ah, thats prolly because i wasn't sure where you were headed there, so i just posted what popped into my head to keep the thread alive.
It had a double entendre in purpose, neither of which had you in mind nor the intention of shooting this down. <chuckle>
what you mean by "aforetime is interesting" there might bring this out
How do you read:
Rom 3:25 whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God;
Who set forth the "propitiation"? Through faith in what? To show whose righteousness?
The passing over of sins done aforetime: Aforetime to what?
And
if aforetime, what does that mean for the present and the future?
BTW: Hilasterion only occurs one other place in the NT besides Romans 3:25. Hebrews 9:5, in which it is rendered "mercy seat". The "covering" of the Ark of the Covenant.
According to Liddell and Scott's, subaudi [mentally supply] epithema: something put on, a lid, cover.
1Jo 2:2 and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
1Jo 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Hilasmos and hilasmon respectively.
Heb 8:12 For I will be
merciful to their iniquities, And their sins will I remember no more.
hileos
Luk 18:13 But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast, saying, God, be thou
merciful to me a sinner.
hilastheti
Heb 2:17 Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make
propitiation / reconciliation for the sins of the people.
hilaskesthai
In the passing over of the Exodus, it was the blood of the pesakh lamb that provided a "covering" so to speak from the destroyer. The Feast of the Passover is also known as the Feast of the "Sparing".
For as the blood applied to the head and sides of the door "by faith" [by faith in that it required both belief and action] provided a "covering / skipping over / passing over" from the destroyer, so also does the Blood of the Lamb provide a covering over or a passing over of our thoughts and actions done aforetime, when we did not know "God". A covering or passing over, a skipping over or "sparing" by faith in the Blood, from the destruction that would / should have rightly been ours.
Thus, the "door" as you put it.
<snip NIV>