Propitiation, according to The American Heritage Dictionary, means to "conciliate (an offended power); to appease wrath." The Bible clearly states that God is love, yet God has wrath that must be appeased. How do these two apparent opposites become reconciled?

In the Garden of Eden as recorded in Genesis chapter 3, God did two things that I would like to mention in reaction to the sin of Adam and Eve. First He informed them that they had come under a curse (as He also did to Satan) and had lost the blessing of being connected to Him, and second He made coats of skin and clothed them. These acts of wrath and kindness taken together can tend to confuse man's view of God's nature.

I hear so many people in the world, in their effort to indict God's nature, and/or to prove that there is no God, say, "If God is good, then why is all this evil coming onto mankind?" Even many Christians do not understand this.

Forgiveness and freedom from fear is what I believe will be the result of studying this chapter. I believe that by the time you meditate on this chapter, you will be set free from fear. Adam never feared God until after he sinned. If he had run to God after that, he would have found a loving Heavenly Father prepared to restore. Think about God's character demonstrated by His killing an animal for Adam's sin as an act of propitiation.

There are two common misconceptions about God's character.

The first is, "God is love, therefore He excuses sin. He understands that we are not perfect. After all, how can He expect us to be like Him? We are just mere humans. Therefore He must excuse my sins, and allow me to live my life the best I can." The problem with excusing your sins is that it does not remove them. If they are not removed they will bring death to you, death in one form or another. Only forgiveness removes them, and forgiveness requires a substitute victim on which to put your sin. Liberal religions of many types have been created by this doctrine.

The penalty for being disconnected and being independent from God is death. God cannot revoke the death penalty. A life must be given. Sin is serious! Some compare sin to running a traffic light and being caught, therefore someone must pay the penalty. That is a very weak example. The essence of sin is acting independently and therefore being cut off from your life source. It would be like a flower jumping out of the ground and dying. It cannot pay the fine, it has to be reconnected to the ground, it's life source. So we too must be reconnected to God. The wrath of God is kindled against sin!

The second one is, "God is a God of wrath. He is mad because of sin in the world. He will get even with those sinners who reject Him." This radical view distorts the character of God and leaves out his true character, which is love. There are also religions based upon this idea. The problem is most people do not know the true definition of love, which is another way of saying they do not understand the true character of God.

Some people take one aspect of His personality and leave out the other. They are trying to figure God out from their own experience or from their own intellect or through some religion. We need to see Him. We need a view of God that mere humans cannot receive without the supernatural revelation of the Holy Spirit. Right now I pray over every reader that God would open the eyes of your understanding and give you supernatural revelation according to Ephesians 1:17 which says, "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him" (Ephesians 1:17).

We are made in God's image, God does not take on our image. God made man in His image to be righteous and holy under His authority and to live by God's Word rather than man's intellect. We need to erase our misconceptions and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal God's character to us.

Without wrath, a law cannot accomplish its intended good.

God is a God of mercy and judgement. Actually they are not contrary to one another, in fact one cannot exist without the other. The are interdependent.

God set up the universe and man to operate under laws. The law of gravity is one example. If someone abused the law of gravity, they would feel the wrath of that law. But if they for some reason would not feel the wrath of gravity, neither would gravity be capable of its intended good, keeping us planted on Earth without floating around. Hebrews 1:3 states that God upholds all things by His Word. If His Word fails then the entire creation would fail and most likely implode. Therefore God must maintain His laws with justice and judgement. If we have laws prohibiting murder, our government must prosecute those who break that law and bring them to justice. In the same way, the breaking of God's laws must be prosecuted, otherwise we could not exist. Therefore God cannot wink at sin, nor at the man who sins. He cannot simply excuse sin or unrighteouness. If He did, His Word and His laws would fail.

God must be consistent to be God. He cannot change His emotions with the way He just happens to feel today. How would you like serving a god like the Greeks created? Many of them were sexually immoral, selfish, manipulative and they became angry at their own will. They were totally unpredictable. If God were like that, you could not trust in His Word. Our God is the ultimate in morality and holiness. He is truth, He is perfect, He is just, He cannot lie, therefore His laws can uphold everything, including His Word upon which we may therefore trust. He set His laws in order, and those who transgress them step into His wrath.

God does indeed have wrath. A judge who sentences a murderer is exercising the wrath of the government against the murderer. He is appeasing the wrath of the people by prosecuting the offender. However God's wrath is not like man's wrath. His wrath is not impetuous and emotionally charged as man's is. He does not "fly off the handle" in a moment of anger and hit something or kick a door down because of some fleeting emotion. God is constant, He is patient and He is deliberate.

In the Old Testament many of the Scriptures having to do with God's wrath is a result of His people following strange gods. "Therefore they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served wooden images and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass" (2 Chronicles 24:18).

In the Book of Romans Paul writes about the wrath of God being kindled against those who traded the truth for a lie in order that they could satisfy their own lustful lifestyles. Then it says, "For this reason God gave them up to vile passions" (reference Romans 1:18-26).

Notice the word propitiation in the above Scripture. That word seems to be the bridge between God's wrath and His forbearance. Remember the definition of propitiation is, "To conciliate (an offended power); appease." Appease means "To pacify or attempt to pacify (an enemy) by granting concessions, often at the expense of principle." Notice the secular definition for appease includes "the expense of principle." The one overwhelmed by a stronger enemy must compromise his principles and make concessions just to survive. The weaker one must compromise. Since it is God who is offended by our sin, it is therefore us who must compromise. We must see the fact that we are candidates for destruction if God's wrath against us is not appeased. We were enemies with God. He caught us, and we surrendered to His terms of peace. We need to compromise our former principles and accept His terms. We are not the judge, God is! There must be propitiation in order to appease His wrath.

How is the wrath of God expressed?

The above Scripture infers that the wrath of God against men may be sort of passive. In other words, God gave them over to their own desires, and their own desires brought great punishment and wrath upon them.

While that is a frightening idea, the Scriptures go on to say in Romans 3:23-25 (AMP) "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a [mercy seat and] propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed [because in His divine forbearance He had passed over and ignored former sins]."

While I do not limit God to this answer, I believe that God's wrath towards man is primarily experienced in the form of a curse. I do not think that God sits around in fits of anger expressing His wrath. However, concerning God's wrath towards His spiritual enemies, I believe we can get some insights from Isaiah 30:30-32. That tells about God using His arm against His enemies. It infers that His Word is His arm, and it further indicates that praise is part of His menacing arm against His enemies. I have studied the Hebrew roots of the word "arm" and it indicates that it means the Word of God planted in a human heart. God's Word expresses His wrath against His spiritual enemies. That is why it is so important for us as believers to confess God's Word in prayer.

Satan was cursed in the Garden of Eden, and he has no remedy. Adam and Eve came under a curse when they sinned. Unbelievers may be relieved from the curse of eternal damnation by believing in the Lord Jesus. Believers are released from the very worst curse, the curse of eternal death, but they may still have some overcoming in order to be released from other curses affecting their lives. This will be the subject of the next chapter, and indeed is one of the major themes of this entire book. Hang on to this thought, that for the most part, the wrath of God is experienced by humans who refuse to appropriate God's remedy for the curse upon mankind. Humans are allowed to go their own way, ignoring God and His love, and therefore walk right into God's wrath. It is like walking in front of a speeding truck.

The following story about Moses seeing God's glory begins to reveal this idea about God's wrath coming through the curse.

God revealed His character little by little throughout the Bible.

God knew He had left many unanswered questions in the minds of His people. But He took His time revealing Himself little by little as history unfolded.

We already saw a paradox in God's character in the Garden of Eden. Next let us examine a similar paradox witnessed by Moses.

The scene is the Israelites being led by Moses in the desert wilderness after having fled their slavery in Egypt. Moses had several face to face encounters with the Lord. Now God was instructing him to take the people into the Promised Land, and Moses had some serious questions.

"Then Moses said to the LORD, 'See, You say to me, 'Bring up this people.' But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.' Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people" (Exodus 33:12,13).

Moses was saying, "You said that You know me, now I want to know You!" In verse 33:17 the Lord in effect said "OK." Moses responded, "And he said, 'Please, show me Your glory" (Exodus 33:18).

Glory, or to glorify is a word that means to reveal the true character. It is like a statue that is being unveiled for the first time. When the cloth veil is removed, the true character is revealed.

The Lord agreed to reveal Himself to Moses, to a degree. He told Moses that he should hide in the cleft of a rock, and that when He passed by He would cover him with His hand. God told Moses, "Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen" (Exodus 33:23). Notice God could not allow Moses to come too close to His glory, lest Moses would be destroyed.

When the Lord passed by something very unusual happened. "Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, 'The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation.' So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped" (Exodus 34:5-8).

God spoke some things to Moses that I am sure Moses did not completely understand. He said two things that did not seem to line up with one another.

1."The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…"

2."…by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation."

This is a clear referral to the passing down of a curse via family generations. It is also an indication of God's wrath. The word iniquity infers generational sin.

Was God revealing Himself as a God of love, or a God of wrath? Or both?

This is a paradox! How could God be merciful and forgive sin, and still be just and not clear the guilty, but rather pass on the generational curses down three to four generations? All Moses could do after that encounter was to worship! Now hang on to that paradox because we are going to resolve it.

Jesus began to reveal Himself in the New Testament. In John 1:1-2,14, the writers reveal that Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus was clear about this, He did not waver from this revelation. He told the Jews as recorded in John chapter 8, "Jesus said to them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.'" These Scriptures are awesome, yet they fall short of the entire revelation of who God is.

When Jesus walked the earth He revealed the love and character of God to a great extent. He healed the blind, cleansed the lepers, forgave the adulterer, raised the dead, and gave preference to the victims instead of the proud religious leaders. Jesus did indeed reveal God and His fatherhood in a way that most people had never known. A God of love was a new thing to most people in that day. Yet during Jesus' time in ministry He still did not resolve the paradox of mercy verses wrath.

Just before His crucifixion Jesus began to talk about His unveiling. He said, "But Jesus answered them, saying, 'The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified [revealed]. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain'" (John 12:23,24).

He said, "I have made your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your very Self, and I will continue to make You known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them [felt in their hears] and that I Myself may be in them" (John 17:26 Amplified Bible). Also read John 13:30-32 and John 17:1,2.

Jesus knew that God's character could not be fully made known to man until He went to the Cross. It seems like He could not wait for this revelation to be made to mankind. I suppose even the angels could not understand what was happening as they heard Jesus talk about the Cross. Perhaps they were even poised to go to rescue Him when He went to the Cross. The victory at the Cross was a mystery hidden, yet a mystery that God wanted mankind to discover.

The veil was removed at the Cross, His true nature was finally revealed.

Yet most still had no idea what was going on, and none had any idea of the full impact.

When Jesus was glorified on the Cross, think about what some people said if they had been allowed to watch the veil being lifted from His hidden character.

Perhaps if Adam had been allowed to watch he would have said, "Oh, so that is who that animal was that God killed in the Garden for Eve and me."

Perhaps Abraham and Isaac would have said, "Oh, that is who that lamb was that was caught in the thicket just in time."

Maybe the Hebrew children would have said, "That paschal lamb that our dad killed that saved us from being killed, that was Jesus!"

The bronze artesian who, as told in Number 21, crafted the snake for the pole which saved the people from dying, probably would have said, "I had no idea that Jesus was that serpent!"

Moses would have said, "I had no idea that those animals killed in the outer court at the Bronze Altar of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, were actually Jesus, the Messiah!"

While most of the people who saw the crucifixion could not comprehend the significance of this unveiling, we have the privilege now of, through the Holy Spirit, seeing the astounding revelation.

The paradox is resolved! The entire wrath of God was put on Jesus. Jesus was crucified! Yet He was without sin. All of the consequence of sin and generational curses, the entire wrath of God was put on Jesus at the Cross. This is how God remains true to His character revealed in Exodus 34. He is merciful and compassionate, yet He cannot clear the guilty. But He did clear the guilty by putting his entire wrath on His Son Jesus. The Lord is merciful and forgives iniquity by means of putting the penalty of the iniquity on Jesus. That was an act of ultimate love! Can you trust the One that died for you?

The veil is lifted. Jesus is the Lamb of God!

It pleased God to bruise Jesus with His wrath because of His great love for us. "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand" (Isaiah 53:10).

God turned His back on Jesus and forsook Him. It was kind of a passive wrath. Jesus was shamed, He experienced abuse of all types (being hung naked on a cross is sexual abuse), He was executed as a criminal, and He became a curse for us, and suffered for all curses for every person ever to be created. Jesus experienced the consequences for every single type of curse and sin that human beings can endure, even yours! Notice in the following Scriptures that God took out his anger and appeased His wrath on Jesus. "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world" (1 John 2:2). "and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come" (1 Thessalonians 1:10). "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him" (Romans 5:9).

A great picture of propitiation in the Bible is in Numbers Chapter 21. The people spoke against God and Moses and grumbled about their conditions. This must have been a serious crime in the mind of God. The Bible said He "sent" fiery serpents and many people died. Usually a verb of this nature is in the permission sense, and it can be more accurately translated, "The Lord allowed fiery serpents." When Moses pleaded for his people, God gave him a remedy.

"Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, 'We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us.' So Moses prayed for the people. Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live'" (Numbers 21:7,8).

The serpent on the pole was a picture of Jesus being made sin for our sin. As Jesus was explaining the mystery of who He was to Nicodemus, He used that example. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up" (John 3:14). "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

You have been set free from fear by God's love and His propitiation.

It may seem like bad things are coming into your life, perhaps things that are the residual of sin and the curse. Perhaps it seems like Jesus missed you when it came to appeasing God's wrath for you. You might ask, "If Jesus took my wrath, my curse and my sin, then why is this all happening to me?" Sometimes glib answers seem like they lack compassion, but when I am in this position, most of the time I am in the overcoming process. The facts are true, that thing may be bad, but the facts of the Word are of a higher truth. Jesus bore everything, period! Now stand on that and walk the overcoming lifestyle.

If you do not need to fear God's wrath because it was appeased on Jesus, then there is only one other person that can produce fear, and that is Satan. Fear is a spirit, which means it is a being. However, 1 John 4:4 says, "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).

Also, Hebrews 2:14-15 says that Jesus came to destroy Satan's power of death, and our fear of death. If death is the worse thing that can happen, and Jesus already took, by propitiation the fear and pains of death, you will waste your time fearing anything less than death as well.

Propitiation diverts the curse due to you, and puts it on Jesus. Propitiation secures your position against fear; propitiation was an act of love. It is an ultimate act of love. Love removes the cause of evil, love removes sin, curses, and their consequences. That is why perfect love casts out fear. If you know that God appeased His wrath, His curse on Jesus, then you know that you are forgiven, and you do not need to fear.

1 John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." Romans 8:15 says, "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.'

I have attempted to will, by my own will, to not fear, but it does not work. It may be a good start, but it takes more than your will. The end result of such a good start may be just suppressing the fear, and as we know, it will pop up again, probably in a more harmful form.

When you sense fear you must run to God and confess it as sin. Then go to His Word and His perfect love will cast it out, and you will be cleansed from all unrighteousness (reference 1 John 1:9).

Forgiveness.

To recap, sin brings God's wrath. God's wrath is expressed by the curse, which comes on mankind (as well as Satan). The curse is the cause of all evil. If God's wrath is appeased on Jesus, then the curse and all of the evil can no longer harm you.

If sin is what curses us, if sin is what keeps us separated from God, if sin is what causes pain and suffering, then sin cannot just be excused, it must be removed. Forgive is a word that means to cut away, to remove. Propitiation removes our sins from us, together with their consequences and curses, and puts them on Jesus. If we understand forgiveness as that act which removes the source of bad and evil, and if we understand that we are absolutely forgiven, then the fear of bad and evil is removed. When you think about being forgiven, think of it in terms of having everything removed that can cause evil and harm to you. Too many people just think of forgiveness as kind of excusing our sin. No, it is much more powerful than that, it removes the very source of the curse that can harm you!

Try reading the Old Testament with this in mind.

Every time you see God being harsh with people or sending judgement on people, and you have a hard time understanding how a loving God can be that mean, put Jesus in the place of that person!

The entire wrath, the entire curse, due us was appeased on Jesus. God's wrath was so fully appeased when it was put on Jesus, that now mere man cannot only stand in His presence, but God can actually abide inside of man. That is close!

Remember, whatever comes into your life, if you appropriate God's propitiation, all of the curse in it will go on Jesus, and you will be blessed!

I am thankful that God's wrath was appeased, but what about your wrath?

The dictionary definition of wrath is: 1. Forceful, often vindictive anger. 2a. Punishment or vengeance as a manifestation of anger. b. Divine retribution for sin.

God is not the only person who has had to deal with wrath. We as humans and even as believers need to deal with wrath. Wrath may rise up when we are wronged, misunderstood and slandered. This may even come from a close friend, a fellow believer, a spouse or a parent or child. The closer the relationship the more anger can be felt. There may be a multitude of injustices that just do not seem to be resolved. Perhaps someone abused you and they have seemed to get away with it. Maybe you lost a loved one in an auto accident that involved a drunk driver. Perhaps someone has framed you and you lost your job.

I am not suggesting that we always feel vindictive anger and wish to punish the offending person, but often we do want at least some form of justice and truth to prevail. I believe that sometimes other people accuse un-righteously because they are influenced by demons. God is truth; Satan is the father of lies. "All day they twist my words; All their thoughts are against me for evil" (Psalms 56:5).

Jesus was judged by lies by demon influenced people. David was continually asking God for help from those who betrayed him, often from people who were his trusted friends.

Remember our original definition of propitiation, "conciliate (an offended power); to appease wrath," When we forgive, we place the sin of the offender on Jesus and our wrath is appeased on Him. He suffered the sin instead of you. He took not only the sin you perpetrated, but He took the sin perpetrated against you.

Appeasement of anger is an act of forgiveness flowing from you as well.

Unforgiveness on your part will result in fear overtaking your life.

Not understanding God's forgiveness towards you will allow fear to operate in your life, but so will unforgiveness operating in you towards others have the same result. You will involuntary live in fear, and faith will be impossible.

1 John 2:9-11 reveals this; "He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes." Darkness causes fear. Darkness keeps you from seeing God's Word which causes faith to rise.

Many people know that they must forgive others, but they never feel as thought their anger has been fully appeased. Out of obedience, they simply say that they are forgiving, but really they are burying their anger.

If you are having a difficult time forgiving the person who abused you as a child, or the one who abandoned you, or perhaps a murderer who took the life of a loved one, think of this example that I received from one of my favorite ministers. He said, "Do you know what Jesus thinks about that one who abused you, or that one who hurt you? He hates that sin so much…" then the minister clenched his left fist as if to swing it in anger at the offender and he said, "that He destroyed His own Son instead of the person who abused you." Then the minister turned his arm to his right side as if to change targets and swung his fist as if swinging at Jesus on the Cross. The full wrath of God was put on Jesus on behalf of all mankind! But Satan look out, you haven't seen anything yet!

Ever since then when I forgive someone I consciously says, "God, I take the sin off of him or her and I put it on Jesus, who will also take the consequences."

While the short-term answer is to forgive, there may be a lingering of the injustice that you feel. Not everything in your life will be judged by truth and in God's light while you are living on earth. There is a saying that says, "It's not over until it's over." We all have to go on with forgiveness knowing that some day God will bring all things to the light and judge in truth. I think the following Scripture is one example that God will vindicate us eventually. "Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie--indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you" (Revelation 3:9). If the "boss" approves of you, what difference does it make if the other employees hate you? Just make sure you are in good standing with the "boss" with Jesus, and you may rest in the truth that eventually everything will be all right.

Amazing love, how can it be, that you My King should die for me?

If you are not sure that you are a believer in Jesus Christ and can therefore enjoy the benefits of His propitiation, pray this now:

"Oh God, I believe that you sent Jesus, your Son, to be the propitiation for my sin. I believe He was crucified, died, was resurrected, and is now alive. I now give the rest of my life to the kingship of Jesus. Jesus, rule my life.

What stood out to you in reading this chapter?

List some areas in your life for which you need for the wrath of God to be transferred to Jesus.

List some areas in your life where your wrath towards another must be put on Jesus.

List the questions you might have for this chapter, and/or difficulties you may have regarding the above questioning statements.