Paid in Full
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Rivermont Avenue Baptist Church, Lynchburg, Virginia
Reverend Glen A. Land, Senior Pastor
Romans 3:21-26 (ESV)
21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested
apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For
there is no distinction: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, 24and are justified by his grace as a gift, through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a
propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's
righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former
sins. 26It 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.
INTRODUCTION
·
John Piper pronounced
it the greatest letter ever written.
·
John Stott called
it, “…the fullest, plainest and grandest statement of the gospel in the New
Testament.”
·
Martin Luther
once said, “This epistle is in truth the most important document in the New
Testament, the gospel in its purest expression.”
·
John Knox
declared, “It is unquestionably the most important theological work ever
written.”
·
According to
Calvin, “When anyone gains a knowledge of this Epistle, he has an entrance
opened to him to all the most hidden treasures of Scripture.”
·
It was Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, the English poet, philosopher, and literary critic of the late 18th
and early 19th Centuries, who perhaps best summed it up: “I think
that the Epistle to the Romans is the most profound work in existence.”
It was reading the Book of
Romans that directly led to the conversion of such theological giants as St.
Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Wesley. The impact on Christian history of
Paul’s longest and most important letter cannot be exaggerated. It contains the
clearest and most complete expression of the gospel in the Bible. It’s not by
chance that the plan of salvation has often been called “The Roman Road.”
If this were not impressive enough,
consider the fact that my text this morning, Romans 3:21-26, is often viewed as
the very heart of the letter:
·
C.E.B. Cranfield,
author of what many regard as the finest commentary on Romans in print, calls
these verses ‘the centre and heart’ of Romans.
·
The late D. Martin
Lloyd-Jones, long-time pastor of Westminster Chapel in London who for years preached
to standing-room-only crowds, called Romans 3:21-26 “… the acropolis of the Bible and of the
Christian faith.”
·
Another
preeminent New Testament scholar, Leon Morris, described it as “…possibly the
most important single paragraph ever written.”
·
And finally, pastor
and popular Christian writer and conference leader, John Piper, declared this
passage to be “… the Mount Everest of the Bible…. There are great sentences in
the Bible, and great paragraphs and great revelations, but it doesn’t get any
greater than this paragraph in Romans 3:21-26.”
I trust I have your
attention. Today’s message deals with the very heart and essence of the
Christian faith. How you choose to respond will determine your eternal destiny.
It doesn’t get any more important than this. So open your bibles and follow
along closely as we consider what the Apostle Paul wrote from Corinth to the
church in Rome, sometime during the winter months of AD 56-57.
The
Context of Romans 3:21-26 – God’s Righteous Wrath toward the Sinfulness of the
Human Race (Romans 1:16-3:20)
A basic principle of sound
Bible study is to know your context.
After a few introductory
comments, in Romans 1:16-17 Paul spells out the theme of his letter, the righteous shall live by faith:
16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the
power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also
to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from
faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
From this point on through chapter
3, verse 20 Paul unpacks the sad, sorry litany of a sinful human race in
rebellion against a holy God, a God whose righteous wrath is quite properly
directed against sinners.
1:18 – For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their
unrighteousness suppress the truth.
1:28, 32 – 28And since they did not see fit
to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to
be done. . . . . 32Though they know God's righteous decree that
those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give
approval to those who practice them.
2:1, 5 – 1Therefore you have no excuse, O
man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you
condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things . . . .
. 5But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up
wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be
revealed.
3:10-12 – 10as it is written: “None is
righteous, no, not one; 11no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12All
have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not
even one.”
3:20 – For by works of the law no human being will be
justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Romans
3:21-26 – The Path to Justification: The Story of God’s Costly Forgiveness
Paul has painted an utterly
desolate picture of the plight of the human race. Without exception from Adam
onward, we are judged to be uniformly evil, hopelessly lost in our sin. No
matter how earnestly we try, we cannot, through own efforts, keep God’s law.
Nor can we earn our own justification in his sight.
We are the objects of God’s
righteous wrath. We’re an affront to his divine holiness and stand even now
under his condemnation. Yet while all hope seems lost, Paul declares that there
is good news after all! Beginning with Romans 3:21, he tells the story of God’s
costly forgiveness. He shows us the path to justification and peace with God.
And it starts with two little words…
“But now…”
(vs. 21)
Just two little words, but on
them swings the hinge of history. How many times have we seen a conversation or
a relationship pivot on one tiny word? “I still love you but…” “I like your work however…”
“I’ll buy your house if…” Too often
those conjunctions work against us. “I still love you but I love someone else even
more.” “I like your work however your co-workers despise you and want you
dead.” “I’ll buy your house if you install a new kitchen and drop the
asking price by twenty grand.”
But sometimes we catch a
break. Sometimes a little word works to change things in our favor. With verse
21 something significant has changed. More than a new paragraph has begun. A
new approach to the Living God has been opened up to us. Before righteousness
meant perfect obedience to the law—and no one was able to live up to
that lofty standard. “But now
the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law…” Those two little words, but now, have introduced the first
fundamental change in the relationship between God and humanity since The Fall.
God is offering us a way forward, a way out of sin and into his righteousness, but without the
impossible challenge of living up to the Law’s demands.
The words point backward to
an event in history. When Paul wrote this he was describing something in the
still recent past. Many living eyewitnesses could testify to its truth. In
contrast to the impossibility of justification by good works, we’re now offered
justification as a free gift—God’s free gift to us.
“…the righteousness of God…” (vs. 21)
This refers to a new status
of righteousness before God for you and me, a status that is God’s gift to us.
This is critical if we are to understand what Paul is saying. That God is righteous or that God’s
righteousness is evident is hardly news. But that you and I can stand before
God and be declared righteous… that
we can come under the protection of God’s
righteousness… that’s huge. This
is a new thing in the relationship between God and humanity. It’s kind of like
being allowed backstage to meet your favorite performer, not because he knows
you but because some else has vouched for you and says your OK. But my analogy
is flawed. God does know you. And he
knows you’re not OK. But he has found
a way to let you into his glorious presence for all eternity anyway, and in a
way that still satisfies his justice.
“…the righteousness of God has been manifested…” (vs.
21)
The Greek verb for has been manifested is in the perfect
tense, describing a completed action that occurred in the past but which
produced results that continue into the present. The emphasis of the perfect
tense is not the past action so much as the present “state of affairs”
resulting from the past action. This
gift of righteousness that God offers is a lasting inheritance. Once given, it’s
forever.
“…the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—” (vs. 21)
Paul is making a very
important point here on a topic he feels strongly about. He is asserting that
both the Torah—the books of Moses, first five books of the Old Testament—and
the writings of the prophets affirm the truth that even before the life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus, the gospel of salvation by grace through faith was
anticipated. This is a recurring theme in Romans beginning in the first two
verses of the letter:
1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an
apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2which
he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,
There is a widespread,
serious error in the thinking of many Christians. It is the mistaken belief
that while Christians are saved by grace through faith, the Jews of the Old
Testament were saved by following the law. Even a hurried reading of Romans
ought to put this notion to rest. As Paul states clearly in Romans 4:2-3:
2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has
something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the
Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as
righteousness.”
In verse 22 Paul expands and
clarifies what he said in verse 21.
22”…the righteousness of God through faith
in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:”
The promised righteousness of
God comes to us through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the first point in
Romans where Christ is explicitly identified as the object of saving faith.
This salvation is available to any and all who believe—Jew and Gentile, male
and female, black and white and yellow and brown—all stand level at the foot of
the cross. All are equally in need of salvation. All are equally welcome. But, and this is critically important
in a day when many different paths to God are being promoted, while the
righteousness of God is freely available through faith in Christ it is only available through faith in Christ.
As Peter made emphatically clear on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 4:12:
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is
no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
There is only one antidote
for the sin poison in your soul. There are a lot of snake oil salesmen out
there feverishly pitching other remedies. Please understand that the sincerity
with which you embrace a lie will count for nothing in eternity. If you have
bacterial pneumonia you need an antibiotic. A mustard plaster will not help.
Neither will Pepto-Bismol, Rolaids, or E-lax. Without the right medicine you
may die.
Sin is a terminal genetic disease of the soul. It is always
fatal. There is one and only one known
cure: the grace of God received through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the
antidote. Accept him and you will live. Refuse him—look for a cure elsewhere—and
you will die.
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God,
You have no claim on God. He
owes you nothing. Your best efforts to live a good life have earned you
exactly…zilch. We are all members of
the fellowship of sin, and it’s a big club.
We all know what it is to be
disappointed by another. Even those we love best, those closest to us, let us
down. And we, in turn, disappoint others. But our disappointment with one
another pales beside God’s profound disappoint in us.
Paul tells us that we all fall
short of the glory of God. That’s a phrase easily misunderstood. Paul’s not
suggesting that we’re under judgment for failing to achieve divinity. Quite the contrary, it was Satan tempting Eve
with the promise that “…you will be like
God…” that got us into this mess in the first place. Our falling short of
the glory of God speaks rather of lost potential. It takes us back to Eden and
reminds us of just how far we have fallen.
In The Chronicles of Narnia C.S. Lewis uses a memorable phrase to
describe human beings. He calls us “sons of Adam and daughters of Eve”. Have
you ever paused to consider what it would be like to encounter that first man
and woman in Eden as they existed before the Fall? To meet the parents of our
race in all their sinless perfection? Were they to walk into this sanctuary
right now, we would easily mistake them for gods, like characters out of Greek
mythology only better. For they would be more than beautiful; they would be
pure. They would be holy. Remember what it said in Genesis 1:27?
So God created man in his own image,
in the image
of God he created him;
male and
female he created them.
When Paul tells us that we
fall short of the glory of God he is lamenting the lost glory of paradise. He
is weeping over our lost inheritance. God created us in his image, an image
that has been stained and distorted by our sin. How far we have fallen!
What’s more, a careful study
of the Greek grammar clearly implies that not only unbelievers but Christians
as well still lack this glory of God. We can take comfort that we are once
again heirs of the glory that was Eden. With saving faith comes justification.
We are declared “not guilty”. Over a lifetime of discipleship comes a process
of sanctification as we become daily more and more like Christ. But only when
we are freed from this body of sin and stand at last in the presence of our
Lord will the full glory that God intended for us be restored.
24and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
What does it mean when Paul
says that we are justified? In a purely legal sense it means to be declared “not
guilty”. But the courtroom is a poor metaphor for what God does for us in
Christ. Let’s go back to Eden. We were created to be in fellowship with God.
Sin destroyed that fellowship. In Christ that broken fellowship is restored.
When we talk about the Old and New Testaments we are using a word that means covenant: the old and new covenants. To
be in right relationship with God is to be in covenant with him. Our sin broke
the covenant. Christ’s sacrificial death has restored it. When we are in
covenant with God we are in communion with God. Hence the imagery of the
communion service where we celebrate the new covenant in Christ’s blood.
When we are justified a right
status with God is restored and a process of moral
regeneration—sanctification—is begun so that we will ultimately become what we
have been declared to be.
“…by his grace as a gift…”
Our justification comes as an
undeserved grace gift. We are not saved so that God will love us. We are saved because he loved us when we were still
unlovable.
“…through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”
The word translated
redemption in the ESV can have several different meanings. It can simply mean
deliverance or emancipation. But it often carries with it the idea of deliverance
by paying a ransom. I’m strongly in favor of interpreting this passage with the
sense of a ransom paid in light of statements such as Jesus made in Mark 10:45:
“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Then there’s Isaiah’s prophecy
quoted in Luke 4:18:
18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,”
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,”
It was by offering as a
ransom his own life that Jesus purchased our freedom from slavery to sin while
also freeing us from the consequences of sin: God’s condemnation, God’s wrath.
This was achieved through
Christ Jesus. It was through the Person and Work of the Son that the Father
accomplished His redeeming action.
And now we come to verse 25…
25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood,
to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his
divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
“…whom God put forward…”
Better translated, “whom God
purposed.” This means that it was the
eternal purpose of God’s grace to offer His Son for our redemption. The cross
was not some hastily conceived Plan B. It was always God’s plan for our
redemption.
“…as a propitiation by his blood…”
Propitiation is one of those scary-sounding
theological words that over-simplified bible translations and preachers of feel-good
sermons try to avoid. It’s not a word you’re likely to encounter outside a
seminary theology class. That’s unfortunate, because as used in the New
Testament, it’s a VERY important word that describes a critical aspect of our
salvation.
Propitiation comes
from the Latin word propitiat-, meaning “made favorable.”
It
is the act of placating and overcoming distrust and animosity; of appeasing or
atoning for sin or wrongdoing (especially in the case of appeasing a deity). Propitiation is an act meant to
regain someone's favor or to make up for something you did wrong. It’s a two-part
act that involves appeasing the wrath of an offended person and then being
reconciled to them. The process typically involves an offering. In relation to the
Christian theology of salvation, propitiation means placating or satisfying the
wrath of God by the atoning sacrifice of Christ.
The Greek word sometimes
translated propitiation only occurs 4
times in the New Testament: Hebrews 9:5, 1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10, and here in
Romans 3:25. Its Hebrew equivalent is the word translated mercy seat in the description of the Ark of the Covenant in Exodus
25:21:
And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the
ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you.
So what does my salvation
have to do with the Ark of the Covenant, an object from antiquity that most
people today associate with Indiana Jones? I’m glad you asked.
If you saw The Raiders of the Lost Ark you will
remember the big gold box that was the focus of all the excitement, the long
lost Ark of the Covenant. Steven Spielberg actually did a very good job in
creating a replica of the ark as it’s described in Exodus. The Ark was the most
important object in the religion of ancient Israel. It was a box made of acacia
wood, gilded inside and out with hammered sheets of pure gold. Once completed,
on pain of instant death it was never to be touched by human hands. It was
holy, sacred, set apart. Two long poles were used to carry it and only the
priests were allowed to touch them. Inside the Ark were some very special and
sacred objects: the tablets of stone on which the Ten Commandments had been
carved by the very finger of God, and five parchment scrolls on which Moses
transcribed the books of the Law—what we now know as Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—the first five books of the Bible. Aaron’s
rod—a staff made of almond wood that miraculously sprouted branches and
bloomed, and a clay jar of manna—the “bread of heaven” as it was called that
God provided as food to Israel during their desert wanderings, may have also
been stored in the Ark. More likely, however, they were kept outside, in front
of the ark. Resting on top of the Ark was a covering. It was not gilded. It was
solid 24 carat gold, as pure as the refiner’s art could make it. Though it
rested on the ark it was not actually part of the ark. On both ends of this
covering were images of cherubim. These were not the smiling fat little angelic
nudes associated with Valentine’s Day. Far from it. They were fearsome-looking
creatures with the faces of men, the bodies of lions, and the wings of birds of
prey. They are described as facing the center of the covering with their wings
outstretched over it. It was this covering over the Ark that was called the
Mercy Seat. Before the Mercy Seat sinful man met Holy God. Out of the seemingly
empty space just above the Mercy Seat, between the protective wings of the
attending cherubim, the voice of God would issue forth in conversation with
Moses.
During Israel’s 40 years in
the wilderness, when the people traveled from place to place the ark went
before them as a symbol of God’s presence. When they camped it was kept in the
Holy of Holies, the innermost room of the tabernacle. The Jews regarded the
Holy of Holies as the most sacred spot on earth. Not even the High Priest
entered it except for one day each year, The Day of Atonement—Yom Kipper.
Yom Kipper is the holiest day
in the Jewish year. On our calendar it falls between mid-September and mid-October.
In ancient Israel it was the start of their new year, the day on which the high
priest offered a sacrifice for the sins of Israel. As part of that sacred rite,
after a careful ritual cleansing the priest would enter the Holy of Holies to burn
incense and to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice upon the Mercy Seat, offering
it as close to the presence of God on earth as possible. Thus the blood of a
sacrificial animal was offered as symbolic propitiation for the sins of the
nation.
The linguistic support for propitiation as the best translation of
the Greek word found in Romans 3:25 is strong. But over the years some people have
raised objections. They’re uncomfortable with the doctrine of divine wrath. They
argue that the idea of having to appease an angry deity is beneath the dignity
of a modern understanding of God; that this is some kind of throwback to
paganism—on a par with tossing a virgin into the mouth of a volcano to appease
the mountain god. So instead of propitiation, they translate the word in
question as expiation. The
controversy has even affected the choice of hymns that are approved for
inclusion in church hymnals.
Earlier in the service we
sang the modern hymn, In Christ Alone.
It has become one of the most popular and beloved hymns in the country. It’s
definitely one of my favorites. Yet just last month the hymnal committee for
the Presbyterian Church USA refused to include In Christ Alone in their new hymnal. Why? Because the song’s
authors refused to remove the line, “on
that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath
of God was satisfied.”
Where the literal meaning of propitiation
is to make favorable and specifically includes the idea of dealing with
God’s wrath against sinners, expiation means to make pious and implies
either the removal or cleansing of sin. The idea of propitiation includes
expiation; but not the other way around. Expiation
alone does nothing to quench God’s righteous anger.
The difference in meaning may
seem subtle, but it’s very
important. The object of expiation is sin, not God. One propitiates a person,
one expiates a problem.
Perhaps this will help you
see the difference. You may have watched the TV commercial where a man
foolishly saws off the limb of a tree in his yard and drops it onto his
neighbor’s car—just a stupid mistake, no malice intended. In real life, chances
are if he apologizes profusely for his carelessness and quickly makes good on
the repair or replacement of the car, all will be forgiven. His sin will be
expiated.
Now let’s imagine that
instead of accidently dropping a limb on his neighbor’s car, in a fit of anger he
deliberately slashed all the tires on that car. Even if he immediately
regretted the act and bought four brand new replacement tires—the best tires
that money can buy—all will NOT be forgiven. The outward evidence of the sin
may have been removed, but the relationship is not healed. Why? Because the
righteous anger of his neighbor will not have been propitiated. This guy’s not
just destroyed four tires. He’s destroyed a relationship by an attack on the
honor of his neighbor. He has added insult to injury. And the insult is harder
to correct.
We intuitively understand
about the need for propitiation—at least when we’re the victims of another’s
sin. We demand justice. And when justice is denied we experience moral
indignation. We are outraged.
Many Montana residents are
outraged right now and are calling for the removal from the bench of District
Judge, G. Todd Baugh after he sentenced a 54-year-old former high school
teacher to only 30 days in jail for raping a 14-yr-old girl. The girl later
committed suicide. Justice has not been served. The scales have not been
balanced. Of course, when we’re the
sinners in question, we change our tune. Then we cry for mercy, not justice.
And here we come to God’s
dilemma. For he is both righteous and loving. He is holy and he is merciful.
His holiness is outraged by sin. His perfect sense of justice demands that
those scales be balanced. If some Montana voter is outraged by injustice, how
much more so is God?
There is a dualism of
holiness and love … of mercy and wrath in God’s nature that cannot be dissolved.
The sacrificial death of Jesus is at the very heart of justification. Because
God is holy, he must punish sin. By definition sin is belittling God’s glory.
If God chose not to punish sin he would be declaring that his glory is not worth
defending. We read in the Psalms, “He
does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our
iniquities.” But how can God just simply overlook our sins? Unless we affirm
that people really deserve to have God visit upon them the painful consequences
of their wrongdoing, we empty God’s forgiveness of its meaning. Romans 3 tells
us that God put forth Jesus as a propitiation—a wrath-absorbing sacrifice. That
is, on the cross Jesus paid in full the
penalty for our sin. God’s wrath was poured out on his own son. Jesus’ death on
the cross justifies the sinner and it also
justifies God. It justifies the sinner because those who place their faith
in Christ are declared righteous based on Christ’s righteousness, and it
justifies God the Father because it vindicates his glory and it vindicates his
mercy.
Remember that Old Testament
passage Paul quoted earlier regarding Abraham? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
Abraham was not alone. Before Christ was nailed to that cross, millions of
people lived and died having placed their trust in God’s mercy. And God was
merciful. As Paul just reminded us in verse 25, God “…had passed over former sins.” But each one of those sins represented
a debt that God’s mercy owed to God’s justice. Generations of high priests
sprinkled blood on that Mercy Seat and mercy was granted. But no sacrificial
lamb every saved anybody. A huge debt against justice accumulated year after
year, like a massive credit card debit hanging over the head of God. The bill
finally came due. Jesus paid it in full. John Stott writes that propitiation “…does
not make God gracious. God does not love us because Christ died for us, Christ
died for us because God loves us.”
In his book Knowing God, J.I. Packer makes a
distinction between pagan and Christian propitiation: “In paganism, man
propitiates his gods, and religion becomes a form of commercialism and, indeed,
of bribery. In Christianity, however, God propitiates his wrath by his own
action. He set forth Jesus Christ... to be the propitiation of our sins.”
Christ's death was both an
expiation and a propitiation. By expiating—removing the problem of—sin God was
made propitious—favorable—to us.
I agree with Leon Morris. Romans
3:21-26 is the greatest paragraph ever written. Its greatness lies in
its subject. It attests to the wonder of the gift of righteousness, the marvelous story of God’s costly forgiveness.
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