I hope that we all agree that we must not edit the Bible to match the preconceptions or our theology. It is the Bible student’s job to bring his doctrine into agreement with the Word of God. There are multitudes of religious people who magnify their creeds and confessions over the Bible. And as a result when they read the Bible it is through the lense of their favorite confession. They don’t let the Bible speak when it disagrees with what they believe. They tell God’s Word what they want it to mean.
That being said, I must begin this morning with a word of warning: Some of you are going to hear me say things which might contradict what you have been taught in the past. Men of God have been vociferously arguing over this subject for at least the past three hundred years. All I ask is that you listen to what the Holy Spirit has to say, whether you agree with me or not. And for those who haven’t had any instruction on this subject before, what I hope that what you will hear will make perfect sense in the simple light of the two verses before us. The title for this sermon is: “The Solicitor’s Satisfaction,” which I will explain in a few minutes.
Before we get to the Solicitor/advocate in verse 1, let’s consider another advocate from a thousand years ago. Turn to II Samuel 13, if you’d like to follow along. David, King of Israel, had a number of children; some of whom were good kids, while others were wicked. One of those wicked sons, Amnon, raped his half-sister, Tamar. Verse 14: “He would not harken unto her voice; but, being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her. Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had lover her.” Obviously, his definition of “love” was actually lust. Verse 21: “When king David heard of all these things, he was very wroth,” but he did nothing to punish his son. Despite what David felt for his son, Amnon deserved to be executed for his crime. Didn’t he feel anything for his daughter? Where was his love for her?
Absalom, another of David’s sons, was the full brother of Tamar. Verse 22: “Absalom hated Amnon, because he had forced his sister Tamar.” For two years the wrath of Absalom simmered away, thoroughly poisoning him, as wrath often does. Verse 28: “Now Absalom had commanded his servants, saying, Mark ye now when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine, and when I say unto you, Smite Amnon; then kill him, fear not: have not I commanded you? Be courageous, and be valiant. And the servants of Absalom did unto Amnon as Absalom had commanded.” Verse 37: “But Absalom fled, and went to Talmai, the son of Ammihud, king of Geshur. And DAVID mourned for his son every day. So Absalom fled, and went to Geshur, and was there three years. And the soul of king David longed to go forth unto Absalom: for he was comforted concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead.”
To summarize: Amnon was a wicked man, who died because of his sin. Absalom was a wicked man, who was exiled because of his sin, resulting in no fellowship with his father.
Now we come to the point of this illustration. Joab, David’s nephew, took steps to restore Absalom to his office as a Prince in Israel. It is hard to say whether it was Joab’s love for Absalom or David, or if it wasn’t purely selfish and political. Joab hired a actress and gave her a fictitious, plausible story, to use in an effort to set up the king. She pretended to be a widow with two sons, one of whom murdered the other. And now, according to the fiction, the murderer was about to be executed. David was emotionally manipulated to the point of saying in II Samuel 14:11: “as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth.” At that point the woman finished the narrative Joab had given her, pointing out the similarity between her story and that of Absalom. The king was caught in this judicial trap and decreed that Absalom could return to Jerusalem. “So Absalom returned to his own house (BUT) he saw not the king’s face” – verse 24. And verse 28: “So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king’s face.” The anger of David, and the anger of law against Absalom, were effectively removed. But there still wasn’t any fellowship between the king and his murdering son. Then in the last verse of chapter 14, Absalom manipulated things to the point that he and his father made up. But it was not genuine, and eventually Absalom led an unsuccessful military coop against his own father.
Now, let’s return to I John 2:1 to consider the Lord’s ADVOCATE.
“If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” John has established the fact that we are all sinners – Christians, atheists, Hindu and Muslims – all sinners. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. And, “if we say that we have not sinned, we make (God) a liar, and his word is not in us.” Despite these two truths about us and sin, it is possible for God’s people to live relatively sin free. First, there is the possibility of forgiveness though the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. And second, there is the possibility of relatively sin-free living, through the blessing of the Holy Spirit. And so John exhorts us, “My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not.” But thank God, “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
For the sake of this message, I am reverting to British law by calling this “Advocate” our “Solicitor.” In English jurisprudence there are two kinds of lawyers: solicitors and barristers. The barristers are the ones with the silly wigs standing in the courtroom before the judge with his silly wig. The solicitor, on the other hand, is the counselor, advocate and often the comforter working behind the scenes in the offices and homes of the clients.
The Greek word “advocate” is usually translated “comforter” in our Bibles. This is the only verse in the Bible where it is rendered “advocate.” You could say that the advocate argues, or solicits, peace on behalf of His clients – the believer. The Lord Jesus said in John 16:7: “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the COMFORTER (advocate) will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” And He said in John 14:16: “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another COMFORTER, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of Truth…” While the Holy Spirit is God’s comforter IN us, the Lord Jesus is our advocate FOR us before the Father. So there are two divine comforters – there are two advocates, who work in complete agreement on the saint’s behalf: God the Spirit and God the Son. Here John says, “So you’ve sinned again. Shame on you.” “Sin not.” But praise the Lord, there is comfort in that the Christian has a solicitor at work before the Father.
And, again, who is that advocate? Let’s not be mistaken: He is “Jesus Christ the righteous.” He is righteous; He is holy. He has never sinned, and the sinful blood of Adam has never flowed through his veins. He is perfectly fit to advocate on our behalf. Our solicitor is God’s Son, Jesus Christ – God’s only begotten Son. “And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Every Christian should take comfort in the fact that the Son of God, who shed His blood as a sacrifice on the cross, is now the advocate on our behalf. And remember: “God hath made him to be sin for us, who know no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” – II Corinthians 5:21.
Christ Jesus is not only our ADVOCATE, but in addition to that, He is our PROPITIATION.
Here is a word that doesn’t come up in reading the legal novels of John Grisham or Michael Connelly. It is a Bible word with a legal scent to it. In English, Noah Webster defines it as: “The act of APPEASING wrath and CONCILIATING the favor of an offended person.” The Bible tells us that propitiation is something which Christ did toward God the Father on our behalf. He has satisfied the demand of God’s law against us. He has so pleased the Father for us that divine wrath has not yet been poured out against us.
This is how our illustration from the life of David reflects on this New Testament doctrine. Absalom and his father were estranged because of Absalom’s murder of Amnon. Absalom had no fellowship with the light; he was walking in darkness – I John 1. Then, in stepped an advocate, a solicitor, a comforter – the unnamed widow of Tekoah. She negotiated an appeasement of the wrath that David had against his murderous son. And Absalom returned to Jerusalem without having to face any immediate punishment for his crime. But – he still had no fellowship with his father the king. This was not complete restoration. Please remember: this is just an illustration, so there are flaws in the picture.
Biblically, the word “propitiation” is interesting, fascinating and an incredible blessing to the believer. The Greek word is found only here and in only one New Testament verse – which we read earlier. I John 4:7 – “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The absolute highest example of love in action is that God, the One offended by our sins… The triune God has ordained that God the Son would become the means of His own propitiation. God’s wrath against us has been appeased through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross. We have been brought back to Jerusalem, so to speak. But that is not the same as living in the palace and dining at the table of the King of kings.
I won’t muddy the waters by defining and describing them, but the Greek word “propitiation” has three cousins. Adding them together they paint a most blessed picture. The Lord once told us about a publican who went into the temple to pray, standing beside a Pharisee. I presume they both had offered their sacrifices. The blood had been shed, and the smoke of their offerings was ascending toward heaven. As we are told in Luke 18:13 the Roman tax collector, the obvious sinner, “would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be MERCIFUL to me a sinner.” The word “merciful” in this case is essentially saying, “be propitiated” – don’t be angry with me Lord. And that request was based on the sacrifice he had made. The writer to the Hebrews described the Lord Jesus as “a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make RECONCILIATION for the sins of the people” – Hebrews 2:17. In this case, “reconciliation” is a word related to “propitiation.” Later in Hebrews God says, “For I will be MERCIFUL to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” – Hebrews 8:12. And still later in Hebrews when describing the Old Testament tabernacle, the writer says of the ark of the covenant, “And over it (hovered) the cherubims of glory shadowing the MERCYSEAT.” It was at the Mercyseat that the blood of the atonement was sprinkled once a year. And in that blood, at that place, God’s wrath against Israel was satisfied for a year. That atonement didn’t actually save a single person, but God was propitiated. And finally, in what is perhaps the most important chapter in all the Bible, Romans 3, Paul says, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a PROPITIATION through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
Adding verse to verse, scripture to scripture, it is clear that through Christ Jesus, the Son of God, the wrath of God against us has been satisfied. The solicitor in this epic arrangement has been the Lord Jesus. The propitiation has become the legal satisfaction of the wrath of God against the sinner. Propitiation is an important part of the sinner’s salvation – my salvation and your’s if you are a Christian.
And with that we come to the SCOPE of that propitiation.
Christ “is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Christ is the divine solicitor who has arranged a satisfaction for our sins before God – the believer’s sins. But John goes on in our scripture: “but also for the sins of the whole world.” How can Christ be the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, while more than 90% of the people of the world are dying and going to hell? Many theologians explain that problem through their definition of the “world.” But others explain it with the definition of the word “propitiation.”
Many excellent men see the word “world” (kosmos) and define it in a general, or non-specific, way. They say that it refers to believers from all the various peoples, tribes and nations on earth. Christ provides propitiation for Christians from the United States, Canada, France and Mexico. He is the salvation of people from North America, South America, Africa and Asia. What many of those men mean is that Christ is the Saviour of both Jews and the Gentiles of the world. It was common for Jews to speak the non-Jews as “the world.” To these folk, Christ is the Redeemer of many people of Israel and also many who are not of Israel. In some scriptures that is the best way to understand the word – the Jews versus the rest of the world.
But notice that this verse isn’t comparing Jews and Gentiles; it is a comparison of believers and the world. If the Christian sins, he has an Advocate with the Father: Jesus Christ the righteous. That Advocate is the propitiation for our sins, “and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” The adjective in this verse takes the generic “world” to a different level – “the whole kosmos.” John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.” I believe that the word “world” in that verse speaks of the kosmos in a general sense. But when the word is amplified with “the whole world,” it is meaning become more specific.
What did John mean in 5:19: ”We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” Was he saying that Canada is a wicked country and so are Peru and Bolivia? Or was he saying that wickedness is pervasive and universal – affecting and infecting every individual throughout the whole world? It appears to me that when we find the words “the whole world,” in the New Testament, it is if often speaking of all the individuals of the whole world. For example, our commission is to “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Our job is not to go into “all nations,” and post a sign or buy an advertisement that says, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” We are to tell every individual we can find who will listen to us. In the case of our gospel commission: “all the world” means everyone. And in regard to the lady who anointed His feet, Christ said, “Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.”
This is not the way I was taught, but today, I believe that Christ is the propitiation for sins of everyone. But if that is the case, why aren’t all the people of earth saved? It is because “propitiation” is not a synonym for “salvation.” They are not equivalents. “Propitiation” is not the same thing as “justification;” it is not “regeneration.” It is not a synonym for “eternal life.” Propitiation “is the act of appeasing wrath and conciliating the favor of the holy God.” It is a necessary part of God’s method of saving us from our sins. It is a first step.
David and his son were estranged because of Absalom’s sin. The law which David was supposed to uphold, demanded Absalom’s execution. So Absalom fled for his life, because he knew that he was in jeopardy. But an advocate was brought in, and through her the law’s wrath was conciliated. And yet, it was not until Absalom bowed before the king that he was restored to fellowship. The propitiation was not enough.
Why is it that the sex trafficker, the serial rapist, and the mass murderer sometimes live such long lives? If man doesn’t take action, why doesn’t God execute that evil man? Is that the Lord doesn’t really govern this world? Is it that He is not a true and righteous judge? Can’t He deal with all the wickedness in the world? Of course He can. But as Lamentations tells us, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassion fail not.” Mercifully, propitiation has temporarily stanched God’s wrath against the unbeliever. It has provided time for the wicked to repent and to turn from their idols to the true and living God.
How can we tell the most wicked person that we know, that if he would repent before God and put his faith in Christ, the Lord will save him? How can we honestly think that Adolph Hitler, Jeffrey Epstein, Joseph Stalin, Ted Bundy could have been saved, if they had come to Christ, if was impossible? It wasn’t impossible as long as they remained alive in this world. Isn’t our text telling us that Christ has opened a door? God’s wrath has not fallen on any of us, because Christ is the propitiation for our sins.
But that still doesn’t eliminate the need for our repentance before God. It doesn’t do away with the need for humble faith in Christ. Until we put our hands on the head of the sacrifice, and trust the promise of God in the death of Christ on the cross, we remain dead in our sins. Until you bow to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrifice of Christ will have no eternal effect for your soul. So I plead with you once again: repent before God and believe on Jesus Christ, the righteous – on Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God’s mercy toward you thus far in your life, in that you are still alive despite your sins… God’s mercy toward you need to be acknowledge and you need to repent and put your trust in the sacrifice which the Lord Jesus made for sin.