We're thinking this week about the work of Christ, what he's done for us.

The author of Hebrews, you remember, tells us that he is able to save us completely.

But if this is true, then what Christ has done for us, what we often refer to

as His work, must meet our needs. But here we should pause. I suspect some people assume

they know what their needs are. And the danger of that assumption is that we then begin

to assess Christ's work in terms of

our understanding of our own needs.

We actually need to turn things round and assess our needs in the light of what Christ has

done, because we only really understand our needs when we see what he had to do in order to meet them.

So for the rest of the week I want to think about four New Testament words that help us to understand our needs and Christ's work.

The first is propitiation. Paul uses it in Romans 3, verse 25. God put Christ forward

as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith, and John uses it in 1 John

2, 2. Christ is the propitiation for our sins and not only for ours, but for the sins of the whole

world.

But what does propitiation mean?

It's not a word family that we use much today.

Well, it's the idea of doing something that averts or exhausts the anger or the wrath of another.

So when Paul and John speak about the Lord Jesus as a propitiation,

the thinking back to the temple sacrifices that were made in recognition that because of human sin and rebellion,

the people were exposed to the wrath of God and a sacrifice needed to be made.

Maybe that's the reason we don't speak much today about propitiation.

We don't much like thinking about the wrath of God, and we like even less thinking that we're

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