In this episode, we embark on a profound exploration of one of the most theologically rich passages in the Bible: Romans chapter 3, verses 21 to 25. We delve into the significance of key concepts such as righteousness, faith, grace, and redemption. Our primary focus is on understanding the distinction between propitiation and expiation, concepts often misunderstood in modern theology. Learn why propitiation is vital in comprehending how God deals with judgment and expresses His profound love for humanity.
So here we are in what I have, in my opinion, called the richest passage in the Bible. It is Romans chapter 3, verses 21 to 25. Here, in this passage, you have the word righteousness, you have the word faith, you have Jesus Christ, you have justified, grace, redemption, my goodness, and then we have this awesome word propitiation in verse 25. And we’ve studied a fair amount of it so far, but we are now at the verse of 25 that speaks about propitiation. We’ve already talked about it somewhat, but we need to talk about it more. You will find that some modern translations use the word expiation, which isn’t in the Greek. It is not the word that Paul used. Why is that so? Well, there are reasons that I can’t explain here. It’s too detailed. But the major point is that theologians find the idea of God propitiating himself as very offensive. Propitiation means to appease, to appease his wrath, to appease anger. And it’s as if God appeased his anger by thrusting his anger upon his son and killing him instead of us. It’s a terrible caricature, and it’s not what Paul is intending, and we’ll talk about that. The word expiation, you see, cannot be used because expiation is talking about wiping out human guilt or sin, wiping out judgment, expiating it, removing it, washing it away. So expiation is about what God does for people, for human beings. But propitiation is what God does for himself. Now, modern Christians, or rather modern humanist Christians, find it very objectionable to think that God has to sacrifice his Son in order to forgive us. Well, that’s not the case. God loves us, and God has, you know, remember 1 John 4, 8, God is love. That’s the essence of God’s nature. And yet, if he loves goodness, then he is in revolt against madness, isn’t he? If he loves kindness, then he is in revolt against cruelty. You cannot imagine, let’s imagine you’re a parent and you see your children being beaten up by a big neighborhood bully in the backyard. You cannot imagine yourself just saying, ho-hum, my son’s being beaten up again. You would in… revolt, rise up and rush out of the door and pull that bully off your kid, wouldn’t you? That’s how God is with his children. He revolts against evil and the suffering that sin has brought upon the world. But instead of judging us, he puts the judgment upon himself. You say, now, wait a minute. You say he puts the judgment on himself. You just said he puts the judgment on his son. Well, we need to remember what the Godhead is all about. Jesus is, according to Hebrews 1 verse 4, the express image of God. Jesus himself said, I and the Father are one. When Jesus walked on the water and fed 5,000 and healed the sick and made the blind to see, he was revealing that he was the creator. And in John it says, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. And so we have clearly in Scripture the revelation that Jesus is one of the three members of the Godhead, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity. And therefore, when we say God put the judgment upon his Son, he is in fact saying God took the judgment on himself in the person of his Son. Now, think of it, that you and I are born into this world already broken and ruined. We are sinners before we even know we’re sinners, and we cannot make it into the kingdom. God’s judgment, God’s wrath, well, I should introduce something before this. If we are talking about propitiation, appeasing God, what is he appeasing himself of? Well, his own wrath. This is another reason why the word propitiation fits here perfectly well, because Paul has already talked about wrath, hasn’t he? You remember chapter 1, the wrath of God is revealed against all the injustice and sins of men who suppress the truth. And so God is rising up in his wrath against the tendency of mankind to suppress the only source of their joy and life, God himself. Well, what does he do with that wrath? Well, of course, we saw in chapter 1 that God hands people over to the choices they make of choosing idols instead of God. But God doesn’t want to leave them under his wrath because he wants to save. And so what God does in the ultimate judgment is hand himself over to the powers of sin. Remember chapter 1, verses 24, 26, and 28 say that God hands the world over to their idols. Well, now we have in 3 verse 25, when it says God propitiates his own wrath, propitiates himself through the person of his son, God is handing himself over to the powers of evil. It’s astonishing when you think of it. It is wonderful beyond words. You remember, Jesus walked to Jerusalem. He told his disciples beforehand that he was going to be crucified, and he was going to be flogged and then crucified and rise the third day. And he walked to Jerusalem. According to one of the prophets, the Lord set his face like flint. Now, Jesus was not taken by the world. He gave himself to the world. Jesus was not taken by murder and crucifixion. He gave himself to murder and crucifixion. That is the astonishing nature of what God did. In taking his own wrath, He handed himself over to the powers of evil so that they took him down. Why did he do that? He did it to show his revolt against sin, his revolt against evil, at the same time as showing his love and mercy for the human race and taking their judgment upon him. You cannot sidestep the crucifixion of Christ as a substitutionary sacrifice. I know I’ve emphasized this several times in the last few days, and I know some of you may be getting tired of hearing it, but I’m telling you again, you cannot take the modern view of the death of Jesus Christ, the modern humanistic Christian view, which is, oh, God didn’t die for In substitution for our sins, he simply died to show us a good example, or he died to show us how much he loved us. Yes, he died as a good example. Yes, he showed how much he loved us. But yes, and above all, he took our judgment upon himself. Now, why is this important for you and me? Because we are endlessly judging ourselves. Our mind is our worst enemy. You understand that it is not simply Satan that is against us. It’s our own minds. Our own minds say we’re useless. We don’t amount to much. We can’t do anything right. What’s wrong with us? And all the rest of it. There is in the human mind the state of mind that Adam had when he fell and found God to be fearful. He and Eve were naked and ashamed, yet God made them naked. They weren’t ashamed then, but once sin came in, even the most innocent things about them became shameful. And they hid from God when they heard him. Why did they hide from God? Because they were guilty and afraid and feared God would come to kill them. That state of mind which entered Adam as a result of his sin, became the state of mind of the human race. Why do we suppress God? We suppress him because we think he’s our killer. We think he’s a killjoy. We think he’s out to spoil our fun. We think that we can never have pleasure in life with God. Just leave him out and let’s go to the nightclub. This is our mental state. And it is why we suppress God. And God has to break through that. How does he do it? It’s astonishing. He takes the judgment of our sins upon himself and says, look, I am giving you permission to relieve yourself of guilt by believing that I took your guilt upon myself. And thus, Christians rise up. They don’t rise up in pride. They rise up in humility and say, Father, thank you so much that you treat me as if I had never sinned. Oh, dear God, this is like a breath of fresh air. This gives me new hope. It gives me new life. I have a chance to redeem myself, not by redeeming myself, but by trusting in Jesus, my Redeemer, that gives me a new chance to break through in this world. Why do we often think that we can have a fresh start, a new start? Do you realize where that comes from? If there had been no atoning sacrifice of Christ, if there had been no good news about Jesus, nobody would dare to think of a second chance. That would be like whistling past the graveyard, whistling in the dark. We have hope. You listening to me, who may be a drug addict, an alcoholic, a sex addict, whatever it may be, you have a fresh start. You can start again because Christ has taken the judgment. Listen to the verse itself. Whom God, referring to Jesus, whom God set forth, God set Jesus forth, Remember that word set forth? The Greek word suggests displayed like we display an image on a billboard, a placard. You’re traveling through town and you see these billboards of this and that prize thing you want to get a hold of. Jesus was displayed on a billboard. God set Jesus Christ forth on a billboard, as it were, as a propitiation, that is, as one who took the judgment of God by his blood. And what does by his blood mean? Well, by his death, of course, but there’s a paradox here. Blood is shed because somebody has been killed. And in this instance, and the one and only true valuable instance, is Jesus Christ. And yet the blood which represents death brings life. Leviticus says the life is in the blood. Why would God say the life is in the blood? Because the blood represents death. Because this particular death, Jesus’ death, is a judgment for our sin which brings us life. That is the wonder of all this. You trust in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ because that brings life to you. The blood and death of Jesus Christ brings life. And it says, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith. And that faith is a gift from God. And you can lift up your heart right now and say, Father, I thank you that my judgment has taken place in my Savior, and I have freedom to come to you in him and be safe in your home. Thanks for listening, everyone. Today, Colin Cook here with the program How It Happens, which you can hear on your smartphone any time of the day or night. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and key in How It Happens with Colin Cook when you get there. And please, would you consider a donation? It’s listener-supported radio. You can make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. You’ve been intending to do it. Could you do it now? Thank you. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
