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.

Rest At Last

Three times a year all Jewish men were required to appear before the LORD God at the three great Festivals or Feasts of Unleavened Bread (Passover), Harvest (Pentecost - 50 days after Passover) and Ingathering at the end of the year (Booths). See Exodus 23:14-17; 34:17.

As we return to a study of John 7 we see Jesus finally arriving about at the middle of the weeklong Feast of Booths (Sept.-Oct. in our numbering). He began to teach in the temple and, as usual, people were astounded by his knowledge. However, as had often happened, he was challenged not only for what he taught, but also for what he had done earlier in the year during the Passover Feast. What he had done was to heal a paralyzed man at the pool called Bethesda (John 5:1-16). What got especially the Pharisees so stirred up was not that he had healed the man, but that he had done it on the Sabbath. Not only had he healed the paralytic, he also commanded him to work on the Sabbath by carrying his pallet-bed as he walked for the first time in 38 years! This was a clear violation of the law to do no work on that day.

But they missed the entire point of the Sabbath commandment. This day was not only a day to rest, pray and be with one's family. It also pointed forward to the ultimate rest promised to God's people. When Messiah came God would bring to His people eternal rest, peace and security. Jesus pointed to the fact that he was that Messiah. In him all God's promises were to be fulfilled. He speaks about this as he says,

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." - Matt 11:28-30 ESV

In Christ we have rest from all fear of punishment for our sins. Jesus' healing on the Sabbath points to that, especially among people who were taught that illness was a result of specific sins on the part of those who were sick (John 9:2). Again and again Jesus makes his point by healing people on the Sabbath. Examples include his

• healing a man's deformed hand (Mark 3:1-5)
• casting out a demon from a man in the Capernaum synagogue (Luke 4:33-36)
• healing a woman crippled for 18 years (Luke 13:11-17)
• healing a man suffering from dropsy (Luke 14:1-6)

The Sabbath always foreshadowed the Rest of God, the return to paradise (the experience of

Adam and Eve in the original Garden of Eden). When that blessed Rest comes, all the children

of God will dwell with Jesus in God’s eternal Seventh Day. Jesus made this promise to the

believing thief who died beside him on the cross just prior to the Passover Sabbath. “I tell you the

truth,” Jesus said, “today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). The same promise holds

true for all believers.

The Sabbath was always the ultimate sign, pointing to Jesus as the promised Messiah and Lord of the Sabbath. He came to bring all men that mercy of God foreshadowed by the Sabbath. Mercy is what God is all about. That was why Jesus permitted his disciples to pluck heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath. That was why, a thousand years before Jesus, David and his men, fleeing for their lives, ate the showbread from the Tabernacle. That was why priests serving in the temple on the Sabbath were guiltless. Jesus emphasized again and again that the Jews rescued their sheep that had fallen into a pit and watered their cattle on the Sabbath. Surely then men were of greater value than sheep or cattle.

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. - Hbr 4:9-10 ESV

This is also why the church no longer observes the Old Covenant Sabbath. What it pointed toward is now fulfilled. The Rest-Giver has come. He has offered Himself as the sacrifice for all men's sins. He has returned from death on the third day. He is now among us in His Supper. This is what we celebrate.  So we observe the commandment by gathering to worship and praise the risen Christ on His day, the Eighth Day, the day pointing toward the great Day of His return when we will have perfect rest and peace forever.