Consider the Meaning of Atonement & Propitiation

Significantly, the vocabulary and the phrases, the imagery, and the theology of sacrifice for sin has been woven into subsequent scriptures as part of the unfolding theme of salvation. The sacrifices are irrelevant to us except for their typological significance and their dramatic and dynamic fulfilment in Christ who is the complete fulfilment, the antitype in His sacrificial death for us. The sacrifices of Israel speak loudly to us today and they give to us crucial insights into the death of Jesus and they speak vital truths regarding salvation. If, as with most of us, the whole thing about sacrifices seems irrelevant, then we have failed to take account of the content of Hebrews and the confident way in which the writer handles the chapters we have devoted so much time to, revealing Christ as the antitype of the types we identified in Leviticus.

Having already looked carefully at the sacrifices and their spiritual meaning, we have focused in this talk on the events which take place of the Day of Atonement and their meaning. There are two unique happenings - the release of the scape goat into the wilderness and the entry of the High Priest into the Holy of Holies. The only indication that the vast crowd of worshippers would have had of the day’s proceedings would have been the entry of the High Priest into the Holy Place, having sacrificed one of the two rams on the brazen altar. The crowds would have been tense as the news of the death of Aaron’s two sons had swept through the camp only a few days before. Supposing Aaron was carried out of the Holy Place as a dead man? –and with what trepidation Aaron must have stepped through the Vail into the Holy of Holies. His return would have been welcomed, not only with relief but with the knowledge that atonement had been accepted by God for the sins of the past year - forgiveness for all their sins and thankfulness for Aaron’s deliverance.

I am convinced that the key words for this uniquely important Day are atonement and propitiation. We know the outcome of sacrifice is both forgiveness of all sin and freedom from all guilt. The day is called “atonement” and the lid of the ark is called “propitiation.” Paul writes, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” (Rom.5:23-26) Christ Jesus has been set forth by God to be our propitiation by the shedding of His blood and thus He justifies the ungodly by faith and at the same time maintains the righteous justice of God because He has paid the full price for our sin, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom.4:5) The KJV, NKJV, NASB, and the ESV translates "propitiation" from the Greek word hilasterion. This is the word used for the lid of The Ark of The Covenant – the propitiatory, which is translated in the KJV as “mercy seat.” The only other occurrence of hilasterion in the NT is in Hebrews 9:5, where it is translated as "mercy seat" in all of the Bible translations named above as well as the RSV, and NRSV, “And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat; of which we cannot now speak particularly” (Heb.9:5). 1 John 2:2 (KJV) reads: "And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." There is frequent and similar use of hilasterion in the Septuagint, Exodus 25:1722 ff. The mercy seat was sprinkled with blood, (Lev.16:14), representing that the righteous sentence/judgment of the Law had been executed, and thus the judgment seat has become a mercy seat, “But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, 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 worship the living God! (Hebrews 9:11–15). Another Greek word, hilasmos, is used for Jesus Christ as our propitiation, “And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1Jn.2:2) “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1Jn.4:10) Also, hilasmos is used in the Septuagint (Leviticus 25:9; Numbers 5:8; Amos 8:14). In the Old Testament sacrifices and in their New Testament fulfilment, Jesus Christ completely satisfied the just demands of the Holy Father for judgment on sin, by His death on the cross (Hebrews 7:26-28). He suffered the judgement of God against sin, hence the fact that he is spoke of as the propitiation for our sin.

God, in view of Christ’s paying the price for our sin, is declared righteous in being able to forgive sins in the context of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament period, as well as in being able to forgive sinners under the New Covenant (Romans 3:25,26; cf. Exodus 29:33).