As we make our way to the end of the book of Mark, Jesus has set his face toward the cross. He will continue to move toward the cross until all is accomplished and we celebrate his glorious resurrection at Easter. So, as we move toward the end when Jesus died a criminal’s death, we want to ask this big question - “what did Jesus accomplish at the cross?” And what does this mean for us? To help us marvel at God’s kindness to us in Christ, we want to highlight some theological words that capture different aspects of the cross’ significance. The words in this brief series all end with “-TION.”
Today we’ll highlight EXPIATION (ex-pee-ay-shun).
EXPIATION
The prefix ex means “out of” or “from,” so expiation has to do with removing something or taking something away. In biblical terms, expiation refers to the cleansing of sin and removal of sin’s guilt. Last week, we talked about propitiation being the satisfying of God’s wrath against our sin. Though both of these words relate to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, they each capture something different.
Here’s the distinction between expiation and propitiation. Expiation deals with the sin. Christ’s sacrifice cancels sin by taking the guilt and absorbing it, paying for it, suffering, taking it on himself. Propitiation, on the other hand, deals with God’s wrath.
Here’s the wonderful news! The sacrifice of Christ simultaneously cancels our sin (expiation) and satisfies the wrath of God against our sin (propitiation).
R.C. Sproul wonderfully summarizes the difference between the two terms this way:
“The distinction is the same as that between the ransom that is paid and the attitude of the one who receives the ransom.”
So, this may bring up some questions in your mind. Where does this concept of sacrificing for sin come from? What’s so important about blood?
WHERE DID THIS SACRIFICE STUFF COME FROM?
The first possible mention of sacrifice in the Bible is in Genesis 3.
After Adam and Eve rebelled against God and introduced sin, they experienced guilt and shame for the first time. They were suddenly aware of their nakedness, whereas before, they were unabashed in their innocence. The feeling of nakedness before God was an indicator of the vulnerability Adam and Eve felt as guilty sinners before their holy God. This vulnerability was at the forefront of Adam’s first interchange with God after sinning in Genesis 3:10:
And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
What does God do in response? Genesis 3:21 says:
And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
God chose to cover their nakedness by selecting the skins of animals. He could have used something else. They had used fig leaves. Instead, God chose a covering that involved the death of another creature. This is the first instance of sacrifice in an unfolding story wherein God takes the initiative to provide a substitutionary sacrifice for the sin of his rebellious people so that they might be reunited with Him in fellowship without compromising his holy character.
The instances of sacrifice are all throughout the bible’s pages. It would be really hard to look into detail at all of them. However, I want to draw your attention to 2 major sacrifices that help make sense of the storyline leading up to Jesus. The two dominant sacrifices are Passover and the Day of Atonement.
PASSOVER
First, we begin to understand more about the importance of sacrifice from the story of Passover in Exodus. Passover is connected with Israel’s identity, since the first Passover in Exodus 12 takes place as the people of God are called out of slavery and on the way towards the Promised Land to become a nation under God’s rule. The culminating sign God performed leading up to their release from slavery was the angel of death claiming the firstborn of every household. However, God provided a way to escape this death. Each household who believed in God would give expression to their faith by slaughtering a lamb and placing the blood over their doorposts. In this way, the angel of death would see the blood of the sacrifice and “pass over” that household. The Passover meal would be practiced annually to remind the people how God provided a way of escape from death and slavery ultimately through the blood of a sacrificial lamb.
DAY OF ATONEMENT
Second, The Day of Atonement was essentially an elaborate sin offering that was practiced annually. In Leviticus 17:11, the Lord declared that since “the life of the flesh is in the blood,” He gave Israel blood on the altar “to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life,” highlighting the idea that the shed blood of a blameless substitute represented life for life, soul for soul.
The sin offering of the Day of Atonement involved two goats. After the first had been sacrificed for the sake of its blood, the other goat was symbolically loaded with the guilt of Israel’s sins as the high priest pressed both hands onto the head of the goat and confessed those sins over the animal. With the guilt of Israel on its head, the goat was then driven eastward outside the nomadic camp of the Israelites into the wilderness—a demonstration that “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:12).
HOW DO THESE POINT TO CHRIST?
So, how do these snapshots of substitutionary sacrifice point us toward Christ’s work at the cross?
Though God made provisions for sin through these sacrifices, they were temporary and insufficient. Christ’s sacrifice, unlike the sacrifices of the Old Testament, was once for all. Just before his death on the cross, Christ cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30). There is no more sacrifice for sin. Why? Hebrews 10 says:
“For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. ... But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, ... For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
These verses teach us that Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of these sacrifices. He is the once-and-for-all substitutionary sacrifice for our sin.
Hebrews 13:11-12 says:
“For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.”
Jesus is the better sacrificial goat who willingly went outside the camp to the cross at Golgotha in order to bear the wrath of God against our sin.
John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching and made the stunning declaration "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Paul refers to Jesus as our Passover lamb, sacrificed for us (1 Cor. 5:7). And the imagery of the book of Revelation depicts Christ as a Lamb that ushers his people back into the presence of God in fellowship for all eternity without the threat of sin obscuring our relationship with God or one another:
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. - Rev. 22:1-3
CONCLUSION
Christ brings all of these substitutionary sacrificial themes together in himself. 1 Peter 2:24 says “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree…” Why did he do this? 2 Corinthians 5:21 gives us a wonderful explanation of the purpose of expiation:
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
God made a way when there was no way for us. He took the initiative to provide what we couldn’t - a substitutionary sacrifice that could perfectly cover our sin so that we might be able to have access to Him once again. Praise be to the Lamb who takes away our sin!