Doctrines of Propitiation; Unlimited Atonement; 1 John 2:2

 

1 John 2:2 NASB “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for {those of} the whole world.” John emphasises the fact that it is Jesus Christ Himself. The use of the reflexive pronoun there is to give emphasis to the person of Jesus Christ: that it is He who is the propitiation for our sins—not just His work on the cross but it is Christ Himself who is the propitiation. He was the propitiatory sacrifice. This introduces a couple of extremely crucial doctrines to understand the person and work of Jesus Christ.

 

The doctrine of propitiation

 

  1. Definition: Propitiation is that aspect of the saving work of God through the substitutionary spiritual death of Jesus Christ on the cross whereby the justice and righteousness of God are satisfied concerning the sins of mankind. Satisfaction is the key word. This is seen in two other verses. Romans 3:25 NASB “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in [by means of] His blood through faith. {This was} to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed.” The shedding of blood throughout Scripture is used to emphasise death. Hebrews 2:17 NASB “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” So Jesus Christ is the one who propitiates God.
  2. A key word we have to look at is hilasmos [i(lasmoj]. It means propitiation or satisfaction and it translates the Hebrew word in the Old Testament, kapporeth, from the verb kaphar which means to atone. Kapporeth is a noun, and it is a fascinating noun because it refers to a specific location and that is the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant was a box made of acacia wood which was overlaid with gold and it had a lid, on top of which were two gold cherubim which looked down to the centre point on the lid. That place was called the mercy seat because that was where the high priest of the day of atonement brought the blood to indicate the sacrifice done the nation Israel. Exodus 25:17 NASB “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide. [18] You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. [19] Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim {of one piece} with the mercy seat at its two ends. [20] The cherubim shall have {their} wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be {turned} toward the mercy seat. [21] You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you.” Inside the ark were three objects: the Ten Commandments, showing that Israel had broken God’s standards; Aaron’s rod which had budded. And the purpose for that was that the Israelites had rebelled against the Aaronic priesthood, and God was showing that Aaron was the chosen one by causing Aaron’s staff to bud; manna, because God had provided physical sustenance for them and they had rejected and rebelled against that because they wanted tastier food and wanted to go back to the garlic and leeks of Egypt. These were placed in the box to indicate their sinfulness. Over the top of that was the mercy indicating that God is going to deal with the sin and cover the sin of Israel. The two cherubs represented the righteousness and justice of God and they looked down on the shed blood on the mercy seat. The picture there is that the holiness of God, His righteousness and justice, is satisfied by the sacrifice. The sacrifice, then, has covered and paid the price the sins. So this is a tremendous visual teaching us about what would happen at the cross.
  3. Propitiation is then related to the work of Christ on the cross. The death of Christ covered or paid for our sins, satisfying the righteousness and justice of God. Leviticus 16:13-16.
  4. Propitiation is then appropriated to the believer by faith in Christ and is the basis for the imputation of divine righteousness. Propitiation occurred at the cross. God’s righteousness and justice were actually satisfied on the cross for every single believer. So the barrier is removed at the cross. But there is a problem. Man has three problems at least to keep him out of heaven. Problem # 1 is sin and the sin penalty. There has to be a death for that sin. Problem # 2 is that man is minus life. He does not have the life of God. Problem # 3 is that man is minus righteousness. When Jesus Christ died on the cross as our substitute He paid the sin penalty, 2 Corinthians 5:17. On the cross Jesus remained perfectly righteous but all of man’s sins are poured out on Him. That takes care of the sin penalty. The problem is that man still lacks righteousness. Somehow we have to receive +R, so at the instant of faith alone in Christ alone God credits to our account the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is called imputation. Now we possess perfect righteousness so that when God’s righteousness looks at us He approves of us. The justice of God is then free to bless us. God declares us to be just (justification) and then He imputes to us eternal life, so that by faith alone in Christ alone we receive the imputation of +R and the imputation of His eternal life. The result is that we can now be saved and can spend eternity in heaven. But because Christ paid the penalty for sin, sin is no longer the issue; all sins have been paid for. That point is important to understand the doctrine of unlimited atonement.
  5. Propitiation resolves the problem of the demands of God’s righteousness and justice. He is always propitiated so that those demands are always met for all time and eternity, therefore our sins, even post-salvation sins, are no longer an issue.

 

1 John 2:2 NASB “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins…” First person plural, referring primarily to John, it is an editorial “we”; secondarily it refers to his apostolic partners, and then by application we can see that it applies to us. Then he says, “and not for ours only, but also for {those of} the whole world.” The way it is constructed is for emphasis. He is the propitiation for our sins. If we are believers Christ has been propitiated, but it is not just for our sins, it is also for the sins of the whole world. What does he mean by the whole world?

 

1 John 5:4 NASB “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” That shows a distinction: who we are and the world. We have to see that John makes the distinction that the world is not the elect. The idea that the world refers only to the elect is totally contrary to John’s use of the word world.

 

1 John 4:1 NASB “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Notice the world is set apart as something distinct, it is not where the believer is, it is in opposition to the believer. [2] “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; [3] and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the {spirit} of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” The world is something outside of the realm of where the believer should be. So for John, world is not the world of the believer.

 

So back to 1 John 2:2 NASB “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for {those of} the whole world.” So there is a juxtaposition here between the believer and the world. John carries that all through the epistle. The words “for” in this verse translate the Greek preposition peri [peri]. Normally what we find in constructs like this is the Greek preposition huper [u(per], clearly the preposition of substitution. But peri can mean concerning sin, and it can also have the idea of substitution and is virtually a synonym for huper. Ardnt and Gingrich: When used with hamartia [a(martia], which it is in this case, the word “for” (peri) has the sense of to take away, to atone for, and emphasises substitution. Kittle in his Theological Dictionary says: “To some degree the distinction between peri and huper fades in the Hellenistic period, and the result is that peri with the genitive can be used in the sense of on behalf of or as a substitution for, and this is particularly common in the epistles.” So the thrust here is substitution: “He Himself is a propitiation as a substitute for our sins; and not as a substitute for ours only, but also as a substitute for the whole world.”

 

The doctrine of unlimited atonement

 

  1. Definition: The judgment of Christ on the cross as a substitute for every sin committed in human history by every member of the human race. But just because the penalty is paid for doesn’t mean they go to heaven. They still don’t have eternal life and they still lack perfect righteousness. But sin is actually and truly paid for; this is the emphasis in unlimited atonement. The work of Christ made salvation available to all but did not actually assure the salvation of anyone. Only those who express faith alone in Christ alone are eternally saved.
  2. Historical background to this doctrine. There are people who believe in something called limited atonement, sometimes called limited redemption. It means that Christ’s death was only for the elect and that Christ did not die for the unbeliever. This is part of a system called Calvinism. John Calvin did not hold to this, it was a system developed by his successors, specifically by Beza who systematised Calvin’s theology after his death. Around 1610 there was a man by the name of Jacob Arminius who taught theology in Holland and he could not go along with extreme Calvinism because there wasn’t enough room there for individual volition, responsibility and freedom of choice in relation to salvation. So he began to teach a theological system which emphasised human responsibility and free will. His followers set forth five points which emphasised that every human being has the ability live a perfect life, to please God by his works, that election was conditional on what man did, that Christ died for everyone—unlimited atonement. They believed that grace was resistible and that salvation was losable. They did not believe in eternal security. In response to their five points the Calvinists reacted with their five points that have come to be known through the acronym TULIP. T = total depravity, total inability; U = unconditional election; L = limited atonement; I = irresistible grace; P = perseverance of the saints (nothing more than Lordship salvation).
  3. 1 Peter 2:24 emphasises the reality of Christ’s substitution. NASB “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” Romans 5:8 NASB “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died [as a substitute: u(per + genitive] for us.” 1 Corinthians 11:24 NASB “and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you [u(per + genitive]; do this in remembrance of Me’.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 NASB “He made Him who knew no sin {to be} sin on our behalf [u(per + genitive], so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
  4. There are several key passages in Scripture that Christ clearly state that Christ died for all, not the least of which is John 3:16 NASB “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Acts 10:43 NASB “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins”—subjunctive mood: anyone who might believe; it is open to all. 1 Timothy 2:6 NASB “who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony {given} at the proper time.” 1 Timothy 4”10 NASB “For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.” Notice, believers are a sub-category of all men. 2 Corinthians 5:14 NASB “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died.” So the issue now isn’t sin, the issue is whether or not you possess the life of God, eternal life, and the righteousness of God, and that comes at the instant of faith alone in Christ alone.