Dr Paul Allen

“He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”  1 John 2:2 The word propitiation, as used by the apostle John in 1 John 2, has been the subject of much debate throughout the centuries. The question is this: Does John mean by propitiation that Jesus Christ, through His death on the cross, obtained forgiveness for us, or does John mean that through His death, Jesus not only obtained forgiveness for us but also satisfied the wrath of God against us? How you answer this question will either lead you to the gospel of Jesus Christ and a saving knowledge of God or to a faulty understanding of who God is and what He requires as payment for our sins. Some would say that God is not a God of wrath.   They would say God does not demand blood sacrifice to satisfy His wrath against sin and sinners. They claim that God is pure benevolence – a loving God who would never have this kind of wrath that needed to be satisfied against sin. The...

“And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” ( 1 John 2:2 ) Most words in the King James Bible have one or two syllables. Our text verse, for example, has 21 such short words and only one big word; but that word, “propitiation,” has five syllables, and so has elicited many complaints from folks who don’t like to use dictionaries. What does “propitiation” mean? The Greek word is 'hilasmos' and occurs just two other times. These are as follows: “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” ( Romans 3:25 ). “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” ( 1 John 4:10 ). As an aside, note that these two verses contain two words of two syllables, three of three syllables, and 48 of one syllable. But both also include “...

Who needs to be saved? Everyone! Not one person has escaped sin’s devastating effects, and no one can do anything about this on their own. We come to the solution to this universal problem: the doctrine of salvation. The basis of salvation for any and every individual is Christ’s death—and only Christ’s death. This truth is known as the sufficiency of the death of Christ . Anything we sinful humans might contribute to our own salvation is excluded. When Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished” ( John 19:30 ), he meant it. The gospel—the good news of salvation—is succinctly stated in 1 Corinthians 15:1–8: 2-5 By this gospel you are saved … that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared [to the disciples and hundreds of others]. The good news is that anyone can be saved by believing that Jesus died for their sins, was buried, and was resurrected. The significance...

English: A "Jesus Saves" neon cross sign on a church in Alphabet City in New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) When we talk about the vicarious aspect of the atonement, two rather technical words come up again and again: expiation and propitiation. These words spark all kinds of arguments about which one should be used to translate a particular Greek word , and some versions of the Bible will use one of these words and some will use the other one. I'm often asked to explain the difference between propitiation and expiation. The difficulty is that even though these words are in the Bible, we don't use them as part of our day-to-day vocabulary, so we aren't sure exactly what they are communicating in Scripture. We lack reference points in relation to these words. Expiation and Propitiation Let's think about what these words mean, then, beginning with the word expiation. The prefix ex means "out of" or "from," so expiation has to do with ...

When we talk about the vicarious aspect of the atonement, two rather technical words come up again and again: expiation and propitiation. These words spark all kinds of arguments about which one should be used to translate a particular Greek word , and some versions of the Bible will use one of these words and some will use the other one.  What is the difference between propitiation and expiation? The difficulty is that even though these words are in the Bible, we don't use them as part of our day-to-day vocabulary, so we aren't sure exactly what they are communicating in Scripture. We lack reference points in relation to these words. Expiation and Propitiation Let's think about what these words mean, then, beginning with the word expiation. The prefix exmeans "out of" or "from," so expiation has to do with removing something or taking something away. In biblical terms, it has to do with taking away guilt through the payment of a penalty or th...

Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) When we talk about the vicarious aspect of the atonement, two rather technical words come up again and again: expiation and propitiation. These words spark all kinds of arguments about which one should be used to translate a particular Greek word, and some versions of the Bible will use one of these words and some will use the other one.  What is the difference between propitiation and expiation . The difficulty is that even though these words are in the Bible, we don't use them as part of our day-to-day vocabulary, so we aren't sure exactly what they are communicating in Scripture. We lack reference points in relation to these words. Expiation and Propitiation Let's think about what these words mean, then, beginning with the word expiation. The prefix exmeans "out of" or "from," so expiation has to do with removing something or taking something away. In biblical terms, it has to do with taking away ...