In the text we studied in our 2nd message in the series “Overcomers - The Letter of 1 John” we didn’t talk about a strange word John uses in 2:2 that the NIV and the ESV English versions translate as “propitiation”. In context, John writes,
1 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.”
The word comes from a Greek term that signifies an ‘atoning sacrifice’ (for sin) or an ‘expiation’ of sorts. Ok, those terms may not help us much. The term has been defined like an ‘appeasement of wrath by an angry diety’ but, this is the true picture for the story we find in Christ. As John Stott puts it,
There can, therefore, be no question of human beings appeasing an angry deity by their gifts. The Christian propitiation is quite different, not only in the character of the divine anger but in the means by which it is propitiated. It is an appeasement of the wrath of God by the love of God through the gift of God. The initiative is not taken by us, nor even by Christ, but by God himself in sheer unmerited love. His wrath is averted not by any external gift, but by his own self-giving to die the death of sinners. This is the means he has himself contrived by which to turn his own wrath away (cf. Pss 78:38; 85:2–3; 103:8–10; Mic. 7:18–19).
Stott, J. R. W. (1988). The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 19, p. 92). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
So, God is the one who not only pursues us fiercely because of His love, He actively paid for our sins Himself to satisfy and fulfill all righteousness. It is ALL ABOUT GOD here! That is some GOOD news!
Pastor Ben
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