Hebrews Chapter Two, Jesus: Our Propitiation

 

Hebrews 2:17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. [18] For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.

 

We are informed that Jesus had to be made like us “in all things,” so that He would be a merciful and faithful High Priest. Jesus our Lord became a Man. In His sinless humanity He ministered the gospel, worked His miracles and offered Himself as a sin offering for the world.

He was tempted, or tested, and suffered the scorn of men, the wiles of the devil, and the agony of the cross. As man is weak, so Christ made Himself weak. “Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross,” Philippians 2:6-8. Throughout the gospels Jesus declared publicly that He could do nothing of Himself, but He did only what the Father revealed to Him. His power was in the Father; He demonstrated faith in God even when adversity assailed Him on every side.

 

Note that Jesus’ faith never made Him comfortable, rich, attractive, influential, in a self-serving manner. He was self-effacing. He sought the Father’s glory and His earthly life and ministry were attuned to the Father’s will, even leading the Son to death on the Roman cross. In all things, we are told He was made like us, His brethren. Our weakness is our inability to actuate change. We are not God. Circumstance overwhelms us on the regular. But above that there is a God who hears prayer, and makes us steadfast in our faith. He is a Rock, unmoving, unchanging, an ever present help in times of trouble. Tests were meant to refine the believer and reveal more of Christ in us; as every test made the Son cling to the Father’s will, we as Christians are commanded to deny self, take up our cross, and follow Him.

 

I have heard the Greek term used for propitiation (reconciliation, KJV) can be rendered, “satisfactory payment.” The apostle John was fond of the word and used it twice in his first epistle to denote the purpose or nature of God giving His Son on our behalf. “He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins,” 1 John 4:10. “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world,” 1 John 2:2. Propitiation is defined as an expiation of sin. To break it down in layman’s terms it means to absolve or appease. Expiation is “a means whereby sin is covered and remitted (paid).” Defining terms is important when studying Scripture so we have a clear and simple understanding of what the writer is conveying. Propitiation is an act or object that remits sin. Hebrews 2:17 informs us that Jesus Himself is the object, and His death the act. Sin was remitted (paid for) in the person of Christ. That was why when our Lord’s suffering for sin was ended, He cried out, “It is finished!” before dismissing His spirit, John 19:30.

 

We read in Mark 15:37, “And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.” Luke adds, “And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’” Having said this, He breathed His last,” Luke 23:46, see also Matthew 27:50. Could it be that what Christ cried out with a loud voice was this shout of triumph, recorded in John’s Gospel? Propitiation had been made and Jesus announced it triumphantly before yielding up His spirit and dying. Our Lord chose to die; the crucifixion didn’t kill Him, He dismissed His spirit. Even the Roman authorities marveled that He was already dead, having been crucified so short a time. Christ suffered the Second Death, paying for sin by becoming sin for us. In Him God’s justice was satisfied and God’s love toward us demonstrated. 1 John 4:10 says as much. God loves us, and His love for fallen man brought forth the Christ to remedy our hopeless estate.

 

Paul also utilizes the term in Romans while the apostle expounds on the concept of justification by faith. He writes, “[we are] justified (declared not guilty) freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith,” Romans 3:24, 25. In the famous verse Romans 3:23 we learn that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. All in this instance can’t be all of some types of people. It means simply what it says. All of humanity has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. Jew or Greek, there is no exception. James makes the perceptive observation that anyone attempting to keep the law and failing in just one point is guilty of it all, James 2:10.

 

The Mosaic Law is more than the Ten Commandments; there are in fact 613 commandments. Many include ceremonial animal sacrifice in a place specified where God had placed His name, 2 Samuel 7:13, 2 Kings 21:4. Obeying the law involves animals sacrifice, wearing specific clothing types, eating Kosher foods, adhering to the Sabbath, planting only certain seeds with one another, not lending out goods/money with usury, etc. It is impossible to keep the Law in its ceremonial form today; it has always been impossible to keep it in spirit by the power of our flesh. Were it possible, Christ needn’t have died for us. Yet the plan of salvation existed prior to Adam, and Paul unequivocally declares us all (himself included) guilty before a holy God.

 

Our efforts to commend ourselves to God prove only to insult the Spirit of grace, for in such efforts we demonstrate our lack of understanding, Isaiah 64:6, Titus 1:16. Paul explains in Romans that this is the pit the Jews fell into, Romans 10:2, 3. In the Law God makes it abundantly clear that only death satisfies God’s justice. The very term “justice” is a judicial one; it speaks of a criminal’s conviction and the impending sentence for the crime committed. We are, one and all, guilty of a crime that merits capitol punishment, and we foolishly think that volunteering community service will suffice? We refuse to understand or accept the biblical verdict: “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission [of sin],” Hebrews 9:22. In Leviticus we read, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul,” Leviticus 17:11, see also Genesis 9:4. The priests knew what the euphemism “shedding of blood” meant; it meant the death of the one being referred to. The verse is speaking intrinsically of one’s death to remit sin. Religious institutions that create a merit system for earning salvation incrementally, grossly misunderstand biblical justification.

 

Since all are guilty before God He freely justifies all through faith, or more specifically, by Christ, in whom we as Christians place our faith. Adam’s guilty race is redeemed by Christ’s atonement. We are liberated, released, or delivered to amplify the force of what redemption means. God, by His grace and NOT through human effort or contrivance, put forth Jesus as our propitiation. He is the sin offering, the Lamb of God come to take away the sin of the world, John 1:29. Notice that John didn’t say “sins.” He said sin, in the singular. Sin is a curse that infected Adam’s race and it is entirely terminal; Christ is the remedy that God offers freely by His grace. Jesus’ merit and person are where our faith should wholly lie. We trust in Him completely for salvation’s inception, retention, and completion. Otherwise why bother naming our Lord the Savior, if He is not the one who saves us from our sin, as Scripture attests that He does, Matthew 1:21? Why refer to everlasting or eternal life in such terms if it is in fact something that can be lost? Eternal life is something the believer immediately has in Christ, as the Bible states numerous times, 1 John 5:11-13, John 3:15, 16, 6:37, 11:25, 26, 20:31, Romans 8:38, 39, 1 Peter 1:3-5.

 

Jesus in His sinless humanity suffered or endured tests to refine Him, or reveal His character to both ally and enemy. As Christ overcame on earth through His faith in the Father, He is able to help us with our manifold weaknesses. Notice that the aid He does not offer angels He does offer those (of the seed of Abraham) who are tempted. Turning back to James we find an answer to the nature of these tests. “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience,” James 1:2, 3. He concludes: “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing,” verse 4. This was the type of trial or test Peter and the other apostles endured when they were beaten by the Sanhedrin for preaching Christ, Acts 5:40, 41.

 

They counted it joy that they partook of the suffering of their Lord; not that it contributed to their salvation, but because it proclaimed their association with His ministry and person. Neither did the trial hinder them, for we read, “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ,” Acts 5:42. Trials reveal character. When God sends one to us, how do we receive it? Do we stumble, or do we endure? Does it prompt us to turn to Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit abiding in us and leading us, or do we turn to therapy and medication? Is our Christianity weak and ineffectual in practice, but good in theory alone? Remember what the author of Hebrews writes here: Jesus is able to aid those being tempted. He is able. Let us leave chapter two with the picture of the leper that came to Jesus and implored Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean,” Mark 1:40. Jesus’ response is the same then as today, “I am willing; be cleansed,” verse 41. If He is able, and He is willing, what restrains us from seeking Him for all things that pertain to life and godliness? He gave Himself for us. We should all, with all humility, entrust Him with the eternal life He vouchsafed for us, 2 Timothy 1:12.