Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Heart of the Gospel" (Chapter 18, Part 1)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer
“If God Be for Us...” (Part 3)
“The Heart of the Gospel” (Chapter 18, Part 1)

Pagan Propitiation

• Many gods, none with absolute dominion
• Believed to have power over various realms and could make life difficult
• Uncertain, capricious, and easily offended
• Gods manipulating circumstances to work against you
• Mollified or appeased by means of gifts or sacrifice
• The bigger the sacrifice the better, including human sacrifice

“Thus pagan religion appears as a callous commercialism, a matter of managing and manipulating your gods by cunning bribery. And within paganism propitiation, the appeasing of celestial bad tempers, takes its place as a regular part of life, one of the many irksome necessities that one cannot get on without.” - J. I. Packer

Biblical Theism

• Not many gods, but one Creator God with all dominion
• The source of all goodness and truth, detesting evil
• No bad temper, no capriciousness, no vanity, not easily provoked
• Propitiation?

Propitiation in the Bible

Propitiation in the OT:

• Underlies the rituals of sin offering, guilt offering, and the Day of Atonement
• God’s anger threatening to destroy the people for their rebellion assuaged by sacrifice

Numbers 16:46–48 NIV
⁴⁶ Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put incense in it, along with burning coals from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord; the plague has started.” ⁴⁷ So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. ⁴⁸ He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped.

Propitiation in the NT:

• The rationale of God’s justification of sinners

Romans 3:21–26 ESV
²¹ But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 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. ²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

• The rationale of Incarnation of God the Son

Hebrews 2:17 ESV
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.

• The heavenly intercessory ministry of our Lord

1 John 2:1–2 ESV
¹ 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.

• The definition and expression of the love of God

1 John 4:8–10 ESV
⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 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.

“Has the word propitiation any place in your Christianity? In the faith of the New Testament it is central. The love of God, the taking of human form by the Son, the meaning of the cross, Christ’s heavenly intercession, the way of salvation—all are to be explained in terms of it...” - J. I. Packer

“And a gospel without propitiation at its heart is another gospel than that which Paul preached. The implications of this must not be evaded.” - J. I. Packer

Not Merely Expiation

Several modern Bible versions do not use the word “propitiation.”

• “expiation” (RSV, NAB)
• “remedy for defilement” (NEB)
• “atoning sacrifice” (NIV, CSB, NET, NRSV)
• “sacrifice that atones” (NLT)
• “God’s way of dealing with” (CEB)

“What is the difference? The difference is that expiation means only half of what propitiation means. Expiation is an action that has sin as its object; it denotes the covering, putting away or rubbing out of sin so that it no longer constitutes a barrier to friendly fellowship between man and God. Propitiation, however, in the Bible, denotes all that expiation means, and the pacifying of the wrath of God thereby.” - J. I. Packer

“As our mediator he has obtained the full benefits of our whole salvation, beginning with an objective atonement for our sin. Refusals to acknowledge propitiation as the heart of his death and resurrection result from a misunderstanding of God’s love. It is God’s love that is the basis for his providing Christ as the means of propitiation. By Christ’s sacrifice a new relation of reconciliation and peace has been accomplished between God and humanity.” - Herman Bavinck (RD 3:419).

“The wrath of God against us, both present and to come, has been quenched. How was this effected? Through the death of Christ. “When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (5:10). The “blood”—that is, the sacrificial death—of Jesus Christ abolished God’s anger against us and ensured that his treatment of us forever after would be propitious and favorable… by his sacrificial death for our sins Christ pacified the wrath of God.” - J. I. Packer

God’s Anger

• Not capricious, arbitrary, bad-tempered, and conceited anger as in the pagan gods.
• Not sinful, resentful, malicious, infantile anger we find in humans.
• God’s anger is a function of his holiness and righteousness.

God’s wrath is “the holy revulsion of God’s being against that which is the contradiction of his holiness”; it issues in “a positive outgoing of the divine displeasure.” - John Murray

“God is not just—that is, he does not act in the way that is right, he does not do what is proper to a judge—unless he inflicts upon all sin and wrongdoing the penalty it deserves.” - J. I. Packer

Propitiation Described

1. Propitiation is the work of God himself.

• Paganism - man propitiates his gods; it becomes a form of commercialism and bribery.
• Christianity - God propitiates his wrath by his own action.

“The doctrine of the propitiation is precisely this: that God loved the objects of His wrath so much that He gave His own Son to the end that He by His blood should make provision for the removal of His wrath.” - J. I. Packer

2. Propitiation was made by the death of Jesus Christ.

“When Paul tells us that God set forth Jesus to be a propitiation 'by his blood,' his point is that what quenched God’s wrath and so redeemed us from death was not Jesus’ life or teaching, not his moral perfection nor his fidelity to the Father, as such, but the shedding of his blood in death.” - J. I. Packer

“Paul always points to the death of Jesus as the atoning event and explains the atonement in terms of representative substitution—the innocent taking the place of the guilty, in the name and for the sake of the guilty, under the axe of God’s judicial retribution.” - J. I. Packer

Galatians 3:13 ESV
¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV
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.

3. Propitiation manifests God’s righteousness.

• The truth of propitiation does not call into question the morality of God’s dealing with sin; it establishes it.

“to declare his righteousness” - “Paul’s point is that the public spectacle of propitiation, at the cross, was a public manifestation, not merely of justifying mercy on God’s part, but of righteousness and justice as the basis of justifying mercy.” - J. I. Packer

“...far from being unconcerned about moral issues and the just requirement of retribution for wrongdoing, is so concerned about these things that he does not—indeed, Paul would, we think, boldly say, cannot—pardon sinners, and justify the ungodly, except on the basis of justice shown forth in retribution.” - J. I. Packer

“Our sins have been punished; the wheel of retribution has turned; judgment has been inflicted for our ungodliness—but on Jesus, the lamb of God, standing in our place. In this way God is just—and the justifier of those who put faith in Jesus...” - J. I. Packer