The Heart of The Gospel

Recently there’s the two words that have been floating around. You may have come across them, or you may not have. In discussions on the cross and what occured there, they both come up fairly often – Propitiation and Expiation.
They usually come up together because they’re pretty similar, but they are different. Let me explain.

Expiation is the covering, putting away, washing off or rubbing out of sin so that it no longer creates a barrier to Relationships between People and God.
Our Rebellion against God seperates us from him – think Genesis 3, after Adam sinned he was expelled from the Garden.

Belsen Cross 2 b&w
But if Sin is rubbed out, then there’s nothing left to seperate us from the Love of God. Expiation is a pretty good description of what happened at the cross.

But Propitiation is even better!

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