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Romans 3:25–26a
… whom God set forth as a propitiation, by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His rightousness (Rom. 3:25a).
In yesterday’s study, we saw that Jesus paid the price to redeem us from our sin. Today Paul shows us how high that price was.
God set Jesus forth as a “propitiation, by His blood,” Paul says. In his commentary on this verse, Dr. James M. Boice notes that the word propitiation is little used and little understood today. “ ‘Propitiation’ … signifies what the worshiper does when he or she presents a sacrifice to a deity,” he writes. “It is an ‘atoning sacrifice,’ an act by which the wrath of the offended deity is appeased or turned aside.” We must remember, however, that there is nothing we could offer to God to appease Him. We are unable to propitiate the wrath of the one we have offended. But there is one who can and has—the offended one Himself. At the Cross, God acted to turn aside His own wrath against the sins of the human race! And His propitiatory sacrifice, of course, was Jesus Christ, who was God incarnate. He gave what all such sacrifices are required to give—His life. This is what Paul means in his reference to Jesus’ blood. Boice writes: “The important thing is to remember that the shedding of Christ’s blood has to do with Christ’s death, and that the death of Christ in Scripture is always and everywhere set forth as substitutionary. It is by His death that you and I can be saved.” Simply put, Christ was sent by the Father to die in order to appease the divine wrath against the sins of God’s people.
This appeasement of God by God made a powerful statement about the righteousness of God. It showed clearly that God would not excuse the guilty—though He would let an innocent substitute bear the penalty of the guilty one. Furthermore, when at last it came, Jesus’ death on behalf of sinful human beings demonstrated that God had not been simply passing over the sins of His people who lived before the Incarnation. It revealed that the Old Testament sacrifices truly had pointed ahead to a perfect sacrifice. God’s righteous opposition to all sin was mightily displayed when the sky grew dark on Good Friday.
In the midst of this discussion, Paul reminds us once again that the benefits of this atoning sacrifice are ours by faith, by believing that Jesus truly did take the penalty for sin that we deserved. When we believe that Jesus died in our place, we are believing the Gospel, “the power of God to salvation” (Rom. 1:16).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The next time you receive the Lord’s Supper at your church, consider the cup. Jesus said its contents are to remind us of His blood, by which He meant His death. He died so that you might live. Take time to thank Him today for paying a hideous price as the sacrifice by which God’s wrath against your sin was turned away.
For Further Study
- Romans 5:9
- 1 Thessalonians 1:10
- Hebrews 2:17
- 1 John 2:2
- 1 John 4:10