“And if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:1-2
I have read this scripture many times and never really understood what it meant. I knew it meant that “someone took my place or gave me favor that I did not deserve,” but the word “propitiation,” I just could not grasp until I read this story…
Franciszek Gajowniczek was a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp. When a prisoner escaped, they would select ten men at random and put them in a cell until they starved to death.
When Mr. Gajowniczek heard his name called, he began to sob… “My wife, my children…” And he cried and cried. A Franciscan priest named Kolbe (who was also in prison) heard him crying and said, “I will take his place. I don’t have a wife or children.” He was granted his request. He starved to death in prison, and Mr. Gajowniczek was set free.
Since that day, Mr. Gajowniczek has gone back to Auschwitz on August 14th in order to remember the man who died for him in 1941. Jesus died in our place for sins that he did not commit… He shielded us! He took our place!
But this really excited me… On NASA’s space shuttles, there is a heat shield that some call “the propitiation shield!” When the shuttle re-enters the earth’s atmosphere, the temperature rises to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The “propitiation shield” deflects anything harmful, especially the heat, and so it protects the astronauts. Jesus is our “propitiation shield!” He stands between us and the devil, between us and the world, and He takes the heat for us! That’s just the kind of God we serve! Sherry