Jesus, Atonement, & Propitiation

Atonement

We all know that the Lord Jesus atoned for our sins, right?

Actually, He did far more than that.

Let’s begin by looking at the New Testament to see what it has to say about atonement.

A search of the New Testament for “atone” and all its grammatical forms returns a single result in the King James Bible. It is, “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Romans 5:11 KJV)

Interestingly, the New American Standard (2020) also returns only a single result, but it’s in a different passage, Hebrews 9:5. It reads, “and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the atoning cover; but about these things we cannot now speak in detail.” (NASB 2020)

Lastly, the New International Version (NIV) gives six results. Hebrews 9:5 is included in these but Romans 5:11 is not. The reason for this is probably that the word “atone” is more understandable to contemporary audiences than the word used in these verses by other translations. I want us to note this because as our study progresses, we will discover with greater clarity what the Scriptures are teaching us.

The six verses using atone or its forms in the NIV are:

“Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement. So Paul warned them,” (Acts 27:9, NIV)

“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—” (Romans 3:25, NIV)

“For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” (Hebrews 2:17, NIV)

“Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.” (Hebrews 9:5, NIV)

“He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2, NIV)

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10, NIV)

Now let’s look at the Greek behind these words and see what insights that may provide.

As I mentioned earlier, the King James Version has “atonement” in Romans 5:11. That verse reads, “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Romans 5:11 KJV)

In this passage atonement translates katallagē. This Greek word means “reestablishment of an interrupted or broken relationship, reconciliation.” (BDAG*) Consequently, other translators render this “reconciliation.” We have now received ‘the reconciliation’, not ‘the atonement’.

There is another word that means atonement, and we will get to that when we look at the Old Testament.

Likewise, the NASB (2020) has but a single verse containing “atone.” Hebrews 9:5 reads, “and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the atoning cover; but about these things we cannot now speak in detail.” (NASB 2020)

This is a key verse for our study. Notice that the verse refers to the “atoning cover.” It is speaking of the cover on the Ark of the Covenant, which is also called the mercy seat because God sat there to forgive the sins of His people on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Indeed the KJV and the ESV (English Standard Version) use “mercy seat” in this passage and that’s a rendering I applaud.

The Greek word here in Hebrews 9:5 is not the same as the one in Romans 5:11 katallagē. Here, it’s hilastērion, a word meaning “means of expiation” (a propitiation) or “place of propitiation.” BDAG*

Five of the six passages in the NIV that use “atonement” (or atoning) are translating this Greek word hilastērion. Atonement is certainly a more common word in our vernacular than propitiation and it does get the main point across. It can also influence our understanding of what the Lord Jesus has done for us, however. Consequently, we want to be sure we get this clear in our minds.

The other passage in the NIV that uses atonement is Acts 27:9, which says that “it was after the Day of Atonement.” This is a choice made for clarity in the mind of the reader.

The day being referenced is the Day of ‘Atonement’, but the Greek word here is nēsteia, which means “the act of going without food.” BDAG* Translating this “Day of Atonement” helps us understand that this was a specific religious fast and not simply someone’s private decision not to eat.

Atonement in the Old Testament

Depending on the translation you are referencing, there are between 405 (KJV) and 610 (NASB) occurrences of the word “atone” or its forms in the Old Testament. One reason for the wide discrepancy is that when referring to the atonement cover on the Ark of the Covenant, some translations render it “mercy seat.” There are a number of other similar reasons translators used other words as well.

When the Old Testament speaks of atonement, it uses a Hebrew word that is more familiar to you than you may realize. In fact, it’s a word we’ve already used in this study. The word as we render it in English is “kippur” as in Yom Kippur. You can easily look this word up in the Strong’s Concordance. It’s number H3722 and if you see it transliterated, it will likely be “kpr” or “khipper.”

Kippur means atonement, but its most basic meaning is to cover. The first time we see this word is in Genesis 6:14 “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch (kippur H3722) it within and without with pitch.” (Genesis 6:14, KJV 1900)

In this passage it is translated “pitch” because it was an instruction to cover the Ark with tar, or pitch. Other translations have “cover it with” pitch or asphalt. What we need to take away here is that the word rendered atone or atonement is “kippur”, a word used to mean covering.

The Israelites were given very specific instructions about atonement. God told them, “the priest, whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest’s office in his father’s stead, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen clothes, even the holy garments: And he shall make an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, and he shall make an atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation. And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.” Leviticus 16:32–34 (KJV)

All sorts of things had to be covered by the blood of a sacrifice. This is just a small excerpt from the detailed and lengthy process through which the priest atoned for items, himself, and finally the people every year on the Day of Atonement.

Hebrews speaks of this, saying, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” (Hebrews 10:1, KJV)

Atonement did not eradicate sins; it provided a covering. It began with an attempt by the first humans to cover their nakedness by covering themselves with leaves, which did nothing to atone for their sin. For them, Father graciously provided a blood sacrifice and clothed/covered them with the skins.

That covering, or atonement, was incapable of taking the sin of Adam and Eve away. We know this because Scripture tells us that “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats [animals] should take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:4, KJV)

Adam and Eve remained separated from God. Spiritually dead to Him. The covering of atonement was a temporary measure until the Seed would come and bruise the head of the evil one by the sacrifice of Himself.

The Greek Old Testament called the Septuagint or LXX, uses a form of hilasterion where we find ‘atonement’ in the English. The word is exilaskomai and it’s simple meaning is “to be or make gracious, to placate.”

This word is used of the action of the priest as he nullifies, purges, expiates, or atones sin before God. This specific word exilaskomai is not found in the New Testament. What Jesus does is more expansive and profound than what the Levitical priests and the blood of bulls and goats did. In fact, as we will see, it turns it on its head.

“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission [forgiveness]. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.” (Hebrews 9:22–23, KJV 1900)

Propitiation

As we learned earlier in this study, there is a Greek word that is sometimes translated “atonement.” That word is hilasterion and we learned that its meaning is “means of expiation” (a propitiation) or “place of propitiation.”

Atonement carries the idea of covering and that’s why it can influence our understanding of what the Lord Jesus has done for us. As we progress, we will see that atonement and propitiation carry similar meanings, but there are important differences that can help us grasp the incredible holiness, justice, mercy, and grace, of our glorious God.

A key to understanding propitiation lies within the Greek root, which it shares with hilaria from which we get our word “hilarious.” It indicates joy and satisfaction. In teaching about propitiation, I have often used ‘fully satisfying sacrifice’ as a simple definition.

A covering and a propitiation are different.

Interestingly, the mercy seat is not a part of the Ark of the Covenant. It is a covering over the Ark. It is a cover. As we saw earlier, the mercy seat is called the atoning cover in Hebrews 9:5. It is also called a seat however, and the reason is that it is the place of propitiation. ‘Place of propitiation’ is one of the definitions we saw for the Greek work hilasterion.

The mercy seat is the place where atonement, expiation, and ultimately propitiation of sin takes place.

These words are used differently in the Old Testament than they are in the New. For example, TDNT makes these statements.

The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) says, “The most striking thing about the development of the terms, however, is that words which were originally used to denote man’s action in relation to God cease to be used in this way in the NT and are used instead of God’s action in relation to man. When we consider the striking changes in the construction and meaning of ἱλάσκομαι and ἐξιλάσκομαι [forms of hilasterion], the most surprising thing is that alongside the sense of “to propitiate” we now have the senses “to purge from sin” and “to expiate.” (TDNT)

This is the difference between atonement and propitiation under the covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus. The temporary measure of atonement and covering is replaced by the permanence of expiation and propitiation.

Whereas the blood of animals cannot take away sin, the blood of the Lord Jesus does exactly that as we read in John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (NASB 2020)

It is for this reason that Hebrews goes to such lengths to show the superiority of the Lord Jesus to the Old Testament priests and animal sacrifices. Not only does the Lord Jesus provide the expiation of a fully satisfying sacrifice, His sacrifice in fact takes sin away.

The removal of sin was foreshadowed in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Psalm 103:12 reads, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our wrongdoings from us.” (NASB 2020)

The Lord Jesus is not only the atonement, expiation, and propitiation for our sin, He is also the place at which that propitiation happens. Jesus Himself helps us see this in John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.’” (NASB 2020)

All who would rid themselves from sin must come to the Lord Jesus, the Mercy Seat Himself. We read in Romans 3:25-26 that Jesus was “displayed publicly as a propitiation hilasterion in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in God’s merciful restraint He let the sins previously committed go unpunished; for the demonstration, that is, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (NASB 2020)

God is just and God is the justifier of those who agree to be reconciled to Him by faith in the Lord Jesus. This demonstrates His righteousness because though Jesus had not given His life when those who lived before the cross and whose sins went unpunished were living, He justified them under the same terms as us. No one was denied eternal Life because of their sin.

Father mercifully provided the temporary measure of atonement through the blood of animals for those who lived before Christ. He did it so that when the Lord Jesus gave His life, any who had faith in the goodness and power of God would be justified eternally.

What the Lord Jesus did at a particular time in human history was an eternal sacrifice of atonement. It was a gracious propitiation resulting in expiation of the sin not only of those alive when He died and rose again, but also those who had gone before and not only them but we and all who have come after them as well.

* BDAG — A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., p 521, p 474, pp 671-672