Romans 3 reveals that Christ is not only the Redeemer but also the propitiation place. Romans 3:25 tells us that God set forth Christ “as a propitiation place through faith in His blood, for the demonstrating of His righteousness, in that in His forbearance God passed over the sins that had previously occurred.” To propitiate is to conciliate two parties and make them one. It is to reconcile two parties, one of which has offended the other or has become indebted to the other. Because of this problem or debt, the offended party has a demand upon the offending party, and unless his demand is satisfied, the problem between them cannot be resolved, nor can reconciliation be achieved. When these two parties have been separated and seek to be in oneness, there is the need for propitiation—the need to reconcile one by satisfying the other’s demand.
Propitiation means to make us one with God because there had been a separation between us and God. The problem that kept us from God, that made it impossible for us to have direct fellowship with Him, was our sins. Our sins kept us away from God’s presence and hindered God from coming to us. Therefore, we needed propitiation to appease God’s demands. Christ accomplished this on the cross when He made propitiation for our sins in order to reconcile us to God by satisfying God’s righteous demands on us (Heb. 2:17). On the cross He offered Himself as the propitiatory sacrifice for our sins to solve our problems with God (1 John 2:2; 4:10). In His death He propitiated for us and brought us back to God, making us one with God.
Christ is the One who makes propitiation to God for us, He is the propitiatory sacrifice, and He is also the propitiation place where God can meet with His redeemed people. The propitiation place is typified in Exodus 25:17 by the sin-covering lid on the Ark. The Ark was the place where God met with people. Underneath the lid of the Ark was the law of the Ten Commandments exposing the sinfulness of the people and condemning them; above the lid of the Ark were the two cherubim representing God’s glory and observing every action of the people. The exposing and condemning law signifies the requirements of God’s holiness and His righteousness according to the law, and the observing cherubim signify the requirements of God’s glory according to the expression of God. Unless these requirements were fulfilled and God was satisfied, there was no way for sinners to contact God and for God to communicate with them. However, by the lid of the Ark with the propitiating blood sprinkled on it on the Day of Expiation, the entire situation on the sinner’s side was fully covered. The propitiating blood sprinkled upon the propitiation cover met the requirements of the righteous law and of God’s glory. Therefore, upon this sin-covering lid God could meet with the people who broke His righteous law, and He could do this governmentally without any contradiction to His righteousness, even under the observing of the cherubim that bore His glory and overshadowed the lid of the Ark. Thus, the problem between man and God was appeased, enabling God to forgive and be merciful to man and thereby to give His grace to man. This is a prefigure of Christ as the Lamb of God taking away the sin that caused man to have a problem with God (John 1:29), thus satisfying all the requirements of God’s holiness, righteousness, and glory and appeasing the relationship between man and God. Hence, God could pass over the people’s sins that had previously occurred. Furthermore, in order to show forth His righteousness, God had to do this. This is what is referred to in Romans 3:25.
The Hebrew word for the lid of the Ark is kapporeth, from a root meaning “to cover.” In the Septuagint this word is translated hilasterion, which means “the place of propitiation,” implying to forgive and to give mercy. The word rendered “propitious” in Hebrews 8:12 is the root of hilasterion, and the word rendered “propitiated” in Luke 18:13 is derived from this root. The King James Version adopts the rendering “mercy seat,” referring to the place where God grants mercy to man. In Hebrews 9:5 Paul also used hilasterion for the lid of the Ark. Here, in Romans 3:25, the same word, hilasterion, is used to show that the lid of the Ark signifies Christ as the propitiation place set forth by God.
In addition to hilasterion, two other words derived from the same Greek word as hilasterion are used in the New Testament to show how Christ took away man’s sin to appease the relationship between man and God. One is hilaskomai (Heb. 2:17), which means “to propitiate,” that is, to appease, to reconcile one by satisfying the other’s demand; the other is hilasmos (1 John 2:2; 4:10), which means “that which propitiates,” that is, a propitiatory sacrifice. Christ made propitiation for our sins (Heb. 2:17); hence, He has become that which propitiates, the propitiatory sacrifice, between us and God (1 John 2:2; 4:10), and He has also become the place, as typified by the lid of the Ark (Heb. 9:5), where we enjoy propitiation before God and where God gives grace to us.
Christ as the propitiation place is where God is propitiated regarding the sinfulness of His people and where He takes away the problem between His people and Himself and reconciles them to Himself. Upon this propitiatory cover we have Christ as the propitiation between God and us, that is, the propitiating Christ who offered Himself as a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins to settle the problem between us and God and to reconcile us to God. Furthermore, as the propitiatory cover, Christ is the place where we, the redeemed people, can meet and speak with our righteous, holy, and glorious God, and where we can hear His voice and learn the desire of His heart (Exo. 25:22).
Although many Christians love the Lord Jesus and realize that He is so much to them, they may not know that Christ is the propitiation place, where God can meet with us and where we can contact God. Before we knew of this place, we may have been frightened by the thought of approaching God; however, now we are no longer afraid of Him. Upon Christ as the propitiation place we can meet with God. Because we have such a Christ, we need not be troubled by anything. God’s righteousness does not condemn us. On the contrary, His glory justifies us, and God Himself is happy, knowing that everything between us and Him is in harmony and that we can freely enjoy a mutually satisfying fellowship. Therefore, with Christ as the propitiatory cover, God is satisfied and we are happy; God and man can meet and have fellowship under a mutually satisfying situation.