atonement was on the tenth day of the seventh month. In the Tabernacle and later Temple ceremonies for that day, a bull was slaughtered, symbolically taking the place of the priests who deserved death because of their personal sins. A goat was also slaughtered in place of the people of Israel. As we now understand it, these sacrifices pointed forward to the sacrificial death of the Christ.

Following those sacrifices, ceremonies in the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle (later in the Temple) also involved the use of the number seven. The High Priest sprinkled some of the slaughtered bull’s blood with his finger on the Atonement Cover of the Ark of the Covenant for the sins of the priests seven times. He did the same with blood of the slaughtered goat to atone for the sins of the people.
Then the High Priest went out to make atonement for the altar since the sins of the entire nation were daily placed upon that it in the presence of the LORD. Blood from both the bull and the goat were placed on the horns of the altar seven times.

After all this, one powerful symbolical act remained. The High Priest placed both hands on the head of a second living goat and confessed over it “all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites.” Then the goat was sent into the wilderness to be released and never seen again. So the sins of the people and their guilt were symbolically transferred and taken away.

The goat was called the scapegoat, a term common in our language. When we don’t want to take the blame, we give to somebody else. We make him the scapegoat. The Hebrew name is Azazel. The Bible actually says that the second goat was the ‘goat for Azazel.’ Interpreters disagree on the meaning of the Hebrew term. You will find some who equate Azazel with Satan and still others say that the goat was given to some mysterious supernatural being called Azazel. Some Rabbis teach that Azazel belongs to the class of goat-like demons, haunting the desert. In our day you can still find people who even worship Azazel and his female counterpart Lilith. Azazel is also identified with the serpent that tempted Eve. His form is described as a dragon with hands and feet like a man's, on his back six wings on the right and six on the left. There are a variety of Bible passages used to trace the background of these references. For tons more information about Lilith see The Lilith Shrine.

In Muslim demonology, Azazel is the counterpart of the devil who refused to acknowledge the supremacy of God. His name was changed to Iblis, which means 'despair'. In Paradise Lost (I, 534), the great medieval poet Milton used Azazel as the name for the standard-bearer of the rebel angels.

During the ceremonies the High Priest did not wear his usual elaborate vestments. Instead, he wore the simple white linen garments prescribed for a priest tending the altar. By the way, the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel tell us that white linen is also the garment worn by the holy angels who minister before God in heaven,  It symbolized the highest degree of purity.

When the rituals were completed the High Priest took off his linen garments, bathed himself and put back on his regular vestments. Then he burned the fat of the slaughtered bull and goat on the altar as a sin offering for himself and the people. Finally, the slaughtered bull and goat remains were taken outside the camp or city and burned.

The Day of Atonement, unlike the Sabbath, was a day of fasting. It was the only regular fast day stipulated in the Old Covenant. It was called a Sabbath of rest, a day in which the people were to deny themselves food from the evening of the ninth day of the month until the tenth day ended the following evening.

Since Israelite culture was based on agriculture, the Sabbath was always a complete day of rest, set aside for the worship of God and for sharing among family and friends. It was a day of eating, drinking and celebrating, not fasting. They were not allowed to fast on Sabbath. Sabbath pointed to the blessings of this good earth and the land God had given them. This was a day to celebrate that fact.

We people of the New Testament reflect upon what the Sabbath pointed toward, namely eternal rest, peace and security in a world freed by Christ from sin and rebellion. Baptized into Christ we anticipate that grand Day when He will return to complete the promise given to us upon the cross. For now, he says, “Come unto me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). The writer of the letter to the Hebrews also wrote, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work” (Hebrews 4:9).

From these and similar passages we begin to see that the Old Covenant Sabbath pointed forward to a better time. Jesus understood himself to be the fulfillment and the fulfiller of the weekly Sabbaths with their promises of rest as well as the Atonement Sabbath of rest. Both Sabbaths pointed to what Christ was to bring, namely rest for guilt burdened people and peace with God through the final sacrifice that He made upon the altar of the cross. Consequently, it is no longer the weekly Sabbath or the Day of Atonement that matters. Both pointed to Jesus. He is the sacrifice and the bringer of rest through that sacrifice. What matters now is following Him every day. That’s where Christians have always gone. We will explore further what God revealed to his people of the Old Covenant about rest, particularly about rest and the land in the next chapter.