Hilasterion - Propitiation and the Mercy Seat
The Greek word hilasterion (ἱλαστήριον) is often translated in Romans 3:25 as "propitiation," "atonement," or "sacrifice [of atonement]" in Western conservative biblical translations. In Hebrews 9:5 it is generally translated as "mercy seat" or "atonement cover," where this is the clear meaning of the word.
- Romans 3:25: whom God put forward as a propitiation [Greek, hilasterion] by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
- Hebrews 9:5: Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat [Greek, hilasterion]. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
In Greek thought, hilasterion is specifically related to the cycle of wrath and appeasement between the deities and humans. The word, hilasterion literally means propitiation. It does not literally mean "mercy seat" but was adopted by the Septuagint (LXX) translators as a means to describe the mercy seat.
Word usage. Hilasterion is used twice in the New Testament (Romans 3:25 and Hebrews 9:5), but is one of four closely related words used in the New Testament:
- hilaskomai (2433) propitiate, conciliate, make gracious, be gracious in Luke 18:13 and Hebrews 2:17.
- hileos (2436) gracious, merciful Matthew 16:22 and Hebrews 8:12.
- hilasmos (2434) propitiation, propitiatory sacrifice (1 John 2:2), (1 John 4:10).
- hilasterion (2435) that which propitiates, means of propitiation, mercy-seat in Romans 3:25, Hebrews 9:5.
The meaning of "expiation" and "propitiation". Together, expiation and propitiation constitute an act of placation —def. to make (someone) less angry or hostile. Expiation has to do with the act of placating and propitiation has to do with the object of the expiation. Expiation and propitiation are not antithetical but are describing two sides of the same coin. In Biblical terms, expiation is taking away the guilt through a payment or offering and propitiation is the change in attitude of the one being placated.
God at work. The context of Romans 3:25 is telling us that God and not Jesus makes propitiation. This paraphrase of Romans 3:25 may help to clarify:
Romans 3:25-26 (ERV): God gave Jesus as a way to forgive people’s sins through their faith in him. God can forgive them because the blood sacrifice of Jesus pays for their sins. God gave Jesus to show that he always does what is right and fair. He was right in the past when he was patient and did not punish people for their sins. And in our own time he still does what is right. God worked all this out in a way that allows him to judge people fairly and still make right any person who has faith in Jesus.
Understand that God is obligated to judge the wicked, since the wicked have violated His principles of life as codified in His Law. God declared that disobedience to His Law of life results in death, and God will not change His edict because God will not change His principles of life, liberty and freedom. The wicked are destined to face the "wrath of God" because of their entrenched disobedience to His principles. He will by no means clear the guilty.
- Exodus 34:7: keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.
- Romans 1:18: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
- Romans 12:19 (MOUNCE): Never avenge yourselves, dear friends, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
- Hebrews 10:30-31: For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The issue is not with the judgment of the wicked, but the issue is with God forgiving the repentant. How can a God of justice also be a God of mercy and forgiveness? It is Satan who declares that justice is inconsistent with mercy and that a God of justice cannot also be a God of mercy and forgiveness.
- DA 761.4: In the opening of the great controversy, Satan had declared that the law of God could not be obeyed, that justice was inconsistent with mercy, and that, should the law be broken, it would be impossible for the sinner to be pardoned. Every sin must meet its punishment, urged Satan; and if God should remit the punishment of sin, He would not be a God of truth and justice. When men broke the law of God, and defied His will, Satan exulted. It was proved, he declared, that the law could not be obeyed; man could not be forgiven. Because he, after his rebellion, had been banished from heaven, Satan claimed that the human race must be forever shut out from God's favor. God could not be just, he urged, and yet show mercy to the sinner.
Yet God is both just and merciful. This could only be made possible through Christ. Christ is the means by which God can forgive sins. Christ is the means by which God can make propitiation. It is not Jesus who forgives sin but God. God forgives freely on the basis of faith, not sacrifice or good works. The death of Jesus was to justify God for doing so. It is God who is "faithful and just to forgive us our sins," because it was made possible through Christ.
- 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- 2 Corinthians 5:19 (NIRV): God was bringing the world back to himself through Christ. He did not hold people’s sins against them. God has trusted us with the message that people may be brought back to him.
Mercy seat. The sacrifical system detailed in the Old Testament describes how sin is dealt with by God and how the sinner is ultimately released from the condemnation of the law. It had to do with the services on the Day of Atonement in which full atonement was made for sins.
- PP 355.5: Important truths concerning the atonement were taught the people by this yearly service. In the sin offerings presented during the year, a substitute had been accepted in the sinner's stead; but the blood of the victim had not made full atonement for the sin. It had only provided a means by which the sin was transferred to the sanctuary. By the offering of blood, the sinner acknowledged the authority of the law, confessed the guilt of his transgression, and expressed his faith in Him who was to take away the sin of the world; but he was not entirely released from the condemnation of the law. On the Day of Atonement the high priest, having taken an offering for the congregation, went into the most holy place with the blood and sprinkled it upon the mercy seat, above the tables of the law. Thus the claims of the law, which demanded the life of the sinner, were satisfied. Then in his character of mediator the priest took the sins upon himself, and, leaving the sanctuary, he bore with him the burden of Israel's guilt. At the door of the tabernacle he laid his hands upon the head of the scapegoat and confessed over him “all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat.” And as the goat bearing these sins was sent away, they were, with him, regarded as forever separated from the people. Such was the service performed “unto the example and shadow of heavenly things.” Hebrews 8:5.
- PP 357.5: The blood of Christ, while it was to release the repentant sinner from the condemnation of the law, was not to cancel the sin; it would stand on record in the sanctuary until the final atonement; so in the type the blood of the sin offering removed the sin from the penitent, but it rested in the sanctuary until the Day of Atonement.
Throughout the year, the sins of the people were transferred by the offering of blood sacrifices to the sanctuary. Then, on the Day of Atonement the sanctuary was "cleansed" by a service that again transferred the sins of the people to the high priest and then to a "scapegoat" which was then released into the wilderness to die. This symbolism will meet its fulfillment at the end of time with the destruction of Satan. That is, Satan is the scapegoat represented in this service. It is upon Satan that the guilt is ultimately placed and it is Satan who will ultimately pay the penalty for the sins of the people.
- PP 358.2 : Since Satan is the originator of sin, the direct instigator of all the sins that caused the death of the Son of God, justice demands that Satan shall suffer the final punishment. Christ's work for the redemption of men and the purification of the universe from sin will be closed by the removal of sin from the heavenly sanctuary and the placing of these sins upon Satan, who will bear the final penalty. So in the typical service, the yearly round of ministration closed with the purification of the sanctuary, and the confessing of the sins on the head of the scapegoat.
Robe of righteousness. The mercy seat (Hebrew, kapporeth; the cover of the ark) represented two kinds of cover. The first cover is to extend mercy in a probationary sense. That is, man is given time to repent and his sinfulness is not immediately judged.
- GC 36.1: It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind from passing fully under the control of Satan. The disobedient and unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God's mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one. But when men pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is removed.
The second cover is described as a robe of righteousness.
- COL 311.3: Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us meet to appear in God's presence. This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul. “I counsel thee,” He says, “to buy of Me ... white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.” Revelation 3:18.
- COL 311.4: ...When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness.
The problem with the sinfulness of man is his inability to change himself. Only God can change a man's heart if the sinner allows Him to.
- Psalm 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
- Acts 15:8-9: And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.
- Hebrews 10:16: “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”
- 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (REV): Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom!
18 And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same appearance, from glory into glory, just as one would expect—from the Lord who is the Spirit.
- 2 Corinthians 4:6-7 (NLT): For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
- Galatians 4:6 (REV): And because you are sons, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba” (Father).
- Ephesians 3:16-19: that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
God is able to change a man's heart through His Son and because of His Son. God is then "appeased" (i.e. propitiated) when man accepts His Son into his heart and mind and is enabled by God to live his life (i.e. the life of His Son).
- Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
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