Over the past few weeks I have been meditating and writing about the awesome wonders of the gospel as presented in Romans chapter 3. I have written about the fact that God is good and we are not; and the answer to this dilemma being the cross of Jesus Christ. I have written about the fact that God is just and God is merciful; two contrasting truths with the biggest question being, if God is Just how can He be merciful, the answer to how God can be just and merciful at the same time being the cross of Jesus Christ. Now I would like to talk about what happened on that cross, how a man is made righteous before God. Now as I attempt to do this I will use an analogy to describe this most awesome and powerful truth. While analogies can be useful they are not exact and there is no way of fully explaining this incredible truth. What I would like to talk about today is propitiation. This word is found in all the literal translations of scripture in Romans 3:25 and it is the reason God can forgive you of your sins and you can now commune with God. It goes like this “whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith” (Romans 3:25).
Propitiation is a legal term and is most appropriate in the gospel because the gospel is a legal proceeding. Let’s say that there is a man who is a criminal, He has gone before the Judge and has been found guilty of his crime, now the penalty for his crime is 100 million dollars or life in prison. Now the man does not have 100 million dollars and has no way of ever earning that much money. The judge tells the bailiff of the court to cuff him and hall him off to jail, and just before he does a man walks into the court and asks the judge on the bench if he could address the court. The judge grants him permission to address the court. The man says, “All though he does not know me, I have known this man all of his life, and I love him; I do not want him to spend his life in prison. I am a man of great wealth and if it would please the court, I would like to give the money for his fine.” The judge says, “If the man will accept your gift, the court will consider his fine paid in full, if he does not accept he will go to jail for life.” That is propitiation, the man had nothing by which to pay his fine, and someone else comes in and pays his fine. The court accepts the gift as his debt being paid in full, provided the man accepts it, if he does not accept the gift he still goes to jail. That is what Romans 3:25 is all about; God set forth God the Son (Jesus) as propitiation. Jesus gave himself as propitiation; He died on the cross for your sins. God accepts the blood of Christ as being payment in full for your sins by faith. If you believe in God the Son (Jesus Christ), God accepts His blood as being payment in full for your sins. If you do not believe in Jesus Christ the penalty for sin still applies. What is the penalty for sin, “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), being cast out of the kingdom of God into outer darkness (ref Matthew 8:12) “lake of fire” (Revelations 20:14), “hell” (Luke 12:5). So how can a man escape, how can a man be saved?
Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ
