romans 3:21-26

Romans 3:21-26

I. Lenient Judges, a Sense of Injustice

Please, if you would, take your Bibles and open to Romans Chapter 3, as we continue in our series in Romans. And now, for the third time, looking at the verses, which I call, "The glowing heart of the center of the Gospel," Romans 3:21-26. And as we come to these verses again, I'm mindful of the need that we have to do this. I brought a magazine that someone gave me recently, US News & World Report. Did you see this cover article? "Why Was Jesus Killed?" To answer this question, you need to go to Romans 3:21-26, not to US News & World Report. Romans 3:21-26 answers this question.

Now, US News & World Report has their own answer: Jesus was killed, because He agitated against the Roman government in preaching the Kingdom of God in a confrontational manner. It was just a matter of time before His ignorance of political science, and just the way things worked in Palestine at that time overtook Him. And He succumbed, and was arrested against His will, and was crucified, and what a tragedy. That's their take on it. Is that the Apostle Paul's take on why Jesus was killed? Not at all. Not at all.

We've been seeing, as we look in this section, which I call, "The glowing heart of the Gospel," the answer to the question that Paul gives, that Jesus was killed for our justification, that Jesus was killed for propitiation, namely, that the wrath of God should be removed. And today, we're going to look at the fact that Jesus was killed for demonstration. For demonstration, those are the reasons that Paul gives.

Now, as we look about our society today, and we begin understanding some of the pressures, and the tensions that we're facing today, Reader's Digest gives a focus on this. Every month, they have a section in their journal called "That's Outrageous." And in "That's Outrageous," they talk about problems with the judicial system. And one of the biggest problems that they note, is that of lenient judges, judges that send hardened criminals back out on the street, because of technicalities, and loopholes. Well, that's exactly the issue that Paul's wrestling with here. How do people like us get past a judge like Him? How does that happen? And as we look at Romans 3:25-26, we come face to face with issues and problems that most of us are not wrestling with. We're not concerned about this.

Now, when it comes to theology, we feel very much that God needs to give an explanation of Himself, if anyone is ever sent to hell. But we don't feel the same need for an explanation, if anybody goes to Heaven. But Paul is addressing that today. How can sinners like us get past a judge like Him? How do we end up in Heaven? God must vindicate His justice. He must vindicate His righteousness and He does so in the cross of Christ. Our salvation actually presents a massive problem in Heaven. There's a big problem, given the fact that we're sinners, and given the fact that God is holy. And the issue is, how can God be both just and the justifier, of those who have faith in Jesus Christ? How can that be? And that's what Paul is wrestling through here.

Now, Issac Watts, a number of years ago, wrote one of my favorite hymns... And when I get to Heaven, I'll thank him for it... "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." Isn't that a great hymn? And that the reason I love it, there's lots of reasons, but I love the word 'survey.' When you think of a survey, what do you think of? You think of a careful, long gaze, don't you? You don't think about a quick glance. You talk about a deep look at the cross of Christ. And when you survey the wondrous cross, what do you see? What do you see there? Do you see the love of God there? Well, I think you should, because the cross of Christ clearly demonstrates the love of God. Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we're still sinners, Christ died for us." The cross of Christ demonstrates the love of God, doesn't it? But it demonstrates more than that. And I think it's sad sometimes, when we take just a glancing look at the cross of Christ, and not see all that's there. Because the cross of Christ demonstrates more than just the love of God; it also demonstrates the justice of God. And that's our focus today.

Now, realize, as we've been going through Romans, the central concern in Romans is the glory of God. I love that song that they just sang, "For God and God Alone." It just honors God to realize that we were created for His glory, created to enjoy Him, to walk in His presence moment by moment. For God and God alone we were created, for His glory. The problem is, that we have all, according to Romans, exchanged the glory of God, exchanged the idea of God and God alone, and moved it away, and put something created in His place. All of us have some different idol there, but that's what we've done. We've traded the glory of God for something less, an Esau-ish bowl of soup, something earthly, something not anywhere near as glorious as God. But that's what we've done. And so we have, all of us, despised the glory of God. We've thought little of it; it's small to us. And that's a problem.

II. The Central Concern for the Glory of God

The problem is, as we look through Scripture, we come to the realization that God has allowed many glory despisers into Heaven: Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and David, Moses. All of these, in one way or another, at some time or other, despised the glory of God. And yet, there they are, in Heaven. How did that happen? Does God despise His own glory? Does He think it's a small matter, when these have despised His glory? And that's a problem. And what is the solution to the problem? Could it be that one who is saturated in the glory of God, one who lived and bleeds for the glory of God, should come and receive on Himself our sins, and for the glory of God, would die to restore the damage done by us glory despisers? Could that be the solution? I think it is. For Jesus said this in John 12:27, says, "Now, my hardest trouble and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? It was for this very reason I came to this hour." What's the next thing He said? "Father, glorify your name." That was the passion of Jesus' heart, wasn't it? At every moment, "Father, glorify your name, glorify yourself in me." Do you remember what happened at that moment? A voice came from Heaven, "I have glorified it and I will glorify it again."

The solution to the problem of the exchange of the glory of God, is the Son of God, who came and manifested the glory of God, and then died for that glory, and rose again for the glory. Now, we've been saying in Romans 3:21-26, that these verses are the Acropolis of the Bible. What I mean by that, is that it's elevated ground and the most important buildings are built on it. The themes in these verses are the center of the theology we call Christianity and any other ground in Scripture looks up to these themes. Listen now, again, to Romans 3:21-26, "But now, a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and lack the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in his forbearance, He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."

Now, we've seen that there are three major issues in these verses. First, justification through Christ. Remember what justification was. It was God's declaration as a judge that we were not guilty of our sin. It's His covering us with the righteousness of Christ, a righteousness that does not belong to us, so that we survive judgment day. We are declared righteous by God. The second step, last week, we looked at propitiation, which, as you remember, was the removal of all the wrath of God for our sins away, that Jesus was our lightning rod. He absorbed the wrath of God and carried it away from us, so that we would be safe. Propitiation through the blood of Christ.

III. Demonstration? Six Probing Questions

Now, today, we're going to look at demonstration and we're going to ask six questions of this issue of demonstration. First, demonstration by whom? Secondly, demonstration of what? Thirdly, demonstration why? Fourth, demonstration how? Fifth, demonstration when? And sixth, demonstration to whom?

1. Demonstration by Whom? - God

Let's start with the first, demonstration by whom? Verse 25, it says, "God publicly set Christ forth," is a good way to understand that word, "As a propitiation through faith in His blood." "God publicly set Jesus forth." There was a public display made of Jesus. We touched on this last time. Now, the key thing to understand, is it's God who's making the demonstration. God wants us all to see something in Christ. There's a demonstration made by God, and therefore, Christ was sacrificed by God the Father on purpose. Don't believe what you read in these magazines. This was no accident. Jesus didn't just stumble into a problem that was over His head, through His lack of knowledge of political science, got Himself into problems that He didn't understand. That's the way it goes. "And oh, what a tragedy. The world was just... Jesus was just too good for the world. They just couldn't understand His love, and they crushed Him, and what a tragedy." No, no, no. This is the wrong way to understand Jesus' death. It was all done on purpose. It was an orchestrated plan. He was handed over by God's set purpose and foreknowledge. It's not a mistake. It's not an accident.

Jesus Himself said this, "The reason my Father loves me, is that I laid down my life." This is John 10:17-18, "The reason my Father loves me, is I laid down my life, only to take it up again. I have the authority to lay it down and I have the authority to take it back up again. This command I received from my Father." What command? The command that He should lay down His life. What command? The command that He should take it up again; this command. This was not an accident. The Father commanded the Son to do this and the Son gladly obeyed. It was not an accident. The demonstration is done by God Himself. God sent Christ up on a cross high and lifted up, so everyone could see. It was a demonstration done by God.

Listen to Isaiah 53:10. Isaiah 53:10 says, "It was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer." "It was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer." Did He not love His Son? Of course, He loved His Son. It was the only way to demonstrate His justice, the only way to demonstrate His love for us as sinners. And so, it was God's will that Jesus suffered what He did on the cross. And as Peter said on Acts 2:23, "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge. And you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross." It was not an accident. God made a public display of Christ. "Everyone, look at my servant! Everyone, look at my Son and see, survey the wondrous cross. Look at it, gaze at it, and understand." The demonstration was made by God.

2.  A Demonstration of What? - Justice

A demonstration of what? What was He demonstrating? Well, Verses 25-26 answer the question. Verse 25, look at it, "God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His…" what? His justice. It was justice that He was demonstrating there. Alright, look down on Verse 26, "He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time." Well, I tell you, when you get to thick theological verses like this, which have so much meaning and something is said twice, maybe we need to sit up and take notice. Paul says it twice: God was demonstrating justice through the cross of Christ. If you want to understand the justice of God, look to the cross. I would say, if you want to understand the love of God, look to the cross. You don't see the love of God shown any better than on a cross, and you don't see God's love for justice anymore than at the cross.

Now, what does it mean that God demonstrated His justice here? The Greek word is actually the same as the word 'righteousness,' exact same word. Well, how do we know that the translators in all the English translations were right to choose the word 'justice' here, rather than just the word 'righteousness?' It's because of the context. Well, understand in Verse 21, it says, "But now, a righteousness from God is revealed [or made known], to which the law and the prophets testify." That is a different kind of righteousness than we get in verses 25-26. That righteousness is what we call 'imputed righteousness,' it's a righteousness that God takes from His Son, Jesus, and puts on us as sinners. And He sees us that way. He sees us covered with the righteousness of Christ. This righteousness is different. This is the righteousness, whereby God judges rightly, and so it's rightly called justice. We're talking about justice, the ability to discern between right and wrong. Don't you need that in a judge? If a judge is going to be a good judge, he must be able to discern between right and wrong. He must understand the law, understand it perfectly. He must understand its penalties, and its transgressions, and how it is to work. He must know what every case equals and mete out accurate punishment for everyone, in order for him to be a just judge. And our God is a just judge, He loves justice.

In His commands, in Deuteronomy 16, He was talking to the judges of Israel and he said, "This is how you are to carry yourself in judging." In Deuteronomy 16, he says, "Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord, your God, is giving you."

Now, when I was on a mission trip overseas in Pakistan, I came to realize that you didn't get anything from a government official, unless you gave him some chai. Now, you don't probably know what chai is. Chai is tea, but it really isn't tea they're wanting, and you're supposed to know that it's not tea they wanting, they want a little money. And so, if you want a government stamp, or a visa, or anything like that, there needs to be some chai given. It's a real problem for missionaries who try to behave ethically. But the same thing works in the judicial system as well, the seeking of a bribe. And according to Deuteronomy 16, what does a bribe do? It "blinds the eyes… and twists the words…" so that judge is no longer a just judge. God said, "Don't do it. Follow justice and justice alone, when you're behaving as a judge."

In Psalm 9:8 & 9:16 it says, "The Lord will judge the world in righteousness. He will govern the peoples with justice…The Lord is known by His justice." And even more tellingly, in Psalm 89:14, it says, "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne." Read that again, "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne." What does that mean? What that means, is that if our salvation is unjust, what happens to God's throne? It crumbles. The foundation is gone. Do you see now, why this is a massive problem? Because we just said, what does a bribe do to the eye of a judge? Blinds it. And doesn't it seem that God is constantly turning a blind eye to sin? When you look around this world, it seems that sinners prosper, right? The sun came up today on wicked people. The rain came down yesterday on wicked people. God seems to turn a blind eye all the time, and so we have a problem with God's justice, a pressing concern. God does seem to wink at all kinds of sin. And so God bids us to look at the cross, that we may understand His passion for justice.

3. Demonstration Why? - Grace and Mercy

The third question is, demonstration why? I've already begun to answer that question. Why do we need a demonstration of the justice of God? In Verse 25, it says, "He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance, He had passed over the sins committed beforehand." "In His forbearance, He had passed over the sins committed beforehand." Psalm 103:10, it's a great verse. It says in Psalm 103:10, "He does not treat us as our sins deserve." Do you realize what that means? God never gives us what we deserve. We don't want what we deserve from God; we want grace and mercy, and God is a God of grace and mercy. He does not treat us as our sins deserve, but where does that leave His justice? And that's where the cross comes in. "God," it says here, "In His forbearance, had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished." Forbearance is God's self-restraint and His tolerance. God is tolerant and He restrains Himself. It's says in Romans 2:40, "You shall contempt for the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience [same word], not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance. "

Well, the problem comes most acutely in the Old Testament. I want to tell you a familiar story and try to set it in light, in the context of what we're talking about here. In the spring, when kings usually go out to war, David didn't go. You know this story? David stuck around home and sent the army out to do the work of protecting Israel from its enemies. And idle hands are a devil's workshop, so also is an idle mind, or an empty mind. Our minds should be full of the glory of God, deeply, richly satisfied at every moment with the glory of God. And when we're not, we tend to roam. We tend to roam. And David roamed that night. He went out on the roof, and he noticed a woman, found out her name was Bathsheba, and he committed adultery with her, sinned, had her husband killed to cover over his sin, married the woman, and then just went on with life.

Maybe nine, maybe 10 months he went on, I don't know. A baby was born. He was still hardened in his sin, and God sent him a prophet, and the prophet's name was Nathan. Do you remember the story that Nathan told, when Nathan got David's emotions involved here? He told him that there was a rich man who had all kinds of cattle, and sheep, and everything that he could possibly want. And there was a poor man who lived near him who had just one little ewe lamb, just a little lamb, and he had no children, so he just treated it like one of his children. And a stranger came...  Do you remember the story? A stranger came to the rich man, and instead of taking one of his huge flock to serve for dinner, this man stole the other man's little ewe lamb, slaughtered it, and fed it to the stranger.  Do you remember what David did? Oh, he was angry. He was angry at that man. He said, "That man deserves to die for what he's done! He should pay fourfold." Remember the next words? Nathan said, "You are the man. You, you did this. You despised the Word of the Lord."

Now, someone could say... David would say, "I really actually wasn't thinking of the Word of the Lord at that particular moment. I wasn't." "Well, that's the whole problem. You should have been. God lavished blessings on you. God created your very body, your inmost being in your mother's womb, put you together. And then, He's lavished blessings on you that most people will never even see. You should've been thinking of God, and you weren't, and you weren't satisfied." David's heart was broken by this, broken. And he said, "I've sinned against the Lord." Do you remember the next thing that Nathan said? "You will not die." Now, wait a minute….Wait a minute… Didn't you say, God, the soul who sins will die? Didn't you give a command, "You shall not commit adultery"? Didn't you give another command, "You shall not murder"? What is this, "You shall not die"?  I thought to myself, as I was preparing this sermon, how one could almost start to look at Nathan like that serpent in the Garden of Eden. You remember what the serpent said to Eve? "Don't worry about it, you're not going to die." "What is the deal?" But now, it's God saying it.

I'm going to make this come alive to you. It's Mother's Day. Let's suppose you were Uriah the Hittite's mother. Let's imagine you're Uriah's mother. Your boy, he's your pride and joy. He's grown up strong, and righteous, and true. He's come to believe in the God of Israel, and he's a loyal, honored... A man of honor, as the story proved, and he has a lovely wife, and some grandchildren, and just what a great family. And all of a sudden, this king comes along, and doesn't stay with one of his own wives, but instead, takes your son's wife, and then has your son killed to cover over his tracks. "I'm waiting for the court date. That's all, looking forward to the court date. I'm going to sit there and I'm going to rejoice, when he gets what's coming to him." And then you hear the news that God's prophet came, and said, "The Lord has taken away your sin. You will not die." Is this a problem for you, as Uriah's mother? Would this bother you?

I see it on the news all the time. There are actually victim's rights groups now, because of this feeling, this passion that comes over us for justice. We have it; it's in there. And if you don't think so, wait 'til it happens to a member of your family. There's a passion inside us for justice. Revenge is evil, but justice is a gift from God. Now, we have a problem, don't we? God Himself said, "You shall not die." And what are we going to do? God has just passed over this sin, hasn't He? And where is David now? Where is he?

He's in Heaven. What's he doing up there? Praising God, looking at God's face. What's he doing up there? Even more telling, what are you going to be doing up there? What am I going to be doing up there? Our God is a gracious God and we have to look at this issue: God's righteousness in justifying sinners. "He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just [look at verse 26], And the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." Do you see this? Look at it again. "He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just." God's very being is on the line here. He would be unjust, if it weren't for the cross. Many people think of salvation this way. Our God is a loving God. He's a merciful God. And so we are all sinners, God covers it with His love. Is that the cross? Is that the Gospel we're preaching? God just forgives it and lets us into Heaven. Is that right? That's only half the story. And I've learned from church history, and from theology, that half the story told as the whole story becomes an untruth, it becomes heresy. You got to tell the whole story; the other half is the justice of God. And God demonstrates that with Jesus Christ.

4. Demonstration How? - Propitiation

The fourth question we need to answer here, is demonstration how? In Verse 25, it says that, "God publicly set Christ forward as a propitiation through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His justice." The death of Christ is a public display of the justice of God. If I were to ask you to close your eyes. See the death penalty decreed by Pontius Pilate. See him washing his hands and think, "This is what a law breaker deserves." See the Romans whip Christ, and punish Him physically in preparation for the cross, and say, "This is what a law breaker deserves." See the heavy cross laid on Jesus' back, as He makes His way through the streets of Jerusalem to scorn and derision from his fellow countrymen, and think, "This is what a law breaker deserves. " See the hands and feet nailed to the wood, and see the blood flow, and think, "This is what a law breaker deserves." See the final breath exhaled from Jesus' mouth and think, "This is what a law breaker deserves." This is justice. It's not just human justice, it's divine justice. God did this.

And even deeper, see the spiritual side, see Jesus crying out, and saying, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And think, "This is what a law breaker deserves." This is what we deserved! See the skies darken with the clouds of God and think, "The wrath of God, this is what we deserve. This is what a law breaker deserves." And see in all of this, think, understand, God is doing this to His only begotten Son." I've said before, "Our salvation is free, but it wasn't cheap, was it?" It's free to us, but it cost God His only begotten Son. And in all the universe, is there anything as valuable to God, as His only begotten Son? "This is my Son, my only begotten Son, whom I love. With Him, I'm well pleased," He said. And He did it to His Son. Expensive, this display of righteousness, isn't it? Expensive, this display of justice, but God loves justice, and so He displayed it.

Now, you will say, "In a way, it's not fair, because Jesus never sinned, did He? How could this be a display of justice, if Jesus is suffering all these things, and was innocent, guiltless, and free?" Well, remember what we've been saying all along. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us. God took our sins and laid them on His Son, so that in effect, before the eyes of God's justice, He was not innocent at the cross. In Himself, had committed no sin, but lived moment by moment for the glory of God. But at that moment, all of our sin were on Him and the justice of God lashed out against that sin. "He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on Him, the iniquity of us all."

5. Demonstration When? - In 29 AD, and Every Time the Gospel is Preached

Next question, demonstration when? Well, it happened, as I said last week, at a certain time and place in history, outside the walls of Jerusalem, 29 AD. Not done in a corner, in open public display, as people passed by, Jesus Christ was crucified. And then, a little while ago, remember I said to you last week, it also happens whenever somebody faithfully preaches the cross. Galatians 3:1, he says, "You foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified." Not with their eyes, but in their mind, by faith, they saw Him. And when I had you close your eyes, and when I was reciting those things, wasn't Jesus erected in your mind on a cross? Didn't you see Him? He was publicly displayed before you, as the Gospel's being preached. Demonstration when? At a specific time and place in history, and whenever that specific time and place in history is reported by a messenger of the Gospel.

6. Demonstration to Whom – All Creation

The final question is, demonstration to whom? In order for there to be a demonstration, there needs to be an audience. Who's the audience? Well, first, I think all of creation was the audience. It says very plainly, Isaiah 48:11, "My own hand laid the foundations of the Earth and my right hand spread out the Heavens. When I summon them, they all stand up together." All the Heavens are gathered together to look at this display. "Hear all Heavens, listen all Earth, for the Lord has spoken," Isaiah 1:2. And then, in Jeremiah 2:11-13, it says, "Has a nation ever exchanged its Gods, if they are not Gods at all? But my people have exchanged their glory for an idol. Be appalled at this, oh, Heavens, and shudder at this, oh, Earth." Okay, well, if the Heavens are going to be appalled and shudder at the sin, they need to see the display, and God put Jesus up on the display, for all Heaven to see.

Well, how about the holy angels? Are they observing? Is there a heavenly assembly? Is there a grouping of angels seated up there with God? Yes, there is. Listen to this, Psalm 89:5 and following, "The Heavens praise your wonders, oh, Lord, your faithfulness too, and the assembly of the holy ones." The assembly of the holy ones, those are angels. "For who in the skies above can compare with the Lord? Who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings? In the council of the holy ones, God is greatly feared." The images of a council of holy ones, of all the angels sitting up there in heavenly array, it says the same thing in Hebrews 12. It says, "You have come to Mount Zion in heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly." There's a heavenly assembly and angels; they see it all, they're great watchers.

How would it be for them, for God to let a bunch of sinners like us into Heaven without the cross? They'd be aghast. They're watching it all. And so the display is made before them. The angels see the display of the cross of Christ. How about Satan and his demonic hoard? They see it too. Colossians 2, it says that, "God disarmed the powers and authorities, and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." He triumphed over Satan and over his hoard of demons. In Ephesians 3, "His intent was that, now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known in the heavenly realms…" to all the heavenly beings, including demons. They saw it.

In Zachariah 3, "Then he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse Him." It'd be the picture of judgment day, and Satan standing, pointing at you, and accusing you of all your sins, bringing a charge against you, because of all your sins. Have you ever pictured that? And because of the cross, do you know what God's going to say? Who will bring a charge against those whom God is justified? It is God who justifies. Who is He that condemns? Well, where does He have the power to say that? From the cross. "I've cleansed them. I've justified them, because of Jesus." And so Revelation 12:10-11, "For the accuser of our brethren [that's Satan], who accuses them before our God, day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony." How are you going to shut that accusing mouth, by the love of God? No, by the justice of God displayed in the cross. It is the justice that will shut his mouth. The final audience is us, folks, every tribe, and language, and people, and nation. We see the display of the justice of God.

Matthew 12:18 and following, "Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love and whom I delight. I will put my Spirit on Him and He will proclaim justice to the nations. A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out, until He leads justice to victory. In His name, the nations will put their hope." We go to the ends of the Earth, to the distant islands, with the message of the justice of God in the cross of Christ. Not just the love of God, the justice of God. And the display occurred when Jesus was lifted high on the cross. John 12:31, it says, "Now, is the time for judgment on this world, and now, the Prince of this world will be driven out, that I, when I am lifted up from the Earth, will draw all men to myself. He said this to show the kind of death He would die." Jesus dying on a cross, an open display to the whole world. Folks, it's an open display to your co workers. It's an open display to your relatives who don't know Jesus yet. It's an open display to you, to know that your salvation is on a solid rock of justice, which cannot be moved.

IV. Are You Included?

Now, how do you know that you're included? Three points of contact. Look down on your outline. Romans 3:22, it says, "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ." Faith, that's how you know. Verse 25, "God presented Christ as a propitiation through faith in His blood." Faith connects you to the propitiation, and faith also connects you to the demonstration. Verse 26, "So as to be just and the one who justifies," who? "Those who have faith in Jesus Christ."

The final point of application's rich and strong, and I want you to use it this week. Turn in your Bibles to First John Chapter 1. I discovered something about this verse a long time ago, and now, that we have talked openly about the justice of God, this verse will have its full impact on you. 1 John 1:8-9 "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." Look at verse Nine, "If we confess our sins…" What does it say? "He is faithful," and what? "Just." Just to what, send us to hell? Just to forgive us. Now, how in the world did the justice of God now work for our forgiveness? How did that occur? Why is it we can go now and say, "God, because of your justice, forgive my sin." Well, I've explained it this whole morning. There was a transfer of guilt to Jesus and He suffered already for those sins. It would, therefore, be unjust to whom for God to not forgive you? It would be unjust to Jesus. There was a covenant made between Father and Son. Son said, "If I die for them, you must forgive them." And Father said, "Delighted to do it. Delighted to do it." He is faithful and just, not to condemn, but to forgive. Therefore, come and confess your sins, based on the justice of God, and He will forgive you. Why don't we close in prayer?

I. Classical Illustrations: Propitiation in Action

We continue in our study in Romans and we are going to be looking, again, at Romans 3:21-26, what I call, "The glowing heart of the center of the Gospel." Now, last time, we looked at justification, the way that God declares us, we who are sinners, declares us to be righteous on judgment day. He gives us a righteousness that is not ours by faith, a righteousness from Jesus Christ, and He will not count our sins against us. That's incredibly good news and it's described right here: Justification.

Today, we're going to talk about propitiation. You may have no idea what propitiation is, but when we get done today, I hope you will. You will understand propitiation, the removal of the wrath of God from us, the wrath that we rightly deserve for our sins, the removal through faith in Christ. And next time, we're going to talk about demonstration, namely, how God's justice is demonstrated in the cross. Justification, propitiation, and demonstration; these three sermons on the focus of our faith.

Romans 3:21-26. Beginning at Verse 21, it says, "But now, a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance, He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."

Propitiation. In order to begin to get a handle of it, I'd like to go back to 400 years, 400 years before the birth of Christ, in Greece. There was a philosopher there named Socrates. I'm sure you've heard of him. Socrates, one of the greatest philosophers in human history, gathered around him a number of young disciples and was teaching them his philosophies, many of which are still with us today. And as he did this, he went on, and started to accumulate some enemies, powerful enemies in the city council where he was. And before long, he was dragged before them, and there was a trial, and he was accused of teaching false doctrines, and using those false doctrines to pervert the young people that he was teaching. The trial went on, and his enemies prevailed, and he was declared guilty, and through a turn of events, he was sentenced to death.

Death, for him, meant that he would have to drink poison; he'd have to drink a cup of hemlock. And when the day came for him to do that, he had his disciples with him. He had to drink it before the sun went down, and his disciples were gathered around him, and they were begging him to not drink it, but that rather, he should escape from the city. They would help him to escape. Others had escaped and there was no careful guard over him. It was considered a matter of honor that he would drink this hemlock, and so he really didn't have to do it, he could escape. He said, "No." He was actually very happy to do it. He had no fear of death, whatsoever. He just wanted to spend his final hours teaching his disciples, making the most of the time. So he did that, and when the time came, without any fear, without any hesitation, he drank that cup of hemlock down, and died.

Now, if you take that and contrast it with Matthew 26, the Garden of Gethsemane, we see quite a difference. Here in the Garden of Gethsemane, we see the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, and it says, "Then Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane and He said to them, 'Sit here, while I go over there and pray.' He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, 'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow, to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.' Then going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup be taken away, yet not as I will, but as you will.'" He prayed that same prayer three times.

He said, "Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away, unless I drink it, may your will be done." And He prayed with such great earnestness, and such great zeal, that Luke tells us that drops of blood fell from His forehead to the ground. Some people have hypothesized that the intensity and the pressure in the Garden of Gethsemane was so great, that the little blood vessels right below the surface of the skin were bursting from the pressure. Whether that's true or not, you can see the intensity and the pressure in the Garden of Gethsemane, as He faced a cup.

Now, as I set these two stories side by side, I get puzzled, in a way. I say, "Here's Socrates, and with no fear at all, he just drinks this cup right down." And then we've got Jesus in Gethsemane, and there's a cup, and He is shrinking from it. He's overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. And I would say, "What's the difference? Was Jesus not a man of courage?" Oh, I would say, "There's never been anyone with the courage of Jesus Christ." I think, actually, Gethsemane proves it. Jesus had the most courage of any man that ever lived, and if you look at the Gospel of John, and all the times that He faced opposition, did He ever, once, shrink from telling somebody the truth, because He was afraid? Never once. He was the consummate man of courage. Then what's going on here in Gethsemane? Well, I would say the difference between those two stories, is the difference in the content of the cups.

In Socrates' cup, was physical death, but in Jesus' cup, was the wrath of God, and there's a big difference between the two. I believe that Jesus drank a cup of God's wrath for us, and He drank it to its dregs, and He knew very well that that's what He was doing. It was not death He was afraid of; it was the wrath of God.

Second story I would use to illustrate this, also comes from Greece. You've heard of Homer, he wrote "The Iliad." "The Iliad" was a story of a war over Helen of Troy. You remember that story, the face that sailed a thousand ships. She was so beautiful that the Greeks went after her to get her, and as they embarked, they ran into some difficulties. I'd like to read an account of this story from JI Packer's book, "Knowing God."

"Prince Paris had carried off Princess Helen to Troy. The Greek expeditionary force had taken ship to recover her, but was held up halfway by persistent contrary winds. Agamemnon, the Greek General, sent home for his daughter and ceremonially slaughtered her as a sacrifice, to mollify the evidently hostile gods. The move paid off; west winds blew again, and the fleet reached Troy without further difficulty. This bit of the Trojan War legend, which dates from about 1000 BC, mirrors an idea of propitiation, on which Pagan religion all over the world and in every age has been built. The idea is as follows. There are various gods, none enjoying absolute dominion, but each one with some power to make life easier or harder for you. Their temper is uniformly uncertain. They take offense at the smallest things. They get jealous, because they feel that you're paying too much attention to other gods, and other people, and not enough to themselves. And then they take it out on you, by manipulating circumstances to your hurt. The only course, at that point, is to humor and mollify them by an offering. The rule with offerings is, the bigger the better, for the gods are inclined to hold out for something sizable. In this, they are cruel and heartless, but they have the advantage, so what can you do? The wise person bows to the inevitable, and makes sure to offer something impressive enough to provide, or to produce the desired result. Human sacrifice, in particular, is expensive, but effective. Thus, Pagan religion appears as a callous commercialism, a matter of managing and manipulating your gods by cunning bribery. And within Paganism, propitiation, the appeasing of celestial bad tempers, takes its place as a regular part of life, one of the many irritating necessities that one cannot get on without.

Now, Packer goes on to say that the gods of the Greeks, like gods in Pagan religions all over the world, behave a lot more like Hollywood movie stars, than like the God of the Bible. They bicker, and they complain, and they have little feuds with one another. And in this way, we begin to think, or get the idea that, propitiation must be about as far removed from true faith, and from true Christianity, as we can imagine. But the shocking thing is, propitiation's at the center of what happened at the cross. Paul puts it right here in Verse 25, that, "God presented Him as a propitiation." The Greek word, 'hilastérion,' a propitiation, a sacrifice that turns away the wrath of God. And so we need to come to understand this message. We need to come to understand how propitiation, the removal of the wrath of God through Christ, is accomplished.

II. Controversy: Is God a God of Wrath?

And on this, we are in in somewhat of a controversy. Liberal theology denies that God has any wrath whatsoever against sin, no wrath, no anger. Basic assumption of liberal theology, in terms of the disagreement, or the problem between God and man, is that it's all a misunderstanding. If we would just know how loving God is toward all of us, how willing He is to accept us back, how gracious, and loving, and forgiving He is, then all would be well. So the real change that needs to occur is in us. We have to somehow understand this message that God is a God of love and we need to come back to Him. In this way, humanity's sins do not alienate God at all. He's not concerned about that. He's big enough to overlook all that, certainly, not angry about it. We just need to come back to God. And therefore, the cross ends up being some kind of an example of God's love, or some kind of a moral influence to win our hearts over to Him. If we just look at the love of God in the cross, our hard hearts will be broken, we'll see that God is a God of love, and we'll just come back to Him.

Is that Christianity? I would say it's not, because God is, in fact, a passionate being. And yes, He loves people. He loves them with a love you can't even measure or imagine. It's a powerful love, it's a strong love, but God loves more than just people. He also loves righteousness, He loves holiness, He loves His law, He loves commands, He loves obedience, and He created us for His glory, as we have seen. We were created for the glory of God, and when we take the glory of God, and remove it from the center of our lives, and put some earthly idol there, God is angry about that. He's a passionate being, and there is, in fact, a great deal of wrath in God's dealing with human beings, and their sin.

Now, you have seen, perhaps, a bumper sticker or something, saying "Guess who moved?" The faulty line of reasoning works this way: If there's a separation between you and God, “guess who moved?” The implication is that God never moves, that He loves you all the time, that it’s you who've moved away from God. They say if you just know that God loves you and you just come back... Well, that's true for a Christian…But a problem arises when the idea is extended to the whole world. They say, “God never moved, He's always loved us, and this way, there needed to be no change in God for our salvation, no rectification on His end. He's ready any time, if we would just come back to Him.” 

Well, all of this swirling discussion in the 20th Century started to bear its fruit in Bible translations, and in 1936, one particular man, CH Dodd, focused on a word that we have here in Verse 25, just look down at it. Romans 3:25, "God presented him as," NIV gives us, "Sacrifice of atonement," with a little footnote. Footnote says, "One who would turn aside His wrath, taking away sin." They avoided the word 'propitiation,' because they figured that nobody knows what it means. Other translations, King James has 'propitiation' in there, but as they were writing new English translations, they wanted to understand it theologically properly, so they thought.  And CH Dodd said this, "The meaning conveyed here is that of expiation, not propitiation." Well, I would contend that just as many people know the word 'expiation,' as know 'propitiation.' It's equally difficult, so you haven't really gained anything there. But the real issue is not the word, the issue is the meaning behind the word, because what Dodd is doing is, he's changing the translation theologically. Now, that's a problem, especially when we're in the glowing heart of the Gospel, as I contend we are.

Shortly thereafter, after Dodd's work, the RSV…You pick up an RSV and look at Romans 3:25, you will see the word 'expiation,' instead of 'propitiation.' Dodd himself was the chief translator of the New English Bible in 1961. Guess what word he put in Romans 3:25? 'Expiation.' You say, "What's the big deal?" There is a big deal. 'Expiation,' basically means cleaning or cleansing from sin, a cleansing, a purification from sin, covering, putting away, rubbing out sin, so that it's no longer an obstacle of fellowship between man and God. 'Expiation' is, in fact, cleansing. 'Propitiation' is all of that, plus the removal of the wrath that has come, as a result of that alienation. So what did Dodd leave out? The wrath. He said, "It doesn't exist. God is not a God of wrath." And so they changed from 'expiation' to 'propitiation.'

John Owen’s Four Points in Propitiation

Now, a Puritan theologian, John Owen, said that there's four points in propitiation, four things that we're looking for.

1. There has to be an offense that is taken away.

2. There has to be a person offended who needs to be pacified.

3. A person guilty of the offense.

4. Some kind of sacrifice or means to accomplish the atonement.

And all four are there in the cross of Christ. Is there an offense to be taken away? Is there an end to the offenses to be taken away, immense quantity of sin to be removed? Is there a person offended who needs to be mollified? Yes, God. God is offended by sin. He is Holy and He needs to be pacified. Is there a person guilty of the offense? Oh, yes, if you'll admit it, if you'll come and recognize that you need a Savior. Oh, yes, there's a person that needs to be forgiven. And is there a sacrifice, or a means for the removal of the wrath? Yes, His name is Jesus Christ. It's all there and that is the heart of the Gospel.

Now, what is this word 'atonement?' If you ever look at the word 'atonement' and pull it apart, what would you get? You'd get a little prefix 'at,' what's the next word? 'One,' and then that 'ment' ending, which means the way by which we can become at one with who? With God, right? That's what 'atonement' is. It's at-one-ment. We were separated from God and we needed to be brought to Him. This is 'atonement,' at-one-ment. And we are estranged from God, because of our sin, apart from Christ.

Isaiah put it this way, in Isaiah 59:1 and following, "Surely, the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear, but your iniquities have separated you from God and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear." You see, there is a problem on God's side, He won't hear. And why? Because of the sin. "For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt, your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things." God is, in fact, offended with sin. He's greatly angered by it. And I would contend that, for a non-Christian, for an unbeliever, somebody who has not come to faith in Christ, the wrath of God constitutes the biggest problem in their life. Whether they feel it or not, it is the biggest problem, the biggest threat in their life.

III. Clear Biblical Doctrine: God’s Wrath a Past, Present and Future Reality

Imagine if you lived, for example, in the ancient city of Sodom or Gomorrah. You wake up in the morning, and you've been having some marital problems, squabbling with your wife, and you've got kids that are rebelling, and it's just not going the way you want, and your job is not the kind of job you want, and you feel a sense of purposelessness to your life. If only you could just have... Just some purpose, some meaning to your life. Nowadays, when we preach the Gospel, Jesus comes and does all those things for you. You see? He'll create harmony in your home. He will give you a sense of purpose. He will, perhaps, help you with your training of your children. He'll help you at the job, all of these earthly benefits. I don't deny any one of them, but is that what that resident of Sodom needs the most that day? No, he needs the removal of the wrath of God; that's his biggest problem. Suppose he worked things out with his wife. Suppose he suddenly realized that his job had meaning and there was a purpose to his life, would all be well with him? No, he's got a big problem, though he knows it not. The wrath of God; it must be removed. And I'm saying to you today, "It is removed, but it is removed only in one place: The cross of Jesus Christ. The wrath of God is removed in the cross of Christ."

Now, God's wrath is plainly a Biblical doctrine. I don't really have any idea how anyone can read through the Bible and not understand that God has wrath against sin. There are over 20, in the Old Testament, over 20 different Hebrew words used for God's anger or wrath, over 20. And if you take all of those, and add up all the times that God expresses wrath, you're at 580 occurrences, 580. Now, I've often said that, "People treat the Bible like Kroger or Winn-Dixie." You get your cart, and you just walk through, and you just see what you want. You just see what you want. You want a little of this, a little of that, and put it in your cart. Now, everything in the cart, is it from the Bible? Well, yeah, the love of God, His favor, His grace, and mercy, and forgiveness, those are there. But there's other things that you left up on the shelf, they're there too. And I don't know how you can walk through the Bible, and miss this one: 580 occurrences. Our God is a God of wrath. He hates, and He's angry about it, and He must be pacified. It is a great danger to us.

I don't need to quote illustrations from the Old Testament, just read the stories. Read the story of Korah, and Dathan, and Abiram, who led a revolt against Moses, and the Earth swallowed them up. Did Moses make the Earth open up? Did Moses have that kind of power? Isaiah described it this way, Isaiah 30:27-28, "See, the name of the Lord comes from afar with burning anger, dense clouds of smoke. His lips are full of wrath. His tongue is a consuming fire. His breath is like a rushing torrent rising up to the neck. He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction." The past reality of God's wrath, it's back there, just read the history. It's in the Bible; it's back there. It's also a present reality, although we don't have the interpretive skill to say, "This was the wrath of God," or, "This was." Psalm 7:11, it says, "God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses His wrath every day." And Psalm 38:3, David put it this way, "Because of your wrath, there's no health in my body. My bones have no soundness, because of my sin." But even greater, is the wrath to come, the future wrath. Colossians 3:6, "Because of these sins, the wrath of God is coming." It's coming, just like it came on Sodom. It's coming and you must be ready. There is a place of safety from the wrath of God; you must find it by faith.

Now, what is the cause of God's wrath? It's always the same. What is it? What causes the wrath of God? Sin. Sin, unrighteousness. Amos 1 and 2, just look at Amos 1 and 2, "For three sins of Judah, and even for four, I will not turn back my wrath." Sin brings God's wrath.

God’s Wrath is His “Alien Task”

And yet, I will say this, that God's expressions of wrath, He calls His 'alien task.' It's alien to His central core nature. I'm not making the attributes of God argue against one another. Where there is sin, God responds with wrath and with justice. But sin is alien, isn't it? Isn't sin an interloper, an intruder into the universe that God made? As sin is alien, so also is the wrath of God alien to His original purpose. Isaiah 28:21, speaks of it this way, "The Lord will rise up, as He did at Mount Perazim. He will rouse Himself, as in the Valley of Gibeon, to do His work, His strange work, and perform His task, His alien task." That's what I'm talking about.

Our God is slow to anger, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness. And God does not delight in the death of the wicked. Ezekiel 33:11, "'Say to them, as surely as I live,' declares the Sovereign Lord, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather, that they turn from their ways and live. Turn, turn from your ways. Why will you die, O house of Israel?'" That's coming straight from the heart of God. He is slow to anger and takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God's wrath is so much different than ours. His anger's so different from ours.

What makes you angry? Think about it that way. Think of the times you've expressed anger in the last week. Bumper to bumper traffic on Interstate 40, is that true? It's personal annoyance and irritation that produces wrath and anger, isn't that true? When you're put out, standing in line. Let's talk about Kroger: Standing in line, and somebody were to come and cut in front of you, what would you feel, what emotion, at that moment? How would you characterize that emotion? Could we call it anger? Maybe just small anger, so then we call it a different name, irritation. And why? Because you have been inconvenienced. Our anger is nothing like God's, nothing. And that's why we think God can't have wrath. His wrath is just different than ours; it is His passionate response to evil, and it is good, and I'm glad that He has it. I wish that I could get rid of mine, that's unrighteous, but God's anger is perfect.

Now, there is nothing we can do, whatsoever, to remove God's wrath. What can you do? Where will you go? What will you use to remove God's wrath? Therefore, God must remove it Himself. God must instruct us how His wrath is to be removed. And in the Old Testament, He does that. Remember they made the Ark of the Covenant? Remember what the Ark was? It was a golden box. And what was inside the box? Well, the 10 Commandments, the stone tablets were in there. And on the top of the box, was an atonement cover, with these cherubim with wings. And at the center, between there, is what was translated in the King James, 'the mercy seat,' the atonement cover. And in that place, God would meet with Israel. He would speak from between the cherubim. He would speak to Moses. Furthermore, the priest would go and pour out the blood of the offering. He'd pour out the blood of the sacrifice on the atonement cover between the cherubim. And so blood atonement for sin was established, and it was poured out there, at that one place. God was instructing on how His wrath could be removed.

Leviticus 16, a great chapter. You may think, "What could be in Leviticus, that I'd want to read?" You want to read Leviticus 16 concerning the day of atonement. For there, a bowl was offered for the priest, and the blood was poured out right on that atonement cover. His blood or his sin was atoned for through the blood of that beast. And then there were two goats, you remember? One of them would be slaughtered and the blood again applied to the atonement cover. One of them, however, would be the scapegoat, and the sins would be transferred onto the head of the goat, and he would be taken a distant journey away from Israel, and released. And so, a picture, a beautiful picture, of the separation from Israel and sin. God will separate sin from us, so that His wrath can be removed. It's beautiful.

A Threefold Lesson From the Sacrificial System

And so we have three lessons, a threefold lesson from the sacrificial system.

1. All sin deserves the death penalty. Well, you couldn't miss that, when you brought your offering and that beast was killed, you knew right away that sin equaled death. It was that way in the Garden of Eden, "The day you eat of it, you'll surely die." Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death." There's a connection between sin and death.

2. The death penalty could be paid for by a substitute. You'd bring your offering and you'd go home that day, you'd eat dinner, you'd go to sleep, you survived; the substitute died.

3. The substitute cannot be an animal. It was just a picture. That's the third lesson, it was just a picture. Can the blood of bulls and goats take away human sin? No, of course not. It pointed ahead to a sacrifice that would work. And what was that sacrifice? Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. Now, He could do it. He could take away sin. And so God was teaching Israel, and teaching us through Israel, how His anger can be removed, and it's removed by sacrifice. It's removed by blood.

IV. Context in Romans

Now, that's the context in the Bible. If we look in Romans, we've seen, as we move through Romans 1:2-3, an accumulation of wrath. Have you seen it? We've been picking it up, as we've been going along. Where do we get rid of it? That's the question. We finally get to dump it down here, in the middle of Romans 3, on the cross of Christ. You look at the start, Romans 1:16, it says, "I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God, for the salvation of everyone who believes." Salvation from what? Verse 18 describes that, "For the wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven, against all ungodliness and wickedness of men." There's a direct connection between Verse 16-17 and Verse 18, We need salvation from the wrath of God. Did you miss that? That's what we need salvation from, from sin and from the wrath of God.

And God has a decree, in Romans 1:32, "Even though they know God's righteous decree, that those who do such things deserve death... " The word 'death' is not just physical death, but eternal separation in hell. They not only continue to do those things, but approve of those who practice them. Romans 2:5 talks about the storing up of wrath, "But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you're storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed." In Verse 8, "For those who are self-seeking, who reject the truth and follow evil, there'll be wrath and anger." How can we read this and say that, "God is not a God of wrath?" You can only do it by not reading the Bible. And therefore, if you read this, and come up with a construct in your mind of God who isn't this way, you have made what? An idol. Do you see that?

Now, what's the difference between that and somebody in Irian Jaya bowing down to some statue? There is no difference. You become an idolater, a worshipper of a false God. You're saying, "Okay, but this is heavy. What do we do with it?" There is a place for the wrath of God, it's the cross of Christ. There is a place for it. But we don't come at this problem by saying, "There is no wrath. It doesn't exist." It does exist. It's real. And we will see it. In Romans 3:5-6, "But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing His wrath on us?" Is God ever unjust? When He brings His wrath, it's deserved. It's just and it will come. And therefore, in Romans 3:9-20, we see our universal danger. We are under danger from this, because Romans 3:10, "There is no one righteous, no, not one." And so we need a savior, don't we? We need to be saved from the wrath of God. We need to not play games and say, "There isn't wrath." We need to say, "There is wrath and we need a savior."

V. Completed Atonement! Four Key Phrases

And that salvation is available in Verse 25, "God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance, He'd left the sins committed before Him unpunished." Propitiation. Now, there's four phrases here that explain our salvation. The first, "God publicly displayed Him." The second, "Displayed Him as a propitiation." The third phrase, "Through faith," And the fourth, "In His blood." Each of these four components show us how we are saved.

1. God publicly displayed Him.

When did God display Jesus as a propitiation? Well, He did it in space and time, in history, outside the walls of Jerusalem one day. It was a day of Passover, a Friday, and Jesus was nailed to the cross that day, and on that day, His blood was poured out, His hands and feet nailed to wood, and His blood poured out. And there were people watching that, weren't there? There were crowds that passed by and saw it. It was a public thing, a public display. It happened in space and time, in history, and there are records of it; we have them here in the Bible. It actually occurred. Paul put it this way, in Acts 26:26, he said to King Agrippa, "These things were not done in a corner." What does that mean, "These things were not done in a corner"? God didn't tuck His Son away in the middle of a jungle and He died for sin, He did it very publicly, in the middle of everything, in Jerusalem, so everyone could see. It was not done in a corner; it was done obviously, so we could see. "Publicly displayed Him."

But He also publicly displayed Him a different way. He publicly displays Jesus Christ as crucified every time some faithful servant of the Word preaches the Gospel. Every time someone gets up and explains this, God, again, publicly displays Jesus Christ. I get that from Galatians 3:1. Paul says there, "Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified." Well, if you look at a map, you'll see how far Galatia is from Jerusalem. They didn't see it, they weren't there, they weren't standing at the foot of the cross. Well, how then was Jesus publicly displayed before the Galatians as crucified? When Paul preached the Gospel to them. I just put the picture in your mind, didn't I? I talked about the Son of God with His hands stretched out on rough wood, and nailed, hands and feet, and His blood poured out. Do you get a picture in your mind? Doesn't it come into your mind? "Publicly displayed." Now, next week, we're going to talk about the reason for the public display, so that we could see the justice of God, but the display was public.

2. Propitiation

The second phrase, we've already talked about, and that is propitiation. The Greek word is 'hilastérion.' There's no missing it; it is a sacrifice which removes the wrath of God. And that's what Jesus is, Jesus absorbed our wrath. There was, as we've been saying all along, a transfer of guilt from us to Jesus, and then the punishment we deserve poured out on Him. God made Him, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that we might, in Him, become the righteousness of God. The transfer happened, and then the punishment came down. Jesus knew that would happen; that was the cup in the Garden of Gethsemane, the cup of God's wrath. He knew it would happen. He knew that's exactly what was going on. Isaiah 53 knew as well, "But He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Oh, what blessed verses, that our sin can be lifted from us, the guilt, all that wrath, all of it, and put on Jesus, and extinguished forever. Jesus, therefore, is like a lightning rod, which attracts the lightning bolt and draws it safely away from the one it will protect. He is our lightning rod to attract the wrath of God away from us.

Well, I just made an assumption, didn't I? I said, "He is our lighting rod." Is that good for the whole world, if every single solitary person's wrath removed? If so, then there's no hell, right? If the wrath is all gone, then there is no hell. Is there a hell? Oh, yes. Will there be people? Oh, yes. So the wrath is not removed from everyone. Well, who was it removed from? For those who, what? Believe. Those who believe.

3. Through Faith

It says, "Through faith." Through faith, we are connected to Him by faith. We are in Christ by faith, by simple trust. Don't bring your good deeds; they have no business being here. Do you think your good deeds can remove the wrath of God? Absolutely not. But by faith alone, we are connected to Jesus, and what a strong connection it is. Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Do you see Paul's connection there by faith? "Jesus died for me. My wrath was poured out on Him; it was my sin that He suffered for, through faith." Are you connected to the propitiation today? Are you connected to the one safe place in all the universe, when the wrath of God will be poured out here? When Heaven and Earth melts away in the heat, will you be safe, because you're connected to Jesus by faith? Oh, I pray so, through faith, simple faith, simple trust.

4. In His Blood

The final phrase: "In His blood." He's a propitiation of blood. Now, the blood, I believe, represents life taken violently, life taken by force, life given up. It's not just life itself, but life poured out. And so it says in Exodus 12-13, "The blood will be assigned for you on the houses where you are, [this is the Passover], And when I see the blood, I will pass over you." Leviticus 17:11, "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I've given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life." Blood atonement must be poured out. Hebrews 9:22, "Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness." Why? Why is it true that, without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness? Because all sin deserves a death penalty. There must be a death. And the death is paid through Jesus Christ. Jesus' blood represents the full payment of the death penalty for all those whose places He took. Has He paid your death penalty? You have a court date and we knew that. I told you that last time. Hebrews 9:27, "It is appointed for men to die once, and then face judgment." We all have a court date. We had, at least at one time, a death penalty. Have you given it over to Jesus by faith? Has He taken it from you, the wrath paid for by His blood? I pray so.

VI. Consequences

Consequences of this doctrine: What comes out of this? First of all, human inability. There is nothing you can do to remove the wrath of God. Nothing, it's been done for you already. It's already done. It's already finished, through Jesus Christ. You must believe, simply believe, and you'll receive forgiveness. Second of all, Christ's central purpose. Why did Jesus come? He came to die, this death, the Romans 3:21-26 death. He came for this, for justification, for propitiation, and to demonstrate God's justice. He came for this. He came to drink your cup, and if He drank your cup, is there any left for you? Is there anything left for you to drink from the wrath of God? No, it's gone. The wrath is gone forever. Rejoice and be glad. The wrath of God against you for your sin is gone through your faith in Jesus Christ. There's nothing left. God will save you on the day of wrath. There will be no wrath. You will not drink and you'll not even taste it, an incredible piece of faith.

John 20, "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came, and stood among them, and said, 'Peace be with you.' And after He said that, He showed them His hands, and His side." Why did He do that? This is the price of peace that has been paid. "Peace be with you," He said. No more wrath, at-one-ment. It's been done. No believer in Christ need ever fear the wrath of God. It's totally gone. Jesus drank it to the bottom. Since we have now been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:9, "Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him?" Future salvation, brothers, because the day of wrath has not come yet, but when it comes, you'll be safe.

Romans 8:1, "There is, therefore, now, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And 1 Thessalonians 1:10, "Jesus rescues us from the coming wrath." Oh, what good news, an incredible peace of faith. But then, the incredible danger of unbelief. Do you see it? Do you see it in this doctrine? The danger of unbelief, the danger to your co-workers, the danger to your unsaved neighbors, the danger to people on the other side of the world who haven't heard of Jesus, the danger of unbelief. Do you see it? And what is the one thing that can rescue us? The Gospel. They must hear; we must tell them. If you don't know for certain that you have come out from under the wrath of God, will you come talk to me after the service? You'll have an opportunity when I finish. God will grant you life, I pray, for a few moments, to bow before Him, and to acknowledge your sinfulness, and simply say, "Lord Jesus, take my sin away. Take my sin away." Don't fail to do that. Let's pray.

I. Introduction: William Cowper’s Salvation

We have by the handsome and attractive providence of God, come to the heart of the entire Bible on Easter Sunday morning. There are no accidents. God works all things after the council of His will and so we get to contemplate really the center of it all today. When we come on Easter Sunday morning, I feel inside myself that there's a gap between what I'm able to express, what I'm able to speak and sing, and what the reality is that we're thinking about. Isn't there a gap there? There's a gap between what we can say and sing and think, and what is really there in the cross and in the empty tomb. And so at times like that, we reach for a certain category of gifted people called poets. We look to poets and we sing their hymns because we know that regular words just won't do. And so we sang this morning, a couple of hymns by Charles Wesley. My favorite "Christ, the lord is risen today." I'd love to sing it all year round, not just on Easter Sunday.

But on Easter Sunday, it seems to take hold of my heart in a special way. Poets and they're able to, with special words and with special phrases, get their hands around that truth and make it real. One of the hymns we sang this morning, "There is a fountain filled with blood," was written by William Cooper. Now, William Cooper… You expect those that are going to be singing and writing about exalted themes to be happy people. But I can't imagine anyone in here to be going through any misery compared to what William Cooper went through in his life. He led a miserable, miserable life. He had a tragic childhood. When he was six his mother died, and his cold and distant father sent him away to boarding school, where he was tyrannized by teachers and by older pupils alike. And so it went on and on to the point where, when he was about 21 years old he attempted suicide and almost succeeded. And when he did not succeed, he felt he was there by under the wrath of God for having tried to take his life. He felt that there would be no forgiveness for him, no salvation. He was not one of God's chosen people. He was condemned to hell. And there was nothing he could do about it. And so he became more and more despondent, and he would sit, William Cooper, and look out a window for hours and hours, and people would come and try to talk to him and he wouldn't even acknowledge that they were in the room.

Finally in 1763, about 13 years before our country was born, he was committed to St Albans Insane Asylum in London. And there by the happy providence of God, he met Dr. Nathaniel Cotton. Nathaniel Cotton was an Evangelical believer and a poet in his own right and he began to minister God's love to William Cooper. He began to speak to him and hold out hope for him. If any of you have ever tried to minister to somebody like this, suicidal depressed. They will say to you, "I've heard all that before. There's nothing you can say to me, there's nothing that's going to change." And that's what he said to Nathaniel Cotton. But Nathaniel Cotton was patient, continued to minister to him. And he would leave Bibles around where William Cooper could find them.

And one morning he found the Bible, and he opened up to John chapter 11 and in John 11 is reflected there, the story of Lazarus's resurrection. "And in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ," he said and in his gentleness in dealing with the grieving William Cooper said, "I saw the first glimpse of hope for me. If Jesus had the power to raise Lazarus from the dead And if he had the gentleness to deal with Martha and Mary in that way, there's hope for me. There's hope for me." But he was not converted until the book, the Gospel opened up to Romans 3:25 which we're getting at this morning. He had asked, he had prayed. William Cooper said, "God give me a revelation. I need something," and the Bible opens to Romans 3:25. It's impossible to count the number of people that have been converted by the book of Romans but here we get to the center and the heart of it.

So he read in Romans 3:25 which we're going to focus on next time. God presented Christ as a propitiation or a sacrifice through faith in his blood. And he realized that all the wrath that he deserved had been poured out on someone else, Jesus. And this is what's William Cooper read or wrote, "Immediately at that point I received the 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 justification, In a moment I believed and received the Gospel. Unless the almighty arm had been under me I think, I think I should have died with gratitude and joy. My eyes filled with tears and my voice choked with transport. I could only look to heaven in wonder and fear, overwhelmed with gratitude." William Cooper was saved just by reading Romans 3:25. Now It's been my prayer all week that God would do the same in this room today. These words that I'm about to read have converting power.

II. Lloyd-Jones: “The Acropolis of the Bible”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, when he came to preach on this section, said that this is the acropolis of the bible. Now the acropolis in ancient Greece was a hill, the highest part of a city where the temple and the government buildings were surrounded by a wall, a citadel. It was the most important place. And when you were up there, especially at the top of the temple, you could see all the surrounding country side. You could see it all. So what did Lloyd Jones mean when he said, "This is the acropolis of the Bible"? What it means is that if you grasp Romans 3:21-26, you can see the whole bible. All of it spreads out and becomes clear before you. Or I could say, "This is the glowing heart of the bible." Imagine the fiery sun, massive, powerful, and all the planets revolving around that massive center. If you understand Romans 3:21-26 and if this message becomes the center of your life. Then all the chaos and the disorder that you feel will go away, and there will be order and structure. You'll understand how the cross, the bloody cross of Jesus Christ and the empty tomb, should be and will be the center of your entire existence. This is the glowing heart of the Gospel.

Listen to Romans 3:21-26. Read along in the Bible if you would, now with eyes and I'll read with my voice. Romans 3:21, "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice because in His forbearance, He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."

Because this passage is so important, we're going look at it for three weeks. We're going to have three sermons and I've divided it into three major themes. There are more than just three themes in these verses, but this morning, we're going to look at justification. Next time we're going to look at propitiation, and then after that, demonstration. First, justification. Sinners declared righteous. Sinners declared righteous. Next time, propitiation, namely, the Holy God's wrath appeased and removed. And then finally, demonstration. The gracious judge's righteousness, His justice, displayed for all to see. So that's how it breaks apart. We're going to focus this morning on justification. Namely, sinners declared righteous.

III. Justification: Sinners Declared Righteous

Now, what is justification? What is justification? In verse 20, we've already learned that by works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight. But then here in verse 24, it speaks of those who are justified as a gift by His grace. So there we see how we are not justified, namely, by works of the law, and then how we maybe justified, namely, by grace through faith. So what is justification? Well, the Greek root of the word is linked to righteousness. The adjective "righteous", where we already saw in Romans 3:10, as in "There is no one righteous, no, not one." That word is dikaios. Dikaios. The noun "righteousness", which we have met here on verse 21, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested, is dikaiosune. Dikaios, dikaiosune, then justification is the verb dikaio, to declare righteous, to declare just. We can also translate that whole root as justice. So there's a relationship between justice and righteousness. So the question is, how can we, who are sinners, who are not righteous, no, not one, stand before a Holy God and be declared just or righteous? That's the question. That's the question.

And so this really... You have to understand now, there's a debate going on, but you need to understand. Justification does nothing to you. It doesn't change you at all, it's external to you. Sanctification transforms you from within. Justification is a declaration made about you, outside of you. And we see that very plainly in Luke 7:28 and 29, at that point Jesus was defending the ministry of John the Baptist and it said, "And when all the people and the tax gatherers heard this, they justified God having been baptized with the Baptism of John." They justified God. Let me ask you a question, when they justified God, did they do anything to God? Did they change God in any way? No, they declared Him to be righteous. That's what was going on there, they declared Him to be righteous. And that's what justification is. That the declaration about a sinner, that that sinner is righteous.

Now, there is a need for justification. Is there not? We need to be justified. And the reason is, that every single person has a court date. We all have a court date. Now, you don't know what your court date is, do you? Do you know what your court date is? I don't know what my court date is. But we have court date. Hebrews 9:27, "It is appointed to men to die once and then face judgment." Every one of us has a court date. And what will be required of us at that time? Righteousness. The righteous judge will demand, He will require righteousness. Well, I've already said, Romans 3:10 says you don't have it. Romans 3:10, "There is no one righteous, no, not one." So you have a court date and you don't have what's needed to survive the court date. You must be justified. You must be justified.

IV. How Sinners Are Justified: Five Principles

I can't imagine a topic more important than this one. Can you?  Is there anywhere you need to be? Is there any other topic you need to be thinking about? Then how do you survive that court date in which the righteous judge will declare you righteous? Oh, this is incredibly important. And so we need to understand justification and how it happens. And so I see in the verses that we're looking at this morning, five principles. Five principles. Justification is: [1] Prepared and proclaimed but not accomplished by the law. [2] It is performed by God. [3] It is procured by faith in Christ. And [4] It is provided by grace. [5] It is purchased by Christ Jesus.

1) Prepared and Proclaimed, Not Accomplished, By the Law

Alright, let's start with the first one. Justification is prepared and proclaimed but not accomplished by the law. Now, we already saw in verses 19-20 that no flesh, no one will be justified by works of the law. You cannot be declared righteous by the law. The law doesn't do that rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. And it will also say in verse 28, "We maintain that a man is justified apart from observing the law." No justification comes through the law. The law cannot produce righteousness in us. It cannot declare us to be righteous. It cannot forgive our sins. The law can't touch any of our problem areas. And so therefore we cannot be justified by the law. No righteousness comes that way. And therefore, as we asked last time, the Jews who heard Peter preach, the day of Pentecost, remember what they said, "Brothers, what shall we do? If righteousness doesn't come by the law then we're lost." Not so. The Gospel message comes and proclaims the righteousness from God. But it comes apart from the law. However, we must understand the law testifies to this. The law testifies to the righteousness which comes from God by faith.

Verse 21, "but now a righteousness from God, apart from law has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify." Now, how do the law and the prophets testify to the righteousness from God? Or they did it in the past and they do it in the present? Law and the prophets testified in the past, in that this is an eternal gospel. It's not a new message. It's not like Paul is innovating here. It's not like he's coming up with some new way that they had never heard before. The law and the prophets testify to this. Paul already said this in Romans 1:1 and 2, very beginning of the whole letter to Romans it says, "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an Apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God, the Gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding His son." So the Gospel is promised ahead of time by the prophets regarding the Son. And then at the very end of Romans. Romans 16:25 and 26, "Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings so that all nations might believe and obey Him." At the beginning of Romans and at the end, Paul says the same thing. This is no new message. This is the same Gospel that the law and the prophets have testified to all along.

And so he says also in 1 Corinthians chapter 2:7 he says, "We speak of God's secret wisdom. A wisdom that has been hidden but is now made known, an eternal gospel prepared before the foundation of the world for your glory." Eternal Gospel. Alright, and so, Paul is going to unfold, as we continue moving on he's going to unfold how the old testament, the law and the prophets testified through it. If we had a long time, we could show all the prophecies that were fulfilled in Christ: Crucifixion, resurrection. How many times did Jesus say in that final week of His life, "But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?" You see, the law and the prophets testified to the crucifixion of Christ. So that's a testimony in the past. The law and the prophets also testify now. They testify in the present that we need justification by faith. In the 18th century there were these great Evangelist that would go around and they would preach the Gospel. And everywhere they would go, they would begin the same way. What they called, "law work". Now, what is "law work"? Well, you remember last week I was talking about rototilling my lawn. That is law work. It's the breaking up of that self-righteousness so that you are ready to receive grace.

Law work does that. The law breaks apart your hard heart and convince you that you need grace. So the law testifies to this righteousness from God. And secondly it says that, justification is performed by God. Verse 21 it says, "But now, a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known." But now, think about that. "But now." What that means is, there was a certain flow, a certain direction. And then God stepped in and as God likes to do, He interfered. Does God just allow history to roll on unchecked or untouched? Not at all. He interferes. But now, but now God interferes. There is a righteousness that comes from God and it interferes. The very same thing is said in Ephesians chapter 2. "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked… we were by nature, children of wrath. But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love…" stepped in and changed that whole situation. God inbreaks history and changes everything. And this is more than just a change of flow in Romans. Romans 1:18-3:20 is the same section. That "law work", convincing us that we need forgiveness. Convincing us that we need salvation. There's law work been done here.

2) Performed By God

But then suddenly at verse 21 we get a change. And from verse 21 on, we get Gospel. We get Gospel, we get forgiveness. But it's not just a change there, it's a change in history. All of history has its hinge at the cross of Christ, doesn't it? But, now... And so this is a righteousness from God. Now, if you look down at Verse 23 and 24, it says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace." Now, I don't know if any of you remember 7th grade English, the difference between and active and a passive verb. You remember that? Maybe you didn't do well in 7th grade English, so you had it again in 8th grade English. What is the difference between an active and a passive verb? An active verb, you were doing the action. Passive verb, you are receiving the action. Is justification active or passive here? It is passive. In Verse 24, it says, "Being justified." You don't do the justification, you receive it. It happens to you. Well, then, who does it? Well, it is God who justifies. Romans 8:33, "Who then will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is He that condemns?" God does the justification. God justifies us, how? By giving us a righteousness, which is not our own, a righteousness, which comes from God and is by faith.

In the ninth century in France, there was a king, Charlemagne, and people would bring him various gifts, try to get the most unusual gift that they could give to him, maybe some gold, or something shaped in a certain way. And they would bring him this gift, and he would marvel at it. He was a powerful king. One day, someone brought him a relatively plain looking tablecloth, put it on the table, and they ate their meal on it, and he was wondering what there was about this tablecloth. Well, when the meal was over, they took all the dishes off the tablecloth, and they folded it up, and they threw it in the fire. And he was shocked. He said, "Why'd you throw my tablecloth in the fire?" "Just watch, sire." Nothing happened to the tablecloth. Why did nothing happen to the tablecloth? Because it was made out of a new material, asbestos.

Now, what is there about asbestos? What's special about asbestos? It doesn't burn. It's heat resistant. May I suggest to you that all of us are in need of an asbestos robe, an asbestos robe for judgment day? And if you're not wearing the asbestos robe, you'll be consumed by that day. Do you have your asbestos robe on? Let me describe to you. You can get asbestos out of some fibers found in mountains in Georgia and in Quebec. It's long fiber and all that. You know where to find asbestos if you really need it. Where are you going to find the material for the robe that's going to cover you on judgment day? Where are you going to look?

Most people begin by looking inward. They begin to look to themselves by their good deeds. They're going to weave a robe. Will that survive judgment day? Will that robe survive the heat of that day? Answer is no. You need an asbestos robe. And the fibers of that asbestos robe are woven with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and Him alone.

When I came to this concept in Romans 1:17, "There's a righteousness from God through faith," I held it out to you. I held out a robe, free of charge. Did you put it on? Maybe you put it on in the past. Once it's on, you don't need to take it off; it's permanent. But maybe you haven't put it on yet. Put on the asbestos robe. The day is coming, you have a court date. It's coming. And who can stand in that day? The righteousness of Jesus Christ is your asbestos robe. There's a great exchange here. Justification occurs by God. It's external to you. The righteousness is not your own. It's not your own.

3) Procured By Faith in Jesus Christ

The third point about justification is that's it's procured through faith in Jesus Christ. Now, I hesitated to use the word 'procured.' You know why I chose the word? Because it begins with P. If you look at all of them, they all begin with P. I chose 'procured.' Now, what's the danger in using the word 'procured?' Because you may think that you bought it and that's the danger. I figured, "Alright, I'll do the 'procured' thing, but I'm going to take a minute and explain that you didn't buy this." You procured, in other words, you received it. It became yours by faith in Jesus Christ, by faith in Jesus Christ, and by that alone.

Jesus, at one point, said to His disciples, "I tell you the truth, unless you're converted and become like little children, you'll never enter the Kingdom of Heaven." What is there about little children? Well, people hypothesize about this. Jesus didn't explain exactly what He meant, but I think that little children are great receivers. I'm not saying they're great takers. I'm saying they're great receivers. They receive very easily. They receive truth from their parents. They receive provision. There's no pride there. They just receive. They receive all the time. And that's what it means when I say, "Procured by faith in Jesus Christ." I mean by faith apart from works. Apart from works, just receiving what God has given. Receiving the gift of a declaration that you are righteous in His sight, simply by believing in Jesus Christ. Childlike faith, a confidence that Christ and Him alone is sufficient for you.

And that faith which justifies, is focused on the person of Jesus Christ. I guess, to be particular, may I say to you that faith itself does not justify anyone? Faith itself doesn't justify anyone. Faith in Jesus Christ justifies. There's all kinds of faith-filled people, all kinds of believing people. These days, they're called 'people of faith.' Have you heard about that expression? I'm constantly invited to prayer meetings with other peoples of faith. I usually don't go, because they are not my flavor of prayer meeting, usually, because, at that point, I'm not sure what God it is we're praying to. People of faith.

A Muslim will pray to Allah and he'll have full confidence that he's being heard by Allah. Or a Hindu will pray to Krishna, or to one of the pantheon of Hindu gods, and they will have full confidence. Does that faith save? It's not faith which saves, it's faith in Jesus Christ which saves. It's faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone, which justifies. And it's a faith which focuses on the promise of life. God has given us a promise, that if we will just believe, He'll give us eternal life. And so when you hear that promise, what happens is, faith starts to spring up. The way hands just reach out and say, "I'm ready. I'm ready, give it to me." That's what faith is. It's a receptive heart and faith comes from hearing the message. You start to hear and you say, "I want that. I want that asbestos robe. I want to be clothed with the righteousness that's not my own. I want it. Oh, give it to me." Child-like, receiving faith.

And the thing that's so beautiful about faith, is that it's universally effective. It's universally effective. It says in Verse 22, "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and lack the glory of God." There's no difference. What does it mean when it says, "There is no difference?" You've quoted Romans 3:23 all your Christian life; you know that verse. But it always bothered me that it began with the word 'for.' "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That's the middle of a sentence. "There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of glory of God."

Well, what does that mean, "There is no difference?" I think in that context, there's no difference between Jew or Gentile. But in the larger context of Romans 3, there's no difference between any person and any other person. Every one of us has sinned. There's no difference. There's no distinction. Paul uses the same word in 1 Corinthians 14:7. Talking about speaking in tongues at that particular moment, He says, "How will anyone know what tune is being played, unless there is a distinction in the notes?" If Bill got up here, or any other musician, and there was no distinction in the notes, you wouldn't have any idea what tune was being played. I never, I don't know that much about music, but isn't that true? There has to be distinction from note to note. And every note must be handled in a different way, whether by pressing a certain valve on a trumpet, or pressing a key, every note has it's own treatment.

That's not the way it is here. Justification is the same for everybody. It's the same for everybody, whether a poor beggar in Calcutta hears the Gospel message, and just simply believes in Jesus Christ, justified for all her sin. A wealthy banker in Tokyo, wrapped up in materialism, but hears the Gospel message, and just believes in the Savior. A single mother in Chicago, a mother of three children, struggling to make ends meet, one day, hears this Gospel message and all she does is just believe. There's no difference. It's the same for every person. Or maybe a street child in Mexico City, struggling to make ends meet by stealing, and by whatever way that he can; someday, a street worker comes, and preaches the Gospel, and he just hears, and believes, just simply believes. There's no difference. It's effective in every single case and it's the same in every single case: Simple faith, and that person is justified, all the guilt for their sin removed forever, and they will not be condemned on judgment day. Justification is procured by faith in Christ.

4) Provided By Grace

Fourthly, it is provided by grace. When I say, "There is no distinction," I also mean that there's no special treatment. And the reason for that, is that all of us have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God. Our universal sinfulness puts us at need for grace. Do you see that? We're not going to stand up in front of God and boast on that day. We're not going to stand up and say, "This is why I think you should let me into Heaven." There's no distinction. All of us need forgiveness. All of us need this grace. For all have sinned, everyone of us, and so we need grace. And there will be no boasting on that day, because we've all been forgiven freely by grace.

Now, I have nibbled at this many times, but now we come to it, Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." I've wrestled with this. It bothered me, because it didn't seem to make sense. What is the picture you get with, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God?" Oh, we're trying, Lord. We keep wrestling, we keep trying, and we just never quite get up to your standard. We want get close to you, we're reaching, we're scrambling up that hill, but we just can't get there." Is that the picture that Romans Three gives, when it says, "There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God," is that the picture? Are we trying, but we never quite get there? Are we aiming for God, but never quite reach Him?

I was troubled by this, until I started looking into it, and grammatically, the best translation for this, I believe, would be, "For all have sinned and lack the glory of God." The exact same Greek word is used in the story of the Prodigal Son. Luke 15:14, remember that story? Left home, went away, had all this money. What did he do with his money? Squandered it on riotous living. And after he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in the whole country, and he began to be in need. The same Greek word, 'in need.' What does that mean? It means he had nothing. He's got nothing to eat, no money to buy it with, he's got nothing. And so that's the same word. Let's put it back into Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned," and let's say, "Lack the glory of God."

Now, how do we become glory of God lackers? Well, what happened is, we're created in the image of God. We're created to be like God into righteousness and holiness, but because we despised God and despised His Word, we traded His glory for something earthly, something small, something insignificant, some idol. And the glory of God got moved from the center, and some idol got put in its place. "For all have sinned and dispensed with the glory of God." And because we don't have that glory, we're under judgment. God's wrath, which we we'll talk about next week, is His passionate response to glory despisers. "Do you despise my glory? You're under my wrath." Now, thankfully, the cross of Jesus Christ takes away wrath, but there's a passionate response to those who despise His glory.

And, therefore, you can see with Romans 3:23, and with the whole context of Romans Three, we are in need of grace, are we not? We need this message of forgiveness. We need it. And it says, "All have sinned, and lack the glory of God, and are justified," look at that next word, "Freely by His grace." Oh, what a word. All these words are great. They're justified freely. The Greek means, literally, 'according to gift,' 'according to gift.' You can't earn it, you must not earn it. You must not. You must simply receive it as a gift; it's a free gift. Justification, namely that the holy judge will declare you completely righteous on judgment day, is offered to you as a free gift. Now, what would happen, if a friend is offering to you a gift, and you reach into your pocket, and start reaching out some filthy bills to pay for it? It's not a gift, you've ruined it. You can't receive it that way. It's offered freely as a gift to you, that's what it says, "Justified freely," and this is in direct contrast to works.

Romans 4:4, which we'll get to in the future, it says, "Now, when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but according to debt." In other words, most of us come at this whole problem of our guilt before God by wanting to work it out. "I got myself in this mess, by gum, I'm going to get myself out." No, you won't. No, you won't. If you come and try to earn this thing, your wages will be thrown back at you. Romans 4:5 says, "However, to the man who does not work, but trusts God, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited to him as righteousness." Same message. You can't labor for this, you must receive it freely as a gift. This is not a new message, by the way. This is nothing new. Isaiah preached the same Gospel. Isaiah 55:1, he said, "Come you all, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters," and you who have what? "No money. Come, buy, and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without price." Spurgeon gave a beautiful illustration of this. I can't do any better than just read what he said. This is Charles Spurgeon: He said:

I tell you, Sir, if you bring in any of your deservings, you shall never have it. God gives away his justification freely; if you bring anything to pay for it, he will throw it in your face, and will not give his justification to you. He gives it away freely. Old Rowland Hill once went preaching at a fair; he noticed the merchants selling their wares by auction; so Rowland said, “I am going to hold an auction too, to sell wine and milk, without money and without price. My friends over there,” said he “find a great difficulty to get you up to their price, my difficulty is to bring you down to mine.” So it is with men. If I could preach justification to be bought by you at a sovereign a piece, who would go out of the place without being justified? If I could preach justification to you by walking a hundred miles, would we not be pilgrims to-morrow morning, every one of us? If I were to preach justification which would consist in whippings and torture, there are very few here who would not whip themselves, and that severely too. But when it is freely, freely, freely, men turn away. What! Am I to have it for nothing at all, without doing anything?” Yes, Sir, you are to have it for nothing, or else not at all; it is “freely.” “But may I not go to Christ, lay some claim to his mercy, and say, Lord, justify me because I am not so bad as others?” It will not do, Sir, because it is “by his grace.” “But may I not indulge a hope, because I go to church twice a day?” No, Sir; it is “by his grace.” “But may I not offer this plea I mean to be better?” No, sir; it is “by his grace.” You insult God by bringing your counterfeit coin to pay for his treasures. Oh! what poor ideas men have of the value of Christ’s gospel, if they think they can buy it! God will not have your rusty farthings to buy heaven with. 

We want bring our grubby little coins and offer them to God to pay for it. You've got to have empty hands. God doesn't want you paying for this. You can't afford it. You can't afford it. It's free to you, but was it free? Was it free? No, it was incredibly expensive.

5) Purchased by Jesus Christ

And that's my fifth point about justification: It is purchased by Christ Jesus. It's purchased by Him. Verse 24, it says, "We are justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." All these words are weighty; they're all weighty. What is the word 'redemption?' The word 'redemption' is the image of the release of a helpless captive or a group of helpless captives by the paying of a price, by the paying of a price. There's all kinds of Old Testament pictures of redemption. God has prepared us well to understand this. For example, He uses the word 'redeemed' or 'redemption' to talk about Him getting Israel out of slavery. By His mighty hand and His outstretched arm, He paid the price and got them up out of slavery. And while He did that, the Exodus Passover, remember, the angel of death was to pass over, and Moses gave the command that the firstborn of every Jewish household should be redeemed with the blood of the Passover lamb. That means, brought out of danger. What was the danger? That the angel of death would kill that firstborn Jewish boy.

'Redeemed,' the payment of a price, the release of a captive. Payment of the price, release of the captive. All kinds of pictures of redeemers, the best of all in the Old Testament. Job 19:25, I love this one. I could stand here and talk about the kinsman-redeemer, there's so many pictures here of Old Testament redemption, but I love this one the best. Job 19:25, this should sound familiar to you, "I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end, He will stand upon the Earth, and the worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh, will I see God." What is the danger that Job faces? Death. And who can redeem him? His redeemer. And who is His redeemer? Well, I'll speak some of his words, "The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." He paid the price. What is a ransom? It's money paid to kidnappers to get somebody out of trouble. It's the same image. He came to pay the price, and He did pay it, and it was incredibly expensive, incredibly expensive.

If you look at God and say, "Oh, God, of all the universe, what is most valuable to you?" If you say, "Is there anything more valuable then the blood of your own Son?" The answer is, "No." And so Peter spoke of that price. First Peter 1:18-19, he says, "For you know that it was not with perishable things, such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you by your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." Oh, yeah, it was bought, but you can't afford it. The price was paid by Jesus Christ and by His blood. He is our redeemer.

Today, we have seen justification. We've begun to understand it. We've seen that justification is prepared and proclaimed, but not accomplished by the law. We've seen, secondly, that justification's performed by God; it's external to you. It's external to you. It was done for you when Jesus died on the cross. Number three, it's procured, you receive it by faith in Christ. Procured by faith. Number four, it's provided by grace. We didn't deserve this. We deserve wrath and judgment, but instead, God gave us all this. What a feast. And then, fifthly, it was expensive. The price was purchased by Christ Jesus.

V. Summary & Application

Now, I want to close with another illustration from Spurgeon. I've never found anything as powerful as this one, "What is the problem with justification by faith? It runs directly contrary to our pride. We want to earn it, we want to work it out, and so there are, I believe, in all the world, only two religions: Salvation by grace and salvation by works. All of those cults and all of those world religions, it's just the same thing in different flavors, and forms, and then there's Christianity, as rightly understood here in Romans 3:21-26, 'Justification by grace through faith alone.' And so we have to labor to get people to let go of their works." And so Spurgeon told this story, He said, "Justification by faith is something like this:

There is a story told of a captain of a man-of-war, whose son — a young lad — was very fond of running up the rigging of the ship; and one time, running after a monkey, he ran up the mast, till at last he got on to the maintruck. Now, the maintruck, you are aware, is like a large round table put on to the mast, so that when the boy was on the maintruck there was plenty of room for him; but the difficulty was — to use the best explanation I can — that he could not reach the mast that was under the table, he was not tall enough to get down from this maintruck, reach the mast, and so descend. There he was on the maintruck; he managed to get up there, somehow or other, but down he never could get. His father saw that, and he looked up in horror; what was he to do? In a few moments his son would fall down, and be dashed to pieces! He was clinging to the maintruck with all his might, but in a little time he would fall down on the deck, and there he would be a mangled corpse. The captain called for a speaking trumpet; he put it to his mouth, and shouted, “Boy, the next time the ship lurches, throw yourself into the sea.” It was, in truth, his only way of escape; he might be picked up out of the sea, but he could not be rescued if he fell on the deck. The poor boy looked down on the sea; it was a long way; he could not bear the idea of throwing himself into the roaring current beneath him; he thought it looked angry and dangerous. How could he cast himself down into it? So he clung to the main truck with all his might, though there was no doubt that he must soon let go and perish. The father called for a gun, and pointing it up at him, said, “Boy, the next time the ship lurches, throw yourself into the sea, or I’ll shoot you!” He knew his father would keep his word; the ship lurched on one side, over went the boy splash into the sea, and out went brawny arms after him; the sailors rescued him, and brought him on deck. Now, we, like the boy, are in a position of extraordinary danger, by nature, which neither you nor I can possibly escape of ourselves. Unfortunately, we have got some good works of our own, like that maintruck, and we cling to them so fondly, that we never will give them up. Christ knows that unless we do give them up, we shall be dashed to pieces at the last, for that rotten trust must ruin us. He, therefore, says, “Sinner, let go your own trust, and drop into the sea of my love.” We look down, and say, “Can I be saved by trusting in God? He looks as if he were angry with me, and I could not trust him.” Ah, will not mercy’s tender cry persuade you? — ”He that believeth shall be saved.” Must the weapon of destruction be pointed directly at you? Must you hear the dreadful threat — ”He that believeth not shall be damned?” It is with you now as with that boy — your position is one of imminent peril in itself, and your slighting the Father’s counsel is a matter of more terrible alarm, it makes peril more perilous. You must do it, or else you perish! Let go your hold! Trust in Christ and Him alone!

Let's close in prayer.