Title Satisfaction (Lent Day 32 Sermon)
Satisfaction
1 John 4:9-10
9 And thus was revealed the love of God to us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Here is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent his Son as a propitiation for our sins.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. (NKJV)
When God sent his Son into this world to give us life, God's love and grace was revealed through our weakness. We were then dead for our sins, but we are raised to life in Christ. This is why we have come to know true love. We did not come to know the love of God through our own experiences, but we came to know the love of God through Christ dying on the cross for us. God showed His love for us by sending His Son as a “propitiation” for our sins.
So, what is a “professional offering”? The literal meaning of the word “propitiation” is “an atoning sacrifice.” And this word comes from the verb “propitiate”, which means “to gain or regain the favor or goodwill of”. Taken together, the word peace offering means “a sacrifice offered to gain God’s favor.” In general, the theological term for the word reconciliation is “atonement.” According to records, the word “atonement” was first coined by William Tyndale. Thinking about the meaning of the cross of Christ, Tyndale knew that there was no word in the English language that could contain both the concepts of “forgiveness of sins and thereby reconciliation with God,” so he coined the words necessary for that purpose. So, in 1526, he first used the word “atonement” in his translated English Bible. This word is a combination of the words “at” and “onement”. The words “at” and “onement” both mean “reconciliation”. However, Tyndale wanted to create another meaning by combining “at” and “onement.” It was what he meant by the Hebrew word “Yom Kippur”. In Hebrew, “kaper” means “a covering.” It means “cover”.
The commonly used word “reconciliation” means “to sit again”. However, the meaning of “covering our sins” cannot be expressed in these words. Tyndale created the word “atonement” for that purpose, containing the combined meaning of “to reconcile” and “to cover”.
So, what does it mean that Christ became the “propitiation” for us? It means “a sacrifice offered for the favor of God.” That is, Jesus is the sacrifice that made God “satisfaction”. Jesus came into this world to be the satisfaction for our sins. Then, for whose satisfaction are you here? He came to satisfy God. Do you know why? God is above all a God of justice. He doesn't just overlook injustice. Such a God was very offended by our sins. People did not respect God's law, and they looked down on God's law and looked down on it. No one feared God's law. This was rebellion against God. Everyone, be sure to know. The sin of breaking the law is rebellion against God. It is against God. It is a violation of God's glory and God's justice. These people deserve God's judgment and punishment.
If God forgives such a person without judging them, there must be a reason for forgiveness. There must be a reason to satisfy the heart of God, the God of justice. Jesus came to satisfy God. God's justice was satisfied because Jesus, the sinless Son of God, died for all human sins.
God was completely satisfied with the sacrificial death of his Son. Do you know what the voice from heaven was when Jesus was baptized? “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). The same heavenly voice was heard when Jesus went up to the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:5). Heavenly Father was perfectly satisfied with his Son. In other words, His Son's death on the cross gave God complete satisfaction to forgive our sins.
Everyone, I don't know how much you understand the word "propitiation" I talked about today. It was because of God's love that Jesus was sent into this world. After all, isn't this saying that this love of God satisfied God's justice? So, for our salvation, God has done everything. God did it all “within Himself.” Knowing this, we have nothing to say about our salvation. God did everything from beginning to end. God's love satisfies God's justice.
The reason our minds are not satisfied despite these mechanical and theoretical explanations is that our emotions do not fully understand this, so it does not reach the heart. Jesus, the Son of God, took the punishment we deserved. In doing so, we have a justification for God to forgive our sins. How is this possible? The Bible says that all this was possible because of God's love. Isn't that the verse of Romans 5:8 that we memorized? “God demonstrates his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Here is something we must not overlook. It is the pain of God who gave His Son for us. No one even knows the pain of God. No one speaks. “While we were still sinners, and in our weakness we could do nothing for our own salvation,” God sent His Son to us as a propitiation. God endured all the “pain” of killing His Son. Because of his compassion for us as sinners, because of his compassion for us, who could not do anything for their own salvation, God endured all the pain and accepted it.
To put it figuratively, God wanted to test how much Abraham loved him. He cruelly ordered me to sacrifice a son who was born over 100 years old. God wanted to test whether Abraham loved his son more or God more. The Bible does not mention Abraham's suffering. It is said that Abraham prepared early the next day and took Isaac to the mountain God directed.
Abraham demonstrated how much he loved God by giving the life of his beloved son to God. Because God already knew Abraham's heart, He took hold of Abraham's hand as he was about to strike the sword. “Abraham, Abraham, do not lay your hand on the child, and do nothing to him; for you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me; now I know that you fear God (Genesis 22:11-12). .” God took the life of a goat instead of the life of Isaac. God had prepared a goat in advance. Abraham gave the name of the God he experienced at that time, “Jehovah Jireh”, meaning “it will be prepared on the mountain of the Lord.”
Instead of Isaac, a male goat died. The goat is Jesus Christ, who died the atoning death. He was a propitiation sacrifice prepared by God himself, Jehovah Jirei. In Genesis 22, Abraham's pain of having to sacrifice his own son because he loved God is described. In the New Testament, God's pain by offering his son as a sacrifice because he loves the world is described. God endured the pain of giving up his own son because of his “sympathy” with those who could not do anything for their own salvation and who had a fate that if left alone they would all die. Theologians try to explain all of this process under the name of “satisfaction theory”, but no matter where you look after washing your eyes, there is no mention of “God’s pain”.
we need to know Our salvation was possible because of God's pain. We were saved at the price of God's pain. Our sins were that great and great. It was so great that God, the Creator and Owner of the whole world, had to suffer. Meditate and pray about “God’s pain” this morning.