But how could a righteous God be just and the justifier of sinners (Romans 3:26)? How could God maintain His holiness in His dealing with sin and at the same time manifest His graciousness in mercy toward the sinner? How could God provide such a meeting place and not deny Himself through compromise?

Before God was a Law which was holy and right. It was the expression of His own character and the essence of His own nature. To ignore or condone man’s rebellion and disobedience, as evidenced in that Law broken, would be to deny Himself. God could not do that; He must be true to Himself, so He must treat sin as sin and deal with it as such. It must be condemned, and its merited punishment meted out. “Even God cannot change the character of righteousness by altering, or lessening to the slightest degree, its holy demands. What is done for the satisfaction of His love in saving anyone whom His righteousness condemns, must be done in full view of all that His righteousness could ever require” (L.S. Chafer, Salvation, p. 27).

Before God was not only a broken Law, but a broken relationship, a broken bond of love which had united Him to the human race. Before Him, too, was the desperate need of those whom He loved with an everlasting love, the undone condition of those who were precious in His sight. Before Him was His own broken heart made desolate by the prodigal’s departure into the far country.

Viewing the sinner in his relationship with God, his fundamental need is a way of access and acceptance with God despite his guilt. Viewing God in His relationship with the sinner, His fundamental necessity is a way of granting favor and fellowship to the sinner despite His holiness. A meeting place between a righteous God and an unrighteous sinner is the demand made upon the righteousness of God. But it is equal to even this necessity, for in His death upon Calvary’s cross, Jesus Christ became the propitiation for the sins of the world.

1 John 2:2

“And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.”

Romans 3:25-26

²⁵ “Whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; ²⁶ for the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.”

To the spiritually-minded Christian who realizes the awful chasm sin had made between him and his God, the truth that centers around the word “propitiation” is inexpressibly precious. But it is insufferably offensive to the natural man living still in pride, rebellion, and self-satisfaction.

“Propitiation” means a mercy seat or covering, a divinely provided meeting place. In Old Testament times on the Day of Atonement, the great high priest took the blood of the sacrificial lamb into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled the Mercy Seat with it. Within the ark, under the cover of the blood, was the broken Law. The blood-sprinkled mercy seat provided a meeting place between God and the sinner where the guilty one could come to God without remembrance of his past offenses and without fear of judgment and where the Holy One could receive the sinner without compromise and yet without condemnation. “A holy God could righteously meet a sinful man, and a sinful man could fearlessly meet a holy God.”

God set forth His well-beloved Son to be such a propitiation for all the guilty sinners in all the world. Through shedding the precious blood of the Lamb of God on the cross of Calvary, such a covering for sin and for broken Law was provided. In His death, Jesus Christ honors God’s holy Law by bearing in full the punishment meted out to the sinner for breaking it. Thus, in the crucified Lord, the sinner has found a meeting place with God and a way of access into His favor and fellowship. 

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Gracious God, thank You for providing a meeting place where we sinners could have access back into Your favor and fellowship.