"He is the propitiation for our sins "
1 John 2:2
"Those that are in the flesh cannot please God. "' This is the plain teaching of Scripture. The "once-born man" cannot be what God wants him to be, what God requires him to be. Nor can he do what God requires him to do. Because this is an unalterable fact, salvation is an impossible accomplishment to man and must be wrought by God. We are born of the flesh and remain "in the flesh" until we are born of the Spirit. And until we are "born of the Spirit" we are "in the flesh." Our Lord, in His famous conversation with Nicodemus, recognized only two categories of people...those born physically only and those who also have had a spiritual birth.' There is no third group that lies between these two. Man, in Scripture, is always either saved or lost. Completely saved or totally lost...never partly one or the other. Unfortunately the world thinks of salvation as an achievement of man. As long as the once-born man, man in the flesh, thinks that he can please God by what he does, he will continue to be lost. It is only the man who realizes that salvation is beyond him, out of his reach, who will "call on the name of the Lord" and be saved. This is why God gave the Law, the Ten Commandments, to show man that he cannot save himself...that he cannot even contribute the smallest part of his salvation. All must be God's doing...all must be wrought by God. The Law is the only merit system God ever gave to man and its passing grade is 100%. If one were to keep the Law in its entirety, says James, and offend in only one point he would be guilty of breaking the whole Law.' Paul also states that the person who does not continue in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them is cursed!
No one has ever been saved at Sinai! Everyone who has ever been saved was saved at Calvary. Sinai's ministry is condemnation and death...Calvary's ministry is righteousness and life. No one ever came away from Sinai with salvation...no one ever came away from Calvary without it! God "spared not His own Son," because only the death of His Son could satisfy the demands of His justice. Let me repeat that: Only the death of His Son could satisfy the demands of His justice. Nothing less than Calvary could save us. Nothing more than Calvary is needed, if righteousness could come by human goodness then "Christ died for nothing," says Galatians.
Propitiation, in Paganism, is man taking the initiative and doingsomething to placate the wrath of the gods. For instance, the Aztecs would sacrifice 20,000 teen-age girls to escape the fury of their deities. Propitiation, in God's Word, is God taking the initiative by doing everything necessary to bridge the gap between Himself and man. Of necessity, a measureless gap must exist between an infinitely holy Being and sinners in abject ruin. A gap that could not be bridged by anything man could become or do. Only God could bridge that gap, and He could only do it by sending His Son to Calvary. This was not only the best way, but the only way. This way, says Paul, is the genius of God, though men find it foolishness.
Two facts stand out plainly in the Bible. First, that God being just cannot be satisfied with anything that man can be or do. Second, that God is perfectly satisfied with everything that Christ is and has done for man. To insist that God would be foolish to save man gratuitously.. .without any strings attached is to disregard the infinite worth of the life of God's Son spent at Calvary to save man from his ruin. Those who admit that God saves by grace through faith plus nothing, but insist that God only saves those who obey Him, are trying to keep God from making a bad bargain. But salvation is not a bargain! It was never meant to be. Salvation is a demonstration of the measureless generosity of God in providing ultimate blessing for His enemies at infinite cost to Himself. The eternal lesson for men and angels is not that God has the ability necessary to deal shrewdly, but that He has the love necessary to act graciously. God driving a good bargain would not surprise anyone. God the Father judging God the Son for man's sin shocks everyone! A savior who needed or required man's obedience to complete man's salvation would fit well in any pagan belief system. A God who justifies the ungodly, who declares wrong people right because He Himself has provided a perfect righteousness for them, is an offense to man and his religion. Even when religion calls itself "Christianity."
If man is to be saved, God must save him...and God alone! And God must save him by pure grace. Could grace be less than pure? The objection to pure grace is that it is "cheap" grace. Nothing that cost God the life of His Son could be cheap. Grace is a gift. And a gift, to be a gift, must be totally free. A gift is always free to one party because fully paid for by another. The donor of a gift pays for it...the recipient does not. Herein lies the simplicity of the gospel. Eternal life is a free gift paid for by God the Son on a cruel and criminal cross. God the Father can give it out freely to those who need it and want it, because His Son paid for it. God never collects a debt twice. The fact that eternal life is a free gift means that it can only be received one way... as a gift. It cannot be worked for, paid for, bought, earned, merited, or even deserved. God's grace regards neither man's merit nor his demerit.'" The best person on Earth needs salvation as desperately as the worst person. The worst person on Earth can have it as readily as the best person. Salvation stands firmly on the grounds of Christ's finished crosswork, and on that alone. It could not possibly be otherwise. For Christ to be the Savior, He alone must save. This is where man's religion, even when it calls itself "Christianity," goes astray. It is willing to accept a merciful God, just as long as He shows mercy to those who are somehow deserving. It is not willing to accept a propitious God who gladly grants Heaven to those who deserve Hell.