FTD
whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. Romans 3:25 NASB
Propitiation – This Greek word, hilasterion, is part of a word group that describes the turning away of divine wrath. But if you look up the word “propitiation” in a dictionary, the definition will send you in the wrong direction. Why? Because the Greek background of this word comes from the idea that Greek gods were fickle and vindictive, so they had to be appeased in order not to harm us. On this basis, most English dictionaries define “propitiation” as “appeasement.” What the English dictionaries do not acknowledge is that Paul is not Greek. He is Jewish and his ideas about wrath come from the Old Testament, not from Greek culture.
If we want to appease someone, we have to do things that the other person feels are worthy enough to annul the intended punishment. Husbands know how this works. When a wife has been injured by some thoughtless remark, FTD becomes the appeasement vehicle. Send flowers and maybe she will forgive. That is the modern equivalent of Greek thinking. But it’s not the way God views insult and injury. If propitiation does not mean appeasing God so that He will not punish us, what does it mean?
When we look at the Hebraic concept, we must first recognize that when it comes to sin, there is nothing we can do that is worthy enough to cancel our infraction of holiness. We cannot go back and undo our disobedience and God is not interested in an FTD arrangement. So appeasement is not an option. It will never work because holiness demands perfection, not restitution.
God answers this sin problem in a completely unique way. God performs an act of expiation, nullifying any appeasement. In order words, God tells us that the punishment we rightly deserved is set aside because someone else paid the penalty demanded. God’s solution to our problem is to find a substitute for the punishment rather than to make a sham of holiness by dismissing the charges against us. Wherever there is sin, there is a price to pay. There is no plea-bargaining when it comes to holiness. The penalty must always be paid. So Yeshua volunteered to pay the penalty for us. He made a propitiation of Himself so that we could be declared not guilty (expiation). The punishment was not set aside. It was transferred to Him instead of us.
Modern Christianity has taken a vacation from sin. Churches stopped preaching the seriousness of violating God’s expectations. They stopped teaching that sin produces death – without exception. And without this strong view of sin, there is little need for a Christ who dies in our place. We have been led down the road of “be a good person and love everyone” without any understanding of the real truth. We are declared “not guilty” because someone else had to die for us. We are guilty. It’s just that someone else took the consequences. Grace is very expensive.
Thank Him right now for volunteering to die for you. Without His gift, you would be the one paying the price.
Topical Index: propitiation, appeasement, expiation, forgiveness, hilasterion, Romans 3:25
B.t.w.: I understand with FTD you can send something to your beloved. But what do the letters mean?
Kees, FTD stands for Florists’ Transworld Delivery Inc.
Thank you LORD for volunteering to die for me. Without Your gift, I would be the one paying the price. Thank you for your rich Mercy and Grace towards me.
~ When we look at the Hebraic concept, we must first recognize that when it comes to sin, there is nothing we can do that is worthy enough to cancel our infraction of holiness ~ Exactly.
Salvation is not “do.” Salvation is “done.” It is a done deal. Over. Finished. Final. Complete. Paid in full.
Nothing can be added to it. It is the gift of God. Nothing can be detracted from it. What Yeshua, the Lamb of God did “at Calvary” was “atone” for the sins of the world. Not just Jewish sins, not just Gentile sins, – all sins. By one offering, (the offering of Himself) He has perfected forever them who are being sanctified.
(Hebrews 10.14).
The Philippian jailer asked, “what must I do to be saved?” If he (or she) were to ask me this question, I would reply, “salvation is not “do” – it is “done.” “Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” Enuf dancing around it- “Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.” Jesus paid it all. And friends, (Hebrew and otherwise)- it is finished.
Appeasement? No, actually more like “payment.” You see, the wages of sin is death- eternal separation from God, who is both Life and Light. And don’t be thinking either, hell is a place of fellowship and “I’ll be there with all my friends.” No, this too is a false thought. Hell is a place of total darkness, loneliness, isolation and regret. “If only” will be words oft repeated, along with weeping and gnashing of teeth. Hell is not the happy place. There is no blessing here, but eternal torment. I’ll speak no more of it- but refer all to God’s Book of instruction and let our LORD describe it. It is far from a nice place.
Yeshua took upon Himself my “hell.” The hell I deserved for my rebellion against God. The full wrath of God concerning sin, (for every man from Adam on down) fell upon the Christ at Calvary and friend, God hates sin in every form or fashion for God is holy. How holy? Totally. Heaven is a perfect place and heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people and The Bride of Christ (us) is being made ready. There will soon be a wedding feast that “all” are invited to. ~We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God ~ (2 Corinthians 5.20)
And how is any man (the sinner) “reconciled unto our thrice-holy God?” Good news.
~ and through Him God reconciled everything to Himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross ~ (Colossians 1.20)
Selah.
~ Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in (blood-covenant) union with the Messiah Jesus ~ (Romans 8.1)
By grace. It is the gift of God.
Through faith. Through faith in the atoning, propitiating Sacrifice of the perfect Passover Lamb.
Unto good works. ~ He (our Master) went about doing good ~ As His followers, so should we, and as He did.. -serving one another in love.
And because of Calvary, we now have access to our Father. The veil of the temple has been torn in two, from top to the bottom. Selah. Amen.
Is “not guilty” holy? We all know it isn’t. Just fearless, approachable, and Bold. Before I die, I want to be drawn into the one who is me in all His Glory! Let everything that tethers be severed and be known by the one who calls my name. He will care for things when I am gone, now I’ll sing the Lovers song. Face to face clouds disappear, all that is He loves dear. Now I see He desires me, I give my pain, my hope and shame, I can Love and be loved too, I give my heart, with His blood he makes me new, beating faster like a lover, trading secrets in laughter as one…stop me now before I say something meant for another day. Don’t wait for the sun to rise, just go beyond your natural eyes, look at His garments, not yours, follow through where light guides you, give all He asks give all you know, all you love and control, He breathes the incense of your struggle…..Falling in Love with Him over and over again.
It’s hot button time again. Sorry it’s long, I’m posting it late so maybe not too many good people will be beleaguered but it. But this is about what drove me out the Church fifty years ago and it is still a hot button. I don’t know how good, kind people can believe in a God who loves His creation, His kids so much that He would die for them and not blink an eye at making that God into a monster.
I’ve given this considerable thought, not just now but over many years. What I am seeing is two protagonists; one is a God of truth who is the same yesterday, today and forever and the other is a liar. IMO the first lie is the most persistent and the most pernicious. It is the lie “Surely you shall not die,” which gives rise to the notion of an immortal soul.
The Hindus and Buddhists base the philosophy, that you come back till you get it right, on it. Passively returning to suffer the consequences of past actions or proactively choosing the circumstances that will help you work on the areas that you need the most improvement in until, by dint of your own efforts, by yanking on your own boot straps you succeed in elevating yourself from the muck to perfection and can meld with the cosmic consciousness in utter mindless, egoless bliss. The Muslims think that if you die blowing up a school bus full of Jewish children you get to go to hedonist heaven. And the Christians believe that if live and die never hearing the name of Jesus or choosing Him as their personal savior the God who advocates loving ones enemies will turn into a merciless monster who will then torture them either in a lake of fire, or a bottomless black pit for eternity. Over kill if you ask me, even for a Hitler. Sounds to me like Satan is acting as God’s press agent, or is it a self portrait?
So where did the idea come from? Emanuel said we live by Every Word of God. The only such words in existence at that time were the OT. It’s not in there. They do a credible job of describing death i.e. unconsciousness, with hell coming from word the word for grave. In the NT the word of choice is gehenna (sp?), or the city dump which burns as long as people keep throwing rubbish in to it. Here’s a clue, the Valley of Gehenna is now a suburb of Jerusalem and is not burning anymore.
Where else could the idea spring from? How about the parable of the Lazarus and the rich man, right off the top there is a clue that this is allegory. Jesus punches up a story about people returning from the dead by using the name of Lazarus whose death and resurrection to corporeal life catapulted Christ to rock star status. Here comes the disconnect; watch for it, Lazarus who was loved by God i.e. Jesus and was loved by his sisters Mary and Martha, and by numerous friends, were he terminally ill, would never ever be abandoned to die on the doorstep of a stranger. Disconnect #2: The rich man dies and goes someplace unpleasant, and asks God for permission to go back and tell his brothers to get it together. Straight out of SiFi 101, nobody comes back from the dead to warn anyone. Now, here comes the meat of the story for anyone with ears. God tells the rich man they will not believe even if one were to come back from the dead to tell them. We are here not talking about Lazarus any more, nor about the rich man either, Jesus is talking about Himself, the only man who, at that point, will return from the dead as an eternal spirit being.
Is that even possible, that people will not believe the Word Incarnate? Well dud. He addressed most if not all issues plainly. He virtually shouted them. But people would rather twist the twistable words of Paul than hear crystal clear words of Christ. Did He say “I have not come to do away with the Law or the Prophets,” or “Mat 5:18 For truly I say to you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.” Knock, knock… yup still there.
Question, if He were about to do away with the law why magnify it? Make lust into adultery, greed into idolatry, hate into murder, and why reaffirm parental neglect though sleazy legalese as a capital crime if He was going to do away with it in a few days? And what about the Sabbath? The day He created, that He sanctified, that He reiterated through Moses, that He establishes as a sign between Himself and His people that they were, in fact HIS people, and alternately established that He is their God.
Did you get that?
HE said that if you break one of them you are guilty of them all, so 9/10ths right is still wrong, and you belong to the one you obey, and faith based, miracle workers who call Him Lord are sent packing as law breaking strangers! Whew!
In fact Jesus didn’t delete it, He owned it! Several times. He said, “The son of man is the also the Lord of the Sabbath!” He made it a matter of mercy, who would not be a responsible animal owner and water his live stock on the Sabbath? He then went one step further and reinforced it as a principle of law, “Is it Lawful to do good on the Sabbath day or to do evil?” Did you get it? The Choices are between good and evil. “To save life or to kill,” doing good is equated with saving life and not doing good to murder. He answers the question for us by healing the woman who had a discharge of blood for 38 years.
What could be plainer? He virtually shouts it out!
So the God who never changes, who created the Sabbath, sanctified it and established sabbaths of days, sabbaths of weeks, sabbaths of months, sabbaths of years and sabbaths of millenniums is going to then do away with them at His death!
But wait a minute! He is going to resurrect them in the millennium? Zec 14:13 And it shall come to pass in that day, Zec 14:16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. (A high Sabbath) Zec 14:17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. That’s sorta inconsistent of Him don’t cha think?
So where Did this idea come from? Not Jesus before or after His death, not from the apostles during their lifetimes and not for at least a hundred years following. In fact it was not canonized until the Counsel of Nicea in 325AD. Thank you very much Constantine. Who I understand built an alter to Jehovah in the Temple of Jupiter, the sun god and his fav deity, so that he could worship both without any undue inconvenience to himself. What a guy!
But what about that notion of eternal hell fire and damnation, where’d it come from? Well that concept didn’t gain any traction until Dante and his over heated imagination came onto the scene almost a thousand years after Constantine and his Day of the Sun. Funny that, we still call it the day of the sun, even God’s chosen elect call it Sunday. Satan’s ego must be popping buttons!
Christ’s death obliterates everyone sin, right? wrong? So what is a compassionate, loving, merciful, just God doing tormenting His failed children for crimes that He has already forgiven them for? So they reject the pardon, is that reason enough torture them forever? That just makes God the worst criminal in the universe IMO. Could you really respect such a being, leave alone love Him???
OK, rant over, Sorry about that.
wOw! Antoneea, for what purpose (or was it “random”) did Christ The Messiah die?
Not random. It keeps popping up that these ‘immortal souls’ who don’t get it, or don’t want it are going to to be tormented eternally and I don’t buy it. Souls in rebellion can not enter paradise, living outside of paradise in sin is intolerable, and torture is unthinkable.
To me the lake of fire is something like the Bomb that fell on Japan. People at ground zero were vaporized. Sometimes all there was left to show that anyone had been there was a shadow like a photograph from the flash. No bone, no ash no other sign that a human being had been there. Just one instant they were there and the next they were gone, so fast, too fast for pain to even register.
That’s what I think the second death will be like. It’s what a compassionate God would do.
Carl, sorry brother but you were right in the cross hairs of that rant. I just don’t get the Protestant predilection for eternal torment. It is inconsistent with everything God stands for Love, Compassion, Mercy, Forgiveness, Justice, Self Sacrifice, and Truth. I believe any confusion on the issue is clarified by the concept of the second death. It is a real death, and end, oblivion, end of story.
For Satan I can see the punishment fitting the crime and for his buddies. The Beast and the False Prophet maybe. Anybody else not so much.
I guess you can see that it bugs me. God is Good! Eternal torment is something only a mad man could endorse, or a fallen angel. Getting down off of my soap box now.