This is an extract from a talk Mark Driscoll gave in Edinburgh, Scotland in November last year which caused some controversy.
Jesus is our "propitiation'. This word appears four times in the Greek New Testament. Most translations don't include it. They say, "People don't know what the word "propitiation' means", so they put in other words like "sacrifice of atonement'. [But] people don't know what those words mean either! So I don't think it helps. Use the word. It's a good word.
1 John 4:10 is one example: "This is love, not that we have loved God"...
"I hate freakin' religion"
See that's why I hate freakin' religion. Religion tells people, if you are a good person then God will love you. The gospel says, "God has loved you, look at the cross, now you can live a new life".
You don't obey so that God will love you. You obey because God already does love you! The gospel is so much better than religion. "This is love, not that we have loved God" " [it's] not that we went first… we initiated. Rather it's that God has loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins.
Stupid people " stupid theologians " say things like, "I don't believe in propitiation because how can a loving God" "
Propitiation is how God demonstrates his love. Come on! We know God loves us because he propitiated our sin!
Here is what propitiation is: God hates sinners. You've been told that God loves the sinner but hates the sin. No he doesn't. Ghandi says that. (Just so you know, Ghandi's on a totally different team than us.)
Fourteen times in the first 50 Psalms, God says he hates somebody" Hates dudes like Esau. Hates those in Proverbs with haughty eyes. He hates all kinds of people!
When someone says, "I hate the sin but love the sinner" that's dumb because we are sinners. "I hate the essence sum total of what you are, but I really like you!" What the!
It says it in Psalm 5:5, "You hate all who do evil". Now let this settle.
People say things like, "God doesn't hate anybody!"
Yes he does! He hates tonnes of people! He does.
Some people say, "That's not fair".
Course its fair! You hate people! And God's far better than you and he knows a lot more people! God hates sinners and he hates their sin.
"A guy pulled a knife" to kill me"
The third time I preached this doctrine of propitiation" a guy pulled a knife and tried to get up on the stage to kill me. So people will respond to this doctrine" we grew the next week by 800 people [after preaching this]...
God's wrath is mentioned more than 600 times in the Bible. If you have a bucket of verses that say "love', and a bucket of verses that say "wrath', "wrath' is a bigger bucket.
The whole "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life" " that's the wrong place to start.
God hates you and it's going to go really, really bad forever! " Hey now that is true"
What happens with propitiation is that Jesus stands in our place and the wrath of the Father is poured out on the Son.
I want you to see the masculine suffering of Jesus. He is dying by suffering the wrath of God. And the wrath of God is poured out on Jesus and is thereby propitiated, diverted, taken away, from sinners who are in Jesus Christ.
I love this! People come up to me and say, "How can a loving God send anyone to hell?". My question is, "How can a holy God take anyone to heaven?""
People need to know how good God is, how angry God is, so that they understand how significant Jesus is. "I'm under the wrath of God? I need to go to Jesus and I need to be propitiated."
This is shown in the Passover, when literally the wrath of God was going to visit every home except those who were covered literally by blood " substitution.
And as they were covered by blood, so the wrath of God passed over them. Just as we are covered by the blood of Jesus.
1 Corinthians 5:7: "Jesus Christ the Passover lamb has been slain." He is the blood that covers us, so that the propitiating work of God is accomplished, so that the wrath of God passes over.
