Daily Thanksgiving: So Great a Salvation | Day 12 - Propitiation

The Payment of Our Salvation

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains
Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains
- William Cowper, “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood”

No merit of my own His anger to suppress,
My only hope is found in Jesus' righteousness
For me He died; For me He lives,
And everlasting life and light He freely gives.
- Norman J. Clayton, “My Hope is in The Lord

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you which received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved . . . For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, - 1 Corinthians 15:1, 3

Your blood has washed away my sin
Jesus, thank You
The Father’s wrath completely satisfied
Jesus, thank You
Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table
Jesus, thank You
- Sovereign Grace Music, “Jesus, Thank You”

Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live
- Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, “In Christ Alone”

We Sing About an Execution

Have you ever reflected and realized the shocking words and themes that we sing every Sunday morning? Think about the songs you sang with your local church recently. What did y’all sing about? Maybe your church is like mine and sings songs like we did recently with lyrics like these:

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

O precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow;
no other fount I know;
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
- Robert Lowry, “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus”

The Father willed to crush Him
As a sacrifice for sin;
He satisfied God’s justice
And in victory rose again
- Sovereign Grace Music, “Name Above All Names”

Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the just is satisfied
To look on him and pardon me
To look on him and pardon me
- Sovereign Grace Music, “Before the Throne of God Above”

Did you notice common themes that are repeated in these songs? We see emphasis on the cross, the shed blood of Jesus, Jesus as a sacrifice for sin, the satisfaction of God’s wrath, and forgiveness only found in Christ’s death. I could write this entire post with hymn and worship song lyrics as the list of songs with these themes are seemingly innumerable. This means that the reality of Jesus’ death on the cross is massively essential to Christianity—especially for our salvation.

But these lyrics are shocking to the unchurched ear. I mean think about it; imagine having no religious background and walking into a church, and you heard these songs belted out of the congregation’s mouths. Isn’t it strange at best and horrifying at worst to hear voices joyfully singing about blood, death, and sacrifice to pay for sins?¹

We Need Christ Alone, Our Bleeding Sacrifice

The word “Propitiation” means “the satisfaction and appeasement of God’s wrath.”² From reading this definition, you can already guess the presuppositions that are behind this theological statement. First, we see the reality of God’s wrath. Why would God be extremely angry and what is he angry at? Throughout this series of posts, we have unpacked our need for salvation which only God can provide and accomplish, but do you realize that God saving us from our bondage to sin isn’t just because sin is terrible? In Christ, God saves us from himself to bring us to himself. Why? God hates sin because it is ultimately rebellion against him, and thus he must completely punish sin. Paul states clearly that God’s wrath is revealed against all humanity’s ungodliness and unrighteousness because all suppress the truth and do not worship him (Rom. 1:18-23) and therefore deserve to die (Rom. 1:32) But this theme of God’s wrath isn’t mere “Pauline Theology.” Jesus talks about the final judgment in Matthew 25:46 where all who did not follow and obey him will go into eternal punishment and in Matthew 24:48–51, we see how those who are not faithful to him will experience “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Peter writes that the holy prophets of the Old Testament³ and the other apostles during his day warn us that those who question Jesus and scoff at God’s promises will experience God’s judgment and destruction of the ungodly (2 Pet. 3:1-7).

Second, what can satisfy God’s wrath against sinners like you and me so that we are not punished? Only Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, can satisfy God’s perfect wrath against sin so that we do not have to bear his wrath. There is nothing that we can do to atone or pay for the penalty for our sins “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). But how does Jesus satisfy, appease, and turn away God’s wrath? He does so by dying in our place. In fact, right after verse 23, we read “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Rom. 3:23-25). Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins so that by faith in Christ we are declared righteous before God. As Peter writes, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18).

Christ’s atoning work is why the Gospel is good news! The power of the cross is that by his death alone and his resurrection confirming his finished work there, we by faith in him and his work alone are freed from the penalty of our sin which is not just physical death but eternal damnation. As Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence write, “Jesus Christ is our substitute. He took our penalty. He was bound that we might be freed. He was condemned that we might be accepted. He was killed that we might live.”⁴

Here in the Death of Christ, I Live!

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul begins by saying that he wants to remind the Corinthian Christians of the gospel which is of first importance. What a huge claim he makes, and the first part of this gospel which he received that he wants to remind them (and us) is this:

“Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3)

The rhythm that the Christian’s heart beats is this reality. This is why you have new life. If Christ didn’t die in our place for our sins to take God’s wrath on our behalf, we are doomed. But . . .

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. - Isaiah 53:4-6

Because Christ has died for our sins, there is no fear of wrath to come for us from God. Instead of his enemies, we are now sons and daughters of God (adoption). Instead of feeling unworthy of love and needing to wallow in our sin and shame, we look at the cross and see that we are deeply loved by God. Instead of believing the accusations of Satan saying we are still condemned and never good enough, we can “give up on the idea of using [our] guilt as a form of penance and trust in Christ’s forgiveness”⁵ because “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). As one Reformer once said:

So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: "I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also! - Martin Luther

Furthermore, Christ’s death on the cross to pay for every sin not only grants us to stand righteous before God no matter what but also is the power by which we conquer our sins in our daily lives. In his sermon at the last Together for the Gospel conference, John Piper said something that brought fresh joy in my heart as I sat there in April 2022:

The only sin that you can conquer in life is a forgiven sin.
- John Piper

Because Christ died for our sins, you and I are now empowered to live in holiness and to kill sin in our lives. Peter states that Jesus “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” But why is that the case? How are we able to do so? Answer: “By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Pet. 2:24-25). Christ’s death has appeased the wrath of God so that you not only receive the forgiveness of all your sins but also the new identity and power as a holy saint to conquer sin.

In closing, I think it is fitting for us to meditate on two more hymns:

Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There's pow'r in the blood, pow'r in the blood;
Would you o'er evil a victory win?
There's wonderful pow'r in the blood.

There is pow'r, pow'r, wonder-working pow'r
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is pow'r, pow'r, wonder-working pow'r
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
- Lewis E. Jones, “Power in the Blood”

Oh to see my name written in the wounds
For through Your suff'ring I am free
Death is crushed to death life is mine to live
Won through Your selfless love

This the pow'r of the cross
Son of God slain for us
What a love what a cost
We stand forgiven at the cross
- Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, “The Power of the Cross”

Father, thank you so much for displaying your love for me by sending Jesus to die in my place. Because he was pierced for my transgressions, I no longer bear them. Because he was crushed for my sins, I don’t have to fear your wrath and condemnation. Because he rose again validating his death on the cross, I am completely forgiven by you and empowered by your Spirit to conquer sin in my life. Help me to remind myself again and again that Christ died for my sins and because of that I have strength every day to get up and live for you. It is in the power of Christ’s blood that I rest in, stand in, and live by.
In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

1. For an excellent resource on the topic of Penal Substitutionary Atonement, see The Heart of the Gospel: Penal Substitutionary Atonement : August 2019.

2. Christopher W. Morgan & Thomas R. Schreiner, Salvation, 176.

3. For an example of the Old Testament on the final judgment and wrath of God, see Isaiah 63-66 and Malachi 4.

4. Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence, It is Well: Expositions on Substitutionary Atonement, 125.

5. Robert McGee, The Search for Significance: Seeing Your True Worth through God’s Eyes (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 93.