On this podcast we often go back to essential realities, vital truths, things most precious to us, like the splendor of God and the cross of Jesus Christ. If you get these principles right, whatever else ultimately falls into location. Get the basics incorrect, and nothing will fall precisely into place. Something will constantly be off.
In light of this, a few of the most vital questions include these: Why, in the first location, do I require to be saved? Conserved from whom? Saved from what? What is my issue? And how does God, and specifically Christ, address my issue? To explain, I enjoy this following sermon excerpt from a 2009 message delivered at a Campus Crusade event in Minneapolis. There Pastor John expounded Romans 3:23– 26, in which the apostle Paul states this:
For all have sinned and disappoint the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a present, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be gotten by faith. This was to reveal God’s righteousness, due to the fact that in his magnificent forbearance he had actually passed over previous sins. It was to reveal his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be simply and the justifier of the one who trusts Jesus.
A remarkable text of necessary, must-know reality. Here’s Pastor John to explain it.
“Whom [referring to Christ] God advanced as a propitiation …” (Romans 3:25). Propitiation means a sacrifice that removes wrath. The wrath of God is taken in by Christ when he passes away in our location. Propitiation is the elimination of the wrath of God off of us, though we deserve it.
“Whom God advanced as a propitiation by his blood [his death], to be received by faith.” That’s how you receive a gift: faith is a receiving; it’s not a doing.
“This was to show God’s righteousness …” Oh, actually? Actually? This putting Christ forward “was to show [God’s] righteousness, because in his divine forbearance [perseverance] he had passed over former sins. It was to reveal his righteousness at today time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who trusts Jesus” (Romans 3:25– 26).
I don’t believe there’s a more crucial paragraph in the Bible than that right there. I indicate, there might be some contending, however that’s almost as near to the center as you can get.
Cursed for Us
Take it apart for simply a couple of minutes with me. God put Christ forward as a propitiation by his blood. Romans 8:3: “God has actually done what the law, weakened by the flesh, might refrain from doing. By sending his own Kid in the similarity of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.”
Whose sin? Mine. Whose flesh? Christ’s. That’s a remarkable declaration. Condemnation happened at the cross. Whose? Mine. In whose flesh? Not my own. This is propitiation. Propitiation is the drawing away of condemnation from me. How can this be? How can it go there, on Christ? It belongs here, on me.
Galatians 3:13: “Christ redeemed us from menstruation of the law by becoming a curse for us.” Whose curse? God’s curse. He’s the one who backs up the law. The law is his word. If there’s a curse in the law on me, it’s coming from God. And Jesus becomes my curse.
So all that to say yes to propitiation; do not equate it some other method. Do not utilize expiation, which simply implies “removal of regret.” Do not translate it simply as living sacrifice or sacrificial offering. It’s the elimination of God Almighty’s simply, holy condemnation and wrath, which belongs to me.
Splendor Is Gone
Why did he require to do it that method? Why did Christ need to pass away in order to soothe God’s rage?
“This was to reveal God’s righteousness.” So, Christ passed away; God put him forward to die. This was to reveal God’s righteousness. Why did he require to show his righteousness? That’s a quite high rate for a demonstration of righteousness. Why did he require to show his righteousness?
“Since in his divine forbearance he had passed over previous sins.” Well, why does death over sin make it essential to demonstrate righteousness? Now we’re prepared to see verse 23 and the nature of sin: “All have sinned and fall brief of the splendor of God.”
I don’t know if you have actually ever felt like I desire you to feel now about the connection in between sin and the glory of God. “All have actually sinned and fail.” Fall brief is an old-fashioned translation. The actual meaning is “they do not have,” “they’re without.” In what method are we without? Romans 1:23 states we have actually exchanged the glory of God for the glory of produced things. We had it; it was our treasure. When Adam and Eve were produced, it was our treasure: we enjoyed God, we cherished God, we esteemed God, we appreciated God; we feared of God and worshiped God and applauded God and glorified God. And after that we traded God.
You have actually all done it; you do it every day. We accept other values, other treasures, other desires that are so much stronger in our hearts than God is. We traded him, therefore we lack God’s magnificence. It’s not our treasure; we’ve simply thrown it away. And sin is anything you do in that process. Anything that shows that God is not your treasure is sin. All have actually sinned and absence, toss away, exchange, demean, belittle, trample the boundless value of the magnificence of God.
Guilty Go Free
Now, why does that call the righteousness of God into concern when he passes over such sin? Because when God, as he provides for all of his individuals, passes over– does not condemn– sinners who have actually stomped his magnificence and demean his magnificence every day of our lives, it looks as though he believes that’s no huge offer: to run over the magnificence of God is no huge offer.
It would be like a judge sitting at a bench who’s got a killer and a rapist in front of him. He states, “We’ll simply let it go. We’ll simply pass over the murder and the rape this time; we’ll just pass over it.” And everyone in the courtroom would say, “No chance! You can’t do that and rest on that bench and be a simply judge and state you’re just going to pass over this thing.”
Therefore, God knows that he would be unrighteous, he would be wrong, unfair, if he treated his glory as though it were so worthless that he could simply pass over the trampling of his splendor in his individuals. Therefore he doesn’t simply pass over it; he sends his Son into the world to show his righteousness.
You see, if you understand Romans 3:23– 26, what occurred at the cross was the loudest statement possible: I love my splendor. And in that really moment of upholding his magnificence, God made it possible to save sinners: “so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who trusts Jesus.”
The Unthinkable for the Undeserving
In John 17, Jesus expresses this concept: “I want them to see me– I want them to see me risen, triumphant, remarkable, all-satisfying in my splendor, so that my glory will continue to be honored permanently, and their joy would be complete” (see John 17:24).
And at the center is the cross, making that possible for sinners. As God says, “I put my Boy forward to show my righteousness. My righteousness is my steady commitment, constantly and everywhere, to promote the limitless worth of my magnificence. And if I am set on conserving sinners who have actually trampled my splendor, which I most definitely am, I will refrain from doing it in any method that calls my love for my magnificence into concern. I will do the absolutely unthinkable. I will put my Child on the gibbet, and he will be tortured, and he will bear my wrath to make plain: I don’t sweep God-belittling sins under the rug of deep space when I save sinners.”
