Saturday, September 21, 2024

PT-5 "The Perfect Propitiation" (1 John 2:2)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/21/2024 10:19 PM

 My Worship Time                                                       Focus:  PT-5 “The Perfect Propitiation”

 Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  1 John 2:2

            Message of the verse:  “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

            I want to talk about the fact that even in planning Jesus’ death, the high priest Caiaphas unwittingly uttered words that providentially affirmed the true extent of Christ’s propitiation as seen in John 11:45-52 which we will now look at.

“45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. 47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. 48 “If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish." 51 Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52  and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”

 

            What Caiaphas really ment was that only Jesus should be executed to spare the nation and the leaders’ positions from Roman reprisals against them because of Jesus.  However it would be less than 40 years until the Romans would come and destroy the people of Israel, and the Temple of the Lord would be taken down and millions of Jewish people would die and the ones who did not die would offer themselves as slaves but no one would buy them as it was prophesied would happen.  There was a glut on the slave market and so they could not even sell themselves as slaves.

 

            MacArthur writes about the nation:  But obviously ‘nation’ does not mean every individual Jew because virtually the whole nation had rejected Him (John 1:11; cf. Rom. 2:28-29; 9:6-18, 27).  The designation is thus limited to those Jews who believed.  As the apostle explained in John 11:52, Jesus died not only for the believing Jews but also for the children of God scattered abroad.  In the original context of his gospel, John’s reference to ‘children of God’ referred primarily to believing Jews of the dispersion who would be regathered into the kingdom of God (cf. Isa. 43:5; Ezek. 34:12).  But in the broader sense, that expression anticipated the outreach to the Gentiles (cf. John 12:32; Heb. 2:9).  So as a result of Christ’s atoning work, all throughout the world for whom Christ was the propitiation become, by faith, part of the same body, His Church (Eph. 2:11-22; cf. Gal. 3:7-9, 26-29; Eph. 3:1-6).”

9/21/2024 10:34 PM

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