How To Be Right With God – Righteousness Was Paid By Atoning Sacrifice. |
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| Pastor Bill Farrow |
Romans 3:24b-25 |
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24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, (Verse 24b-25) - Righteousness Is Accomplished By Redemption “Redemption” is a strengthened form of a basic word which carries the idea of delivering, especially by means of paying a price. It was commonly used of paying a ransom to free a prisoner from his captors or paying the price to free a slave from his master. The word used here occurs only 10 times in the New Testament, (Luke 21:28; Rom. 3:24; 8:23; 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:7, 14; 4:30; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:15; 11:35). Its root properly denotes the price which is paid for a prisoner of war; the ransom, or stipulated purchase-money, which being paid, the captive is set free. The word used here is then employed to denote liberation from bondage, captivity, or evil of any kind, usually keeping up the idea of a price, or a ransom paid, in consequence of which the delivery is effected. It is sometimes used in a large sense, to denote simple deliverance by any means, without reference to a price paid, as in Luke 21:28; Rom. 8:23; Eph. 1:14. That this is not the sense here, however, is apparent. For the apostle in the next verse proceeds to specify the price which has been paid, or the means by which this redemption has been effected. The word here denotes that deliverance from sin, and from the evil consequences of sin, which has been effected by the offering of Jesus Christ as a propitiation; Rom. 3:25. The distinction must be carefully maintained between this word and ransom. The Vulgate, by translating both redemptio, confounds the work of Christ with its result. Christ’s death is nowhere styled redemption. His death is the ransom, figuratively, not literally, in the sense of a compensation; the medium of the redemption, answering to the fact that Christ gave Himself for us. Because of man’s utter sinfulness and inability to bring himself up to the standard of God’s righteousness, the redemption of a sinner could come only by that which is in Christ Jesus. Or, that has been effected by Christ Jesus; that of which he is the author and procurer; (compare John 3:16). Only the sinless Savior could pay the price to redeem sinful men. We cannot stress the importance of this qualifier enough. It is ONLY by means of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that this ransom is paid, resulting in redemption for the elect. No other price was qualified to be acceptable to God by the obedience to the Law that was Christ’s life and death. Men have often, in history, died for other men. Men have died for country, for family, for all manner of causes and motivations that they believed noble and worthy. Yet the death of Christ for His people stands above all because of the character and the nature of the One Who died. It is Christ’s obedience to the Law that established His worthiness to act as the ransom for God’s people – and that guaranteed His acceptance as payment for the sins of the elect. Righteousness Was Paid By Atoning Sacrifice Because man cannot become righteous on his own, God graciously provided for his redemption through the atoning sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus Christ. That sacrifice was not made in the dark or even in the hidden and holy recesses of the sacred Temple, but openly on the hill of Calvary for all the world to see. “Set forth” is literally “Fore-ordained”. The word properly means, “to place in public view;” to exhibit in a conspicuous situation, as goods are exhibited or exposed for sale, or as premiums or rewards of victory were exhibited to public view in the games of the Greeks. It sometimes has the meaning of decreeing, purposing, or constituting, as in the margin of some versions (compare Rom. 1:13; Eph. 1:9); and many have supposed that this is its meaning here. But the connection seems to require the usual signification of the word; and it means that God has publicly exhibited Jesus Christ as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of people. This public exhibition was made by his being offered on the cross, in the face of angels and of people. It was not concealed; it was done openly. He was put to open shame; and so put to death as to attract toward the scene the eyes of angels, and of the inhabitants of all worlds. He brought Him forth and put Him before the public. One writer translates this: “placed before the eyes of all;” unlike the ark of the covenant which was veiled and approached only by the high-priest. The word is used by Herodotus of exposing corpses (v. 8); by Thucydides of exposing the bones of the dead (ii. 34). Compare the shew-bread, the loaves of the setting-forth. Paul refers not to preaching, but to the work of atonement itself, in which God’s righteousness is displayed. Some writers suggested a two-fold idea: God set before himself (purposed) and did it publicly before (pro) the whole world. God displayed His Son publicly as a propitiation. Propitiation carries the basic idea of appeasement, or satisfaction. In ancient pagan religions, as in many religions today, the idea of man’s appeasing a deity by various gifts or sacrifices was common. But in the New Testament propitiation always refers to the work of God, not of man. Man is utterly incapable of satisfying God’s justice except by spending eternity in hell. This word occurs but in one other place in the New Testament. (Heb. 9:5), “and over it (the ark) the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy-seat. It is used here to denote the lid or cover of the ark of the covenant. It was made of gold, and over it were the cherubim”. In this sense it is often used by the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Old Testament - e.g. Exo. 25:17, “And thou shalt make a propitiatory of gold,” Exo. 18-20, 22; 30:6; 31:7; 35:11: 37:6-9; 40:18; Lev. 16:2, 13. The Hebrew name for this was kaphoreth, from the verb kaaphar, “to cover” or “to conceal.” It was from this place that God was represented as speaking to the children of Israel. (Exo. 25:22), “and I will speak to thee from above the Hilasterion, the propitiatory, the mercy-seat”. (Lev. 16:2), “For I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy-seat.” This seat, or cover, was covered with the smoke of the incense, when the high priest entered the most holy place, (Lev. 16:13). And the blood of the bullock offered on the great Day of Atonement, was to be sprinkled “upon the mercy-seat,” and “before the mercy-seat,” “seven times,” (Lev. 16:14-15). This sprinkling or offering of blood was called making “an atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel,” etc. (Lev. 16:16). It was from this mercy-seat that God pronounced pardon, or expressed himself as reconciled to his people. The atonement was made, the blood was sprinkled, and the reconciliation thus effected. The name was thus given to that cover of the ark, because it was the place from which God declared Himself reconciled to his people. Still the inquiry is, why is this name given to Jesus Christ? In what sense is he declared to be a propitiation? It is evident that it cannot be applied to him in any literal sense. Between the golden cover of the Ark of the Covenant and the Lord Jesus, the analogy must be very slight, if any such analogy can be perceived. We may observe, however, (1) That the main idea, in regard to the cover of the ark called the mercy-seat, was that of God’s being reconciled to his people; and that this is the main idea in regard to the Lord Jesus whom “God hath set forth.” (2) This reconciliation was effected then by the sprinkling of blood on the mercy-seat, (Lev. 16:15-16). The same is true of the Lord Jesus - by blood. (3) In the former case it was by the blood of atonement; the offering of the bullock on the great Day of Atonement, that the reconciliation was effected, (Lev. 16:17-18). In the case of the Lord Jesus it was also by blood; by the blood of atonement. But it was by his own blood. This the apostle distinctly states in this verse. (4) In the former case there was a sacrifice, or expiatory offering; and so it is in reconciliation by the Lord Jesus. In the former, the mercy-seat was the visible, declared place where God would express his reconciliation with his people. So in the latter, the offering of the Lord Jesus is the manifest and open way by which God will be reconciled to people. (5) In the former, there was joined the idea of a sacrifice for sin, Lev. 16. So in the latter. And hence, the main idea of the apostle here is to convey the idea of a sacrifice for sin; or to set forth the Lord Jesus as such a sacrifice. Hence, the word “propitiation” in the original may express the idea of a propitiatory sacrifice, as well as the cover to the ark. The word is an adjective, and may be joined to the noun sacrifice, as well as to denote the mercy-seat of the ark. This meaning accords also with its classic meaning to denote a propitiatory offering, or an offering to produce reconciliation. Christ is thus represented, not as a mercy-seat, which would be unintelligible; but as the medium, the offering, the expiation, by which reconciliation is produced between God and man. The only satisfaction, or propitiation, that could be acceptable to God and that could reconcile Him to man had to be made by God. For that reason, God in human flesh, Jesus Christ, “gave Himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:6). He appeased the wrath of God. That ransoming propitiation made by Christ was paid in His own divine blood. To believers scattered throughout the Roman Empire, Peter wrote, “You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:18-19). As we noted, the Hebrew equivalent of this Greek word is used in the Old Testament in reference to the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies, where the high priest went once a year, on the Day of Atonement, to make a sacrifice on behalf of his people. On that occasion he sprinkled blood on the Mercy Seat, symbolizing the payment of the penalty for his own sins and the sins of the people. But that yearly act, although divinely prescribed and honored, had no power to remove or pay the penalty for a single sin. It could only point to the true and effective “offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.… For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Heb. 10:10, 14). Those who are sanctified by the offering of Christ are those who receive that sanctification through faith in Him, or by means of faith. The offering will be of no avail without faith. The offering has been made; but it will not be applied, except where there is faith. He has made an offering which may be efficacious in putting away sin; but it produces no reconciliation, no pardon, except where it is accepted by faith. We are meant to connect this with propitiation (mercy-seat). The sacrifice of Christ becomes effective through faith which appropriates it. Reconciliation implies two parties. “No propitiation reaches the mark that does not on its way, reconcile or bring into faith, the subject for whom it is made. There is no God-welcome prepared which does not open the guilty heart to welcome God”. To the Colossian believers Paul wrote, “In Him [Christ] you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross”. (Col. 2:11-14) In his beautiful hymn, Horatius Bonar wrote,
Not what my hands have done
Thy grace alone, O God, |
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