Is Christ's propitiation through His life or His blood?
Christ becomes propitiation through faith in His blood, not through His life or His three years of exemplary miracle working. Through faith in His blood He declares His righteousness for remission of sins through God's forbearance, and believers receive this by faith, which is believing.
Les explains that propitiation is a great big word that many stumble over, but it is probably the most inclusive one word in the whole New Testament. He emphasizes that Christ is our propitiation, and He becomes your propitiation and mine by faith—specifically, through faith in His blood. Les stresses that it is not His life, not His three years of exemplary miracle working and so forth, but He can only become the propitiation through faith in His blood. Through that, He can declare His righteousness, not yours or mine, for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. Les then points to verse 26: to declare His righteousness, that Christ, the propitiator, might be just and fair, and the justifier of him that believeth. Believing is faith, and faith is believing.
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;