What is the difference between propitiation and atonement? One talks about Jesus while the other talks about His blood. This devotion looks at both aspects.
Nuggets
- We couldn’t redeem ourselves, so Jesus became the substitute.
- We just have to have faith that Jesus’ blood will do what it is supposed to do – it will.
- Jesus’s blood covers everyone from Adam to the last baby that was born — as long as they ABCD.
- Atonement had to be part of the justification process – or there would be no need for substitution.
Devotions in the God’s Righteousness series
Did Jesus or His Blood Redeem Us?
Now, depending on the translation, we get different words in Romans 3: 25. To me, they are two different concepts, so we are going to look at both.
One word is propitiation; the other, atonement. To me, one talks Jesus, the other talks blood.
So, which one redeemed us?
Let's Put It into Context
Jesus became the propitiation for us. Propitiation means that a substitute is offered to avoid God’s wrath. Jesus knew God’s wrath had to be appeased so He shed His blood to pay the price for our sins.
Where propitiation is about the substitute, atonement is about repayment for a wrong. The repayment was the shedding of His blood.
So, which one redeemed us?
Propitiation
“God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed” (Rom. 3: 25 HCSB)
We couldn’t redeem ourselves, so Jesus became the substitute. He could do the hard stuff, the stuff we would never be able to do.
But did you catch the first part of the verse. “God presented Him as a propitiation …” (Rom. 3: 25 HCSB).
It was God’s idea. “God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ — which is to fulfill his own good plan” (Eph. 1: 9 NLT).
God picked the substitute. It was His plan of salvation. He picked the Sacrifice.
God picked Jesus as the substitute because He wasn’t leaving anything to chance. He didn’t want there to be any possibility that He could not accept the sacrifice. He knew Jesus was worthy to be the sacrifice.
We mean that much to Him.
Remember, Paul had just said, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes” (Eph. 1: 4 NLT). We’ve talked before about how much God loves us because He put this plan in place even before He made us.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
Jesus never balked at being the substitute. He was always up for it. He was invested in the plan even before He met us.
We mean that much to Him.
We just have to have faith that Jesus’ blood will do what it is supposed to do. It will.
So, let’s move on to the last half of the verse. I want to focus on “… to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed” (Rom. 3: 25 HCSB).
Dykes explained what that meant. He wrote, “God suffered [the sins of men] to go by unavenged.”
Jesus was put up on the cross — so everyone could see the sacrifice that would pay the price for our sins. Because Jesus did that, God isn’t punishing us as we deserve – our sins are unavenged. That is where God’s mercy comes into play.
But it is also more than that. Remember we talked about longsuffering. Longsuffering is persevering through an event — particularly a hardship — for a significant amount of time with patience.
To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.
God wanted our relationships restored. But He had to patiently wait until the time was right to send Jesus to be the Sacrifice. He had to be longsuffering.
What did God gain when Jesus finished the plan? Dykes wrote, “But now, since Christ has died, God has no need to ‘wink at’ sin, and pass it by. He no longer holds out to penitents as He used to do a hope that it will one day become possible for Him to blot their sins. For He is now able to deal finally and effectually with sin. Justice has received all the satisfaction it needs or can ask for. No shade of suspicion, whether of feebleness or of injustice, can rest upon the Divine character, in acquitting at once any man for whose guilt Christ has made complete atonement. Now, therefore, God is in a position, not to pretermit sins only, but to remit them; not to promise forgiveness merely, but to confer it. This new attitude it is worth while to trace out in detail.”
If we look at it that way, it wasn’t actually avenging. Jesus wasn’t punishing the wrongdoer — at least not yet.
Jesus really was pardoning us. We were absolved of the consequences of our sin — when we ABCD.
Atonement
“God presented him as an atoning sacrifice in his blood, received through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3: 25-26 CSB).
When I see propitiation, I see Jesus. When I see atonement, I see blood.
I mean, there is only so much blood in the human body. How could that finite amount of blood cover the sins of billions and billions of people. Because as of this moment, there are 7,772,500,137. (Fun fact: the population grew by 200,745 today [March 21, 2020]).
Jesus’s blood covers everyone from Adam to the last baby that was born — as long as they ABCD.
Emmons wrote, “Adam knew that God was good, but he knew, too, that God was just; that it was morally impossible that He should exercise His goodness inconsistently with His justice; and that His perfect justice implied an inflexible disposition to punish the guilty. It is not probable that Adam thought of an atonement; and if he did, he could not see how an atonement could be made.”
Atonement had to be part of the justification process. Otherwise, there would be no need for substitution. Atonement is required because God is just.
Let’s look at it this way. God is just — He doesn’t play favorites.
- We ask forgiveness for Law #1 — and He forgives us.
- We do not ask forgiveness for Law #2 — but He forgives us anyway.
God is not being just if He would do that.
Oh, I see you jumping up and down. You think I should have said He forgave some people but not others. That is a way He would be unjust if He did that.
But a lot of people these days think we should be able to pick and choose which laws and commandments we shouldn’t be required to follow. Doesn’t work that way.
We are called to obey all the laws and commandments, not just the ones we think are still relative.
See what Jesus said. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5: 17-19 ESV emphasis added).
Emmons made an excellent point. “Nothing which Christ did or suffered altered their characters, obligations, or deserts. His obedience did not free them from their obligation to obey the Divine law, nor did His sufferings free them from their desert of suffering the penalty.”
Neither did Jesus force God to forgive us, even when we don’t ask. Nor did He secure a reward for obedience.
We have to ask for forgiveness. We have to obey.
Making the Connections
“For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law” (Rom. 3: 28 CSB)
I had a coworker who, when you asked him an either/or question where the answer was both, would answer “yes.” Did Jesus or His blood redeem Us? Yes.
Whichever word we use in the verse, we needed both of them. Our blood won’t atone, so we need a substitute. It had to be His blood. No one else was worthy.
Okay, let’s hook this to the previous devotion. Here are the nuggets.
- When we look at the list of what the righteousness of God is, it bleeds into His righteousness filtering down to us.
- If righteousness is a gift, it is received through faith.
- Jesus justifies us when we put our lives in His hand.
- God did not have to extend grace to us.
- To redeem us — to pay the price for our sins — Jesus has to suffer.
Righteousness, faith, justification, grace, redemption, propitiation, and atonement.
Faith is the belief that the doctrines stated in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them. Justification is the act of making something righteous before God through forgiveness. Grace is a free and unmerited gift from Heavenly Father given through His Son, Jesus Christ that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers. Redemption is where something is used in exchange for something else to gain or regain something. Propitiation means that a substitute is offered to avoid God’s wrath. Atonement is repayment for a wrong.
- Because of grace, the plan of salvation was designed.
In order to justify us, Jesus had to be the propitiation for us.
This atonement accomplished in redemption.
We access the gift through faith.
Bottom line. We couldn’t get the job done. We can’t secure forgiveness of our sins by ourselves. All we can do is have the faith that Jesus could — and can — save us.
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
We are also considering what we would say if a non-believer asked us. Here is the worksheet again. What would you tell someone about God forgiving and forgetting sins?
- What does the Scriptures say?
- What do I believe?
- Why do I believe the same/differently than the Scriptures?
- What are the talking points when witnessing to a non-believer?
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
How Do We Apply This?
- Quit running ourselves down. If God values us this much, why don’t we have more self-esteem?
- Understand we are sinners, can’t save ourselves, and can only reply on Jesus’ sacrifice to pay the price for our sins.
- ABCD
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Isn’t it wonderful to know that, because we couldn’t save ourselves, God took care of it? But He doesn’t force Himself on us.
We have two choices — ABCD or not. Choose wisely and choose soon — there may not be much more time left for us to choose. If we don’t, the choice will be made for us — and we don’t want those consequences.
Father God. You are Sovereign God, and You are — and want to be — our a Father. Convict those who need to ABCD. Nudge those who need to confess unconfessed sin. Thank You for sending Jesus to be our Redeemer. Amen.
What do you think?
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