Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Propitiation

The turning away of God's righteous wrath against sin by the sacrifice God himself provides in Christ.

Latin propitiare, 'to appease / make favourable'; renders Greek hilastērion (Rom 3:25) and hilasmos (1 John 2:2; 4:10).

Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10; the wrath established in Romans 1:18–3:20.

C. H. Dodd argued hilastērion meant only 'expiation' (removing sin, no wrath); Leon Morris and later scholarship re-established a propitiatory sense, while stressing that God is both the one who is propitiated and the one who provides the propitiation.

Not a pagan idea of appeasing a capricious deity: the same God who judges sin gives his Son to bear the judgement.

Some scholars and traditions prefer 'expiation'; most now allow that hilastērion includes both removing sin and averting wrath.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.