Romans 3:24-26
being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in God’s merciful restraint He let the sins previously committed go unpunished; for the demonstration, that is, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Where then is boasting? It has been excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.
Do we then nullify the Law through faith? Far from it! On the contrary, we establish the Law.
We have been made to weigh the same as God in terms of righteousness. This was not in any way earned by us. It is the unmerited favor of God. This was accomplished by redemption.
Redemption is clearly illustrated in the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Specifically, in the final plague where all the firstborn of Egypt were killed but the angel of death passed over every house that had the blood of a lamb marked on its doorposts and lintel. In our case, it’s the blood of Jesus marked upon our hearts that causes us to be hidden from death.
Redemption has within it the idea of buying back something to restore it to its original owner. God created us and although we were sold into the slavery of sin and death we have been redeemed and restored in our relationship to God.
There is also an idea of revenge in redemption. Our mortal enemies, sin and death, have their power broken and left useless by the redemption Christ has worked for us.
This is all the work of Jesus. It is Him who has become our kinsman redeemer with the right of redemption. He is the Lamb of God who was slain for our sin. It is His blood that bought us out of slavery. It is Christ alone who rising from the grave triumphed over sin and death.
This work of Christ in His incarnation, in His death and resurrection was the price that satisfied justice. It balanced the scales bringing us His glory and making us, who had no righteousness, righteous in Him. This is the propitiation that was made for all to see. There can be no doubt of the price that was paid because Jesus was lifted up on the cross, where everyone who would look could see Him.
Hebrews 9:11-28
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Propitiation comes from the idea of the mercy seat, which was the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. Once a year the high priest would go into the most holy place and sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the Ark. The mercy seat was the point of interaction between God and His people. Christ has become our mercy seat which He sanctified with His own blood. He Himself has become the place where Heaven meets Earth.
Propitiation is also the sacrifice that makes the meeting between Heaven and Earth possible. Again, it is Christ Himself who is our propitiation.
Exodus 25:10-22
“They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you.
“You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.
How can we access this redemption? How does a child receive love from its mother? With unadorned trust, that is the simple acceptance of what is, because it is. This is how we gain access to these wonderful realities.
Matthew 18:1-4
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
This demonstration of God doing all the creating, all the work, all the building, all the giving and us just receiving puts a neon billboard on God’s absolute right to exercise His will. And it’s a good thing it is His will to save us.
Since the penalty of sin is death it would be right for God to kill the sinner at the moment of his very first sin. But God reserves the right to exercise mercy by delaying justice so that we have time to seek the remedy for our souls. Now we see Christ crucified and understand the consequence of our sin. This is a clear picture of God’s right to do whatever pleases him.
Justice is in the nature of God. Justice was satisfied at the cross. The believer is brought into perfect alignment with the demands of justice by the blood of Jesus.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
brotherpayne 