Miles McKee Ministries
PO Box 541, Kingston Springs, TN 37082
Propitiation Part 3 ( by Miles McKee).
THE WRATH OF GOD
THE WRATH OF GOD
Furthermore to fully understand Propitiation we must consider and come to terms with this business of the wrath of God.
A study of the tabernacle and its sacrifices is a fruitful exercise to help understand the realities of the wrath of God, the Gospel and the work of Jesus Christ. Briefly, there were five tabernacle sacrifices; the burnt-offering, the meat-offering, the peace-offering, the sin-offering and the trespass-offering. In each of these offerings we see the central role of fire. Horatius Bonar, in his classic work, “The Everlasting Righteousness tells us that,
A study of the tabernacle and its sacrifices is a fruitful exercise to help understand the realities of the wrath of God, the Gospel and the work of Jesus Christ. Briefly, there were five tabernacle sacrifices; the burnt-
“This fire pictures the holy wrath of the Judge consuming the victim slain in the sinner's stead. In the ashes we have the proof that the wrath had spent itself, that the penalty was paid, that the work was done. "It is finished," was the voice of the ashes on the altar.
He further states:
“In all this we see such things as the following: (1) God's displeasure against sin; (2) that displeasure exhausted in a righteous way; (3) the substitute presented and accepted; (4) the substitute slain and consumed; (5) the transference of the wrath from the sinner to his representative; (6) God resting in His love over the sinner, and viewing him in the perfection of his substitute; (7) the sinner reconciled, accepted, complete, enjoying God's favour, and feeding at His table on that on which God had fed; on that which had come from the altar, and had passed through the fire.”
Although, nowhere in the scriptures does God ever conceal that He has wrath, nowadays we don’t like to talk much about it. It’s certainly not a crowd pleaser (or builder for that matter). Of course we are all familiar with the flood, God’s destruction of the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorra and the Divine command to wipe out the Canaanites ....men, women, children and all. But we tend to think of those deeds much in the same manner as the young Sunday School boy who thought the acts of God in the Old Testament were the acts of God before He got saved. Yet God plainly says, “See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand. For I lift up My hand to heaven, and say, I live forever, If I whet My glittering sword, and Mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to Mine enemies, and will reward them that hate Me" (Deut. 32:39-41).
Although, nowhere in the scriptures does God ever conceal that He has wrath, nowadays we don’t like to talk much about it. It’s certainly not a crowd pleaser (or builder for that matter). Of course we are all familiar with the flood, God’s destruction of the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorra and the Divine command to wipe out the Canaanites ....men, women, children and all. But we tend to think of those deeds much in the same manner as the young Sunday School boy who thought the acts of God in the Old Testament were the acts of God before He got saved. Yet God plainly says, “See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand. For I lift up My hand to heaven, and say, I live forever, If I whet My glittering sword, and Mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to Mine enemies, and will reward them that hate Me" (Deut. 32:39-
In fact, Arthur Pink observes, “A study of the concordance will show that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God, than there are to His love and tenderness. Because God is holy, He hates all sin; and because He hates all sin, His anger burns against the sinner: Psalm 7:11.”
A PLEASANT LITTLE GOD?
But, many of today’s Christians don’t like the thought of a God who might be angry. That’s an embarrassing concept. We want a pleasant little God whom we can contain. A wrathful God sounds like He may be a little bit out of control. We want a God we can present to our friends and take home for tea. We want a God who gets in no one’s way and doesn’t interfere. We want a civilized God who is well mannered. We want a jovial sort of fellow who’s always on call to cater to our whims. We want God, the rich and generous Uncle. We don’t even mind a God who potters around in His workshop creating an occasional universe. But at all costs, whatever you do, don’t let Him ascend to His Throne. Don’t let Him go to ruling and making decrees. Don’t let Him start imposing His standards and His ways of Holiness. We want our God..... our very own God....................... but not necessarily the God of the Bible!
Someone once astutely remarked, “God made man in His image and man returned the favor.” How true! And this is exactly what man has done throughout history and the Lord confirms this for He says, "You thought that I was altogether as thyself" (Ps. 50:21).
To create our own God is understandable. After all, a tailor made God is somehow safer than a God upon whom we can place no restrictions. It’s nicer and more comfortable to present a God who just loves everyone, is never offended and will take no one to task. Perish the thought that He might be angry at sinners. How sad!!! How old fashioned......how unpleasant! People, after all, feel badly enough about themselves without us telling them distasteful things about the wrath of God.
Someone once astutely remarked, “God made man in His image and man returned the favor.” How true! And this is exactly what man has done throughout history and the Lord confirms this for He says, "You thought that I was altogether as thyself" (Ps. 50:21).
To create our own God is understandable. After all, a tailor made God is somehow safer than a God upon whom we can place no restrictions. It’s nicer and more comfortable to present a God who just loves everyone, is never offended and will take no one to task. Perish the thought that He might be angry at sinners. How sad!!! How old fashioned......how unpleasant! People, after all, feel badly enough about themselves without us telling them distasteful things about the wrath of God.
NO WRATH NO BIBLE!!!!!!
Yet the truth is, if we take the Wrath of God out of the Word of God we have no Bible. The Old Testament alone has 20 different words to describe the wrath of God and uses them more than 580 times to explain and declare this matter. And when we come to the New Testament, we find The Lord Christ warning the religious hypocrites, “ye shall receive the greater damnation (Matt. 23: 14). Listen to Him again as He thunders, “Ye serpents ye generation of vipers how can ye escape the damnation of hell.” (Matt. 23: 33). And who can fail to shudder when Jesus prophesies the fate of the damned with these chilling words “Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angles” (Matt 25:41).
John is often called the apostle of love but just 20 verses after we are given the news that “God so loved the world” we are told “he that believes not the son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).
When we come to the Book of Acts we find Paul speaking of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come (Acts 24:25). In Romans, God’s wrath is presented at least 8 times (1:18, 2:5, 2:8, 4:15, 5:9, 9:22 ). Ephesians tells us that when we were unsaved we “were by nature children of wrath” (Eph.2:3)
On and on it goes, verse after verse and passage after passage. So let me say again, to deny or dilute the idea of the wrath of God is to re-write the Bible. We may not like this idea of wrath but to deny it is to move away from God’s revelation of Himself into a philosophy of God made by man. It is this immovable and unchangeable fact of wrath that cries out for a propitiation.
Robert Haldane, the Scottish theologian and preacher of another generation comments on this theme saying,
“The same creation which declares that there is a God, and publishes His glory, also proclaims that He is the Enemy of sin and the Avenger of the crimes of men . . . But above all, the wrath of God was revealed from heaven when the Son of God came down to manifest the Divine character, and when that wrath was displayed in His sufferings and death, in a manner more awful than by all the tokens God had before given of His displeasure against sin. Besides this, the future and eternal punishment of the wicked is now declared in terms more solemn and explicit than formerly. Under the new dispensation there are two revelations given from heaven, one of wrath, the other of grace.”
John is often called the apostle of love but just 20 verses after we are given the news that “God so loved the world” we are told “he that believes not the son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).
When we come to the Book of Acts we find Paul speaking of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come (Acts 24:25). In Romans, God’s wrath is presented at least 8 times (1:18, 2:5, 2:8, 4:15, 5:9, 9:22 ). Ephesians tells us that when we were unsaved we “were by nature children of wrath” (Eph.2:3)
On and on it goes, verse after verse and passage after passage. So let me say again, to deny or dilute the idea of the wrath of God is to re-
Robert Haldane, the Scottish theologian and preacher of another generation comments on this theme saying,
“The same creation which declares that there is a God, and publishes His glory, also proclaims that He is the Enemy of sin and the Avenger of the crimes of men . . . But above all, the wrath of God was revealed from heaven when the Son of God came down to manifest the Divine character, and when that wrath was displayed in His sufferings and death, in a manner more awful than by all the tokens God had before given of His displeasure against sin. Besides this, the future and eternal punishment of the wicked is now declared in terms more solemn and explicit than formerly. Under the new dispensation there are two revelations given from heaven, one of wrath, the other of grace.”
MAKING SENSE OF PROPITIATION
It is only in the light of the wrath of God that propitiation makes any sense. God must be appeased. He was offended at man and his sin. Remember this, sin was and is an offense and attack on His character of holiness. God is said to, “hate all workers of iniquity” (Ps. 5:5) and to be “angry with the wicked everyday” (Ps. 7:11). Now I’ll be the first to admit that neither of those scriptures make good copy for bumper stickers but, then again, since when has the true and living God ever entered Himself into any popularity contests!
God, because of who He is, can do nothing other than punish sin! He is the Holy and Just God whose, “wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18).
His wrath, however, doesn’t mean that He’s unbridled, erratic and unrestrained in His anger. Nor does the wrath of God mean that He lashes out at any given moment without so much as a 5-minute warning. No, by no means no!!! Wrath in no way makes God a monster. On the contrary it shows His goodness, for how could a good God ignore sin! His wrath means, not that He’s unbalanced, but that His character demands a just and righteous punishment of offending sin. Martyn Lloyd Jones goes as far as to describe wrath as, “God’s settled opposition, arising out of His very nature, to all that is evil”. And that’s an excellent definition upon which we will not try to improve.
God, because of who He is, can do nothing other than punish sin! He is the Holy and Just God whose, “wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18).
His wrath, however, doesn’t mean that He’s unbridled, erratic and unrestrained in His anger. Nor does the wrath of God mean that He lashes out at any given moment without so much as a 5-
THE SINNER AND HIS SIN
It is tempting to think that God makes a distinction between the unbelieving sinner and his sin. But this simply is not the case. We can’t just package sin and say it’s some sort of substance which is separate from the sinner. Certainly not! Sin is the virus of death which has invaded and saturated the human condition. The only thing it produces is sins and thus we are separated from God (Isa.59:1-2). God doesn’t just take sin, put it into Hell and punish it, apart from the sinner. It’s not just the sin which will go to the Lake of Fire, it’s the unbelieving sinner. All of us have sinned and are by nature sinners. As such we should stand in the line of fire of the wrath of God. But the good news is that God’s wrath has been appeased. In Christ Jesus, God found a propitiatory sacrifice which took away His wrath. As our High Priest, the Lord Jesus offered Himself as a propitiation for our sins. He exhausted the wrath of God on behalf of His people. The very offense of sin is now removed at the cross of Calvary for those who believe.
HOW IS IT DONE?
Some critics of propitiation say that it is a semi-pagan notion which has no real place in enlightened Christianity. Of course, it is true that in the ancient world the pagans would bring a propitiatory offering to appease their gods and by this they thought to persuade their deities to change their mind. But this is nothing whatsoever to do with the Bible truth of propitiation. Propitiation does not make God change his mind. God does not have to be persuaded to be gracious. He is gracious by nature. It was God himself who “set forth” (publicly displayed, placarded) Christ as a propitiation (Rom 3:25). It was the Father’s idea to pour out His wrath on Christ and punish Him in the sinner’s stead. Now because of this great propitiation God can reconcile sinners to Himself and show Himself merciful to all who come to Him by Christ.
JUST BECAUSE IT’S NEW IT DOESN’T MEAN ITS TRUE!
As we have said, if you take the idea of wrath out of the Bible you have no Bible and therefore no doctrine of propitiation. As already mentioned, some of the new Bible versions have removed the idea of propitiation from their pages altogether. In Rom.3:35, they talk of the cross as an, “expiation” i.e. a removal of sin. It is of course a removal of sin but it is much more, it is a propitiation, a removal of wrath. Or they change the word propitiation to atonement. Of course the cross is an atonement (a covering of sin) but it is much more than an atonement, it is a wrath offering which removes the offense of sin. It is a propitiatory sacrifice.
Do away with the doctrine of propitiation and you weaken the idea of the wrath of God. Remove the wrath of God and you will line up with the ancient Greeks who thought of wrath as an unworthy quality for man never mind for God. Change who God is and you become an idolater. You, in fact, create your very own pet Deity who is compatible with your own idea of what you think God ought to be. But, if we do not receive Him for who He is and feel we need to create the new and improved God, how can we possibly say we love Him?
Do away with the doctrine of propitiation and you weaken the idea of the wrath of God. Remove the wrath of God and you will line up with the ancient Greeks who thought of wrath as an unworthy quality for man never mind for God. Change who God is and you become an idolater. You, in fact, create your very own pet Deity who is compatible with your own idea of what you think God ought to be. But, if we do not receive Him for who He is and feel we need to create the new and improved God, how can we possibly say we love Him?
NEW MERCIES
In conclusion Christ has been set forth as a propitiation for us. On behalf of His people, He endured and exhausted the wrath of an outraged God. This is why Christ alone is our hope. He alone had the wrath due to us poured in torrents of anger upon his lovely person. No church absorbed this wrath so no church can be our savior. Faith did not absorb this wrath so faith can not be our sin-bearer. It was the suffering savior, the man of sorrows, who stepped into our shoes. Wrath against the believer is now exhausted. The propitiation has been made. Nothing can be added to or taken away from the perfection of that sacrifice. May we never forget that we are "saved from wrath through Him" (Rom 5:9).
On Christ Jesus absorbing the wrath which was due to us, Spurgeon says,
“He (Jesus) suffered all the horror of hell; in one pelting shower of iron wrath it fell upon him, with hail-stones bigger than a talent; and he stood until the black cloud had emptied itself completely. There was our debt, huge and immense; he paid the utmost farthing of whatever his people owed; and now there is not so much as a cent or a farthing due to the justice of God in the way of punishment from any believer; and though we owe God gratitude, though we owe much to his love, we owe nothing to his justice; for Christ in that hour took all our sins, past, present, and to come, and was punished for them all there and then, that we might never be punished, because he suffered in our stead.
Furthermore, in his classic, “The Everlasting Righteousness,” Horatius Bonar tells us that at the cross,
“-------- the whole burden pressed upon Him, and the wrath of God took hold of Him, and the sword of Jehovah smote Him; He poured out His soul unto death, and He was cut off out of the land of the living.
Then the work was done. "It is finished." The blood of the burnt-offering was shed. The propitiation was made; the transgression finished; and the everlasting righteousness brought in.
Each day we now have the privilege to meet with God at the mercy seat for, “ His mercies are new every morning” (Lam 3:22-23). We can be just like that poor old publican for, though we are all law breakers by nature, we can, by faith, reach out each day, or more correctly any moment of the day, and receive His tender mercies.
But just as in days of old we must approach Him in His appointed way and place. Christ is the way and Christ is the meeting place. We no longer have to bring the blood of a sacrificed animal: but we, by faith, bring the shed blood of our substitute the Lord Jesus Christ. He is now for us, not only the one who died in our place but also, in a very real sense, our Mercy Seat and meeting place with the Father. He and He alone, is the one who has absorbed the wrath of God and removed the offense of our sin. He is the propitiation for our sins.
Furthermore, in his classic, “The Everlasting Righteousness,” Horatius Bonar tells us that at the cross,
“-
Then the work was done. "It is finished." The blood of the burnt-
Each day we now have the privilege to meet with God at the mercy seat for, “ His mercies are new every morning” (Lam 3:22-
But just as in days of old we must approach Him in His appointed way and place. Christ is the way and Christ is the meeting place. We no longer have to bring the blood of a sacrificed animal: but we, by faith, bring the shed blood of our substitute the Lord Jesus Christ. He is now for us, not only the one who died in our place but also, in a very real sense, our Mercy Seat and meeting place with the Father. He and He alone, is the one who has absorbed the wrath of God and removed the offense of our sin. He is the propitiation for our sins.
From whence this fear and unbelief?
Hast Thou, O Father, put to grief
Thy spotless Son for me?
And will the righteous Judge of men
Condemn me for that debt of sin
Which, Lord, was laid on Thee?
If Thou hast my discharge procured,
And freely in my place endured
The whole of wrath Divine;
Payment God cannot twice demand
First at my bleeding Surety’s hand,
And then again at mine.
Complete atonement Thou hast made,
And to the utmost farthing paid,
What e’er Thy people owed;
How then can wrath on me take place,
If sheltered in Thy righteousness,
And sprinkled with Thy blood?
Turn, then, my soul, unto thy rest,
The merits of thy great High Priest
Speak peace and liberty.
Trust in His efficacious blood,
Nor fear thy banishment from God,
Since Jesus died for thee.
Hast Thou, O Father, put to grief
Thy spotless Son for me?
And will the righteous Judge of men
Condemn me for that debt of sin
Which, Lord, was laid on Thee?
If Thou hast my discharge procured,
And freely in my place endured
The whole of wrath Divine;
Payment God cannot twice demand
First at my bleeding Surety’s hand,
And then again at mine.
Complete atonement Thou hast made,
And to the utmost farthing paid,
What e’er Thy people owed;
How then can wrath on me take place,
If sheltered in Thy righteousness,
And sprinkled with Thy blood?
Turn, then, my soul, unto thy rest,
The merits of thy great High Priest
Speak peace and liberty.
Trust in His efficacious blood,
Nor fear thy banishment from God,
Since Jesus died for thee.
Augustus Toplady
Listen once more to our scripture and take time to meditate upon it. Perhaps now in the light of what we have just discussed it will make more sense.
“ 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” Rom. 3:25.
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“A study of the concordance will show that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God, than there are to His love and tenderness. Because God is holy, He hates all sin; and because He hates all sin, His anger burns against the sinner: Psalm 7:11.”
A. W. Pink
Many of today’s Christians don’t like the thought of a God who might be angry. That’s an embarrassing concept. We want a pleasant little God whom we can contain. A wrathful God sounds like He may be a little bit out of control. We want a God we can present to our friends and take home for tea. We want a God who gets in no one’s way and doesn’t interfere.
It is only in the light of the wrath of God that propitiation makes any sense. God must be appeased. He was offended at man and his sin. Remember this, sin was and is an offense and attack on His character of holiness. God is said to, “hate all workers of iniquity” (Ps.5:5) and to be “angry with the wicked everyday” (Ps.7:11). Now I’ll be the first to admit that neither of those scriptures make good copy for bumper stickers but, then again, since when has the true and living God ever entered into any popularity contests!
His wrath, however, doesn’t mean that He’s unbridled, erratic and unrestrained in His anger. Nor does the wrath of God mean that He lashes out at any given moment without so much as a 5-minute warning. No, by no means no!!! Wrath in no way makes God a monster. On the contrary it shows His goodness, for how could a good God ignore sin!