Propitiation and Reconciliation

Someone being propitiated has God's wrath averted. If the person isn't saved, it presents a problem when one considers the meaning of reconciliation and its relationship to propitiation in the Bible.

First, propitiation puts away enmity and wrath of someone towards another.
Second, reconciliation is ending conflict and disagreement between two parties.

The Bible presents reconciliation in such a way that it is an act of God. God is the one the must be reconciled to us because of His demands for justice. We are reconciled by Christ's death and much more by his life. Yet, our nature is not reconciled to God in the gospel. The flesh remains at enmity against God. The reconciliation which is present and talked about in the Bible is complete past tense action. We are at peace with God already. So this reconciliation must be just as forensic as justification. Otherwise, our reconciliation would follow some other path which includes dissolving our enmity in the flesh. (aka sanctification.) Christ is can scarcely be called the only mediator between God and man in such an arrangement.

This should make it clear that it is not our reconciliation to God but God towards us is presented in the Bible. God's holiness and justice require an answer. His demands are answered in Christ alone. The ministry of the reconciliation is the ministry of gospel. The apostles are said to be ministers of reconciliation. It is likewise God's wrath, as an outflowing of his justice and enmity towards sinners, that must be dealt with in Christ for us to be reconciled. God cannot give up his justice by withholding His wrath. I cannot see how propitiation (turning wrath away) can be divorced from reconciliation or the even gospel. It God's Holy enmity towards sinners which must be reconciled. It is all an act of God by which reconciliation takes place. Wrath cannot be pour out twice if a hypothetical unbeliever is propitiated but not reconciled. Such a dispensing of wrath is unjust. I cannot accept any propitiation for those who do not inherit salvation because of how it relates to reconciliation.