“Propitiation presupposes the wrath and displeasure of God, and the purpose of propitiation is the removal of this displeasure. Very simply stated the doctrine of propitiation means that Christ propitiated the wrath of God and rendered God propitious to his people.” – Dr. John Murray, Westminster Theological Seminary
“Perhaps no tenet respecting the atonement has been more violently criticized than this one. It has been assailed as involving a mythological conception of God, as supposing internal conflict in the mind of God and between the persons of the Godhead. It has been charged that this doctrine represents the Son as winning over the incensed Father to clemency and love, a supposition wholly inconsistent with the fact that the love of God is the very fount from which the atonement springs.”
What is the meaning of Propitiation? Propitiation means to appease and placate the righteous wrath and justice of God the Father. It means,“To remove us from the wrath of God that we deserved. Christ died as a propitiation for our sins (I John 4:10,” explains Dr. Wayne Grudem.
Understandably, some modern theologians have reacted against using the term in reference to the God of the Bible. However, the word propitiation occurs in several biblical passages (Rom. 3:25; Heb.2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10). Additionally, the idea of the wrath of God is found throughout the Bible; it must be taken into account in the way sin is forgiven.
Propitiation comes from three Greek words. The first is ἱλαστήριον (hilasterion). It literally means mercy seat. It is a sin offering, by which the wrath of the deity shall be appeased, a means of propitiation (Rom. 3:25); (b) the covering of the ark, which was sprinkled with the atoning blood on the Day of Atonement (Heb. Kappôreth; Leviticus 16; Heb. 9:5).
Romans 3:23–25 (ESV) – “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 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.”
The second Greek word is ἱλάσκομαι (hilaskomai). It means to render favorable, to satisfy and to appease or pardon the wrath of God. In other words, to make atonement.
Hebrews 2:17 (ESV) – “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
Third, there is the Greek word ἱλασμός (hilasmos) meaning to make atonement before an angry God. This word is found in two texts.
1 John 2:1–2 (ESV) – “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. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
1 John 4:10 (ESV) – “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
The New Testament clearly teaches Jesus Christ died on the cross as a propitiatory sacrifice. His death on the cross satisfied the divine judgment against sinners and assuages the Father’s wrath against them, bringing about forgiveness and justification.
The idea that God cannot be angry towards sinners is not based on the OT or the NT. God does have anger for the sins of the human race (Psalm 5:5; 11:4-7). Whenever humans sin, they provoke the wrath of God (Romans 1:18). However, God’s anger is not an irrational lack of self-control. His wrath is the settled opposition of His holy nature to everything that is evil. Such opposition to sin cannot be dismissed with a casual wave of the hand. It requires something much more substantial.
The Bible states that it was only the cross that did this. Jesus is “the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2, kjv). This is the only way of interpreting the cross. Since God’s anger is real, then it must be taken into account in the way that sin, which caused that wrath, is addressed. Propitiation means that Jesus’ death on the cross for sinners put away God’s wrath against his people once and for all.
Soli deo Gloria!
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