The Effect of the Cross

The Effect of the Cross



Most folks feel that the main purpose of the death of Christ was to bring sinful men to God. However, I would like to suggest that an even greater problem was solved in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. The Cross solved the problem of how to bring a holy and righteous God to sinful men. Through redemption (sinward), reconciliation (manward), and justification, man is brought to God, but through propitiation (godward), God is brought to man. This lesson is about propitiation.



PROPITIATION — Romans 3:24-25

"Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation." The basic meaning of propitiation is "appease" or "satisfy." What did the death of Christ appease or satisfy in the nature of God? In his very nature, God is holy and righteous. He can have no fellowship with anything that is sinful, including sinful men. Thus, God's wrath burns hot against sin and sinners because he must judge all sin. If he does not do this, he is not acting according to his perfect character. But, in love, God sent his Son Jesus Christ to be the perfect sacrifice for sin. No mere human being could have atoned for the sins of men because all are sinners. But Christ, who was a perfect human as well as truly divine, became the perfect sacrifice for sin. God poured out his wrath against sin on the person of Jesus Christ. Thus, the death of Christ appeased God's wrath and satisfied his holy, righteous demands against sin.

God took out his wrath on Christ instead of on sinners. Now anyone who will place his faith and trust in Jesus Christ as personal Saviour from sin will receive the forgiveness of sins, and the wrath of God will never again come down upon that one because Christ bore God's wrath on that believer's behalf. Why? Christ satisfied the holy, righteous demands of God against sin. Now, through the death of Christ, a holy God and sinful men can meet and God can have fellowship with men.

To give a natural example, if you stayed at our house and decided that you wanted to smear the entire contents of your chocolate wrapper all over the living room carpet then you could rest assured that I would be angry (who wouldn’t?). But, should you then arrange for a brand new carpet to be brought in for us and did the hard work of removing all the furniture out of the room and arranging to be in when the carpet layers arrived, then my anger would be ‘averted’ and you would have received ‘mercy’.

Of course, had you not offered to replace the carpet I may have punished you severely. Then it could be said that my anger had been justified. Look what a mess you made of the carpet! But taking away the damaged carpet and putting back new appeased me.

Some have translated the word "propitiation" as "mercy seat," looking back to the Old Testament and the sprinkling of blood on the mercy seat on the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement was a most significant feast day for Israel because it was then that the high priest entered into the holy of holies in the tabernacle to make an atonement for the nation of Israel (Lev. 16:1-10). In the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God, was the holy of holies, and no man was allowed in this place except the high priest who could go in only once a year on the Day of Atonement.

In the holy of holies stood the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark contained several articles such as Aaron's rod that budded and a pot of manna, but the main article was the Ten Commandments. On top of the Ark was the mercy seat, the dwelling place of God. Two cheribim (angels) were on either side of the mercy seat, and above it was the pillar of cloud and smoke (the Shekinah glory). The Ten Commandments pointed to the fact that all men had broken the law and were sinners; the Shekinah glory represented the holiness of God — men were sinners and would be judged by a holy God. The mercy seat stood between sinful men and God.

On the Day of Atonement, the high priest put on special garments of white and underwent special purification to offer sacrifice for the sins of Israel. He offered a bullock for himself and a goat for the people. Since no one else was allowed inside and since a slight mishap in his ritual could cause his death, a cord was tied around his ankle in case he died before God in the holy of holies. Then he took the blood in one hand and a censer of fire in the other, and went through the veil. He put down the censer and threw special incense on it so the room was filled with smoke — no man could see God and live. Then he entered the holy of holies to sprinkle the blood — one time towards heaven and seven times on the mercy seat.

Two goats were sacrificed, one was killed and the other kept alive. This was for the sins of Israel as a people. The congregation of Israel would watch with breathless anticipation as they saw the high priest take the blood of the slain goat into the holy of holies to sprinkle it on the mercy seat to appease God's wrath against their sins and to cover those sins for another year. Every Israelite wondered, "Will God accept this sacrifice? Will our sins be covered for another year? Or will God bring immediate judgment on us because of our sins?" When the High Priest came out of the holy of holies the people breathed a sigh a relief because they knew that God's wrath had been appeased for another year and they needed not fear judgment.

How could they know their sins had been forgiven? The high priest came out and placed his hands on the head of the live goat, confessing the sins of Israel. Then he let the live goat go free into the wilderness. This speaks of the fact that these sins were forgiven and put away by God. This, by the way, is where the term “scape goat” comes from.

Jesus Christ is our mercy seat. All the sacrifices of the Old Testament looked forward to the Lamb of God who would take away sin forever:

"Nor yet that he [Christ] should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation" (Heb. 9:25-28).

Christ's death propitiated, appeased or satisfied, the holy, righteous demands of God against sin. God was perfectly satisfied with the death of Christ. As a propitiatory sacrifice, Christ's death made a provision for sins to be forgiven and put away, not just for a year but forever:

"For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back" (Isa. 38:17b).



"And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea" (Mic. 7:19b).



"As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us" (Ps. 103:12).

Do you understand what this means? When Christ said “it is finished”. Sin was utterly defeated! Please understand that God can never be angry at us ever again. Propitiation means that He was completely satisfied!!!!!

This is the most important thing that could ever be said about the death of Christ and the effect of the cross. God is satisfied with it. If he, the righteous Judge, is pleased to remit all penalties against us by virtue of what the Saviour did on the cross, then there is no case against us forevermore. We can never again stand under God's wrath if we have trusted in Jesus Christ.

"Through faith in his blood." There is no salvation apart from the shedding of blood. "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission" (Heb. 9:22). Christ's blood witnesses that a life has been laid down — a substitutionary sacrifice.



God can and will make the vilest sinner clean. He can wipe out your past sins. He doesn't want you to clean up your life to become a Christian. He wants you to receive Jesus Christ who alone can forgive your sins, and then God himself will begin to clean you up. He wants you to come as you are. No matter what you have done, Jesus Christ will forgive. He will give you a new life.

Draftin g Old Guys

Drafting men over 60----this is funny & obviously written by a Former Soldier-




I am over 60 and the Armed Forces thinks I'm too old to track down terrorists. You can't be older than 42 to join the military. They've got the whole thing ass-backwards.. Instead of sending 18-year olds off to fight, they ought to take us old guys. You shouldn't be able to join a military unit until you're at least 35..

For starters: Researchers say 18-year-olds think about sex every 10 seconds. Old guys only think about sex a couple of times a day, leaving us more than 28,000 additional seconds per day to concentrate on the enemy.

Young guys haven't lived long enough to be cranky, and a cranky soldier is a dangerous soldier... 'My back hurts! I can't sleep, I'm tired and hungry' We are impatient and maybe letting us kill some asshole that desperately deserves it will make us feel better and shut us up for a while.

An 18-year-old doesn't even like to get up before 10 a..m. Old guys always get up early to pee so what the hell. Besides, like I said, 'I'm tired and can't sleep and since I'm already up, I may as well be up killing some fanatical son-of-a-bitch.

If captured we couldn't spill the beans because we'd forget where we put them. In fact, name, rank, and serial number would be a real brainteaser.

Boot camp would be easier for old guys.. We're used to getting screamed and yelled at and we're used to soft food. We've also developed an appreciation for guns. We've been using them for years as an excuse to get out of the house.

They could lighten up on the obstacle course however. I've been in combat and didn't see a single 20-foot wall with rope hanging over the side, nor did I ever do any pushups after completing basic training. Actually, the running part is kind of a waste of energy, too. I've never seen anyone outrun a bullet.

An 18-year-old has the whole world ahead of him. He's still learning to shave, to start up a conversation with a pretty girl. He still hasn't figured out that a baseball cap has a brim to shade his eyes, not the back of his head.

These are all great reasons to keep our kids at home to learn a little more about life before sending them off into harm's way..

Let us old guys track down those dirty rotten cowardly muslim terrorists. The last thing an enemy would want to see is a couple of million pissed off old farts with attitudes and automatic weapons who know that their best years are already behind them.

How about recruiting Women over 50 ......in menopause! You think Men have attitudes! Ohhhhhh my God! If nothing else, put them on border patrol.... They'll have it secured the first night! (and we won't have to hear "Press 1 for English" anymore).