1 John 2:1-6 My little children, these things write I to you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father… The propitiation made by our Lord Jesus Christ lies at the foundation of the whole system of Christianity, so that a weakness there involves a weakness everywhere. I. By propitiation is meant the complete satisfaction of the claims of the law on the sinner by the infliction of the law's penalty on the Lord Jesus Christ as the sinner's substitute; and our first business will be to consider the principle in which the whole originates. This principle is, that the authority of law must be maintained by the lawgiver, and that when the law has been broken the sentence of the law must be carried into effect (2 Samuel 23:3). But if law is maintained it will lead in many cases to a conflict between law and love. There must have been just such a conflict in the mind of Brutus when his sons were convicted of conspiracy against the republic. In that case law said they must die, but love must have said, "Let them live." Law said, "Condemn," and love must have said, "Have mercy." We have a similar illustration of this conflict between law and love in the case of David. When Absalom had murdered his brother Amnon, he fled to Geshur, and there remained for three years in banishment. "The soul of King David longed," or "was consumed," "to go forth unto Absalom." Love, therefore, would have restored him, but law forbade his restoration. David was king, and therefore responsible for the administration of law. He was compelled, therefore, to keep Absalom in banishment at the very time that his own soul was consumed by the tender love he felt towards him. Now, cannot we believe in exactly the same conflict between law and love in the mind of a perfectly holy God? There is in Him a righteousness infinitely more righteous, and a love infinitely more tender, than was ever known in man; and can anyone be surprised either that His law cannot be set aside, or that His love yearns over the sinner even at the very time that He passes His own just sentence on the sin? People speak of the punishment of sin as if it were cruel and vindictive; but it may be a stern necessity imposed on a tender heart by the righteous claims of a violated law. Now, then, we are brought face to face with the great difficulty that has called forth the gospel, viz. this: In what way can the law be vindicated, and yet the sinner who has broken it be saved? There is a very remarkable passage in the words of the woman of Tekoah, when she went to David respecting the restoration of Absalom, in which she said of God, God does not "respect any person: yet doth He devise means, that His banished be not expelled from Him" (2 Samuel 14:14). According to that statement, He shows no partiality; but yet without partiality He has contrived a plan by which the offender may be forgiven. What, then, is this plan? This plan is propitiation. It is none other than that proposed by Judah, when, having undertaken to be surety for Benjamin, he said to Joseph (Genesis 44:33), "Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren." His proposal was that there should be an act of substitution. So, in His boundless grace and mercy, our righteous God gave the Son to be bondsman in our place, and the Son accepted the suretyship and suffered. Thus the law has been vindicated and the sin punished, while at the same time the love is satisfied and the sinner set free. This is what is meant by propitiation (Romans 3:26). I am, of course, perfectly aware that there are those who reject this doctrine of substitution, and others who, while they accept it, see in it difficulties which they find it hard to explain. This is the one Divine plan which is taught throughout the Scriptures. It was prefigured in type as in all the sacrifices of the Levitical typical system; and preeminently in the type, of the scapegoat (Leviticus 16:21). It was predicted in prophecy, as, for example, by Isaiah (Isaiah 53:6). So it was taught by the apostles (Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 3:18; 1 John 4:10). And, above all, by the mysterious conduct of our Lord Himself as His death was drawing near, which, I do not hesitate to affirm, can be explained on no other supposition. II. This, then, being the principle, THERE ARE THREE GREAT CONCLUDING TRUTHS TO BE FOREVER WRITTEN ON OUR MEMORIES AND HEARTS. 1. The Divine propitiation is complete. The whole and every part is completed forever. In the typical sacrifices there were two parts in each typical propitiation — the death of the substitute, and the offering, or presentation, of the blood before one of the altars, or the mercy seat. The atonement was not completed by the death alone, but it was necessary that the death should be followed up by the presentation of the blood. Now, in the Divine propitiation both parts have been completed. The one sacrifice has been once offered, and the whole is finished. The blood was shed on Calvary, and sprinkled or presented, when "by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Hebrews 9:25, 26). The death and the offering were two parts of the one transaction, and the whole of that transaction was complete when He rose from the dead, and was accepted as the beloved Son completely free from the killing guilt of imputed sin. 2. The Divine propitiation is final. If there were the possibility of any repetition, there is no room left for it. "Where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin" (Hebrews 10:18). If, therefore, remission is granted according to the covenant of God, if we are enjoying His promise, "their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more," and if, according to verse 14, "by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified," what place is there for any further propitiatory offering of any kind whatever? Who can perfect that which God has already perfected? 3. And this brings me to my last point — the Divine propitiation is sufficient. By this I mean that it is so complete and perfect in the covenant of God that those who are saved by it are made partakers of a complete reconciliation. There are many persons who appear to be satisfied with what I may call a partial reconciliation. They dare not accept the position of one whose every sin has been blotted out, and to whom there is no barrier in the way of a full, free, unfettered enjoyment of the love of God. They are not unlike Absalom when he returned from Geshur and remained three years at Jerusalem without being permitted to see his father's face. They are not as he was when in Geshur, for they are in the midst of religious life as he was in Jerusalem, but they are not fully restored. The result is that their religion is one of little more than anxiety, and they begin to think that it was almost better with them when they were altogether in the world. But this is not the result of an all-sufficient Divine propitiation. There is nothing in this half-and-half character in our Heavenly Father's provision for us. The veil of separation has been rent from the top to the bottom, and as the curse of all sin has been completely and forever borne, it is the privilege of every soul that is in Christ Jesus to approach the mercy seat of our most holy God with the same peaceful, loving, filial trust that he would have felt if he had never known sin. (E. Hoare, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: |
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