1 John 2:2

Verse 2. And he is the propitiation for our sins.

Christ is all this. It may appear great and exceedingly momentous, yet it is a fact in the economy of God and his system by which intelligent creatures are to be reconciled to him and saved.

Propitiation.

So much has been written upon the subject of the propitiation in Christ, and so much senseless speculation is afloat in the world, I am not at all surprised that the simple meaning of the term has been overlooked. On the ark of the covenant, placed by Moses in the Most Holy Place by the command of God, was a covering called the mercy seat (See Exodus 25:10-21, and Exodus 37:1-9, and Exodus 40:1-3). This was ordained by God's command and for the purpose, that there at the mercy seat God would meet man: "And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandments unto the children of Israel" (Exodus 25:22). This was called the propitiatory. The high priest approached this mercy seat once each year with blood. God here met and communed with him for the people. Now, Christ is our mercy seat; he is our propitiatory; he is our altar and our high priest; his blood has been offered for us for our sins. He is, therefore, our propitiation. Here it is that God meets the sinner, and nowhere else. In Christ, and not out of Christ, may pardon be expected.

For the sins of the whole world.

The blood of Christ, shed in his death, became a pro pitiation, not for our sins only who profess to be his children, but Christ is a mercy-seat, to be approached by every suffering son and daughter of Adam. The method of approach is made simple and easy. His blood must be applied, and can only be applied, when reached as he has commanded. Nowhere in the Scriptures can a declaration be found that Christ shed his blood for the elect only. The "whole world" means here just, what the language imports. All throughout the world, from the first even to the end of time may avail themselves of this gracious provision by accepting God's blessed Son, complying with his requirements, living obedient lives, and receiving at the last the same blessed reward.