Pagan Propitiation vs. Biblical Propitiation
This spring’s Gospel
Project for Adults and Students leads participants
through the “Atonement Thread,” which helps people put the Bible together
to see how the theme of atonement runs from Genesis to Revelation.
Here’s how the series has
shaped up so far:
- Penal substitution - Brandon Smith
- Redemption - Nancy Guthrie
- Ransom - Jared Wilson
- Moral influence - Matt Capps
- Expiation – Adam Mabry
Today, Fred Sanders
explains the concept of “propitiation” and how the biblical picture differs
from the ancient pagan understandings.
Fred Sanders is an
evangelical Protestant theologian with a passion for the great tradition of
Christian thought. He is the author of many books, including The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything,
and Wesley on the Christian Life. Since 1999 he has
taught in the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University.
PROPITIATION
“Propitiation” is one of
those five-syllable theological words that tend to break up polite parties. But
it’s also a word that’s well worth the work of understanding, because whether
we know it or not, all of us are walking around working on some sort of plan
for propitiation. The big question is whether our plan is a Christian one.
The Ancient Meaning
Here’s what I mean:
Propitiation is an ancient word, which we as Christians have in common with
other world religions. To propitiate a
god is to offer a sacrifice that turns aside the god’s wrath. Anyone who
believes in a god knows that they need some way to stay on the friendly side of
that god. So they give gifts to the god, or serve in the temple, or give alms.
And if the god is angry with them, they pay a price, or make a sacrifice, or
find some way to soothe the god’s anger: they propitiate him.
This description may
conjure up images of animistic tribes cravenly placating their volcano gods by
tossing in victims; and in fact some modern Christians have argued that,
whatever the Old Testament may have been about, the New Testament can’t
possibly have anything to do with propitiation. But the fact is, the idea that
God’s wrath must be turned aside by a sacrifice is very much a New Testament
idea. It’s just that, as John Stott has argued, “the Christian doctrine of
propitiation is totally different from pagan or animistic superstitions.”
Pagan Propitiation
vs. Biblical Propitiation
In pagan propitiation,
the gods need to be propitiated because they are grumpy and capricious. They
don’t care much about humans except when something makes them angry; then they
smite! And it’s up to humans to get busy doing the propitiating, to make up for
whatever they’ve done that angered the gods. The humans find something that the
gods like (sweets, or meat, or pain, or blood), and offer it as a bribe to calm
down their wrathful deities.
But every aspect of biblical
propitiation contrasts with the pagan kind.
- First, consider why God requires propitiation: not because he’s moody or easily provoked, but because he is holy and just. God responds to sin with absolute consistency, and his “wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness” (Rom 1:18).
- Second, consider who carries out biblical propitiation: not humans on their own initiative figuring out what God likes, but God himself declaring what kind of sacrifice he accepts, and then providing it. Even in the Old Testament, God takes credit for providing the blood of animal sacrifice (“I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement,” Leviticus 17:11).
- And third, consider what kind of sacrifice brings about biblical propitiation: not a bribe or something nice to tide him over. No, in the fullness of time, God fulfills the Old Testament symbolism by giving his own Son to die for us.
As Stott summarizes, in
biblical propitiation, “God himself gave himself to save us from himself.”
This stark difference
between pagan and biblical propitiation is the background for the bold
statements the New Testament makes: that we are “justified by his grace as a
gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a
propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans
3:24-25); and “he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our
sins” (1
John 4:10). In both cases, the apostles use the Greek word hilasterion
(also five syllables!), best translated by our big word propitiation.
Why Propitiation
Matters
One reason it’s so important to
grasp what biblical propitiation is, is so that we can make sure our plan is
the biblical one rather than one of our own devising.
In daily life there is a
constant temptation to ignore Christ as our God-given propitiation, and to seek
other ways of cutting little deals with God, to curry his favor and appease his
wrath, to give him something he’ll like so he’ll at least refrain from smiting
us, and maybe even reward us with various blessings and goodies.
Don’t do this.
To lapse into pagan modes
of propitiation is to take way too much onto your own shoulders (you’re not big
enough or good enough to propitiate the true God) and attempt to solve it with
entirely inappropriate resources (your sin isn’t small enough to be set aside
by those little offerings).
Everybody needs a plan
for getting on the right side of the gods. But if the true God has made his character
known as it is found in the Bible, then there’s only one way of propitiation:
the one that God himself put forward in the blood of Jesus, to be received by
faith, the one who is his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
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