Propitiation

I'm a visual learner and a journal-er.  If I want to retain anything, I generally have to write it out in my own words.  My church has been reading through the Bible in a year, and right now we're on Jeremiah.  In my personal Bible reading, I've been studying 1 John.  The themes of these two books combined really well today and reminded me what exactly Christ did for me and why I try to choose to do the right thing everyday.  In essence, this is why I am a Christian.

Jeremiah is a sad book and he's not called "The Weeping Prophet" for no reason.  Going through the Bible chronologically has really helped set the scene for how bad the people of Israel (and more specifically, Judah) have become.  Their list of sins starts with being immoral and unfaithful to God and progresses down to sacrificing children to their wooden idols.  I won't go into their covenant with God, their broken promises of faithfulness to Him, and God's warning of what will happen if they don't follow His commands.  Suffice it to say that they have finally worn out God's patience. The book of Jeremiah illustrates their sin and God's wrath.  This is why I say it's been good to read it chronologically, because otherwise you don't necessarily understand why God is so angry with them.  But they do deserve His wrath and He is about to unleash it upon them. 

The book of 1 John is all about love, specifically God's love for us (and our love for our brothers).  Think the Beatles, "All You Need is Love" and you've got 1 John, because all you need is God's love and to understand how He's shown His love to us.  There's another theme in 1 John about Jesus being the Incarnate son of God, but whenever anyone says, "God is Love," they're quoting this book. 

There's one key verse in 1 John 4, though. It's verse 10, "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."  Obviously, the key word in this verse would be propitiation.  To propitiate means to appease or turn away wrath.  This verse expresses the idea that Christ turned away God's wrath from us.  But He didn't just turn it away.  He took the fullness of God's wrath upon Himself. 

So remember those Israelites who were so debauched, so wicked and depraved that they had earned the full onslaught of God's wrath and punishment?  According to 1 John, I can put myself in their place.  Maybe I wasn't so far down that slippery slope, but I have definitely done things to earn God's anger.  But Christ took that anger upon Himself for me.  I never have to worry about facing any sort of condemnation from God.  There's another verse in 1 John that goes with this.  It's 1 John 3:20, "...for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything."  So whenever I've felt guilt in my heart, God knows even more so than I do exactly how guilty I am.  But that is love, that He sent His Son to take that guilt for me.

There is a cohesiveness to the Old and New Testaments.  In the Old Testament, we are allowed to see just how much God hates sin and how unfaithful we as humans can be to Him.  We learn to fear the wrath of God.  In the New Testament, we learn that He loves us so much He sent His Son to take our punishment, to take our guilt, upon Himself so that He could restore that relationship with us.  1 John 4: 18 & 19, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.  For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.  We love because He first loved us."

So that is what Christ did for me, and that is why I daily try to choose to do the right thing.  Because 1 John also says that if you love Him then you obey Him.  John seems to emphasize two commandments for us to obey:  1) Love God (and not the world) and 2) Love your brother.