Propitiation

We are going through the book of Romans on Wednesday evenings.

Paul writes in Romans 3:25, "God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement (speaking of Jesus)." 

The King James version used the word, "propitiation"

It means to "turn away wrath by offering a gift."

Pagan religions are built on the concept of propitiation, whereby a devoted person brings a chicken, a goat, a lamb, or a plate of food and offers it to his god (I saw this in Bali, Indonesia - where most follow the Hindu religion).

By bringing the blood of a chicken, the followers of voodoo hope to appease the evil spirits and turn away their wrath.

To use an illustration that is more culturally relevant for you and I, it would be as if a husband stops by a flower shop on the way home to buy flowers for his wife (after a horrific verbal "discussion"). 

He hopes the offering of flowers will turn away the "wrath" of his spouse and restore the relationship.

In the Old Testament (as we will see tonight), the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies once a year - on the Day of Atonement - bringing with him the blood of a bull.  When he sprinkled the blood on the Mercy Seat - the lid of the Ark of the Covenant - that blood was accepted by God as an "atonement" or a "covering" for the sins of the people.

I am, and remain, and will always be grateful for the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross.  It is by that sacrifice that God's wrath against my sins is taken away.

How about you?

Just a thought for a Wednesday.