Osama bin Laden is dead. How did you feel when you heard President Obama addressed the American people with these words: “Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.”
There is something in our human nature that demands the wrongs of others be punished. We are satisfied that Osama bin Laden’s death was justice for the death of nearly 3000 American citizens on 9/11. Our human nature, however, also wants to punish the wrongs we have committed. That is why we think just confessing our sins (especially only once) does not seem enough. We feel we must do penance.
How much more does God’s holy nature demand that sin be punished so that God’s justice will be satisfied.
The Bible calls this truth the doctrine of propitiation. God’s holiness and justice demand that He punish sin. Otherwise the Judge of the earth would be unjust (Jer. 9:24).
There is something in our human nature that demands the wrongs of others be punished. There is something in our human nature that wants to punish the wrongs we have committed. That is why just confessing our sins (especially only once) does not seem enough. We feel we must do penance.
How much more does God’s holy nature demand that sin be punished so that God’s justice will be satisfied.
The Bible calls this truth the doctrine of propitiation. God’s holiness and justice demand that He punish sin. Otherwise the Judge of the earth would be unjust (Jer. 9:24).
What is Propitiation?
“Propitiation is a sacrifice that bears the wrath of God against sin and thereby turns God’s wrath into favor” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994, page 575).
Though redemption and propitiation were both accomplished at the cross, they are not the same and represent different accomplishments of Christ death.
Redemption is the Man-Ward Accomplishment of Christ’s Death.
These three important words tell us the redemption story: agorazo, Christ purchased us in the slave market of sin with his own blood (Rev. 5:9, 10); exagorazo, Christ purchased us out of the slave market of sin so that we are no longer under the Law (Gal. 3:13, 4:5); Lutroo, Christ has delivered us to a state of freedom (Titus 2:14). Ryrie neatly summarizes these three words and their effect on believers.
(1) People are redeemed by something; namely, by the payment of a price, the blood of Christ.
(2) People are redeemed from something; namely, from the marketplace or slavery of sin.
(3) People are redeemed to something; namely, to a state of freedom (Charles Ryrie, Basic Theology, Colorado Springs: Chariot Victor, 1997, page 292).
Propitiation is the God-Ward Accomplishment of Christ’s Death.
In light of the fact that Paul and John (and probably the author of Hebrews as well) expressly represent it as a propitiating work, it is important to recognize that Christ’s cross work had a Godward reference. The Bible plainly teaches the doctrine of the wrath of God. It teaches that God is angry with the sinner, and that this holy outrage against the sinner must be assuaged if the sinner is to escape his due punishment. It is for this reason that a death occurred at Calvary. When we look at Calvary and behold the Savior dying for us, we should see in his death not first our salvation but our damnation being borne and carried away by him (Robert Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of The Christian Faith, Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998, page 639)!
The Rejection of This Concept by C. H. Dodd
Dodd taught that expiation should be a substitute for propitiation.
Cambridge scholar, C. H. Dodd (1884-1973), rejected this concept of propitiation. Instead, he believed that the idea of expiation, or forgiveness of man’s sin, was the proper meaning, not the appeasement of God’s wrath. “Hellenistic Judaism, as represented by the LXX, does not regard the cultus as a means of pacifying the displeasure of the Diety, but as a means of delivering man for sin” (C. H. Dodd, The Bible and the Greeks, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1935, p.93). Dodd’s influence was so great, the RSV translated hilasmos and hilasterion not as propitiation but as expiation.
Leon Morris answered Dodd: “To the men of the Old Testament the wrath of God is both very real and very serious. . . . There are more than twenty words used to express the wrath conception as it applies to Yahweh (in addition to a number of other words which occur only with reference to human anger). These are used so frequently that there are over 580 occurrences to be taken into consideration” (Leon Morris, Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1955, page131).
The OT word kapar, is translated by the LXX (Greek translation of the OT) by hilaskesthai or the NT word for propitiation and clearly has OT examples of not only propitiating man’s wrath (Gen. 32:20) but God’s wrath (Ex. 32:10 and 30).
In Part 2, we continue to answer Dodd’s objections.
