PROPITIATION VERSUS EXPIATION

The difference between propitiation and expiation is not always easy to understand, even though we all experience it.

Consider the case of a certain factory worker who was seriously injured on the job. After the doctors had done all they could, he was still left partially paralyzed. An investigation revealed that the company was at fault because it did not provide a safe work place nor the proper safety equipment for its employees. Thus, it was liable for the dangerous conditions that resulted in this man’s injury and permanent paralysis.

As we all have seen in similar situations, the court will probably award the injured man a great sum of money for his pain, suffering, and permanent injury. Once the company pays the judgment against it, it has expiated its wrongdoings. The demands of justice have been satisfied. The company no longer has any responsibility toward the injured man. That is expiation.

But we have not dealt with how the injured man feels toward the company. He may be filled with resentment, bitterness, even hatred. He may spend the rest of his life abhorring the name of that company, even though it has been directed to give him all the money he could possibly use. The debt that the wrong incurred has been expiated or paid for, but the wrath that the wrong incurred has not been propitiated.

When Christ died, he not only paid the debt for our sins but reconciled us to God by satisfying the Father’s wrath. He was both an expiation and a propitiation for our sins.1106