Knowing God: Chapter 18 - The Heart of the Gospel

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Chapter 18 of Knowing God is a rather lengthy chapter, and rightfully so, for its aim is that we would understand the very heart of the gospel. And its summarizing argument and conclusion is this: the very heart of the gospel is propitiation, “the pacifying (satisfaction) of God’s wrath”, “the averting of God’s anger by an offering”, namely, the salvation of sinners from the wrath of God by the death of Christ (Rom 5:9). While there are numerous blessings that the gospel delivers to those who place their faith alone in Christ alone for salvation, the primary and most fundamental need and blessing is the averting of God’s righteous and personal wrath upon us for our rebellious sin against Him via the death of Christ on our behalf and, instead, having our relationship with God restored. 


Dr. Packer notes three facts about propitiation:
  1.  Propitiation is the work of God himself. It is not the work of man in any way. That is, it is entirely a work of grace. (1 Jn 4:7-9)
  2. Propitiation was made by the death of Jesus Christ. The specific act of grace that propitiated God’s wrath was the death of Jesus Christ. This is the act of “representative substitution”  in which Jesus as our representative substituted in our place to bear the wrath of God for our sins. (Gal 3:13; 2 Cor 5:14, 18-21)
  3. Propitiation manifests God’s righteousness. “...the cross was a public manifestation, not merely of justifying mercy on God’s part, but of righteousness and justice as the basis of justifying mercy.” (Rom 3:25-26)

Propitiation means “our sins have been punished; the wheel of retribution has turned; judgment has been inflicted for our ungodliness—but on Jesus, the lamb of God, standing in our place.” This is penal substitutionary atonement (penal = punishment has occurred; substitutionary = Jesus stood in our place; atonement = our sins have be paid for) “The gospel tells us that our Creator has become our Redeemer...Redeeming love and retributive justice joined hands, so to speak, at Calvary, for there God showed himself to be ‘just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.’” At the cross “the deepest of all human problems, the problem of man’s relation with his Maker...the fundamental problem of sin against God” is dealt with and resolved. (Rom 1-5; Gal 3; Eph 1-2; Heb 8-10; 1 Jn 1-3; the sermons in Acts)

“Reconciliation...redemption...sacrifice...sin-bearing...blood-shedding...all of these thoughts have to do with the putting away of sin and the restoring of unclouded fellowship between man and God...and all of them have as their background the threat of divine judgment which Jesus’ death averted. In other words, they are so many pictures and illustrations of the reality of propitiation, viewed from different standpoints.”

Like being on a mountain top, the high vantage point of propitiation allows us to see the Bible properly. And Dr. Packer shows us five (5) other great truths that propitiation allows us to see. 

  1.  The Driving Force in Jesus’ Life “was his resolve to be ‘obedient to death—even death on a cross’ (Phil 2:8), and the unique dreadfulness of his death lies in the fact that he tasted on Calvary the wrath of God which was our due, so making propitiation for our sins.” (Isa 53:4-10)
  2. The Destiny of Those who Reject God “[is] the prospect of losing all good...eternal death...the withdrawal and deprivation of good...all sense of [God’s] presence and love, all sense of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, all enjoyment of God and of created things, all ease and solace of friendship...and in their place...nothing but loneliness, pain, a killing sense of human malice and callousness, and a horror of great spiritual darkness.”
  3. God’s Gift of Peace “is first and foremost peace with God; it is the state of affairs in which God, instead of being against us, is for us...The peace of God, then, primarily and fundamentally, is a new relationship of forgiveness and acceptance—and the source from which it flows is propitiation.” (Jn 20:19-20; Col 1:20)
  4. The Dimensions of God’s Love are more greatly and deeply understood “by considering propitiation in its context.” (Eph 3:18-19)
  5. The Meaning of God’s Glory was “supremely disclosed at Calvary, in the making of propitiation for our sins.” (Jn 13:31; Isa 53)

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