1 John 2:2

"He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world."

Excerpt from Dr Paul Henebury's study "Christ’s Atonement: Its Purpose and Extent, Part 1" Conservative Theological Journal March 2005:

Propitiation

This crucial term has been subjected to a great deal of attack over the past century or so. From scholars like R. C. H. Lenski, and, most notably, C. H. Dodd, the doctrine of propitiation has suffered strong objection. The reason for this isn’t hard to discover. To “propitiate” means to appease or avert the wrath of God, and that is conceived by some to be a problem. Dodd argued that pagans placated, that is, “propitiated” their false gods by their sacrifices.

Surely the true God is not to be pacified in the same way! And since Dodd was the Chairman of the RSV translation, he made sure that the word “expiation” replaced “propitiation” in verses like Romans 3:25 and 1 John 2:2; 4:10. Thanks to the scholarship of Leon Morris and others, “propitiation” has been shown to be an essential teaching in both testaments.7 In fact, Morton H. Smith has said:

To deny the propitiatory character of the sacrifice of Christ is to deny the essence of the atonement. For the atonement means that Christ bore our sins. ... How can we think of him carrying our sins, without bearing the judgment for those sins? Sin and judgment are inseparable in the Scriptures. Thus to bear the sin is to bear the judgment. ... The wages of sin is death, and he paid the wage.

These passages from Paul and John teach that Christ did not simply remove our guilt (expiation), He actually bore the wrath of God which ought to be visited upon us (propitiation). Otherwise, God could not be “just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). Nevertheless, although the propitiation has been made, the condition of its efficacy is individual trust. Paul brings this out very clearly in Romans 3:25 when he states concerning Christ, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation [hilasterion] through faith in His blood ...”

Notice how the propitiation who is Jesus Christ, is received “through faith in His blood.” This indicates that the propitiation is available but not applied until the person trusts Christ. This is how John employs the term in his First Epistle. In 1 John 2:2, Christ is called “the propitiation (hilasmos) for our sins: and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” Again, in 1 John 4:10, [14] we read, “[God] sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (see also Heb. 2:17 where hilasterion is translated “reconciliation”). Millard Erickson sums up:

The numerous passages that speak of the wrath of God against sin are evidence that Christ’s death was necessarily propitiatory. We read of the wrath of God against sin in Romans 1:18; 2:5, 8; 4:15; 5:9; 9:22; 12:19; 13:4–5; Ephesians 2:3; 5:6; Colossians 3:6; and 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 2:16; 5:9. So then, Paul’s idea of the atoning death ... is not simply that it covers sin and cleanses from its corruption (expiation), but that the sacrifice also appeases a God who hates sin and is radically opposed to it (propitiation).