The Indispensable Atonement – Part 2

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Romans 3:21- 31 [24-26]  (previous)

Preached 5/26/2019

INTRODUCTION

Last week we started with a discussion about the idea that many people have that “all religions lead to God”.  As we saw, for a Christian this is a terrible thing to say.  As Christians we have a great Savior and a priceless message.  The crucifixion of Jesus was not a foul up.  And if we do not appreciate it but explain it away – we have lost everything. 

Looking at our passage last week we saw that our salvation is not “multiple choice”.  Without God’s help we are hopeless, but God, in his infinite love, devised and implemented the plan to save us from our sins.  Our redemption had a master plan, and it is a masterful plan.

In verses 21-23 Paul introduces this plan from God for our redemption.

Romans 3:21-26  ²¹ But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-- ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...

 In those verses we saw:

•  God’s Plan is not a secret plan  (“has been manifested”)
•  God’s Plan is not based on our keeping his law  (“apart from the law”)
•  God’s Plan is not a new idea  (testified to by “the Law and the Prophets”)
•  God’s Plan involves faith only  (“the righteousness of God through faith”)
•  God’s Plan is about Christ only  (“through faith in Jesus Christ”)
•  God’s Plan is a promise  (“for all who believe”)
•  God’s Plan is Universal  (“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”)

So now that Paul has talked about how to acquire the salvation of our souls, he finally answers the question: “how can a righteous judge do the impossible and justify ungodly sinners?”

Then in the next three verses we are introduced to three big theological words which describe the main components of salvation:

• Justification,
• Redemption, and
• Propitiation

These three items make up what is called Atonement.   The concept of Atonement is found all through scripture.  The Hebrew word kāpar  (“make atonement”) appears more than 100 times in the OT in sacrificial contexts, and it means “to propitiate God’s wrath, expiate sins, and restore fellowship between God and sinners.” That last point is how it affects us – where the rubber meets the road.   The atonement answers the question asked by Job (9:2) “how can a man be in the right before God?”

Under the Mosaic law the Israelites participated in various sacrifices to cover their sins and allow the holy God to dwell among them even though they were a sinful people.  These sacrifices had to be repeated for each sin, and once a year, on the “Day of Atonement”, the high priest took the blood of a special sacrifice into the holy place in the tabernacle (and later the temple) and sprinkled it on the front of the lid of the Ark of the Covenant.  This “atonement cover” was called the kappōret, which means “place of atonement”, or “mercy seat”.  The priest first offered blood for his own sins and then for all the people as their representative.  But this had to be done every year because the sins continued each day and (as the writer of the book of Hebrews tells us) “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin”.   So the animal sacrifices made atonement – but only by covering the sin for a time to enable the continued fellowship of God with his people. 

While this temporary atonement was necessary for Israel to continue to be the nation where God’s presence dwelt, it was also done in hope that someday a full atonement would be made that would allow God’s people of all nations and tribes to be able to dwell in God’s holy presence forever.  As we will see in the book of Hebrews that required God to send his own High Priest with a better sacrifice.  This plan for atonement and salvation is described in Romans 3:24-26 and includes Justification, Redemption, and Propitiation.   If you think about it, this list is actually in reverse order, with the final result stated first.  Each one of these is made possible by the following one in the list, so the result of this plan is given first.

I. Justified – Atonement Declared

Verse 24 was where we left off last week.  Let’s review how Paul starts his summary of salvation:

Romans 3:24-31 ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus

Right off the bat Paul describes the saving act as one of “justification”.  Somehow God “justifies” us. So what is justification? Before we say what it is, let’s talk about what it is NOT:

• First, Biblical justification is not just a clemency or a pardon.  It is not that God says “yes, I know that you are a vile sinner, but I am going to commute your sentence so that you can go to heaven.  I am giving you a full pardon and will not punish you for your sin.  God’s own law mandates punishment for sin and his character of absolute justice requires Him to be consistent with his own law. 
• In a similar vein, biblical justification is not just declaring a guilty sinner “not guilty”.  Think about it.  In the U.S. our legal system does not prove people innocent. No human judge or prosecutor declares anybody innocent.  We presume innocence because we lack omniscience, and it is up to the court to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.  In contrast to this, God can and does declare people guilty and declares the penalty, which is death.  So God’s justification is a certification that God has declared you righteous.  It is not enough to just be “not guilty”.  Justification is more.
• Thirdly, biblical justification is not declaring us “mostly good” or “good enough”.  Verse 23 makes that absolutely clear “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.  Sure, if you look around your neighborhood you will find someone who seemingly deserves hell more than you.  But that is not the standard.  If we compare ourselves to the glory of God then all of the human race is infinitely short of the goal posts.  This is the main difference between Jesus and every other man-made religion out there.  Those that talk about moral law propose a scale with good deeds balancing bad deeds. But the better metaphor would be taking a big pot and adding lots of good food ingredients and adding deadly poison.  Consider the following verses:

James 2:8-11 [ESV] ⁸ If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well. ⁹ But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. ¹¹ For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 

Isaiah 64:6 [NASB]  For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

Another reason that this is a bad definition of justification can be seen in the doctrine of purgatory, where people go who have had their mortal sins forgiven but who still have to be punished for their smaller sins.  This message is not biblical and steals our hope.  What hope is it that we would have to go to hell for days, months or years even after being justified?  No, biblical justification is a complete declaration that we are fully righteous before God.  As Paul writes in Romans 8:  [NASB] “¹ Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ... ³³ Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; ³⁴ who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. ... ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

• Fourthly, biblical justification is not God making us righteous – eventually – so that we can walk into heaven because we finally deserve it. Not only is this part of the doctrine of purgatory, it is one of the main points that the Roman Catholic church had with the protestant reformation.  Their doctrine (reaffirmed in the Council of Trent in the 16^th century) is that (in the words of R.C.Sproul): “that God will never declare a person just until that person actually, under divine scrutiny, is found to be just. … The Latin word is inherens.  In other words, when God looks at us, he will not say that we are just until he sees that we really are just.”  But the bible is clear.  If you are in Christ, you are already justified (past tense). The formula is simple: We are justified at the moment of salvation, we are sanctified while we live on Earth (progressively), and when God takes us to heaven we will be glorified (made perfect – by God, not human effort). Looking at Romans chapter 5 we see Paul describe justification in this way:

Romans 5:1-2 [NASB] ¹ Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

The word here signifies that God is making a legal declaration that we are righteous. It is the judge declaring a guilty sinner “not guilty”.  It is much more than clemency or a pardon (as R.C. Sproul point out).  It is not a partial forgiveness, or a piece-by-piece cleansing of our records.  It is not “forgiveness of only the major sins”, leaving us with others to deal with ourselves.  As Paul will write later in this epistle:

One thing that we must keep clear is that when God declares us righteous, it is not with our righteousness, but what Martin Luther called a iustia alienum, or an alien righteousness.  This declaration happens before we attain it in actuality and is the basis for our hope in Christ.  Again quoting R.C. Sproul: “One of the slogans formulated by Luther and widely repeated in the 16^th century was a little Latin phrase: simul iustus et peccator. Simul … means “at the same time.”  Iustus means “just” or “righteous”, … and peccator is the word for “sinner”.  … The point of Luther’s slogan was this: the Christian is someone who is at the very same time righteous and sinner.  How can this be? While we are sinners, we are also righteous in God’s sight by virtue of the legal transfer God made by assigning to us the righteousness of Jesus, if we put our trust in Christ.  By virtue of this transfer, or the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to us, we are declared to be righteous while still sinners.”

This is what justification means.  And Paul in Romans 3:24 makes it crystal clear: This is NOT something that we earn.  It is “by his grace as a gift”.  Could it be any clearer that this is an alien righteousness and not our own?

 

II  Redemption – Atonement Paid

Verse 24 continues with our second big theological word: Redemption. 

Romans 3:24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Redemption is the pre-requisite for justification.  Why?  Because, as we have already seen, God would violate his own justice and holiness (and being engaged in pure fantasy) if he declared an ungodly sinner righteous.  As Ligon Duncan puts it:

“Let me make an audacious statement.  Let me make a bold statement.  Listen closely. … The entire Old Testament sacrificial system calls into question the justice and righteousness of God if there is no real divine sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ. … I can say that because [Hebrews 10:4] says that “the blood of bulls and goats cannot forgive sins”.  … He doesn’t mean … that [it] can’t forgive now in the NT, but it could in the OT.  He means it never could forgive sin.  The blood of animals can’t atone for human sin.  They can’t bring about reconciliation.  They can’t bring about redemption.  They can’t bring about propitiation. … So Paul’s gospel actually reveals God’s righteousness in showing that when He shows mercy, he doesn’t just sweep sin under the carpet.”

As I said last week, our justification is accomplished through redemption in Christ.  The word redemption here is a word meaning “deliverance” or “release”.  It is related to the word for “ransom” or “ransom price”, which involves, for instance, the price that must be paid to release a prisoner from prison.  While we might be able to pay a debt that we owe to our credit card company, we can NOT pay the ransom for our own souls. 

But God arranged for the redemption price to be paid.  The book-keeping was done and nobody in the universe is going to question his figures.  Because the price of our redemption was the shed blood of Christ.  Combining the words of Peter and Paul (1 Peter 1:18-19 and Eph 1:7) we read:

“… you were ransomed … not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”  And  “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace”

This is why Jesus, after bearing the terrible weight of our sins on the cross, said “it is finished” before bowing his head in death.  The word  τετέλεσται (tetelestai). The word, from a root that speaks of completion, perfection, or fulfillment, is a banking term that meant “paid in full”.  When a debt was fully paid, the word tetelestai was written on loan document to declare the debt gone.  No fees or payments were left – whatever had been the object of the loan was now the property of the payer.

In the words of the Petra song “It is finished”:

The provision has been made,

the foundation has been laid,

He paid the ransom due and tore the temple veil in two,

and opened up the way for me and you –

it is finished!

III  Propitiation – Atonement Made

So we come to the final step of Paul’s description of our dramatic rescue from the wrath of God in verse 25, where he describes this justification, through this redemption in Christ Jesus:

Romans 3:25a  whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

The word propitiation is a very important word, but it is only found four times in our English Bible: here in Romans 3:25, once in the second chapter of Hebrews, and twice in the first epistle of John.  All of these words are related.  The word in 1 John speaks of the act of propitiation, which could also be translated atonement in that it speaks of appeasing of wrath, specifically God’s wrath.  In Hebrews a verb form of the word is used, to make propitiation.  Here in Romans the word hilastērion refers to the propitiatory sacrifice, and is actually the word used in the Greek translation of the OT and in Hebrews 9 for the “mercy seat” on the Ark of the covenant, where atonement was made.

Think of the imagery that God is using to describe our salvation.  In OT times the high priest would make atonement for the nation by sprinkling blood on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies.  But this was only a picture, because it could not do anything but delay God’s righteous wrath until a full propitiation was made.  That propitiation was made by Jesus, with his own blood.

To understand the concept of propitiation, we must understand the nature of God – both his holiness and his justice.  Remember that Paul starts his treatise on salvation in Romans with this simple statement :

Romans 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

Think about that for a moment.  When God made propitiation for us with his blood on the cross, the wrath He appeased was his own.  He literally saved us from Himself.  He did not save us from the devil (though the devil’s power over us as our accuser was broken).  Paul wrote:

Romans 8:3a  For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God [did:] sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and [as an offering] for sin,

The amazing thing about all this was that it was all initiated by God.  In Romans 3:25 we see the following truths:

 

This Propitiation was initiated by God

Verse 25 says that “God put [Jesus] forward as a propitiation”.  Ligon Duncan put this beautifully:

“It is God who displays publically His Son as a propitiation through His blood.  The Father is the author of propitiation. The Father is the author of redemption.  The Father is the author of justification.  The Father’s love is already upon His people.  The cross is the means of accomplishing the purposes of His love.  Jesus is not on the cross trying to get God the Father involved in salvation.  He’s on the cross because the Father has been involved in salvation from the beginning of the world, and He loves His people so much that he’s willing to spare not His own Son.”

We must be careful not to think in too-human terms here.  There is a bizarre movement in some modern church movements to deny the substitutionary atonement of Jesus because they think that it is to ugly, calling it “cosmic child abuse”.  But Jesus is the “God-man”.  He has been and will continue to be God for all eternity.  He is also described in Hebrews as “The Author and Finisher of our faith”.  All members of the Trinity worked together to make this plan.  Jesus says of his death:

John 10:18 "No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father."

And John writes in his first epistle:

1 John 3:16a  We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us.

So we need to drop the idea entirely that this was some sort of punishment inflicted upon Jesus against his will, or that he was forced into.  He came to Earth to die for us and become the propitiation that we needed to be united with Him.

 

This propitiation was paid for by His shed blood

It says “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood”.  Hebrews says:

Hebrews 9:22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

From the beginning of history God placed a premium on blood, saying that “the life is in the blood”.  The first coverings that God made for Adam and Eve after the fall required the shedding of blood. Of Cain and Abel, only Abel’s offering from the flock was accepted.  Atonement for the Jews was made with blood of animals.  Jesus was the fulfillment of this.

 

This Propitiation is only given to those with faith

“propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith”.  As Jesus told Nicodemus, whoever believe will receive eternal life, but those who do not believe are condemned already.  Faith is required to receive this atonement.

 

This Propitiation is How God Displays His own Righteousness

The verse starts with “whom God displayed publically as a propitiation” [NASB] and continues with “This was to show God’s righteousness”. As we said earlier, there is a tension between the sinfulness of man and the holiness and justice of God that even the angels “longed to look into”.  How can a righteous God save ungodly sinners?  His absolute perfect justice requires Him to condemn the wicked.  But it is worse than that.  God’s patience with the human race is also inexplicable.  As Paul writes in this verse, God’s righteousness had to be shown “because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

This is the scandal of heaven and earth, but it was reconciled in Jesus through the cross.  In the cross, God’s righteousness is fully vindicated.

III  Conclusion

We all have favorite verses from Romans.  It is so full of amazing truth and wondrous revelations.  The Pastor’s email address is from the reference to the verse where Paul proclaims “I am not ashamed of the Gospel”.  For gospel presentations we learn Romans 3:23 and 6:23, speaking of how all sin and how the wages of sin is death.  We quote 8:28 about how all things work for good for God’s people.  We quote the verses at the end of the chapter about how amazing God’s love is.  And are admonished by 12:1 with its call to offer ourselves a living sacrifice. 

Maybe you have another favorite – there are many to choose from.  But I realized a few years ago that Romans 3:26 is one of the central verses in the book, because ultimately the gospel is about God, not us, and is for His glory, not ours.

In verse 26 Paul finishes the thought he started back in chapter one when he talked about how the gospel reveals the righteousness of God.  The unanswerable question is answered.  And the gospel is the ultimate way that God has chosen to glorify Himself.  The atonement made by the Son to appease the wrath of God against sin allows Him to save ungodly sinners without compromising his divine and beautiful attributes of holiness and justice (indeed, emphasizing and magnifying them) while also displaying his perfect love and mercy and grace.  As Paul writes it

Romans 3:26   It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

If you really meditate on this verse, it should properly blow your mind. No human religion has proposed something so amazing.  Human created Gods must sacrifice justice for love, or holiness for mercy, or love for justice, or knowledge for sovereignty.  These are eternal concepts and attributes that create paradoxes that go beyond human conception and intelligence.  When we try to create a perfect system we will always come short, and it shows in our “religions”.  Which is why, after Paul has had the opportunity to display God’s righteousness in his description of the doctrine of the gospel, he finishes with these words:

Romans 11:33-36 [ESV]  ³³ Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ³⁴ "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" ³⁵ "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" ³⁶ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

 

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