Basics Series. Soteriology, part 14.

Pastor-Teacher
John Farley

Basics

Tuesday,
August 21, 2012

The Doctrine of Soteriology
(Salvation)

pay the penalty for sin.

remove the guilt of sin.

satisfy the justice of God.

end the enmity and restore peace.

The blood of Christ – His substitutionary spiritual death on the cross – provided redemption, expiation, propitiation, and reconciliation for every man.

PROPITIATION = SATISFACTION. The justice of God is completely satisfied with the Person and Work of Christ. It is the GODWARD side of the cross.

RECONCILIATION = the removal of the barrier between God and man. Man is restored to PEACE with God. It is the MAN AS ENEMY side of the cross.

JUSTIFICATION = It is the legal act of God whereby He declares the ungodly believer RIGHTEOUS because He has imputed to the believer His perfect righteousness.
It means VINDICATION.

 

Redemption Price
Expiation Cancelled
Propitiation Satisfied
Reconciliation Peace
Justification Righteousness

 

Reconciliation is God’s peace treaty with the entire human race.

Reconciliation is the removal of the barrier that separated God from man and prevented man from approaching God.

The doctrine of reconciliation explains the removal of the barrier between God and mankind through the salvation work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross.

Man is reconciled to God, not vice versa.
God is NEVER said to be reconciled to mankind.

2Co 5:18
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,

Reconciliation flows directly out of propitiation.

Propitiation does not so much indicate that God is offended, but rather that God is holy and cannot be approached by sinful creatures without a remedy.

In fact, the blood of Christ reconciled the love of God and the holiness of God when it came to the problem of sinful man.

Now the justice of God can provide blessing without compromising any attribute of
divine essence.

The Greek word refers to a divinely provided place of meeting, a place of propitiation.

Rom 3:25-26 says that Jesus Christ was
publicly displayed as the mercy seat, the place of the propitiation (or satisfaction) of
God’s justice.

The Greek word for “propitiation” here in verse 25 is hilasterion.
Hilasterion means the place of propitiation, the mercy seat.

Here in Heb 9:5, hilasterion clearly refers to the mercy seat, the golden cover for the Ark of the Covenant.

The wood represents the humanity of Christ;
the gold represents the deity of Christ. Together, they represent the Hypostatic Union.

In the Greek Old Testament called the Septuagint and often abbreviated “LXX”, twenty two times hilasterion translates the Hebrew kapporeth, “the mercy seat”.

It chiefly refers to the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. This was the golden cover of the sacred chest in the Tabernacle or temple.

The two cherubs of gold represent the righteousness and justice of the integrity of God.

Exo 25:22
And there I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you ....

The righteousness and justice of God saw the blood of the animal covering the mercy seat, and it represented the finished work of Christ on the cross.

The propitiation, the place of the acceptable, pleasing sacrifice, which is the body of Christ, becomes the place of reconciliation, where God will meet with His children.

Rom 3:25-26 says that Jesus Christ was
publicly displayed as the mercy seat, the place of the propitiation (or satisfaction) of
God’s justice.

 

 


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