At times, I have asked why I nit-pick over certain points or words in the Bible. I suppose it is a sign of the times that this current generation seems to eschew the practice of careful thorough analysis, as opposed to a cursory reading with an emphasis on the subjective experiential result at the end. Their feeling is: “ Why do you want to argue so much, I mean, can’t we all just stick to John 3:16, hold hands and sing ‘Kumbaya’?”

Unfortunately, I would call them out of their own hypocrisy. They say that words don’t really matter. Really? Ask your girlfriend or boyfriend how they felt about you. And if they said they ‘liked’ you when they meant they ‘loved’ you or vice-versa, can you see how much confusion and grievance that could possibly cost? Words, and their correct definition and placement within a context are tremendously important, and no more so than in God’s Word

One word that, by the grace of God, has made a comeback is “Propitiation”. It is not a word that we use very much any more but one that is vitally important in understanding the whole message of the Gospel. To ‘propitiate’ is to make a sacrifice to avert some form of judgement, wrath or anger. It is a word used to describe the conciliatory and atoning sacrifices made in order to avoid a divine punishment.

In recent times, this word was seen as primitive and not representative of what a ‘loving’ God should look like. So, it is no wonder that as some translations of the Bible omitted the aforementioned word, and used the term ‘expiate’ instead. This was seen in the New English Bible, where it is mentioned:

“ For God designed him to be the means of expiating sin by his sacrificial death, effective through faith. God meant by this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had overlooked the sins of the past..” ( Romans 3:25 : NEB )

What is the difference? To ‘expiate’ means that sin is removed, or put out. The root word ‘ex-’ is the same as the one used in words like ‘extinguish’ and ‘exhale’. Is a wrong word to describe God’s saving grace? No. Christ’s death on the cross indeed cancelled the debt of sin over us. It was redemptive in the removal the sin curse.

Is the word sufficient? No. It hardly does justice in depicting the real nature of his death. In using the word ‘propitiation’, as seen in the ESV translation below, we finally see that Christ’s death did not just remove the sin debt, but also appeased the wrath of God who previously had judged us all as sinners worthy only of receiving death. It also depicts that the very act of sending his own son is a testament to his loving grace and mercy and also characteristic of God as a just being. It is crucial that we see this, otherwise our depiction of God will be a one dimensional, mono-perspective one and our whole understanding of the Gospel will have been built on shaky foundations

“ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he has passed over former sins.” ( Romans 3:25 : ESV )

‘Expiation’ is insufficient because it does not refer to the satisfaction or appeasement of God’s wrath, turning it to favour. God’s righteous anger needs to be appeased before sin can be forgiven (note the sequence), and God in his love sent his Son (who offered himself willingly) to satisfy God’s holy anger against sin. In this way, God demonstrates his righteousness, which here refers to his inate nature of being holy, and just.

Thus, one word is of matter of grave importance. At the very heart is the nature of salvation itself, and if one lacks a proper understanding of it, one does not have the correct understanding of God. It is that important, and it is that serious

SDG