What does it mean that God set forth Christ to be a propitiation?
God set forth Christ Jesus to be a propitiation, meaning the place of sacrifice and offering, mercy and grace. This was God's own action, but it is received through faith in His blood—divine blood originating with God—the price of redemption. Apart from faith in that shed blood, no one is redeemed.
Les explains that God set forth Christ Jesus to be a propitiation, which is the place of sacrifice and offering and mercy and grace. This was God's doing, yet it is appropriated through faith in His blood. Les emphasizes that Christ's blood was not merely human blood; it originated with God Himself and was divine blood that coursed through His veins. When shed, it was the divine blood of God Himself, and thus the price of redemption. Les warns that if we do not believe in the shed blood of Christ and its power for atonement, we are lost. There will be no one in heaven unless redeemed by faith in the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ is the only purchased price for our redemption, and we must appropriate it by faith—believe it and trust in it. This declaring of His righteousness is for the remission of sins in our past.
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;