1 John 2:2 - He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
The Calvinist says that the passage here is describing Jewish believers and Gentile believers scattered around the world. But clearly this isn’t the context. To see why lets go a few chapters later in the same book.
1 John 5:19 - We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
The passage is describing believers and unbelievers. Here’s the context:
1 John 2:2 - He is the propitiation for our sins (believers), and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world (unbelievers).
In other words Christ died for everyone. Believers and unbelievers alike. He offers and extends His hand of mercy to everyone. Not just the elect.
The system of Calvinism depends on Penal Substitution. While it was God’s will to hand Christ over to be crucified I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where it says the Father was taking His punitive wrath out on Christ. The closest thing that comes to mind is the word propitiation. Evangelicals follow the Pagan understanding of this word which means to placate an angry deity. To the Jews and the Eastern Orthodox Church the word simply refers to the mercy seat where our sins are expiated. The sacrifices in the O.T. were never used to appease an angry God but to cleanse one of one’s sin. Moreover, the sacrifices in the O.T. were types and shadows of the self-sacrificial love of Christ. The cross was not a parallel to the earthly temple. Jesus was a self-sacrifice offering of love. His entire life was a fragrent offering of selfless servant love. He was revealing God’s heart of compassion for us as He chose to suffer. The entire life of Christ was a sacrifice as He took on the life of a servant. Likewise we are called to bring our lives as a living sacrifice by living a life of selfless other directed love. We are united to Christ as He takes on our sin and suffers with us and for us becoming a curse as He dies and is raised again defeating sin and death. The cup that Christ drank from was a cup of suffering. He told His disciples that they would drink from the exact same cup that He was going to drink from. It makes no sense to say that the cup they would drink from was God’s punitive wrath. God would be punishing them for their sins after He already punished them on Christ which is a double punishment for their sins. This is why the cup that Christ would drink from was a cup of suffering only. Not a cup of God’s punitive wrath.
The disciples replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; (Mark 10:39)
“The cup that Christ drank from was a cup of suffering. He told His disciples that they would drink from the exact same cup that He was going to drink from. It makes no sense to say that the cup they would drink from was God’s punitive wrath. God would be punishing them for their sins after He already punished them on Christ which is a double punishment for their sins. This is why the cup that Christ would drink from was a cup of suffering only. Not a cup of God’s punitive wrath.”
The word “propitiate” DOES mean to appease or placate. The problem is that the word “ιλασμος” should not have been translated as “propitiation”.
Some translations do render the word as “expiation” (e.g. the RSV). However, this won’t do either, since “expiate” means “to make amends for”. Is this the purpose of Christ’s death — to make amends for our sins?
In the scripture, I find a quite different reason for Christ’s death:
*I Peter 2:24 He himself endured our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
II Corinthians 5:15 And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
Romans 14:9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Titus 2:14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
Heb 9:26 …he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.*
Each of these reasons is essentially the same. Jesus died in order that we might come under His authority and thereby, through His enabling grace, become righteous persons. God wants people to be reconciled to Himself and gave His Son to make this possible. The reconciliation of the individual entails taking on the characteristics of God ---- righteousness, holiness, love, and compassion.
The Greek Words ἱλασμος (hilasmos) and ἱλαστηριον (hilastārion)
The words used in the Greek New Testament and rendered as “atonement” or “atoning sacrifice in some modern translations are ἱλασμος (1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10) and ἱλαστηριον Rom 3:25, Heb 9:5). Both are derived from the verbal form ἱλασκομαι The Hebrew word translated as “atonement” is “kippur” and is usually rendered as ἐξιλαστηριον in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, translated about 250 B.C. in the reign of Ptolemy. Note that it differs from the New Testament word only by the addition of the prefix ἐξ (out of ). The verbal form of the Hebrew word “kippur” is “kaphar”.
In the King James Version, ἱλασμος is translated as “propitiation”, that is, an appeasement or conciliation of an offended power. It is so rendered also by Darby, by the Douay translators, and by the translators of the King James Version and of Young’s Literal Translation.
The translators of the Revised Standard Version render ἱλασμος as “expiation”, that is, the act of making amends of reparation for wrongdoing. This is also the meaning of the English word “atonement.” In current English, “atone” is used in precisely the same way as “expiate.” If I accidentally run into the neighbour’s fence post and break it off, the neighbour may tell me, “You’re going to have to atone for that!” In other words, I’m going to have to “make up for it” in some way, perhaps by repairing the fence myself. In the NIV and the NRSV ἱλασμος is translated as “atoning sacrifice.”
The translators of the KJV and the Douay also render ἱλαστηριον as “propitiation” in Rom 3:25, and in the RSV it is translated as “expiation.” However in Heb 9:5, the translators of the KJV render the same word as “mercy seat”! It is so rendered also by Darby, and by the translators of the RSV, the NRSV, and Young’s Literal Translation. Mercy seat! That meaning is quite different from either “propitiation” or “expiation.”
Perhaps a look at the verbal form of the words would be helpful in deciding the true meaning of the words ἱλασμος and ἱλαστηριον:
ἱλασκομαι [Strong’s 2433]
Lu 18:13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ RSV
In this parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, every translation of which I am aware translates ἱλασκομαι as “be merciful”. ἱλασκομαι is derived from the adjectival form ἱλιως, the meaning of which is “merciful”, and is so translated in Hebrews 8:12:
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. RSV
Curiously, the RSV translators render the word differently in Heb 2:17:
Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people. RSV
Does consistency demand that the final phrase be translated as “to be merciful concerning the sins of the people”? If the verbal form means “be merciful” and the adjectival form means “merciful”, could the nominal forms be rendered as “means of mercy”? Let’s see how the verses would read if that were done:
** ἱλασμος [Strong’s 2434]**
1Jo 2:2 and he is the means of mercy concerning our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
1Jo 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means of mercy concerning our sins.*
ἱλαστηριον [Strong’s 2435]
*Ro 3:25 whom God put forward as a means of mercy 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;
Heb 9:5 above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
*
We can leave the translation in Heb 9:5 as “mercy seat,” though under Mosaic law it was indeed considered a “means of mercy.”
One may confidently affirm that the translations which render ἱλαστηριον and ἱλασμος as “propitiation”, a word which carries the idea of appeasement and averting of wrath are not correct. Our examination of the passages quoted above would cast doubt even upon the translation of these words as “expiation” or “atonement”. I suggest “means of mercy” as an appropriate translation of these words, a translation that is correct etymologically as well as contextually.
What a mercy the grace of Christ, that divine enablement! This enablement is described in Titus 2:11, 12:
For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all people, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and pious lives in this world.
