THE RIGHTEOUS ONE – PROPITIATION THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB – 1John 2:1-2
1John 2:1 “My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin, and if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, 1John 2:2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”
In the last message we looked at the first part of verse 2 where Jesus was presented as the Advocate, the one who pleads for us with the Father if we sin. An advocate can only do that work if he is properly qualified. Be he a barrister, Queen’s Counsel or Attorney, he must be qualified. Our Lord Jesus Christ is qualified in every way for the work of advocacy. What are the reasons?
1. He is Eternal God who knows the end from the beginning.
2. He is the incarnate Man of Sorrows who sympathies with His people’s sin and hurt.
3. He was tempted in all points as we are, though He was without sin.
4. He shared in the heartaches of His close friends such as when he wept at Lazarus’s tomb.
5. He is the Great High Priest, faithful and merciful.
That being so, John continues in verse 1 – “Jesus Christ the righteous”, and I like to give another capital letter – “Jesus Christ the Righteous”
PART A - JESUS CHRIST THE RIGHTEOUS
That then leads us to thinking about Jesus Christ the Righteous. “This is not only His character, but it is His plea. It is His character, and if my Advocate be righteous, then I am sure He would not take up a bad cause. What can there be asked more for the sinner than this? Jesus Christ the righteous stands up to plead for me, and pleads His righteousness; and mark, He does this not if I do not sin, but if I do sin.” (Charles Spurgeon)
His Name shall be called Jesus for He will save His people from their sin. As Jesus/Joshua led the battle of victory against the sin of Canaan, then Jesus/Joshua gained the victory over the sin of the world at the cross. He is Christ, the Anointed One, anointed by God in His office and in His ministry. He is righteous because He is God the Son, and Peter stated that very powerfully in {{Acts 3 v 14 “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.”}} We have the Righteous Son of God pleading our case. He who is the Anointed of God, is our Saviour. This is just grace upon grace. We love Him because He first loved us. He serves us with the same love that he had when He died for us.
PART B - JESUS CHRIST OUR PROPITIATION
We move to the last of these great statements of the Lord’s work and divinity, but let us look again at the two theme verses today – {{1John 2 v 1 “My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin, and if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, 1John 2:2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”}}
We need to understand the words, “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins” for it is difficult for some to follow what propitiation is. Although propitiation is the best word, and used by most translations, there are other translations – “atoning sacrifice” (NIV) because the NIV does not like bigger theological words. If my memory is not failing me, the old Revised Standard Version of the 1960s used “expiation”. There are even those who dislike the word “propitiation” because they associate pagan practices with it. Gods/idols were appeased with offerings – the sacrifice of a chicken or pig, even human sacrifices, or bowls of fruit or grain in the hope that the idol would excuse them. That can be called propitiation which is why some don’t like the word.
The Christian truth of propitiation is pure and spiritual. God is not appeased like a pagan god, but the divine justice was fully met, and the righteousness of God completely satisfied. That happened at Calvary. The propitiation occurred at Calvary. Let me say again the propitiation is related to Christ's sacrifice and the shedding of His blood for sin. We are going to look into this.
I want you to turn with me to Leviticus 16 and we will read most of the chapter. This is the account on the Day of Atonement.
THE DAY OF ATONEMENT
Leviticus 16 v 6 “Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household, Lev 16:7 and he shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the doorway of the tent of meeting, Lev 16:8 and Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat. Lev 16:9 Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the LORD fell, and make it a sin offering, Lev 16:10 but the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat.”
Leviticus 16 v 11 “Then Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin offering which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his household, and he shall slaughter the bull of the sin offering which is for himself. Lev 16:12 He shall take a firepan full of coals of fire from upon the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense, and bring it inside the veil, Lev 16:13 and he shall put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, lest he die. Lev 16:14 Moreover, he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side. Also in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.”
Leviticus 16 v 15 “Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil, and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. Lev 16:16 He shall make atonement for the holy place because of the impurities of the sons of Israel, and because of their transgressions, in regard to all their sins, and thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities. Lev 16:17 When he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, no one shall be in the tent of meeting until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel.”
Leviticus 16 v 20 “When he finishes atoning for the holy place, and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat. Lev 16:21 Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel, and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins, and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness, Lev 16:22 and the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land, and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.”
ATONEMENT AND PROPITIATION
The high priest entered into the holiest place with the blood of the goat to make atonement for the nation. The blood was sprinkled 7 times on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. Atonement was made for the nation and the people knew it had been accepted when they heard the bells on the high priest’s garment that told them the sacrifice was accepted and then they saw the man himself. It meant God was satisfied through the offering of sacrifice. God’s holiness and justice against sin was balanced by the sacrifice of the chosen offering.
Christ's sacrifice was accepted, and the bells of heaven rang out, and in resurrection, the disciples saw Him for He returned from death. Triumphantly speaking of Christ, {{Hebrews 9 v 12 “and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”}} The Greek for propitiation in John’s writings is “??asµ?? (hilasmos)” and has the sense of correcting the offence made to God by our sins. In {{Hebrews 2 v 17 – “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people”}} – it means Jesus Christ was the sacrifice for our sins, and by His blood, the offence caused to God, has been corrected. The blood on the mercy seat has atoned for our sins.
It is an eternal fact that the blood on the mercy seat, in type, will always be the grounds for our salvation, and the propitiation for all our offences even those in the future. In Revelation chapter 4, Jesus is seen as the Lamb in the midst, as if freshly slain. The blood on the mercy seat in Hebrews, will be the eternal acceptance of Christ's sacrifice for us. It is that sacrifice which is the plea, our Advocate makes for us if we sin.
Christ’s sacrifice was for sin and the penalty of sin. It covers all my sin up until that point of salvation, and beyond that until I am in the Lord’s presence. Even then, that sacrifice of the Lamb will be efficacious for all eternity. We are saved by His blood and are being saved by His blood.
I have encountered a terrible doctrine from certain Charismatics – whether some, or a universal doctrine I do not know, that says, our sins are forgiven up to the point of salvation but after that if we sin, we are not covered and we have to be saved again, or confess again up to that point. All I say is, “gross confusion” as are a lot of things from that belief system.
Christ made atonement for my sin forever. He is my propitiation for all my sins. If I sin, I will fall out of fellowship and communion with my Saviour, but I will never fall from his covering of atonement. Remember this, the Hebrew word for “pitch” is the same as “atonement” because it is a covering. Moses covered the ark in pitch inside and out. That was a covering that keep them safe in the ark. The outside was for God to see and the inside for man to see. The atoning sacrifice of Christ covers ALL so that the propitiation through His blood will meet ALL the penalty of my sin.
However, the propitiation is wide enough for the whole world if all human beings appropriate it. Christ died for all people. But the advocacy before the Father is only for those who have received Him as personal Saviour. The atonement will be effective only for those who have availed themselves of it, and they are the ones who will know the true propitiation of sins through His blood.
A QUOTATION TO END THE MESSAGE
To end this message I am going to quote from a Pastor Jason Lim of Gospel Light in Singapore –
“I’m told in Singapore that we have… we are going to have a glut, or too many lawyers for the jobs that are available. And so if you are studying law, you may end up with no job in a few years time. But there is no one, who is skilled in law in this whole world who can be our advocate with the Father except for the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ the righteous. So we stand before the Holy God, we are guilty. We are charged. Evidence is laid before us. We can’t defend ourselves and now our advocate comes. Our defence lawyer comes. But this may surprise you.
When He comes, He’s going to say something that may shock you. He’s going to say to the Judge, “Your Honour, without a shadow of a doubt, my client is absolutely guilty as charged.”
You say, “Huh? Jesus Christ is my defence lawyer and he comes and says I am guilty as charged? Shouldn’t he be defending me?”
Well, he’s going to defend you but he’s not going to lie. He’s not going to say, “I defend him because he is innocent, he is good. You should know all the mitigating factors. He’s actually quite a good guy, so God don’t judge him.”
No, he’s going to say quite the opposite. He’s absolutely guilty. But the defence plea is not his innocence. The defence plea is that all his sin and the punishment that should be meted out against him, has been satisfied in Me.
That’s why He says he is the propitiation for our sins. The plea for pardon is not my innocence but that Jesus suffered for us.”
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
