“Big Words – Propitiation” – Romans 3:25-26

I mentioned to you a couple of weeks ago about my run-in with law enforcement.  For those who weren’t here, let me just say that I have to admit to being a lawbreaker.  I am an outlaw, a desperado, a malefactor and a perpetrator.  I walked my dogs without leashes or even collars.  I admit it.  I was guilty and I deserved to pay the price but I was shown great grace.  Some of you might can relate.

But this was not my first time to get in trouble with the law.  In fact, it’s not the first time my dogs have been part of the problem.  But I don’t blame them.  We all make our own decisions but that’s a message for another day.  Anyway, years ago, I had some workmen come into my yard to do something and they didn’t shut the gate when they left and my dogs got out. (River Oaks – JD, Rusty and Abby)

When I got home I couldn’t find them so I went to the pound and there they were safe and sound but I had to go to the city judge to pay a fine for my dogs getting loose.  (I told you I’m a desperado.)  I could have just paid the fine there but I wanted to see a judge because I had not given these guys permission to come into my yard nor was it my fault they left the gate open.  I wanted justice and if not justice then at least have some mercy.  Some of you might can relate.

So, after waiting my turn listening to all the other offenders plead their cases before the judge, it was my turn.  He read the charge and asked me how I pleaded.  I said I plead not guilty and told him why.  I hadn’t even finished my explanation of what happened and was in the middle of a sentence when the judge banged his gavel down on his big oak desk and hollered out, “The only good dog is a dead dog!  Pay the fine plus court costs.  Next!”

Before I could say anything or do anything else somebody else was standing there talking to him.  There was no more explaining.  There was no appeal process.  There was nothing I could say or do.  I wanted to tell him that my dogs said that the only good judge was a dead judge but I didn’t.  I just went and paid the fine plus court costs.  I went there looking for justice and mercy and found neither.  That judge was not merciful and he was not just.  Some of you might can relate.

Thankfully, we serve a God Who is both merciful and just, right?  Is He merciful?  How do you know?  Is He just?  How do you know?  For God to be both merciful and just is a real problem for us.  How can God be just and justify a sinner?  How can God be righteous and declare a sinner righteous?  Or, if I were turning it in the modern language of our courts, “How can a judge do right and allow a felon to escape free?”

There is no law without a penalty.  There is no such thing as a law being a law without a penalty.  If the legislature were to convene and pass laws with no penalty, they might be recommendations, they might be good wishes, they might be fine hoped for things, but they wouldn’t be laws.  For a law to be a law, it demands that when it is broken a penalty be paid.  And God’s universe is like that: that’s where the state got its idea of justice.  Justice lies in the character of God.  God’s universe is moral; it is governed by law.  And law to be law demands a penalty. (THE GOD OF JUSTICE AND LOVE - Dr. W. A. Criswell)

 

We saw last week in Romans 3:23 that we are all sinners.  We have all broken God’s law and God could be all justice.  He could say that since we have broken the law that we all deserve eternal death and separation from Him and He would not be wrong.  That is what we deserve just like it says in Romans 6:23.  The wages of sin is death.  But that wouldn’t be merciful.

Or God could be all mercy and just say, “Aw, it’s ok.  I forgive all of you no matter what.  I didn’t really mean what I said about breaking those laws.”  But that would go against His nature of being just.  So, what did God do?  God solved that problem by sending His Son, Jesus, to be the propitiation.

 

“Propitiation”.  That is our big word of the day as we continue our sermon series entitled just that: “Big Words”.  We looked at the word “redeemed” last week.  Does anybody remember what that word means?  It means to convert into something of value and that is just what Jesus did for us.  We are redeemed or converted into something of value, not just to this world, but to God Himself and that should make us holy, joyful and peaceful.

 

Now, while last week’s big word describes us, this week’s big word describes Jesus Himself.  Let’s look at it continuing in Paul’s book to the Romans in chapter 3, verses 25 and 26.  On page 797 in the Bible in the back of the pew in front of you. Romans 3:25-26 in the NIV says, “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ²⁶ he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

 

Now, some of you who might have been following along in the NIV might have been looking for that big word, “propitiation” and never saw it.  The NIV interprets that word, “atonement”.  Does that help any?  Do you know what “atonement” means?  No?  Well, let me help you by reading some other translations.  How about “expiatory sacrifice”?  Not really?  “Appeasement”?  Is that a little better?  Actually, Webster does a pretty good job of this when he defines “propitiation” as “gaining or regaining the favor of.”

 

If you really enjoy reading through the book of Leviticus you may need therapy but you may also see how it pertains to us today and how “propitiation” pertains to us today.  All through the book of Leviticus, Moses gives laws and commands and many of these pertain to how to offer sacrifices correctly.  You may remember that in the Old Testament, before the sacrifice of Jesus, people had to sacrifice animals for their sins.  They would take the appropriate animal to the priest and the priest would sacrifice it for them on the altar and the blood would be sprinkled over the Ark of the Covenant, specifically over the top of it which was called the mercy seat or the atonement cover. (Lev. 16:14)  This would signify that the sins of the people had been “covered over” and removed from God’s sight and they would be in God’s favor again.

 

Now, look again at the passage in Romans.  It says that God presented Jesus or set Him forth and those words were used to describe what you would do with the awards that were to be presented to the winners of a race.  You would show them to everybody; present them to all who would look.  In other words, God made it obvious to everybody that Jesus was the sacrifice, but more than that the sins were not just covered over but Jesus was actually punished for those sins and the sins were removed – gone – and because of that our faith in Jesus puts us back in perfect favor with God.  Jesus was the propitiation for our sins.

 

That’s almost more than I can take in.  I can’t comprehend why Jesus would do that for me.  I can’t read this without asking the question, “Why?”  Thankfully, God answers that question in this same passage.  Continue reading in verse 25 where it says, “He did this to demonstrate his justice (or righteousness), because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.”

 

There is another big word in that sentence.  “Forbearance” means refraining from the enforcement of something (as a debt, right, or obligation) that is due.  So, what this means is that because God is patient He had allowed people in the Old Testament to make sacrifices to cover over their sins but because He is just there had to be a sacrifice that was good enough to appease God’s anger at sin and so God sent His own perfect Son to be that sacrifice and in doing so we see that, not only is God loving and merciful, but He is also just.

 

Verse 26 says, “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.”  He is merciful and just and all we have to do – the full extent of our responsibility – is to believe it.  But what does that “belief” look like?  It looks like someone who trusts in Jesus and Jesus alone for not only their salvation but for their very life and support.  It looks like someone who doesn’t always understand what is happening or why it is happening but does understand that God is totally in control and loves us as His children and wants the best for us.

 

It looks like someone who doesn’t look like everybody else; someone that is holy, separate and different than those around him.  Believing in the blood of Jesus is life-changing.  You can’t look the same afterward.  Your life will be different.  It will affect how you look, how you talk, how you dress and where you go and what you do because true belief in Jesus understands that He died for us as the propitiation for our sins and He took what we deserve.  He paid the price we could not pay and that will manifest itself in worship in spirit and truth.

 

A true believer will worship with other believers because of the gratefulness he has because of what God has done for us through His Son Jesus and when that believer can’t join in worship, it should grieve him and pain him.  It’s not trying to repay the debt.  That has already been done in full.  It is about loving the One Who loves us.

 

1 John 4:10 says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  That’s why we worship.  Let’s continue doing that now.

 

Lord’s Supper

 

 

Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. 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.”