Second, although the word “propitiation” is used in biblical writings, it is nevertheless not used in precisely the same way it is used in pagan writings. In the pagan rituals the sacrifice was the means by which a man placated an offended deity. In Christianity it is never the man who takes the initiative or makes the sacrifice, but God Himself who out of His great love for the sinner provides the way by which His own wrath against sin may be placated. In 1 John 4:10, the only other passage in the New Testament which uses the exact form of the word found in 2:2, God’s love is emphasized. This is the true explanation of why God is never the explicit object of the propitiation in the biblical writings. He is not the object because He is even more importantly the subject. In other words, God Himself placates His wrath against sin so that His love may go out to embrace and fully save the sinner.
It is in the Old Testament sacrificial system that the true idea of propitiation is observed, for if anything is conveyed through the system of sacrifices (in the biblical sense of sacrifice) it is that God has Himself provided the way by which a sinful man or woman may approach Him. Sin means death. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18:4, 20). But the sacrifices teach that there is, nevertheless, a way of escape and of approaching God. Another may die in the sinner’s place. This may seem astounding, even (as some have wrongly suggested) immoral; but it is what the system of sacrifices teaches. Consequently, the individual Israelite was instructed to bring an animal for sacrifice whenever he approached God; the family was to kill and consume an animal at the yearly observance of the Passover; the nation was to be thus represented by the high priest annually on the Day of Atonement when the blood of one offering was sprinkled upon the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant within the Holy of Holies in the Jewish temple. This latter ceremony may be what John is thinking of explicitly in this passage, for a cognate of “propitiation” is used of the very mercy seat upon which the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled (hilasterion, Heb. 9:5). Besides, John has referred to the shed blood of Christ just verses earlier (1:7).
Jesus is Himself the propitiation, then, and it is by virtue of His being this that He can be our advocate. Our advocate does not plead our innocence; we have none. Instead He acknowledges our guilt and presents His sacrifice of Himself as the ground of our acquittal. In this lies the Christian’s confidence. For it is not on the grounds of our merit but solely on the basis of the finished work of Christ that we are told to approach a righteous heavenly Father.
The last phrase of verse 2 presents us with unusual problems, but it may be that the idea of the propitiatory sacrifice performed on the Day of Atonement, which underlies this passage, explains it. The phrase is “and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” It is added to the description of Jesus as “the propitiation for our sins” to broaden it or somehow universalize it. This much is clear enough; but it is not clear in what sense this may be said to be true. Consequently, commentators have not found it easy to make plain either to themselves or to others the precise nature of the universalism found here. They have in general developed one easy answer and one very common answer, but neither is satisfactory.