Romans 3:24-26. ‘Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.’
In order to understand these verses correctly, I believe it is necessary to understand God’s justice, and also His anger.
Psalm 7:11. ‘God is a just judge. And God is angry with the wicked every day’ (see also Psalm 5:4-6). So not only is God angry with sinners, He is also right and just to be so. And His anger does not subside on its own as ours might when we get in a better mood; it is a settled wrath against sinners. We might define God’s wrath as His righteous anger against sin. We read in Romans 1:18 that, ‘… The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…’ The present tense is used here to show that this divine wrath was not merely revealed once at some time in the past, but on the contrary is being revealed continuously to this very day.
This wrath of God cannot simply be ended by His unilateral forgiveness; there must be a propitiation. In the Old Testament, we read in Job 42:7-9 that God would not forgive Job’s three friends until they brought a sacrifice and Job prayed for them. Also in Numbers 15:27-28 we read that, ‘If a person sins unintentionally, then he shall bring a female goat in its first year as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for the person who sins unintentionally….. and it shall be forgiven him.’ But what about someone who sins intentionally? In that case, it’s a whole lot worse. ‘But the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native-born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the LORD, and has broken His commandment; that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt shall be upon him’ (Num. 15:30-31). Imagine a human judge who let off guilty criminals without any sentence; what would the newspapers say? “Who does the judge think he is?” The sentence must be carried out, and the sentence is, ‘The soul that sins shall die.’ And of course it gets worse. ‘….It is appointed for men to die once, but after that the judgment’ (Heb. 9:27).
So how can we get ourselves right with God? Ultimately, sacrifices will not help us (Hebrews 10:4) for reasons we will come to presently. Our good deeds are but filthy rags before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6) and trying to keep God’s law will not save us either, because, ‘By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified, for by the law is the knowledge of sin’ (Romans 3:20). If we are to be saved from God’s righteous anger against sinners, it is God who will have to do the saving.
So we arrive back at our text. ‘Christ Jesus, Whom God set forth…’ First of all, we know this works because it is God Himself who set forth our Lord. ‘… As a propitiation….’ There seems to be some question over the meaning of this word. The Greek word is hilasterion in Romans 3:25 and hilasmos in 1 John 2:2; 4:10. Both words refer to the “mercy seat” (Hebrews 9:5) which was the cover of the ark of the covenant which resided in the Holiest Place in the Tabernacle. It was where the Jewish High Priest went once a year on the Day of Atonement to offer sacrifices, first for himself and then for the people (Heb. 9:7). This was the most solemn of all the Jewish ceremonies. The sacrificial offering was a death in the place of the one who offered it (Leviticus 16:6). A propitiation is a sacrifice that turns away wrath. If a man were to upset his wife in some way, he might buy her a bunch of flowers as a propitiation, to satisfy her outraged sense of wrong and turn away her righteous anger. Of course, the man would not know if these flowers would be sufficient for that. His wife might hold out for a meal in a slap-up restaurant! But we know that God is satisfied by the suffering and death of Christ because it was He who set Him forth. Christ was our substitute. ‘He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him’ (Isaiah 53:5, NIV).
‘…By His blood…’ The blood speaks of the life of the creature. ‘It is the blood that makes atonement for the soul’ (Lev. 17:11). Under the old covenant, almost all things were cleansed by blood (Heb 9:22), ‘and without shedding of blood, there is no remission [of sins].’ ‘…Through faith…’ It is faith which unites us to Christ and makes His death efficacious to us. ‘…To demonstrate His righteousness.’ As we have seen above, God is a just judge, and He cannot deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:13) by pardoning guilty sinners. Our Lord’s death magnified the law and made it honourable (Isaiah 42:21). Sin was punished, but, ‘The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all’ (Isaiah 53:6). He, the sinless one, has borne our sins in His own body, and now God sees in His people only the spotless righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). ‘…Because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed…’ Although we have seen that God required sacrifices, in themselves they could not take away sins (Heb. 10:1). They could only point to the ‘Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.’ However, in His mercy God passed over the sins of those who were looking forward by faith to the coming Messiah: Abraham (John 8:56), David (Acts 2:25ff), Simeon (Luke 2:25ff) and doubtless many more; even a Samaritan woman of doubtful morals (John 4:25f). But, in order for God to be just, they were only forgiven on the basis of our Lord’s death and resurrection.
‘…. to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness…. God cannot deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:13). As Judge of all the earth, He must do right, and that means punishing sinners. He cannot simply forgive them. But, praise His name, He has found a way ‘that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.’ God Himself (Acts 20:28), in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ has taken our sins upon Himself, and on the cursed tree (1 Peter 2:24) has paid in full the penalty for them all on our behalf (Rev. 5:9). God’s justice is satisfied; His righteous anger against sinners is propitiated (so long as they trust in Christ), and the curse upon the earth of Genesis 3:17 will be removed at Christ’s return (Rom. 8:21; Rev. 22:3).
