Offered by our Priest, Jesus. The Day of Atonement.

“And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins”

(1 John 2:2)

“He Himself is the propitiation” is in the present tense, and it marks the continuation of John’s thought about Jesus and His vital role in our lives when we commit sin. “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1 NIV).

Verse one focuses on what He does for us now in God’s presence. Verse two focuses on what He has done in the past, when He Himself was the sacrifice, to make possible His present advocacy on our behalf when we commit sin.

The word “He” is emphatic. He Himself is Jesus Christ, righteous in character, which is precisely why He could be our propitiation. The verb estin is in the present tense, signifying that Jesus is continually the propitiation. This parallels the truth in “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7 NIV). The blood of Jesus His Son continually cleanses us from all sin.

This is good news for sinners such as myself, daily in need of an Advocate who is qualified. Indeed, He sits in His glorified body even now at the right hand of the Father, and He not only pleads for mercy for us but also intercedes for us. What a Savior. What a Friend.

The Mercy Seat

We see this clearly in Scripture: “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide” (Exodus 25:17 NASB).

It is clear from this verse that the Old Testament mercy seat, a word meaning to cover, was a shadow pointing to Christ, the true mercy seat, the true propitiation. The translators of the Septuagint used this very term, hilasterion, to designate the mercy seat, which establishes propitiation’s link to the Old Testament sacrificial system.

The mercy seat was the lid or cover of the ark, situated between the divine Shekinah glory cloud above the ark and the law tablets inside the ark. The priests sprinkled that seat with blood from the animal sacrifices. And if the Old Testament sacrificial system had appeased God’s wrath once and for all, the Jews would not have continued endlessly to bring burnt offerings, sin offerings, and trespass offerings over the centuries (Leviticus 1:3-17; 4:1-5).

The atoning sacrifice, in simple terms, refers to that which satisfies the wrath of God. And the payment God provided was “the precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:19 NASB). The Father was satisfied with the sacrifice of His sinless Son on the cross.

Our Sins

John’s use of the word “our” shows he is including himself as a sinner in need of Jesus’ propitiation. “Sins” is plural, and in context it speaks of the sins we personally commit, even those of us who retain the sinful nature inherited from Adam. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12 NASB).

John gives us an excellent descriptive definition of sin: “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4 NASB). Everyone who practices sin, in the present tense, as a lifestyle, also practices lawlessness in the present tense, as a lifestyle. And sin is lawlessness. John uses the phrase “our sins,” identifying himself with his readers.

Justice Satisfied

The sacrificial death on the cross satisfied the demands of Father God’s justice, appeasing His holy wrath against believers’ sins. God’s justice must be satisfied.

Every sin ever committed by every person who has ever lived will be punished in one of two ways.

Either God’s wrath will be satisfied when all unrepentant and unbelieving sinners suffer eternally. “For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 NASB). “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he or she was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15 NASB).

Or, for all who by the convicting and regenerating power of the Spirit repent and believe savingly in Jesus, God’s wrath is satisfied by the punishment of Christ Himself on the cross.

There is no third option. The wrath is real, and it will be poured out. The only question is where.

He Himself

Come back to that emphatic word in our text. He Himself.

Not the blood of bulls and goats, offered year after year, never finishing the work. Not a lid of gold sprinkled by a priest who would have to return again next year and do it all over. He Himself.

The mercy seat was only ever a shadow. The endless offerings were only ever a reminder that the debt remained. Then Christ came, righteous in character, and became the thing the shadow was pointing at. He was the sacrifice, and He is now the Advocate. Past tense at the cross, present tense at the Father’s right hand, continually cleansing, continually interceding.

That is why John can write “so that you will not sin,” and then in the very next breath, “but if anybody does sin, we have an advocate.” He is not lowering the standard. He is telling us where to run when we fail it.

What a Savior. What a Friend.