LOVING PROPITIATION

In John’s first letter we find a big word which is not a part of our normal vocabulary—PROPITIATION. This Greek word is only used twice in the NT and only in this letter from John, the disciple of Jesus.

He is the propitiation for our sins,
and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
1Jo 2:2

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.
1Jo 4:10

The word means to expiate or appease a deity.

Therefore, we can see that it has its roots in early paganism where it was necessary to get an angry god off your back through some form of sacrifice. However, we are not dealing with a pagan god when talking about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Neither are we talking about what we should do to get right with God.

We cannot do anything, we cannot make any sacrifice to appease a supposedly angry God.

I saw this post from someone this past week—

Just one wrong word, thought, or deed weakens and loosens your armor.
Over time your armor falls off and you still believe it’s on.

What a burden to put upon people! Can you see the fear that kind of thought produces?

I’ve had to work with many people who grew up under the concept that God was very angry with mankind, and that He would smack us for the slightest misstep. These folks suffer from a childhood traumatic fear as they internalized horrific images of a fiery hell where God would sentence them to an eternity of torture if they didn’t get it right. Some of these people suffer from PTSD—post-traumatic stress disorder—which shows up later in their life due to the constant stress of being afraid.

Even if it were true that God would punish for an eternity someone who didn’t get it right in their short life of 70 years, John tells us here that there is nothing to fear. Because there is nothing that we can or could do about our sin, God did.

He sent Jesus.

Notice that in neither of the two verses where John uses the word is anything said about Jesus’ death or resurrection. It is a simple statement of the purpose of Jesus’ appearance on earth.

His life covered our sin.

God’s love renders Him incapable of punishing His creation for an eternity. It is God’s love which John is laying the groundwork for in this letter.

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.
1Jo 4:10

John seems to be the one disciple who understood, who got it. He is the one who recorded “For God so loved the world…” He referred to himself as the one whom Jesus loved.

One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side,
Jn 13:23

So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
Jn 20:2

That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. Jn 21:7

Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?”
Jn 21:20

Many have taken this to mean that Jesus had a special love for John above His love for the others. That may be true, but I doubt it.

I see it more like John was very much aware of Jesus’ love in his own life. John continually emphasized the fact that he was loved by the Master.

Look at this last verse I have shown you. John is writing that and telling us about an experience after the Resurrection. If it were us, we would say, “Peter turned and saw me following them,” which would certainly be a correct way of stating the fact. John can only speak of himself in the third person as one who was consumed by the love of Jesus.

John is known as the apostle of love. His gospel and his three letters are filled with statements about the love of God and its power to right the wrongs of this world.

Peter mentions this aspect in one of his letters.

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
1Pe 4:8

Peter says that our love covers the sins of others. But that has not been the way of most Christians in my lifetime. Our way has been to expose sin, to point it out, to make it known to the sinner and anyone who happens to be listening.

The word “covers” means exactly what it appears to mean—a covering, a hiding from view. When a new statue was being dedicated, or back when the next year’s model of a new car was being announced, the statue or the car was hidden from view with a covering. 

Whenever we encounter the sin of another, we should throw a “love cover” over them instead of pointing out the sin.

Love covers, hides the sin.

We find this truth also in the wisdom of Solomon in the Proverbs.

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.
Pro 10:12

Yes, but don’t you know that God’s gonna get you for that sin?

No, I don’t.

 in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,
not counting their trespasses against them,
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
2Co 5:19

The Greek word for “counting” here means to take inventory. God is not taking nor keeping an inventory record of our sin.

Why?

Because of Jesus.

Jesus has covered our sin.

Our sin was removed from the debit column of the ledger so all that remains is the credit applied to our life through Jesus.

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 

through whom we have now received reconciliation. 

Rom 5:11

Hopefully, we can now see that the propitiation of which John speaks is not the appeasing of God’s anger as it was viewed in ancient times. Rather, it refers to the purpose which God Himself has fulfilled by sending the Son. It rests on the fact that God is gracious and loving.

The meaning, then, is what we have seen through the other writers who explained this love of God for us.

It is the setting aside of sin as guilt against God.

We should no longer consider our missteps, mistakes, foibles, failures or sins as something which makes God angry with us. We should rejoice with King David who said in Psalm 32,

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity,
Psa 32:1-2

Church, that is us.

That is you.

Your sins have been covered by the propitiation of Christ which is also true for the whole world from the God who is love.

God is not counting our trespasses against us and weighing them with our good deeds to see if we measure up.

We already measure up correctly because of Jesus.

Enough said.