Propitiation

How did the cross of Christ achieve its purpose?  In what ways did his death and resurrection usher in ‘the day of salvation’ (2 Cor 6:2)?

Just as several pictures, or metaphors, are needed to fill out the meaning of ‘church’ (bride, temple, household, and so on), so several are required to illustrate the salvation that Christ achieved.  Chief among these are the terms ‘propitiation’, ‘redemption’, ‘justification’, and ‘reconciliation’.  It is important to realise that these images are complementary to one another, for underlying them all is ‘the truth that God in Christ has borne our sin and died our death to set us free from sin’.  In other words, substitutionary atonement is the fundamental doctrine, and these other terms illustrate and explicate that doctrine.