I John 4:10 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
God showed the magnitude of His “love” for us when He “sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins”! The tense of the word “propitiation” means that it is an action completed. Our “God” is the Sovereign, Eternal, Perfect, and Holy “God”; therefore, sin is absolutely contrary to His Holy Being and entirely unacceptable to Him; consequently, those who have union with “God” must be cleansed of their sin by an act of God’s Justice. According to God’s Justice, it was necessary that the Judicial Penal Debt for sin be paid in order to satisfy His Holy Requisite For Justice and to satisfy His “wrath” against sin and sinfulness (Ezra 5:12). Because, mankind does not have sufficient righteousness to pay the Penal Debt, out of His “great love” (Ephesians 2:4) for His People, “God” the Father “sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins”; that is, to appease the “wrath” of “God” against the sin in His People. The same word that is translated “propitiation”, is also translated “mercy seat” (Hebrews 9:5). The “mercy seat” was placed “above the ark” of the Covenant (Exodus 25:21). The High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place once each year and “sprinkle” the sacrificial “blood” over the “mercy seat” (Leviticus 16:14). This sprinkled “blood” never was a “propitiation” that satisfied the “wrath” of “God” against sin (Hebrews 10:4), but it prophetically pointed to the “blood” of the “Son” of “God” that did indeed fully and finally appease the “wrath” of “God” against the sins of His People and satisfied His Holy Justice. The Prophet described the surety and completeness of our “propitiation” this way, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18). Because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is our “propitiation”, we can now “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16) and we look forward to, one blessed and holy day, hearing our Blessed Lord Command, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).