Tag Archives: sacrifice of atonement

ROMANS …PAUL’S SOLUTION -8

Bible Study, ,

8“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— 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.”

What a bombshell! In the middle of the chaos humans have made…God stepped in and did something so outrageous that it needs careful unpacking for humans to understand. 

First, God did not come down on every sinner in wrath and judgment as He had the right to do. He waited! He had a plan! He had a heart of compassion for His broken and ruined world. He started from the beginning…slowly…over many centuries…one step at a time…He prepared His world for the one He would send to fix the mess. 

God chose a man, Abraham. Through him, He built a family, a nation, a covenant people to belong to Him…to live by His holy standards…and to show the nations the real God. They failed but…they had the law…

The Jews thought that they had the upper hand. They had the law…even though they didn’t obey it. The law they cherished and clung to as a passport to God was only the beginning of God’s plan. The law was never intended to deal with their sin because they could not obey it. The law could only show them how holy God is and how unholy they were. They were helpless to obey it even though they had the law. 

The law had another function. The very fact that they could not obey it perfectly even if they tried, pointed them to something more. God would step in with His master plan to send someone without sin to keep the law for them and then to die as a law breaker to pay their debt for breaking the law. 

For the Jews, boasting about having God’s law was futile. What did it help them to have God’s law if all it did was show them how bad they were? The only thing the law could do was to drive them to God for mercy…and that demanded faith. Only God could do something about their helpless condition. Both Jew and Gentile were in the same condition…guilty before God. 

“Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭25‬-‭31‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God didn’t abolish the law. He did something else. He made a promise that He would write it on human hearts. He would take what was written on stone and engrave it inside everyone who believes in the one He sent, Jesus,  to pay the debt and atone for sin by dying in the place of sinners. 

So…Faith in Jesus is the key to the world’s dilemma…but how does this plan demonstrate God’s righteousness? Let’s follow to the process.

Paul said that God is just. This means that God must be true to His word. He must treat every sinner justly. Justice demands that sin be punished. However, since everyone has sinned, and death is the penalty for sin, everyone must pay their own debt. 

So, God made a plan. He would come to earth as a human, live a  human life without sin…and then die as though He had sinned. His death would then pay the debt for every sinner. Was this just? Was this fair? Was this the right thing to do? 

Since there was no other way to rescue the human race from the punishment for sin…by dying in our place Jesus, who is God, became a man and died. He paid for our sin and then rose from the dead to prove that He was God and that death has no power over Him because He was sinless. 

Was God just? Yes! He punished a human for sin. Can He justify humans…declare them not guilty? Yes! Sin’s debt has been paid! 

“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— 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.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭25‬-‭26‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The only way to experience the forgiveness God has made possible through Jesus and to participate in the eternal life He offers is to turn back to God, to receive His forgiveness for sin,  and to turn one’s life over to Jesus…to live in union with Him and under His control. 

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭10‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

To be continued

The Power Of The Cross – The Atoning Sacrifice For Our Sins

Gospel, , ,

THE ATONING SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement (propitiation), 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 – He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Rom. 3: 25-26)

A sacrifice of atonement, more accurately translated “propitiation” – what does that mean? It is a truth about the blood of Jesus that is not spoken about much these days. Forgiveness – yes. Propitiation – no. Although it is in the Bible, we ignore it because we have no idea what it means.

Propitiation has to do with the wrath of God, something we don’t like to think about because it conflicts with our idea of God’s love. How can God love us and be angry with us at the same time?

“In the first three chapters of Romans, Paul makes the argument that everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, is under the condemnation of God and deserving of His wrath (Romans 1:18). Everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). All of us deserve His wrath and punishment. God in His infinite grace and mercy has provided a way that His wrath can be appeased and we can be reconciled to Him. That way is through the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus Christ, as the payment for sins. It is through faith in Jesus Christ as God’s perfect sacrifice that we can be reconciled to God. It is only because of Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection on the third day that a lost sinner deserving of hell can be reconciled to a holy God. The wonderful truth of the gospel is that Christians are saved from God’s wrath and reconciled to God not because “we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10)”

(http://www.gotquestions.org/propitiation.html – retrieved October 2015)

In order to understand the meaning of propitiation, we must understand the implications of sin. Sin is much more than just the bad things we do that God does not like. Sin, in the Bible involves everything that contradicts God’s perfection. This includes things like disease, deformity and death; bloodshed or the disruption of anything that God created. Even the mildew in the houses of the Israelites had to be atoned for by sacrifice because it was something less than perfect.

Imperfection of any kind is an affront to the perfection of God’s nature. The wrath of God is  His settled disposition of anger directed towards sin.

“Wrath is defined as “the emotional response to perceived wrong and injustice,” often translated as “anger,” “indignation,” “vexation,” or “irritation.” Both humans and God express wrath. But there is vast difference between the wrath of God and the wrath of man. God’s wrath is holy and always justified; man’s is never holy and rarely justified. . . 


In the Old Testament, the wrath of God is a divine response to human sin and disobedience. Idolatry was most often the occasion for divine wrath. . . The wrath of God is consistently directed towards those who do not follow His will (Deuteronomy 1:26-46; Joshua 7:1; Psalm 2:1-6).

“he New Testament also supports the concept of God as a God of wrath who judges sin. The story of the rich man and Lazarus speaks of the judgment of God and serious consequences for the unrepentant sinner (Luke 16:19–31). . .

“The wrath of God is a fearsome and terrifying thing. Only those who have been covered by the blood of Christ, shed for us on the cross, can be assured that God’s wrath will never fall on them. “Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him!” (Romans 5:9).”

(http://www.gotquestions.org/wrath-of-God.html – retrieved October 2015)

Since God is holy/love. His wrath must be appeased and therefore demands the death of the sinner, but His love cries for mercy. How could He be both just in punishing sin and, at the same time, the justifier of the sinner, declaring him not guilty and allowing him to go free?

God’s solution was Jesus. He came into the world as the Son of God, a human being born without sin because He was conceived, not by a human father but by the Holy Spirit. He lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father. Since He had no sin of His own, His death was unjustified unless He became the substitute for sinners.

God’s wrath against sin was directed at Jesus. Death was the culmination of everything that ,sin could throw at Him, which He absorbed into Himself without rebellion or retaliation. When God’s wrath was spent, Jesus died – but He rose from the dead because death could not hold Him. Unlike sinful man, His death was not for His own sin.

God’s wrath was completely satisfied. Sin’s debt had been paid in full. Sin was atoned for – God was propitiated, and He was free to absolve every sinner from the guilt of sin. Both just and the justified of those who have faith in Jesus.

This is the power of the cross.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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