Certain Eternity Part 13 – Jesus Our Propitiation
1 John 2:2 December 15, 2024
Introduction
The United States recorded its one millionth organ transplant in September of
2022, a historic milestone for the medical procedure that has saved hundreds of
thousands of lives.
The very first successful organ transplant occurred in 1954 when doctors
transplanted a kidney from 23-year-old Ronald Herrick into his identical twin
brother, Richard, who was suffering from chronic kidney failure. The lead
surgeon, Dr. Joseph Murray, received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his role in
the procedure.
Up until the early 1980s, the number of transplants every year remained low.
However, success in transplant organs other than kidneys—such as hearts,
livers, and pancreases—and the advent of anti-rejection medication led to a rise
in transplants. Since then, transplants have become a far more common
procedure. In 2021, more than 41,000 transplants occurred, which to that point
was the highest number ever recorded. I can only imagine that the numbers have
continued to go up. Source: https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2023/march/us-records-one-millionth-organ-transplant.html
The topic of organ transplants is a particularly touching one for me because
nearly six years ago on Christmas Eve, 2018, my father received a lifesaving
heart transplant…talk about the best Christmas present you could receive. And
by God’s grace we look forward to as many more years with my dad as the Lord
blesses us – even if he is a bit cantankerous at times.
Today we are looking at the next verse in 1 John 2, and we are diving into what it
means that Jesus is our propitiation – a fancy theological term that is at the heart
of the good news message to the world. So, it’s really important that we
understand the term as best we can, which means we’re going to dive into some
theology today – which, you recall, is one of the purposes of John’s writing: to
make sure his readers had good theology in the face of all of the lies that were
being spoken around them.
1 John 2:1-2 “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.”
We’re going to break this down in 3 sections today – the Judgment Seat, the
Mercy Seat, and the Adopted Seat
The Judgment Seat
Picture the court room we talked about last week. The Father is the judge (until
such time as He steps aside for the Son to judge the living and the dead), the
Son is the Advocate, Satan is the prosecutor/accuser, and we are on trial.
As we discussed in detail last week, Jesus is advocating on our behalf at all
times to the righteous, just, and holy Father – and He is able to do so because
Jesus Himself is righteous.
o But here is the thing, Jesus is arguing differently than most any other
defense attorney would. You see, Jesus is not trying to argue that we are
innocent of the accusation of the enemy. In fact, Jesus acknowledges that
we are guilty.
o This is such a critical aspect of this whole passage. Nowhere in here is
John trying to give the idea that we are innocent. Yet, this is one of the lies
that the enemy seeks to get people to believe – that I am innocent or that I
am good enough not to be condemned.
Remember 1 John 1:8, 10 “if we say…”
No, we are guilty, we have broken the law….and acknowledging
our guilt is a critical first step in being set free from the
consequences of our guilt.
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to
his own way…”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death…”
Genesis 2:16-17 “16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may
surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
o 1 Peter 1:14-16 “14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the
passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you
also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for
I am holy.””
Leviticus 19:1-2, 5 “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak
to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You
shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy….5 “When you offer a
sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you
may be accepted.””
God is holy, and no sin may be in His presence. We have failed to keep the law
and therefore are not worthy of being in His presence – more than that, we are
only worthy of death, because God is life and remaining apart from Him therefore
means death.
o The only way for us to be made holy and to be able to stand in the
presence of God is for a sacrifice of death to be made on our behalf to
satisfy the righteous and just wrath of a holy God against our sin.
The Mercy Seat (right hand seat)
1 John 1:2 “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for
the sins of the whole world.”
Let’s go back to the courtroom:
o The accusations are flying, the account of our life is being played out
before the Judge. Sinful words, thoughts, and actions repeatedly play out
before us. We look over to our defense attorney who asks us what plea we
want to enter? With hearts of godly sorrow and remorse we look to Jesus
and whisper, “I am guilty, Lord”.
o Jesus looks at us with a knowing nod and stands up to address the judge,
“Your Most Holy Honor, my client acknowledges that he is guilty as
charged.” Satan, the accuser has a triumphant smile cross his face, as he
stands to address the Judge, with a prideful, mocking tone, “Oh Just and
Righteous One, by your own decree this one cannot remain in your
presence; this one deserves death… release them into the fire.”
o But cutting the accuser off, our defense attorney quickly speaks up before
the accuser can utter another word, “The Most Holy One rebuke you.”
Unable to speak, the accuser angrily sits down as our Defender turns to the
Judge, “Though my client is guilty and is indeed deserving of death, their
sentence has already been satisfied.”
o The Judge leans forward inviting the Defender to continue, “This one is not
merely my client, this one is my brother/sister because alongside the
acknowledgement of their guilt they have also submitted to my authority
and have allowed me to serve the sentence in their place. Therefore, as
their lawful substitutionary agent their sentence has been satisfied with my
death. My blood was shed in their place and there no longer remains any
penalty due for their sin. Payment has been made; justice has been
satisfied.”
o The accuser seethes knowing he has lost as the Judge smiles and stands
to render His ruling, “It is as my Son says, this one’s sentence has been
satisfied.” Looking to our Defender, the Judge finishes, “Son they have
submitted to you, therefore, I release them into your care, to enjoy your
reign, and to remain in our presence forever – eternal life is theirs because
of what you have done for them.”
“propitiation” (Gk. hilasmos) – a satisfaction, covering, or appeasement. Refers to
an acceptable sacrifice that turns away the wrath of God and thereby makes God
inclined or disposed to be gracious and merciful toward the one on whose behalf
the sacrifice is offered.
o Without the appropriate satisfaction God’s presence is beyond our reach.
With the satisfaction and covering offered by Jesus, we now may remain in
the presence of God’s love and holiness because His wrathful justice and
righteousness has been satisfied by Jesus’s death, our sins have been
paid for by His blood.
o This is how God has always required that He be approached:
o Leviticus 16:1-5, 20-22 “1 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the
two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died, 2 and
the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time
into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark,
so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. 3
But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the
herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 He shall put on the
holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he
shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these
are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them
on.”
That was all just for Aaron to come into the presence of God.
o 5 And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male
goats for a sin offering…20 “And when he has made an end of atoning for
the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the
live goat. 21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live
goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all
their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the
goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in
readiness. 22 The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote
area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.””
This is the scapegoat, who is offered up on the Day of Atonement
(see Leviticus 23:26-32), for the sins of the people that the just and
righteous wrath of God against the people may be satisfied.
You saw mention of the “mercy seat” in verses 2 and 3. This is described in great
detail in Exodus 25:17-22 (show picture) and was the lid or covering on top of
the ark of the covenant. You might recall that the ark of the covenant was the
holy repository that contained the 10 commandments, a jar of mana, and the staff
of Aaron.
o The High Priest was to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat,
on the covering of the ark, so that the sins of the priest and the sins of the
people could be forgiven and the priest could remain in the presence of
God whose presence rested atop the mercy seat. The mercy seat was the
covering between the presence of God on the top of the ark and the
commandments of God – which has been broken by the people –
contained within the ark. The blood of the sacrifice satisfied the
requirement of the law so that there was atonement for the penalty allowing
God to stay atop the mercy seat and permitting the priest to remain in His
presence.
In the Septuagint (Gk. OT), the term “mercy seat” (Gk. hilastērion) is translated
from the same Greek root word as the word for propitiation.
o The mercy seat is what literally covered God’s presence from the law that
was continually broken by the people. And it was only when that covering
was acknowledged with the blood of sacrifice that the mediator between
God and man, could even stand in the presence of God.
o Here is the awesome thing – John is reminding us here that Jesus is not
only our advocate, our high priest, but because of His righteousness, He
not only offered a sacrifice, He, Himself is the sacrifice.
2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew
no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Romans 3:23-25 “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.”
o Evokes Passover and sacrifice of lamb for the household
o Lev. 16:3, ram (sheep) used for atonement on day of
atonement as well as bull and goats.
John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him,
and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of
the world!”
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and
the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
o Covenantal language of atonement and propitiation.
Jesus is the sacrifice offered to be the covering, to be the
satisfaction, to be the propitiation with the Father, that we
may come into and remain within the presence of the
Holy One.
Hebrews 9:11-15, 22-28 “11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the
good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not
made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the
holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his
own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and
bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for
the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our
conscience from dead works to serve the living God. 15 Therefore he is the
mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the
promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them
from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. …22 Indeed, under
the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of
blood there is no forgiveness of sins. 23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of
the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things
themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into
holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven
itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer
himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood
not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the
foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of
the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed
for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been
offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with
sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”
o Most religions know that the problem of man is that he is not worthy of
God…thus most religions construct various ways and means by which we
can do something to make ourselves worthy.
It is only Christianity – the completion of Judaism and the holy law –
which recognizes that God alone has the power to make man worthy
– we never could make ourselves worthy. Out of God’s love for us,
God took the initiative to satisfy His own righteous wrath so that His
gracious love may shine forth. Rather than man accomplishing good
works to appease God’s wrath, the Bible says that God did what all
our good works could never do.
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.”
Yahweh sent His son, the messiah, the God-man Jesus, to live a
perfect life under the law thus making His lifeblood a holy and
acceptable sacrifice. This perfection enabled Jesus to die an atoning
death that is the propitiation of our sins. This payment and
satisfaction now allows those who have submitted to Jesus and given
Him legal authority to stand in their place to themselves remain in the
presence of the Holy One, covered and satisfied by the sacrifice of
our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.
The Adopted Seat (beloved, little children)
Let’s picture it a different way – the Father is Jehovah Rapha – the great
physician, the healer, we are the dying patient on the table in need of a
transplant, Satan is the medical board asserting that we are not worthy of the
organ donation as we are not a match, we are too unhealthy to receive a new
heart…and Jesus is the organ donor.
But the medical board ultimately has no say in the matter. So long as we don’t try
to survive on our own and instead submit to the healing and saving gift of Jesus’s
life by faith, we will be saved.
o Christ is in us, the Spirit seals and empowers us, and we are therefore
covered by Christ’s sacrifice…we are in Christ and, more than that,
qualified to be adopted into the family of God.
Romans 8:14-16 “14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have
received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The
Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God”
This is why we are little children to the Lord, and fellow brothers and sisters of
John. We are qualified by trusting in Jesus – what the bible calls faith – to sit in
the presence of God, and more than that to be called His children.
But look at what John says, 1 John 1:2 “He is the propitiation for our sins, and
not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
o Jesus died to be the propitiation, the satisfaction, for the whole world. What
this means is that Jesus’ sacrifice is sufficient for all sins in the world, past,
present, and future.
1 Timothy 2:4 “[God] desires all people to be saved and to come to
the knowledge of the truth.”
1 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count
slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should
perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
o The Lord sent His son so that all people may have an opportunity to be
saved by the covering of Jesus’ sacrifice….and while that sacrifice is
sufficient for all, it is only efficient for those who give Jesus the legal
authority to die in their place and pay for and satisfy the penalty for their
sin. It is only efficient for those who receive a new heart, the heart of Christ.
o Ezekiel 26:25-28 “25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be
clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse
you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within
you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a
heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk
in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the
land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be
your God.”
Conclusion – the Invited Seat
Sadly, approximately 5,000 people die waiting on transplant lists every year. And
a study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology in
October 2020 found that many donor kidneys in the U.S. are unnecessarily
discarded.
Death is a terrible thing…yet it is the just consequence for our sin. But that
penalty does not have to be paid by us.
The tragic reality of earthly organ donation is that for many organs, the donor has
to die in order for the recipient to live. This is the same reality for everlasting
spiritual life – yet Jesus gladly made that sacrifice for us because of His great
love for us.
There are many waiting to be saved…the list of those waiting for a new spiritual
heart is far longer than the organ donation lists of the world. But unlike the donor
lists of the world, the spiritual donor list is never lacking, Jesus’s sacrifice is
sufficient for all men.
It is our job not simply to be thankful that we are saved – though we should be
overjoyed at that promise and certain eternity once we trust in Jesus – but we
should be constantly sharing with people the reality that a new heart is waiting for
them.
o Justice has been satisfied and God’s wrath has been appeased by the
blood of Christ. Jesus has paid our debt and by submitting to Jesus by
faith, humbly, faithfully, and obediently following Him, we receive a new
heart and may confidently look forward to remaining in the presence of the
Holy One forever and ever.