By His Blood

About this sermon

Introduction: Last Sunday evening we said that we were answering three questions about propitiation. What is it? How was it accomplished? How is it applied? Last time we saw what propitiation is. It is a sacrifice that brings forgiveness of sins and turns away the wrath of God. John Owen noted four things that are present whenever you have propitiation. We have offenses We have someone offended We have offenders We have a sacrifice that atones for the offenses and turns away wrath We noted that our text, in context, has all four elements. Redemption was necessary because sins had to be paid for. God’s wrath is a reality introduced in chapter 1 verse 18. The wrath is against all ungodliness and unrighteousness found IN MEN. So, you have offenders. ESV Romans 1:18 For athe wrath of God bis revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. The question we come to today is: What does this verse teach us about that sacrifice? And specifically, we answer the second question. How was propitiation accomplished? HOW PROPITIATION WAS ACCOMPLISHED As we consider that question, there are three things that stand out from this statement. It was accomplished by God’s plan – God is the One who initiated this It was accomplished by God’s doing – God is the One who put Him forward It was accomplished by God’s Son And when we focus on the fact that God accomplished it by His Son, now we are thinking about Jesus as our sin sacrifice. JESUS AS A PROPITIATION One of the interesting discussions surrounding this passage has to do with this word translated “propitiation”, the word “hilasterion”. ἱλαστήριον One of the areas for discussion has to do with the fact that the word is also translated mercy seat. This is especially true in the Septuagint, but we also find this in the New Testament. ESV Hebrews 9:5 Above it were athe cherubim of glory overshadowing bthe mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. Are we meant to think of Jesus as mercy seat? Thomas Schreiner - Surely these are forceful arguments against identifying ἱλαστήριον with the mercy seat. Nonetheless, the objections can be successfully answered… in the vast majority of instances in the LXX, ἱλαστήριον denotes the mercy seat (Exod. 25:17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22; 31:7; 35:12; 38:5, 7, 8; Lev. 16:2, 13, 14, 15; Num. 7:89). To claim that ἱλαστήριον “must” refer to the mercy seat would be unwarranted. Nevertheless, since the term usually designates the mercy seat, the weight of the evidence inclines me to such an identification here. He is not saying that this is all that Paul has in mind as this word is used, but that it would not be wrong to think that God means to bring something about the mercy seat to mind when we think of the death of Jesus. MERCY SEAT The Mercy Seat was the place where the blood was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement under the Old Testament sacrificial system. You will remember that the high priest, once a year, would take a blood offering inside the veil, into the holy of holies and there, on the lid of the ark of the covenant, between the cherubim that faced each other, the blood would be sprinkled. The blood was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat. Sins were covered, and God’s wrath was averted. The Mercy Seat, then, was the place where man met with the mercy of God. It was the place where sin’s forgiveness was symbolically pictured and where wrath was turned away. Without question there is a sense in which Jesus is the Mercy Seat. He is the place where man meets with the mercy of God. He is the only way that sins can be forgiven, and that God’s wrath can be escaped. ESV John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ESV John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. What’s also important is what was under the Mercy Seat, inside the Ark of the Covenant. Inside was the testimony, the law of God. So that when the blood was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat it was symbolic of the fact that God, if only looking at the Law and man’s sins, must deal in a just anger toward those sins, but because of the sacrifice for those sins, now He could look upon the sacrifice and be satisfied. In the case of Jesus, it would not be done in private. It would not be done behind a veil.