What is Propitiation?

Put simply – What is Propitiation?

God’s wrath being satisfied.

A little more complicated –

Romans 3:25 says God put Jesus forward “as a propitiation by his blood.” This means that God looks at Jesus’ sacrifice and counts our debt paid because of him. The payment we owed for our sin debt was too great for us to ever pay. But the blood of Christ is of infinite value, so it was sufficient to pay the debt we owed and cover our sins. This is what it means that Christ’s death was a propitiation for our sins.

Scripture references:

• Romans 3:25 “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.”
• Hebrews 2:17 “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.”
• 1 John 4:10 “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.”