Whatever it is we say God desires it cant be contrary to His nature .. out of the heart flow the issues of life ….

The doctrine of Atonement …. Doctrine is the study of God, so when you talk doctrine you’re talking about the study of God.  You’re talking about the study of Gods nature, and the manner in which His nature is manifested.  The atonement tells us a lot about Gods nature, and the way in which He manifests Himself. 

When you look at the atonement, there’s the work that was needed to bring about the atonement.  Then there’s the firstfruit of the atonement and the final fulfillment of the atonement.  We have the firstfruit of the atonement now.  We have been restored to the divine nature, through Christ ascending to the right hand of the Father as a man.  And we wait patiently with creation for the restoration of all things when Christ returns to the earth in the same manner he ascended.  

Rom 3:21  But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Rom 3:22  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Rom 3:24  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Rom 3:25  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
Rom 3:26  To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus

Talking about the work of God to restore us from the penalty of sin.  Paul says in Roman’s 6 the wage sin pays people is death.  The penalty that comes from sin is death.  When Paul talks about propiation, he’s talking about Gods working to restore mankind to a state of life.  

The Greek word for propitiation is hilastērion

Mounce 2x: the cover of the ark of the covenant, the mercy-seat, the place of propitiation, Rom 3:25; Heb 9:5.

Strong  Neuter of a derivative of G2433; an expiatory (place or thing), that is, (concretely) an atoning victim, or (specifically) the lid of the Ark (in the Temple): - mercyseat, propitiation.

Thayer 1) relating to an appeasing or expiating, having placating or expiating force, expiatory; a means of appeasing or expiating, a propitiation
1a) used of the cover of the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies, which was sprinkled with the blood of the expiatory victim on the annual day of atonement (this rite signifying that the life of the people, the loss of which they had merited by their sins, was offered to God in the blood as the life of the victim, and that God by this ceremony was appeased and their sins expiated); hence the lid of expiation, the propitiatory
1b) an expiatory sacrifice
1c) a expiatory victim

Root hilaskomai 

Thayer 1) to render one’s self, to appease, conciliate to one’s self
1a) to become propitious, be placated or appeased
1b) to be propitious, be gracious, be merciful
2) to expiate, make propitiation for

Whats happened is people read the word appease in the definition of propitiation and say it’s about some man made idea of divine justice and wrath needing to be satisfied.  

it’s like we think God gives us rules He expects us to follow.  And if we don’t follow them, God is now angry with us for disobeying, and He must come and administer a punishment.  God didnt give us rules to follow.  God doesnt love rules.  God loves the truth.  He doesn’t love the truth because He wants to be right.  He loves the truth because it makes His life manifest … God tells us the truth.  He tells us He’s the only one who has life in Himself, and He’s with us to pour out His life into us freely.  He tells us if we try and have life apart from Him, the result is death, not because He will punish us with death, but because the natural result of trying to have life in yourself, when you don’t have life in yourself, is that you will perish.  It’s like a natural law.  The branch cannot bear fruit apart from the vine, and if the branch is cutoff from the vine it withers and dies.  No one has to kill the branch, or make it to wither and die.  It withers and dies as a natural result of being cutoff from the source of nutrients. 

Gal 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.
Gal 6:8  For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

You cant reap destruction from God.  God doesnt have destruction to give.  The only thing you can reap from God is life everlasting.  Thats why Paul says those who sow to the Spirit shall ‘OF’ the Spirit reap life everlasting.  

Notice Paul says it’s from the flesh we reap corruption.  He doesn’t say if we walk after the flesh, God will punish us with destruction.  He says if we look to our own strength to justify ourselves with life, we will reap destruction because we can’t produce life through our own strength.  

The punishment that’s of sin is inherent in sin.  

Job 37:23  Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict. 

Psa 82:3  Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Psa 82:4  Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.

When we think of what appeases God and satisfies Him, we have to look at His nature …. Gods desire can’t be outside of His eternal purpose … Gods desire can’t be outside of His nature … Out of the heart flows the issues of life … it’s out of Gods nature He is made manifest.  He can not manifest Himself in a way that is contrary to His nature … God can only ever be Himself.  God cannot be made manifest outside of what is seen in Christ Jesus. 

God is light and life.  Theres no darkness or destruction in him.  His nature is life and to bring forth His life … the word that has always been with God; that is the manifestation of God; that is the manifestation of Gods nature says in John 10 it’s the thief that steals, kills, and destroys.  Not God.  The eternal Son says when he is come, when God is come, when God is made manifest it brings forth the abundance of life.  

God is after His life being made manifest.  Everything He does is from the perspective of Him wanting to pour out His life on creation.  Everything He does is from the perspective of bringing forth His life in creation.  

Gods nature is self sacrificial love.  He isn’t self serving.  He could never manifest Himself in a way that is self seeking.  He could never manifest Himself in a way that would be to purely ingratiate Himself.  God can only feel satisfied in emptying Himself for someone else.  He can never find satisfaction in something that is self serving.  The cross can never be about God satisfying His own anger, or some man made idea of divine justice because that would mean He’s selfish and self serving.  

God is love.  Theres no fear or torment in Gods nature, so He can’t be the source of punishment.  God knows life is good and death is evil; so He can never be the cause of evil.

Propitiation has nothing to do with appeasing some man made idea of divine justice or wrath.  The word propitiation speaks of the mercy seat and Jesus shedding his blood to satisfy Gods desire for mercy.  

Mat 9:13  But go ye and learn what that means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

It’s not that God doesn’t desire the sacrifice, it’s that the point of the sacrifice is God desires mercy.  So God first desires mercy, and out of His desire for mercy, the eternal Son comes in the body prepared for him; to bear about in His body the wages of the sin of the world.  God didnt give the sacrifice so man can follows rules, and be righteous by following the rules.  God gave the sacrifices because he saw mankind suffering at the hands of sin and death, and he wanted to set them free from their suffering.  

The purpose of the sacrifice was God satisfying His desire to heal mankind from death.  Jesus shed his blood on the cross, thus satisfying the Fathers desire for mercy.

Mercy seat … the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat.  The blood speaks of the sacrifice of Jesus.  It declares God provided Himself a lamb.  Jesus shed his blood to satisfy the Fathers desire for mercy.  

Isa 53:10  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Isa 53:11  He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Isa 53:12  Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Gen 3:14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Isaiah says Jesus carried our griefs and our sorrows.  Isaiah says it was mankind who hid their faces from Jesus, not the Father.  We were dying from the bite of the serpent.  The Father sent the Son because the Father desires to heal us from the bite of the serpent.  The Father sent His only begotten Son into the world.  Jesus absorbs the bite of the serpent into his body on the cross, so the Fathers desire to crush the serpents head can be satisfied.  

Connect Father satisfied because Jesus bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.  

Connect satisfied to by his knowledge he shall justify many …. By Jesus beholding the father’s face shining on him in the midst of his affliction … by Jesus seeing the mercy in the Fathers eyes .. causing him to call upon the Father …. The world can see God is full of mercy, not some man made idea of justice and wrath/ condemnation, and they 

Eph 5:2  And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given Himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. 

Sweet smelling savor unto the Lord, because the Fathers desires for mercy, and His desire to alleviate man’s suffering is satisfied through the eternal son shedding his blood. 

Mankind partook of flesh and blood.  We were sown in corruption by the first man Adam.  He sowed to the flesh; he worked his dust body to try and bring forth Gods likeness; and from that way he heaped upon himself destruction; death.  God saw us suffering and desired to heal our suffering.  For God to heal us from death, the eternal Son, the express of image of God, would need to partake of flesh and blood.  In order for God to deliver us from corruption, He would need to join himself to us in our corruption, so that in corruption not being able to hold him, and him rising up out of the corruption, he can bring us with him … 

Expiation … Expiation would be for someone to be redeemed from the wage of sin, which is death.  It’s to cleanse someone from the death that was reigning over them.  

Mat 12:7  But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.

Jas 2:13  For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.