Greetings to all of my sisters in the faith!
As a retired English teacher, I can truly say I am a word girl! This week we will be studying God’s Big Words in the Bible. We need to understand what God is saying to us, so that requires our study. Today we will begin with Justification and Propitiation.
Justification
This word means pronounced not guilty, acquitted, justified, just as if I’d never sinned. God declares us righteous. Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Rom 4:7-8. Imagine yourself as a criminal who is guilty. You are standing before the judge trembling as you wait to hear the sentence you deserve. Then the judge smiles and says you are not guilty! What joy! That is the joy we should have because God has declared us justified. Remember I Cor 6:11…you have been washed, sanctified and justified.
Propitiation
This word means atonement or expiator. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world…herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. I John 2:2; 4:10. The idea of propitiation is appeasement or satisfaction. God has made the provision for us through Christ’s vicarious death, and now God can show His mercy to the sinner who believes. Propitiation is the means by which sin is covered and remitted—Jesus’ blood covers or hides our sins—and God is satisfied. Isaiah 53:11.