Leon Mor­ris writes:

The use of the con­cept of pro­pi­ti­a­tion wit­ness­es to two great real­i­ties, the one, the real­i­ty and the seri­ous­ness of the divine reac­tion against sin, and the other, the reality ­and the great­ness of the divine love which pro­vid­ed the gift which should avert the wrath from men. . .

. . . unless we give real con­tent to the wrath of God, unless we hold that men really ­deserve to have God visit upon them the painful con­se­quences of their wrong­do­ing, we empty God’s for­give­ness of its mean­ing. (The Apos­tolic Preach­ing of the Cross, 211, 213)