Those are great words written by Bill Wesley.
You've just sat down, but I wonder if you would
stand again, would you? Reach around and shake
hands with some people. You all look like you've
got sunburn, some hernia, and pain today. Off
it comes. Well, thank you. Thank you for welcoming
one another. Also gave me an opportunity to take
my coat off. Romans chapter 3, please. And if
you didn't get an opportunity to take it right
now, you want to take yours off. Romans chapter
3. We're going to read verses 24, 25, and 26.
You'll notice that verse 24 begins in the middle
of a sentence. I believe the best way to understand
this complete sentence is to put the last part
of verse 22, beginning with, for there is no
distinction, on through verse 23 in parentheses.
I believe it is a parenthetical thought which
underscores what he is saying. But so that we
might understand clearly the thrust of the entire
sentence, Even the righteousness of God through
faith in Jesus Christ, for all those who believe,
being justified as a gift by his grace through
the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom
God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his
blood through faith. This was to demonstrate
his righteousness. because in the forbearance
of God he passed over the sins previously committed
for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness
at the present time, that he might be just and
the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Our hospitals and institutions are populated
with people who have much the same basic problem.
And that problem is guilt, guilt either real
or imagined. Genuine guilt is the reaction of
the conscience to an offense against its standards.
Unresolved guilt can produce all kinds of consequences
in the life, physical, emotional, mental, and
spiritual consequences. I think this was illustrated
graphically a few days ago when there was a documentary
on national television regarding the war in Vietnam.
Four or five men were interviewed as a part of
this documentary. These men have one thing in
common. They were all decorated in Vietnam but
they are now imprisoned for various crimes here
in the United States. One particular man drew
my attention. As the others, he had received
awards and medals because of his heroism in Vietnam.
But now he languishes in prison for a number
of years. In the interview, he told of the effect
of the war upon his life. It has resulted in
his life being torn apart. And as he related
his experience in Vietnam, his experience seemed
to center around one particular occasion, when
in a moment of anger and unbelievable frustration,
he massacred an innocent Vietnamese family, a
mother, a father, and some children, who just
happened to be there. The guilt of that action
has dramatically and tragically affected his
life. Still today he has nightmares of the war
and when he has those nightmares he sees that
family standing watching him. If only people
like that could hear and understand what our
text is saying today regarding guilt, they could
be helped. because the Bible tells us that real
guilt can be removed. Guilt is from God. It is
part of the work of the conscience which he has
built into us. But God has made it possible for
a guilty person to be forgiven. That is the good
news of our text today. You'll notice that the
apostle brings up an age -old theological dilemma
He says in verse 26 that God has demonstrated
his righteousness so that he might be just and
the justifier of sinners. There have been those
who have questioned how a righteous God could
ever justify sinners and still be righteous himself.
Of course, the answer to that dilemma is that
God has completely and eternally dealt with sin
through Christ's death and resurrection, and
has saved the believer by that work of Christ
on the cross on his behalf. In the text that
we're looking at today, we see three results
of that saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
One is manward, the second is sinward in its
impact, and the third is godward. I'm thinking
of the three key words that we find in the word
justified or the noun justification. The next
keyword redemption and the third propitiation.
One of the reasons that I have gone to the New
American Standard Version at least for now is
because it retains some of these keywords which
the NIV translates into phrases. Now I think
it's important for us to hear the words and to
understand what they mean. Justification redemption,
and propitiation are three results of the saving
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are more
than just theological doctrines. They are life
-transforming, guilt -removing truths that God
gives to us in His Word. Let's talk about them
today. First, let's think about justification.
Justification is one of the fundamental truths
of biblical Christianity. Justification by faith
was the cry of the Reformation which swept across
Europe centuries ago. One of the initiators of
that Reformation, Martin Luther, wrote these
words in a sermon entitled Justification by Faith.
I wish that those who still bear Luther's name
today and their religion, did all of them at
least, would believe what Luther wrote regarding
justification by faith alone. He says, The foundation
must be maintained without wavering, that faith
without any works, without any merit, reconciles
man to God and makes him good. As Paul says to
the women, But now, apart from the law, a righteousness
of God hath been manifested, been witnessed by
the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, through faith in Jesus Christ unto all
them that believe. These and many other passages
we must firmly hold and trust in them immovably,
so that to faith alone, without any assistance
of works, is attributed the forgiveness of sins
and our justification." Well, it was that blessed
truth which had been buried under ritual for
centuries that caused the Reformation to flame
throughout the European continent and then eventually
even to our country itself. Justification. What
does the word mean? The word justification is
a legal term which deals with a criminal's position
before a court of law. On the one hand it means
acquittal. It is used in this sense in Acts chapter
13 verse 39 when the Apostle says, through him,
that is Christ, everyone who believes is freed,
or the word really is justified, from all things
from which you could not be freed through the
law of Moses. What is he saying? He's saying
to those Jewish listeners that the law of Moses
could not acquit them of their guilt before God.
And so justification on the one hand means acquittal.
But it's not a pardon only. It is also a reinstatement
to a position of not having broken the law. And
that's why pardon is an insufficient term to
define justification. It's more than that. It
means to declare one or to consider one to be
righteous. It does not mean to make righteous.
That is another doctrine called sanctification.
This is a legal position before God in which
one is declared to be righteous in his sight.
It is not a matter of character. It is not a
matter of conduct. It is a matter of a legal
position. Whereas pardon deals with the past,
in our relationship to the law cannot deal with
our future relationship to the law. But you see,
justification does both. It goes into the past
and into the future, and it sets us forever right
in God's sight. If we were to give a definition
of justification, maybe these words would suffice.
It is the judicial act of God whereby Those who
put faith in Christ are declared righteous in
his eyes, free from guilt and punishment. Do
you understand what that means? It means if you
have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, that
you are free from guilt and punishment, and as
far as God is concerned, you are as good as one
who has never sinned. You are forever set into
a right relationship with Himself legally, a
relationship which cannot change. This includes
the truth that God sees us as those who are in
Christ. When God sees you, He sees you identified
with Christ. He does not see you alone as just
you. When he sees you, when he hears you, he
sees and hears you as one who is in Christ, having
trusted him. The apostle puts it wonderfully,
doesn't he, in Philippians chapter 3, as he writes
to those believers, and he says in verse 8, I
count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing
value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom
I have suffered the loss of all things, and count
them but rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ,
and be found in him." What does he mean? He means
to be found legally, identified, or united with
Jesus Christ, and be found in him, not having
a righteousness of my own derived from the law.
but that which is through faith in Christ, the
righteousness which comes from God on the basis
of faith. What he does there in Philippians chapter
3 is to give his own personal testimony as to
what justification is. It means to be found in
Christ, not having righteousness that we get
from ourselves, a righteousness which is insufficient
before God. but having Christ's righteousness
given to us because of our faith in Christ. Now
going back to Romans chapter 3, I want you to
notice the modifying phrases in verse 24. He
says, being justified, and by the way that's
passive. Paul doesn't justify himself, he is
justified by God. It is God doing the work declaring
Paul and every believer in Christ to be righteous.
He says, being justified as a gift by his grace.
Two phrases there which really compliment one
another. Grace is of course God's unmerited kindness
in action toward us. And he says that it is a
gift, this justification. Literally it says being
justified without a cause. What that really means
is that there is no reason, there is no basis
in you or in me that God should justify us. There
is nothing in us that recommends us to God. Nothing.
Without any cause whatsoever in us, God gives
us the gift of righteousness. The cause is found
in Him, God Himself. He provides the cause, and
the cause is simply His grace, the riches of
His grace, which He desires to manifest toward
us. So that's the first result of Christ's saving
work. Not the first logically, but the first
that he mentions here in our text. The one who
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is justified,
declared right with God. The second word is the
word redemption. This is a word that is sin -ward
in its effect. He says being justified as a gift
by His grace through the redemption which is
in Christ Jesus. Redemption means to pay the
price of a slave. It is touchingly illustrated
in the Old Testament in the life of a prophet
of God whose name was Hosea. God commanded Hosea
to take of himself a wife who was a harlot. He
brought her to himself, he loved her, he cared
for her, but in the process of time she went
back to her whoredom. There came a day when that
woman whose name was Gomer, was placed on an
auction block in the city of Jerusalem. She stood
there naked before the eyes of the gawking crowd
and was put up for sale as a used prostitute,
nothing more than a slave. And God told Hosea
to go and to buy his wife back. And in Hosea
chapter 3, in those early verses in that chapter,
it tells how much Hosea paid for his own wife
who had been unfaithful. And he bought her and
brought her back to himself. And the whole picture
there in Hosea is that Israel, the nation, has
been unfaithful to God, but that he has bought
the nation and will bring the nation back to
himself. You see what a beautiful picture that
is of redemption? It is to pay the price of a
slave. There are really three Greek words essentially
which are translated redeem or redemption in
the New Testament. One of them simply means to
purchase in the market. In those days there were
sections of the cities which were markets. They
were called the agora. If you go to Corinth and
the ruins of that city today where they have
excavated, you will see the part of it that is
called the agora or the marketplace where they
bought and sold wares and goods and food. What
this word really means and that Greek word is
based on the word agora, agorazo, it simply means
to buy something in the market. There's a similar
word to that, which means to purchase out of
the market. And the emphasis of this word is
to take something out of circulation. We might
illustrate it with a work of art. If you were
to go out and buy a beautiful painting, you would
bring that into your home. And perhaps someday
you would sell it again and get a profit. A museum,
however, when it buys a work of art, pays a great
price for it. But a museum's purpose is not to
sell it later to make a profit, but to take it
out of circulation, to keep it for itself. It
is that thought that is behind the second word.
It means to purchase something out of the market
and to keep it. And then there's a third word,
which is the word that is used here in this word
redemption, which literally means to loose or
to set free or to deliver. Now if you put all
three of those words together, you have the picture
of redemption really. in the Bible, the redemption
of sinners. It pictures us as slaves on a slave
market, who are purchased and taken out of the
market, loosed then from slavery and set free.
All those words combine to give us the full picture
of redemption. To buy, to take out of the market,
and to deliver, to set free. And it tells us
here that that is what God has done for us. He
has paid the price of our redemption. You remember
the words of the Lord Jesus, Mark chapter 10,
verse 45? He said, the Son of Man has not come
to serve, rather to be served, but to serve.
Isn't that right? What a great attitude that
is. An attitude that all of us should exemplify.
the attitude of being willing to serve and not
to be served. And then he goes on to say, and
to give his life as a what? A ransom for many.
You see, his life was the ransom which was paid
to deliver us from the slave market of sin. He
has paid the price of our redemption. It was
the price of his own blood shed for us. Now what
are the benefits of redemption? What do we receive
from this blessing? Well, in Ephesians 1 -7 it
tells us that we have this blessing right now.
It is the forgiveness of our sins. It says there,
in whom we have redemption through his blood,
even the forgiveness of our sins through the
riches of his grace. One of the blessings of
redemption is that here and now I am forgiven
of my sin. And connected with that is the important
thought of freedom from it. I'm not only forgiven
for the penalty, but I am freed from the power
of sin in my life. That whole theme is covered
in detail in Romans chapter 6 and chapter 7 and
into chapter 8. But God has not only redeemed
us from the penalty of our sin, but he has redeemed
and delivered us from the power of it in our
lives. So no longer do we have to be slaves to
that master. And then in the future there is
another benefit of redemption. In Romans chapter
8 verse 23 it tells us that right now we are
awaiting what is called the redemption of our
bodies. And that is referring to the rapture
of the church. That is, That time when the Lord
Jesus Christ will come back into the air and
will shout and with the sound of the trumpet
the dead in Christ will rise first and then we
who are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them to meet the Lord in the air. That is
what is called the redemption of our bodies.
So not only our souls, our spirits, the immaterial
part of us are redeemed, but our bodies are redeemed
as well. by the Lord Jesus Christ. When we think
of redemption we should think of the Old Testament
picture of what is called a kinsman -redeemer.
A kinsman -redeemer was a family member who was
able and willing to redeem a relative who had
become a slave due to indebtedness. Now, there
were regular times that such people had to be
released anyway, according to God's law. But
if there was a relative who was willing and who
was able to pay the price of the indebtedness,
he could redeem his relative from obligation.
Likewise, land. If a person owned land but owed
a great deal of money, the creditor could claim
the land. But because the land was so important
in God's economy with Israel and because it was
so identified with families, God provided that
that land could be redeemed or purchased by a
relative so that it could be restored to the
family that it properly belonged to. Those of
you familiar with the story of Ruth in the Old
Testament recognize that thought. Boaz was a
kinsman -redeemer. and he acted toward Ruth in
that capacity. A beautiful love story which pictures
the work of the Redeemer. Purchasing for himself,
and you see that's what God has done for us.
In the Bible we are called, in the King James
translation at least, peculiar people. Today
that word means strange or queer in some way.
But the word peculiar means a people of one's
own, a special treasure. And you see, that's
what we are to God. He has purchased us back
to Himself by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so we have the blessing of redemption. Are
you laboring today under a load of guilt? because
of something that you've done in your past, if
you will come to Jesus Christ today, He will
redeem you from the penalty and the power of
sin. He will forgive you of all of the past.
Not only that, He will set you right for all
of the future, so that guilt will have no power
in your life. Now there's a third result of the
work of Christ that we see here, and that is
found in this word, propitiation. This word had
a meaning to the pagans of that day. What it
literally was to them was the appeasing of their
gods. They had rather ornery gods who were temperamental,
but they were sort of like humans, exalted humans.
And they might have a temper tantrum or a fit.
And so in their mythology, they offered up propitiations,
appeasements to satisfy their temperamental gods.
That word propitiation is taken and put into
the Bible in a better context. Literally what
the word propitiation means is satisfaction.
And if you want to slip that word in there you
can. Whom God displayed as a satisfaction. because
what it means is that Christ's work on the cross
satisfied the just demands of God for judgment
on sin. The Schofield Reference Bible puts it
this way in one of its notes, righteously. W
.A. Criswell has this note in some studies that
he's produced. He says, theologians have disputed
the proper translation and consequent meaning
of hilisterion, this Greek word, which is translated
here as propitiation. Roman and Greek mythology
pictured capricious gods with temperaments more
unsettled than those of mortals. These gods had
to have their anger assuaged and appeased by
costly sacrifices. Uncomfortable with the concepts
of wrath, judgment, and hell, faithless theologians
have imagined that propitiation is a translation
that relegates theology to the mythology of Greeks
and slanders the character of God. They advocate
expiation as the proper translation, and so define
the word as forgiveness in terms of cancellation
of sins. Even though expiation is certainly included,
in no sense is it an adequate translation. He
goes on to say, here the translators of the King
James Version are precisely correct in rendering
the word propitiation. Now listen to what he
says. This is significant. The difference between
the doctrines of propitiation in Christianity
and in Greek mythology is bound up in the character
of God Himself. Being holy, perfect, and immutable,
the living God is never capricious. And being
immutable, He is never ruled by changing moods.
Consequently, God's wrath is a settled disposition
against evil. The just demands of God's holiness
for the punishment and exclusion of sin must
be satisfied. Propitiation is the work of Christ
on the cross in which he met the demands of the
righteous God against sin, both satisfying the
requirements of God's justice and cancelling
the guilt of man. And so he is the propitiation.
for our sins. This word is first found in the
Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the
Old Testament, done about 200 years before Christ,
in Exodus chapter 25 verse 17. Perhaps it would
be good to go back there so you can see how this
word is used in that Greek translation of the
Old Testament. It gives us a wonderful insight
as to its significance. Exodus chapter 25 verse
17. We're coming here into the middle of God's
orders to Moses as to how the tabernacle and
its furniture was to be constructed and used.
And in the verse we're looking at, Exodus 25
verse 17, He says, and you shall make a mercy
seat of pure gold two and a half cubits long
and one and a half cubits wide And you shall
make two cherubim of gold make them of hammered
work at the two ends of the mercy seat As you
go on down through the context there you see
the words mercy seat that word is the word that
the translators chose to use the word propitiation
for. So literally what the word means in the
New Testament is this, that Jesus Christ is our
mercy seat. Let me explain to you what the mercy
seat was to the Jews. They had within their tabernacle,
their place of worship, two compartments. The
first compartment was twice as large as the inner
compartment. The first compartment was called
the holy place and into that area the priests
would go daily as they went about their routines
of sacrifice. But into this inner compartment
only one person was allowed to go and that only
once a year. In that holiest, it was called,
where the holy of holies was only one piece of
furniture. Does anybody know what it was? That's
right, it was the Ark of the Covenant. There
was a box. There were several articles put within
that box as God had commanded. One of the articles
being the two tablets of stone which Moses brought
down from the mountain with the commandments
on them. Those tablets were in the bottom of
that box. What did they do? They testified of
the righteousness of God. And those commands
required the death of sinners. God's presence
was always there in that tabernacle, over that
box. But God provided that there would be a lid
on top of the box made out of solid gold and
from the ends of that beaten gold were to come
two cherubim, large creatures, wings were 15
feet in length. They were just too neat over
the top of this gold lid. That lid was called
the mercy seat. Now the reason it was called
the mercy seat was because on the Day of Atonement,
on Yom Kippur, Each year the high priest would
enter into that holy place in a carefully prescribed
manner with the blood of a sacrificed animal.
And he would offer the blood upon that gold lid
to the ark, the mercy seat. And what it signified
was that though the law was there requiring the
death of sinners, God provided blood. as an atonement
for sin. So that as he looked down, what he would
see would not be the law, but the shed blood.
The shed blood of a sacrificed animal. So that
what should have been a seat of judgment was
a seat of mercy. God could then show mercy upon
the nation of Israel. Now do you see why Jesus
is called the mercy seat? In fact, it even mentions
here His blood in our sentence in Romans. God
displayed publicly Him as a propitiation, a satisfaction
in His blood. In other words, His blood was offered
up as propitiation. It meant that the righteous
law requiring the death of sinners was fully
satisfied. This was not the blood of animals,
but the blood of the sinless Son of God, so that
his blood was offered up for you and for me and
for all men." When we come to the cross of Calvary,
God's righteousness is demonstrated. The Apostle
brings to mind here this demonstration of his
righteousness, particularly as it relates to
Old Testament believers. Apparently there were
some who felt that God was ignoring human sin
in those Old Testament days. That is, the atonement
never did take away sin, did it? It simply covered
it. Was God then just forgetting it? Was God
just putting it out of his mind? No. God was
waiting for the right time and the right way
for those sins to be removed. You see, those
people who died in faith in the Old Testament
did not have their sins removed from the record
book. The sins were still on record against them,
though they were covered over by the blood that
was shed, the blood of animals. But when the
Lord Jesus Christ gave himself on the cross,
he died not only for our sins in this age, but
he died for those sins of the Old Testament as
well, so that their sins were at that point completely
removed. from the record book. That's why God
is said to be both righteous and the one who
can call sinners righteous because he has paid
for the sinner's sin. Then I want you to notice
another thought here when it says that God has
displayed publicly Christ as our propitiation.
In the Old Testament when the high priest came
into that inner compartment He was there alone.
His work was done in secret. No one could see.
In fact, they had bells that were tied to his
robe so they could be sure he was still alive
after entering into that holiest. They could
not see him to know whether he had been struck
dead by God because of some error, some sin,
perhaps. And so they had bells tied and they
could hear him walking around in there and they
would know he was still alive. All of it was
done in secret. But at Calvary, God did a marvelous
thing. Publicly, He exposed and displayed the
Lord Jesus Christ as a propitiation for your
sin and mine. Quite a contrast to that Old Testament
economy. God has now once and for all offered
up his Son as a propitiation on our behalf. This
verse, verse 25, has been the verse that God
has used to bring many to faith in Christ. One
of them is William Cooper. William Cooper lived
in a different century, but we sing his hymns
today, and I will mention one in a moment. In
his memoirs he writes these words of testimony.
whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood. Immediately I received
strength to believe it, and the full beams of
the sun of righteousness shone upon me. I saw
the sufficiency of the atonement he had made,
my pardon sealed in his blood, and all the fullness
and completeness of his justification. In an
instant I believed and received the peace of
the gospel. Unless the Almighty arm had been
under me, I think I should have died with gratitude
and joy. My eyes filled with tears. Transports
choked my utterance. I could only look up to
heaven in silent fear, overwhelmed with love
and wonder. But the work of the Holy Ghost is
best described in his own words. It is joy unspeakable
and full of glory. It is this same William Cooper
who later wrote the words, There is a fountain
filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all
their guilty stains. Great work of salvation
accomplished for us in the death and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It includes justification.
redemption, propitiation. Dear friend of mine,
salvation may be free, but it's not cheap. It
cost God the life of his only begotten son. If
you turn your back on God's provision for your
salvation, then you walk away to eternal misery
and damnation. To reject Christ is to leave yourself
without hope and without God. It is to accumulate
judgment and ultimately to lose your own soul.
To neglect Christ is to gamble with your most
valuable possession, your own soul. There is
no passage in the Bible that makes more clear
how God has provided for your salvation. Have
you received it for yourself? Have you given
your heart to the Savior and trusted Him? Do
you notice again and again the words, by faith,
those who believe? Will you today turn from whatever
you're trusting in and trust alone? Depend alone,
rely only upon the Lord Jesus Christ as your
Savior. If not, if you've not done that before,
will you do it today? And I have this word for
those of us who have made that decision. It seems
to me that the text before us is a marvelous
one to serve as a motive for our serving the
Lord. We don't serve Him out of fear but out
of love because of His work of redemption, His
propitiation on our behalf, the justification
that we have received as a gift. The blessings
that Israel of old had were conditional. God
said, if you will, then I will. But folks, do
you understand the blessings that are ours in
Christ Jesus are unconditional? They're already
given to us. every one of them. What a great
motive for service that is. And it seems to me
that the text we have before us is also a great
relief to our fellowship. For many have the idea
that in order to have fellowship with God, they
have to perform up to a certain level. If they
perform well, then they feel close to God, and
if they fail or are unresponsive in some way,
then they feel far away and rejected. Nothing
could be further from the truth. God receives
us, God accepts us, not on the basis of how we
perform, but on the basis of the fact that we
are in Christ. You could not be nearer to God
than you are today in Christ. And that nearness
to Him is not conditioned upon how good you are.
It is conditioned upon the grace that has received
you already. Some people reduce the Christian
life to a set of rules, of do's and don'ts, and
they badger themselves and others with guilt.
I would like to say to you today that that is
wrong. We serve the Lord and we fellowship with
him because we love him, because of all the blessings
that are already ours in Christ. But are you
serving him today? Are you walking in fellowship
with him? The songwriter said, how long has it
been since you talked with the Lord? How about
it? If you're out of fellowship with him today,
will you come back? Will you bend the knee again,
acknowledge his lordship, confessing your sins?
Let's pray. The words that we have studied this
morning are amazing words. We would not believe
them if you had not said them. But because they
are part of your infallible and errant word,
we can depend upon them today and know that by
grace, through faith we are saved, apart from
works, that Jesus Christ has paid the full price
for our sin. that you have satisfied your righteous
demands in the law, so that we are found free
from the law and its condemnation. If there are
some of us who have trusted that truth and know
the Savior but who are living unfaithfully, then
today calls us to come back to that place of
obedience, that we may experience an appropriate
daily all that is ours in Christ. If there is
some friend who has never trusted the Savior,
help him to do it today. For Jesus' sake, amen.