Christ died to be your Propitiation. Jesus is God's love commended to unworthy and undeserving sinners. Christ fully atoned for human sin, and satisfied the verdict of eternal death. At the Cross, the blood of God comes between the violated Law and the violators. The blood of Christ was offered once and eternally satisfied the just demands of God's holy Law, which sinners have broke. He has paid the penalty for sin and took away that which separated us from God and restores the broken relationship. The blood of Christ exonerates sinners and removes their sin, guilt, and penalty.
Christ's substitutionary atoning death is only for those sinners who trust and receive Christ. Christ's sacrifice satisfied God's justice and provided God's free mercy. On Calvary, Jesus turned God's wrath from sinners to Himself, removing all our guilt and condemnation. Hallelujah, what a Savior! This is the marrow of the Gospel, and the very center of God's redemption plan. Christ's substitutionary death on Calvary satisfied the demands of God's justice, thus appeasing God's holy wrath against sin. Propitiation is necessary because of sin and God's wrath toward sin. (See Psa 7:11; I Thess 1:10, 5:9; Matt 3:7; John 3:36; Rom 1:18, 2:5, 5:9; Eph 2:3, 5:6; Col 3:6; Rev 6:16, 19:15)
You can only experience the forgiveness of sins and peace with God solely by faith in the complete redemption provided by Jesus Christ. The Blood of Christ is where God meets sinners today. Christ died to appease God's wrath toward you. God's wrath can only be pacified through the finished work of Christ at Calvary. God's holiness and justice was fully satisfied by Jesus there. You must place faith and trust in the Person that bled for your sins against God. Many have faith in 'their faith' and not in the Lord Jesus Christ. God will only redeem you from sin through faith, and He will only be propitiated because of the shed blood of Christ.
Salvation is free, but it is not cheap. God is a King and He's much too rich to sell His Son's Righteousness to you, and besides, you are much too poor to buy the forgiveness of your sins and everlasting life. You can only have eternal life freely, or not at all. God's does not sell His Son's unsearchable riches to poor sinners. God offers His great salvation freely, or not at all. It is either All or nothing. Grace is getting something you 'do not' deserve. The Bible says in I Peter 1:19 that Christ's blood is precious, and in Acts 20:28, His blood is called God's blood.
The cost of Calvary is beyond human computation and comprehension. When your soul comes in contact with Lamb of Calvary, the virtue of the Substitute is transferred to the sinner, and the vileness of the sinner is transferred to the Substitute. The only belief that counts with God is belief (unreserved trust) in the bleeding Lamb of God. The Judge of all the earth must do right. People demand justice from an earthly judge if they have been wronged, but human nature doesn't want justice from the Judge of heaven. Salvation is of the Lord Jesus Christ. God satisfied His divine justice and appeased His wrath toward wicked men with Christ's Blood Sacrifice.
Only a sinless man could die for a sinful man. Only Christ qualified to bear the full wrath of God against the sins of the whole world. Jesus was sinless. (See John 8:46; Luke 23:4,14,22,41,47; Acts 3:14; I Peter 1:19; 2:22, 3:18; I John 3:5; Heb 4:15, 9:14; I John 3:5; Mt 3:17; 17:5) Be humble because you are a nobody; be contrite because you are a sinner. You're nothing but a nothing, don't fool yourself. You must return to God through Christ's Blood, or you will never be right within. It is vain to look to science, education, priests, or sacraments, or any other type of religiousness: all these things put together amount to less than nothing. You don't need outward forms, you need inward grace. Your sinful soul needs much help from God.
You must have personal dealings with your Crucified Creator, and you must personally confess your sin to Him, or you will be eternally undone. You have personally sinned against God, and you must personally turn to God and receive His Son. Go and do that now. Tell Christ Himself everything you know about your sins, and ask God to have mercy upon you for Jesus’ sake. Seek to know God as He manifests Himself in Jesus. Seek Christ intensely with all your heart. Earnestly desire to be reconciled to Him. Come to the Lamb of God and be at peace with the great God who created the heaven and earth. Why should the quarrel continue between your Creator and your soul? The way of Reconciliation is only by the blood of God's Son Jesus Christ. You must, therefore, trust Jesus' blood, and only then shall you find peace with your Maker.
Because man cannot become righteous on his own, God graciously provided for the sinner's Redemption to the atoning sacrifice of His own Son. Man is utterly incapable of satisfying God's justice except by spending an Eternity in Hell. The only satisfaction, that could be acceptable to God and that could reconcile man to God had to be made by God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. For that reason, God in human flesh (Jesus Christ) gave Himself a Ransom for all. Christ appeased the wrath of God on our behalf. It was paid by God's own divine blood. Christ was a sinless sacrifice. He was the substitutionary, sinless Lamb of God. Sinners must take Christ's Righteousness by personally receiving Christ Himself into their body and soul as their personal Savior. If you receive Christ, He will receive you. Then, when God sees you, He will see His Son's blood and righteousness and is satisfied and accepts you. Jesus took your Hell on the Cross down here, so you could have His Heaven up yonder. The full fury of God's wrath was unleashed against Him, He paid it all. He did that for you.
Biblical Christianity's Gospel (good news) casts all upon a God who cannot fail and reduces all men to the same level of dependence on Christ's blood and righteousness for salvation. The Gospel eliminates human pride and self-righteousness. Boasting is excluded; it is nothing but outward pride. The Gospel of God has eliminated the possibility of self-righteous boasting. The sinner must confess his guilt and acknowledge that by the Law he is justly condemned. The person who has seen and felt his sin and understands the price of his redemption (a bleeding God) will not presume upon the grace of God. He realizes he is saved 'from' sin, not saved 'to' sin.
Everything that comes from God is Free. The sunshine, the rain, your eyesight, God doesn't charge you at all. Neither does God charge for saving us. We deserve God's eternal punishment in Hell for our flat out rebellion against His law and rejection of His Son's love. God will not payment twice demand, first at my Savior's bleeding hand, and then again at mine.
The longed-for Propitiator has come. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Jesus came into world, He chose to come in His time, He wasn't just born. He came because we were lost, enslaved to sin, unable to save ourselves, we faced the wrath of God, Judgment and Hell awaited us. We were slaves to sin, in bondage to wickedness, unregenerate, ignorant of God's righteousness, afraid of His presence, in love with the world, conquered by lust, deceived by Satan, and the enemies of God. More than anything else, we needed a Savior. Christ left His majestic throne above, bade farewell to His Father and the angels, and descended into this dark world.
God became a sinless Jewish man and lived among sinful men here on earth. The Lord Jesus Christ was truly man and truly God and free from sin. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a Jewish virgin named Mary. He grew up, went to school, had brothers and sisters, worked with His step-father as a carpenter, and went about doing good. He healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, cast out devils, raised the dead, and fed the hungry multitudes. Jesus became a poor man down here, so you could become a rich man in Eternity. He loved people, all kinds of people - good people and bad people, religious people and ungodly people, people who loved Him and people who hated Him. He was the visible expression of the invisible God. He was hungry, thirsty, weary, and tempted. He experienced joy and sorrows, grief and pain. He prayed. He suffered, bled, and died, and rose again from the dead. The Cross of Christ is God's answer for man's sin. Jesus saw me plunged in my sin and deep distress, He flew to my rescue and relief, for me He bore my sins on the shameful Cross, and carried all my grief.
Imputation is sin being transferred from our soul's account and God's Righteousness being transferred into our soul's account for Jesus' sake. The blood of Christ forgives and forgets sin, the precious blood of God covers and cancels our transgressions. When you place your heart-trust in Christ's shed blood alone, God credits Christ's Righteousness to your account. God gives your pure holiness freely. Your sinful life is charged to Christ as if He had lived it, and Christ's righteous life is credited to your soul, as if you had lived it. Only Jesus can declare you righteous, because He alone is sinless, and became your personal Substitute on Calvary's Cross. This is justification by imputation. His redemption is full and free, Christ Jesus Himself is all you need when you are living and when it comes time for you to die. (See John 1:12; 3:16-18; Romans 10:9-10; Psa 103:12; Isa 38:17; 43:25)
