Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. - I John 4:10

     ‘Propitiation’ refers to the satisfaction rendered unto God the Father whereby the just wrath of God due to the guilt of sin is removed, God’s just wrath against sin being appeased.  Thereby, reconciliation is made between a holy God and ungodly sinners.  And this propitiation was made by Christ as the sin-bearing sacrifice – as He, God the Son incarnate (God, manifested in the flesh) paid the sin debt due unto God Himself by His sacrificial death on Calvary’s cross.

     To the contrary, many in our day insist that God the Son was sent by God the Father to be a mere ‘means’ to an end, not actually be the end-all finisher of an accomplishment whereby sins are forgiven.  Rather, this ‘christ’ is applauded for merely having made salvation possible.  And so the heresy is propagated that there remains something for you the sinner to do in order to be saved and have your sins forgiven.   This relegates the death of Christ on the cross to a position of subordination and inferiority to that which is presumed to make the real difference in their salvation – their decision, their acceptance of Christ, their act of faith, something they do (or imagine they are enabled to do) whereby they presume to be able to appropriate for themselves that which their “christ” made possible.

     But do not be fooled!  To any who imagine that Christ’s death failed to provide the full and complete satisfaction to God’s justice whereby those sinners for whom He died are fully reconciled unto God and on that basis alone, then know this:  That would mean your ‘christ’ is not the Christ of this Bible because whatever you call it, if what Christ did failed to fully satisfy all that is required for the salvation of a sinner, then that ‘christ’ is not the propitiation for any sinner’s sins.  Instead, that would be akin to looking to your own sinful self for your own propitiation, daring to place a work of your own hand in rivalry with the justice-satisfying, propitiatory work of the Lord of Glory.  God forbid!

     The Apostle John wrote to his fellow believers that God “…sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  Can you truthfully say that?  Is Christ the propitiation for your sins?