The Doctrine of Propitiation
RO28-01

© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1975)
All of you know the parable in the Bible of the sower and the seed. As you know, the Lord used this parable to illustrate what the attitude of people would be toward the Word of God. He illustrated it through the example of four kinds of ground upon which the seed was sown. It's a very simple little parable, but it is one that I personally have seen in experience scores and scores of times in the preaching ministry. I have seen people go through these various stages of spiritual development. I've seen people come into contact with the living Word of God in a realistic and understandable form, and to be appalled and amazed that such a thing could exist. People say something to the effect of: "I just never heard anything like that in all my life. I just never heard the Bible that usefully presented. I just never realized that that was in the Word of God."

What they're saying is, "That's a whole different kind of Bible than I've ever had in my mind. When I read the Bible, it's something I don't understand. It's something way out there. It's something that doesn't make too much sense, or it's something that lives in the Middle Ages. And that's how the Bible is. But, man, when I see my boyfriend or my girlfriend, or when I go to earn a dollar, I don't even think about that. Yet, here you are – talking about the Bible as if I couldn't live without it, and as if my whole life was only going to function if I knew it," which is exactly the truth.

That was the point of the parable of the sower and the seed. Jesus was trying to get through our minds that there are a lot of hot shots who begin in the Christian life, and respond to the Word. And then, as I have seen many times, they cool off, and they get sidetracked; or, they really go forward to maturity, and then they break up.

The person behind all of this, of course, is Satan. This is his constant role of standing around to see how far he can destroy the life of a Christian, and how far he can get a Christian so entangled in the cares and the troubles and the problems of life, that the number one thing he needs (feeding his soul in the world of God, and Christian fellowship) just is the last thing he's interested in securing.

People have a spiritual IQ, or at least a spiritual capacity level, and they reach it. And I can't explain why some people's level is low; some is medium; and, some is way on up there at the peak – but they reach it, and that's where they phase out. I care not if they were grown up in a Christian home. I care not if they have had nothing but spiritual enlightenment all their lives. Some people can only go so far, and that's it. But you can go as far as you're ready and willing to go in developing your own spiritual IQ through the intake of the Word of God. But some people, for other factors within themselves, just don't have the capacity to go on.

The Parable of the Sower and the Seed

So, here's how the parable goes: "And He spoke many things unto them in parables, saying, 'Behold, a sower went forth to sow. And when he sowed, some of the seeds fell by the wayside, and the fouls came and devoured them." Some never get to first base. They hear the Word of God; they yawn; they walk out; and, that's it.

"Some fell upon stony places where they did not have much earth, and forthwith they sprang up because they had no deepness of earth." Some people come in callous, and they have a little bit of response to the Word of God. They're kind of interested. They're intellectuals. They're curious. And the word becomes a little bit of a fascinating point to them. Then they discover what it really is, and that's it.

"When the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no roots, it withered away." And I've seen these intellectuals. The fact is that I can almost spot them. These people have come in, and I've heard them say, "Now, that's the kind of preaching I like to hear." I happen to know enough about this person that he doesn't know good preaching from bad preaching. But I do know that something of his old sin nature was appealed to by that sermon, and he thought that he had something very wonderful.

"And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them." You have all those terrible problems you've come in here with today: the cares; the concern; the kids not acting right; the business going bad; the girlfriend cooling you; and, all these other things. Pretty soon the Word of God is choked out.

"And other seed fell into good ground and brought forth fruit: some, a hundredfold; some sixtyfold; and, some, thirtyfold."

Now get the punch line: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Some of you have ears to hear, so listen. Some of you perhaps just aren't ever going to have ears to hear, and no amount of exhortation for you to listen is going to amount to anything, or accomplish anything. However, today, for those of you that do have ears to hear, listen.

Please open your Bibles to Romans 3. We are looking at justification by faith. It is perhaps the greatest of all the doctrines in the Word of God. One of the sad things about people not having years to hear the Word of God is that we have in Christianity, in our day in the United States, fallen into a very low level of the capacity of people to be able to discuss the Bible. I hope by now that you thoroughly understand the doctrine of justification. I hope you can sit around at your house and talk about this subject with great intelligence; great insight; and, great perception. I hope that you can discuss this with your children, and your children can look at you like something less than third-grade dummies on a subject like this, and be able to intelligently declare it to you what the truth is. I hope you have trained your own family so that when they hear somebody who says something that violently contradicts the biblical doctrine of justification, a look of horror can come across their face, because they understand what the truth of this matter is.

I hope you understand thoroughly what redemption is all about, and that redemption has very specific connotations in your mind, because these are the greatest of all the doctrines of the Scripture. This is where it all begins. This is where our Christian life begins. This is the foundation stone. But because we are not hearers of the Word, we are incapable of being doers. We are not hearers of the Word sufficiently to be able to understand doctrines.

So, people don't want to hear doctrines. Preachers know that if they really sound off with doctrine, the congregation is going to be very small. Therefore, they prefer to have big congregations, and speak in generalities and in inspiration and challenge, so that they can enjoy the success of their ministries.

However, report card day is coming for both the preacher in the pulpit and for the people in the pew, as you well know. Someday at the Judgment Seat of Christ, all the records are going to be in, and we're going to see who was really doing the job, and who was really feeding the public what it wanted to hear.

Redemption

The redemption of sinners by Jesus Christ on the cross mentioned in these verses, Romans 3:24-26, has reference to the fact that Christ has secured freedom for all of us from the slave market of sin. For those who believe the gospel, this freedom is applied. All of us are born into the slave market of sin. Redemption simply means being bought out of it. We found that this secures forgiveness of sins for the believing sinner. We found that this redemption not only saves your soul, but somebody it's going to save your body too – transforming it into the perfect body of Jesus Christ. We found that the price of this redemption was the spiritual and physical death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

We also found that the Word of God uses Greek words that make it very clear that this redemption means that a price had to be paid for your freedom, and that you were brought out of the slave market, never to be returned again. And then, wonder of wonders, you were turned free. God gave you your freedom. And those are three magnificent words that you'll never find in an English translation. You'll only find them in the Greek. But when you read the English, you should know that that's what's there. Then you'll appreciate redemption. Then you'll stand in greater awe of the fact that, yes, you're a believer, and this redemption has been applied to you. But don't ever forget that you would never have believed it if it were left up to you. There's no reason in the world you would believe this. There's no reason in the world you would have accepted this redemption. The only reason you have accepted redemption is because God in His grace took hold of you and enabled you to believe it.

So, there were many people who follow Jesus. And when they discovered that He was not going to be the kind of physical provider of bread for them that they envisioned, they all left Him. Jesus, who was drawing the crowds by the thousands all over Palestine, found Himself with a few disciples, and that's all. He turned to them with that said remark, and said, "Are you going to leave me too?"

What was happening? Well, the Word had fallen upon this unfruitful soil. So, these people had all, one-by-one, left. Why? Because they had made a decision? Had the 12 stayed because they had made a decision? No, it was because the marvelous grace of God kept the 12, and did not keep the others. And that's why Jesus said to them at that time, "The reason you people don't believe me is because you have not been drawn by the Father. That's the reason you don't. The reason you listen and then walk away is because you do not have the capacity from God to be able to respond. The reason you are not saved is because God has not drawn you. The reason you do not make progress in the spiritual life (we can interpolate) is because God has not drawn you to that kind of level of living. I hope that's not the case for you. I hope that super grace is what God has for you. I think we're all fully capable of it. I think that is what God has for us. But for some reason, some are going to go on, and some are not. So, redemption is entered into by the fact that God has produced it and brought us into it.

Redemption is the basis for the justification of the believer which we've been reading about here. The one who trusts in Christ as Savior is baptized by the Holy Spirit immediately into Christ. Once you are in Christ, you share everything that He is. Therefore, you share His absolute righteousness. God's absolute righteousness is imputed to the believers account. So, the Father looks upon us now (in Christ), and seeing us in Christ, and seeing absolute righteousness imputed to us, the Father declares us justified. The Father, as judge, says that we're perfect. We're without moral guilt. We're not just forgiven. We're forgiven. That's what redemption did. Tie that together. But we are also justified. We also have the righteousness of Christ imputed to our account.

Justification

So, to be justified means not only are we forgiven, but that we do not have any moral guilt by God's evaluation. We literally never did a thing wrong. How do you like that? How many people are you ready to go around to and say, "My name is Sam Jones? I'm a very outstandingly unique and wonderful person because I've never done anything wrong." You'll make a big hit if you go around doing that. But the truth of the matter is that that's exactly what you are. You're Sam Jones who never did a thing wrong if you're a believer in Jesus Christ. That's your position. Your experience is something else, and we're going to straighten that out someday in heaven. But right now, that's our position.

Propitiation

This redemption also laid the groundwork for the next great doctrine. That is the great doctrine of propitiation. We began looking at this in the last session, and we found that there are three words that the Bible uses for this doctrine. We looked at the first one, which is "hilasterion." This is translated in Romans 3:25 here by the word "propitiation:" "Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood.

I don't know how long I went along as a teenager, and even as a young adult, and I kept hearing this word "propitiation." And somebody could have come up to me and said, "What does propitiation mean?" And I wouldn't have known what to say. The fact is that I was well into my first year of seminary before I ever stopped and thought to myself, "What in the world does propitiation me?" And I hope that will not be true of any of you. I hope that, for the youngest of you here today, I can come up and say, "What doe propitiation mean?" And you'll snap right back and say, "Satisfaction." You'll snap right back and say, "Appeasing wrath." You'll know exactly what it means. And then you'll know how to apply it relative to your own situation.

The Wrath of God is Very Real

Propitiation means that. It means an appeasing of a wrath. It means a capacity to divert wrath. God's perfect justice and His absolute righteousness brings forth His wrath against sinners who have violated His justice, and who have violated His righteousness. And the wrath of God is very real. Make no mistake about that. The liberals don't like this. The unbelievers reject the idea that God is a God of wrath. All the cults reject the idea that He's a God of wrath. They like to say, "No, God does not have to be propitiated. God is justice and righteous. God's wrath does not have to be diverted, because the only thing you're experiencing is just the normal consequences of violating God's rules. If you violate one of God's natural rules of physics, like touching a hot stove, you're going to suffer a consequence. That isn't because God is a God of wrath. That's just a natural consequence."

They are trying to remove the fact that God is a God who gets angry at sin and at evil. I will not take the time today, because you can research that under the word "wrath" yourself in the Bible, and you'll see that the Bible is full of the declaration that God is a God who gets angry at evil, and that he is a God of wrath, and that He is angry. He is a God who is indignant at the sinner for what he has done. And that's the situation in which we find ourselves. Every human being faces a God who is angry at him. God is angry because God is a God whose justice and righteousness demand that He exercise wrath.

In the work of redemption on the cross, Jesus Christ appeased the wrath of God against sinners; that is, He propitiated God's justice and God's righteousness. He satisfied the justice of God. How? Because He became a propitiatory sacrifice. Justice says that sin must be paid for with spiritual death. Jesus did. God's justice was satisfied. God's absolute righteousness says, "That there must be no evil. There must be no moral guilt upon an individual. Jesus, as a propitiatory sacrifice, was able now to remove all guilt, and give the sinner his righteousness. He gives us Christ's own righteousness. Therefore, that has been satisfied.

So, now there's no reason for God to be angry. It was only God's justice and absolute righteousness that created His wrath. Those problems have been solved, and that's what propitiation is all about. Therefore, God's wrath has been appeased.

Mercy Seat

This particular Greek word is used one more time in Hebrews 9:5. We saw that there it is translated as "mercy seat." Now, mercy seat here relates, of course, to the Old Testament mercy seat, which was the lid on the ark of the covenant. This was the only piece of furniture in the holy of holies – that one back room of the tabernacle, and later of the temple. And the ark of the covenant was a box which contained three symbols of man's sin: the tables of the law that God had written (the two tables of stone); the pot of manna; and, Aaron's rod that budded. All of these had been connected in Israel's history with rebellion against God's will. And these symbolized man's sin. Two angels were on top of the lid, which was on top of the box (the ark of the covenant), and which was called the mercy seat. One of the two angels represented the justice of God, and one represented the righteousness of God. These two angels looked down upon this lid. And on this mercy seat, through this lid, God could see man's sin.

The mercy seat, therefore, became the place where God's wrath had to be propitiated. So, with the Old Testament animal sacrifices, the blood was sprinkled on this seat once a year on the great day of atonement. Thus Israel received propitiation with God for one more year, 12 months at a time, until Christ came and did it once forever. It was symbolized with the animal blood.

So, the translation here in Hebrews 9:5 is a very fitting translation because it recognizes that Jesus Christ Himself came as the mercy seat. He Himself was sprinkled with His own blood as the sacrifice of God, so that His body becomes the place where God's wrath is propitiated.

So, in Hebrews 9:5, we read, "And over it the cherubim of glory, shadowing the mercy seat, of which we cannot now speak particularly." This is the same word "hilasterion," which is translated in Paul's letter as "propitiation." That is because the two are connected: "propitiation;" and, "mercy seat." There is where God symbolically was satisfied relative to His wrath.

So, in Romans 3:25, it is referring specifically to the sacrifice of propitiation; and, in Hebrews 9:5, to the place of propitiation.

There are two more words that deal with propitiation. The next one is another noun. It is the Greek word "hilasmos." This word is used in two places. It is used in 1 John 2:2. It also means "an appeasing." 1 John 2:2 reads: "And He (Jesus Christ) is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only." Please remember that 1 John is written to believers. This is a book to Christians. So, when it uses these personal pronouns like "ours," it's talking about we Christians.

"And He (Jesus Christ) is the propitiation (or the appeasement or the satisfaction) for our sins (we as Christians), and not for ours (we Christians only), but also for the sins of the whole world." There is a very tremendous statement. This statement tells us that not only did Christ provide satisfaction to God's wrath for the sins of those of us who believe the gospel accept it, but even for those who never will believe the gospel. The atonement was unlimited. It was for everybody. It includes even the people who go out of this life and say, "I don't want that." They reject the very provision that God has made.

God says, "I am no longer angry at you. My wrath is no longer moving in your direction. Christ has satisfied that. Yet, these people say, "I reject that. In some way, human will rejects the offer, but God's sovereignty has not drawn them. How the two are connected is not clear, but both are taught. We cannot go to one or the other without distorting Scripture.

This verse simply points out to us that Jesus Christ has appeased the wrath of God for us, and the wrath of God toward the whole world. The other verse is 1 John 4:10, which says, "Here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." You might think that it is because you love God so much, and that you went to God and said, "Oh, God, please. Please, God, provide a satisfaction. Do something to remove Your wrath. I've tried and I can't. Please be propitiated. You never would have thought of asking God to do that. You never would have cared to do that. It is God who draws you, and it is God who provided the propitiation.

As we saw, he did it for his own benefit first, not for your benefit. God propitiated Himself for His own benefit first, and then secondly for our benefit, because God wanted to have His love set free to be expressed toward us.

There is one thing I do want you to be careful, though, not to misunderstand, and that is that this word "appeasing" is suggesting that God is in some way an indifferent, bloodthirsty, vengeful deity. That's the pagan notion, and that's how the pagans use the word "propitiation." But that is not the New Testament way of propitiation. The pagans viewed propitiation as bribery. They had to bribe their gods to do something nice for them. But obviously, this is not the concept in Scripture. We are not bribing God. Propitiation is not to bribe God, because God Himself provides the payment, and a person does not bribe himself.

There is a verb also involved in the use of this doctrine of propitiation. It's the verb "hilaskomai." "Hilaskomai" is used two times. And with this verb you have all the words that are used in the Bible for the doctrine of propitiation. If you study through these six words, you've got the whole thing: the two with "hilasterion;" the two with "hilasmos;" and, now these two with "hilaskomai," the verb. This is used in Hebrews 2:17 and in Luke 18:13. Again, it means an appeasing. So, it is fittingly translated as "propitiating."

In Hebrews 2:17, it speaks of the work of Jesus Christ as our high priest. Jesus is our high priest, and as our high priest, He performs this work of propitiation. Hebrews 2:17 says, "Wherefore, in all things, it behooved Him to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people." If you have a King James Version translation, you will see that the word there is "reconciliation." That's the wrong word. It should be crossed out. I don't know why they ever put that word in there. The Greek has very clearly this word "hilaskomai," which only means "appeasement" or "propitiation." It is not the doctrine of reconciliation.

Jesus Christ, as our high priest, fulfills the role of being the one who makes propitiation for the sins of the people. So, the sins of the people here made it necessary for Jesus Christ to provide this particular service of propitiation. It is the sins of the Jewish people and of humanity. The priestly offering made by Jesus Christ on the cross has satisfied the holiness of God toward the sins of the world. Jesus was a qualified high priest, and God is now propitiated toward the sinners. That's what this first is saying. Jesus Christ came to make a once-for-all propitiation.

When Aaron walked into the holy of holies, he had just killed the bullock and taken the blood. The bullock was for his own sins. He walked in there, and sprinkled it on the mercy seat. He had little bells on the bottom of his long priestly robe, and the people stood outside. Their hearing the bells tinkle was very important, because that meant that the high priest had not been struck dead. He was very carefully warned: "If you pull this curtain back and walk into this place without this blood, you're dead. Without the blood of propitiation, you better not even come into this room. He did that. That cleared him for another year.

Then he went outside, and he took the goat. He killed the first goat; went through the ritual; and, took its blood. And once more, with the bells tinkling to the people outside listening, he walks in, and he sprinkles the blood on the mercy seat. This time it was for the sins of the people. Again, for a year, they are propitiated. He comes back out, and the nation rejoices. They have now had the wrath of God diverted from being expressed toward them for another 12-month period.

They finish the picture by going outside. There was a second goat, called the scapegoat. He laid his hands on that, symbolically placing the sins of the people which had now been propitiated for ritualistically within the holy of holies. Then they took kicked that goat and sent him out into the wilderness to disappear. This was symbolically saying that when God propitiates, your sins are gone forever. It's a beautiful picture. We can understand. We can look at it. We can enter into the beauties of what they were doing. They probably didn't really understand all the details, but that's what this verse is talking about here – how Jesus, as our high priest, performed that same ritual that Aaron and all the high priests after him did. But when Christ did it in a way such that, once-and-for-all, it was finished. There were no more goats, and there were no more scapegoats to be sent out into the wilderness, representing God's removal of sin from us.

One interesting place (the other verse where this is used) is Luke 18:13. I want you to understand this, so that if you hear some hotshot evangelist misuse this verse, you'll understand what the problem is, and you'll understand the distortion, and you'll not follow his confusion. In Luke 18:13, we have the story of the publican in the Pharisee: "And He spoke this parable unto certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others." He's talking to a group of sinful Pharisees who have their legal self-righteousness. We've already learned, in our study of the book of Philippians that Paul refers to this legal righteousness (this righteousness that was secured by keeping the ritual of the Law, of which Paul was the epitome example). Paul says, "I count that human excrement and animal garbage." That's how Paul viewed legal righteousness, because he knew what God thought of it.

"Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one, a Pharisee; and, the other, a tax collector." Another word for translating "tax collector" is publican: "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: 'God, I thank You that I'm not as other men are: extortioners; unjust; adulterers; and, even as this tax collector.'" He probably spit, at that point, in the tax collector's direction, right there on the temple floor. "'I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess.' And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner.' I tell you that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted."

The Pharisee went home without justification, while the tax collector found justification. Many times, in evangelistic meetings, this praise, "God be merciful to me, a sinner" in verse 13 is pulled out as the means for salvation. We've already learned in Romans that God says, "The technique (the means) for salvation is faith (believing). That's the key. That's the thing that God calls upon you to do. It is through faith in Christ (believing the gospel), and nothing else. But we're real upbeat now in the religious world, in the evangelical community. So, we come up with these phrases like "Inviting Christ into your heart," as if Jesus Christ were like some stray cat that has wandered up to your doorstep, and he's just sitting there waiting for you to open the door and say, "Come in, kitty, kitty, kitty." That is blasphemous, and it has nothing to do with what the Bible presents as the means of salvation, which is trusting in Christ as Savior (which is believing the gospel).

Another hotshot technique that evangelists often use is to take this phrase and say, "Now, if you want to be saved, repeat this phrase: 'God be merciful to me, a sinner.'" There used to be a very famous evangelist out on the West Coast, had a very effective ministry. And he was a good evangelist. And many were saved under him in spite of his misuse of Scripture. He would always end the service and say, "Now, those of you who want to be saved, I want to say, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner. Repeat this: God be merciful to me, a sinner.' And then raise your hand" (that was step number two). And then he would say, "And I'll pray for you (step three). Then God will come into the picture" (step four). He didn't say, "Step, step, step" like that, but that's what it implied.

Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer of Dallas Seminary, one day, was driving along with this man, and he said, "I appreciate the ministry that you have, and God is obviously using you, and He uses you as He does all of us, in spite of ourselves. But I think you should know that what you ask people to do is insulting to God." The evangelist said, "What do I ask them to do?" Dr. Chafer said, "You ask people to ask God to be merciful to them, and that's an insult to God, because you don't understand what that Scripture really is saying. And what the Scripture really is saying is not 'God be merciful to me, a sinner,' but 'God be propitiated.'" It's one of these words for "propitiation" that's in this text: "God be propitiated toward me, a sinner."

What this man in the temple was doing was bowing his head and saying, "God, please, toward me, have your wrath diverted." And while he was standing there, he was probably thinking about the mercy seat nearby, where that wrath of God was diverted.

Now, here's the situation. He knew that God's wrath was symbolically appeased by the animal blood which was sprinkle on the mercy seat. This symbolized the fact that Christ was going to come to pay for the sins of the world, and that Christ was going to come to propitiate the wrath of God. As of this point in time, God's wrath had not been propitiated. God's wrath was fully there in full expression.

Now, the Publican's prayer called upon God to supply a sacrifice for sin which would propitiate God told him as a sinner so that he would be able to pronounce the tax collector justified. This word is a verb. Its aorist passive imperative. The imperative tells us that this is a command. You might say, "Well, that's strange. He's commanded God to be propitiated toward him. He's commanding God to remove His wrath. But this is the way the imperative (the command mood) is sometimes used in the Greek Bible. It's what is called an imperative entreaty. Sometimes imperative means, "I'm telling you to do something," but you can exercise your will in another way, which is what's involved in imperative. It is the exercise of will against will. Here it is entreaty. What this man was doing was using the command form in terms of pleading with God. He was pleading with God to have his wrath removed.

That's what the evangelist was telling people to do: "If you want to be saved, plead with God that His wrath against you will be appeased. Plead with God that His wrath against you will be removed." Well, I think you've already seen what the problem is. The problem here is that the wrath of God has already been appeased. The wrath of God has already been removed. The man was very wise to speak in the passive voice. It's not something that he could do. It's something that God had to do. This man knew what his situation was. And he knew that, at some point in time (he used the aorist tense), God needs to do something to make appeasement for my sins.

Kenneth Wiest, in his expanded translation of the New Testament puts it this way (which I think is very good): "Oh, God, justify me, the sinner, upon the basis of an expiatory sacrifice which satisfies the demands of divine justice, and makes possible the just "pistole" of righteousness on the basis of justice satisfied." Before the cross, God's holiness had not been satisfied. God had not been propitiated. And it was a very fitting prayer for that tax collector to stand up there and say, "Oh, God, be propitiated toward me, a sinner."

However, that is a very improper prayer to suggest to anybody to pray today, because God is now kindly disposed toward us all. He has been propitiated, and no one is saved by pleading with God to be appeased toward himself. No one is saved by quoting the Publicans words, especially in King James English: "God be merciful to me, a sinner." He is trying to coax God to be propitiated. No one is saved by agonizing, in some kind of a prayer, to wring justification out of God. No one is saved by any kind of record of good conduct to offset the divine wrath against evil. That's what the Pharisee was trying to do. Even our human good is from the old sin nature, so it's evil. No one is saved by confessing his sins in order to appease divine wrath.

A person is saved only because he recognizes that God is propitiated; that God's wrath has been appeased; and, that God now is kindly disposed toward him. Then that person receives Christ as Savior. He believes the testimony of God given in the gospel – that Christ has paid for his sins. He believes God, and in that moment, he is born-again. And that's the only way anybody is ever saved.

So, the Father's justice and righteousness have been fully satisfied for the sins of the world. That's what we read in 1 John 2:2. But it is true that each of us must now accept what He has provided, and that's what John 3:16 tells us to do. It's whosoever will receive it. And I also know that those who receive it are those that God draws. But I also know that God says that: "It's whosoever will" receive it. Those who receive Christ are those who are authorized to become the Sons of God.

So, our responsibility is there, and God's movement is also there. Somehow the two together at the cross, and this action becomes real. But God today is propitiated. The Pharisee tried to meet God's justice and righteousness in the old pagan way of trying to appease the deity with his human good works. The Publican sought salvation by looking to God's own propitiation that His only holiness demanded of Him.

So, the ungodly publican went to his house justified before God, while the good-works Pharisee went home condemned.