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Romans 3:21–26
“God put forward [Christ Jesus] as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (vv. 25–26).
In the Passover, God provided not only a way for the ancient Israelites to remember His great work of salvation in the exodus but also a prophetic anticipation of the redemption He would provide through His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ (Ex. 12; 1 Cor. 5:7–8). The death of the Passover lamb was a type of the death of the Lamb of God to atone for the sins of His people. So that we might better understand the atoning work of Christ, we will now take a short break from our studies in Exodus and base our next few devotions on The Atonement of Jesus, a teaching series by Dr. R.C. Sproul.
One of the central doctrines of the Christian faith is the incarnation. For us and for our salvation, the second person of the Trinity took on a human nature, being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her, yet without sin (Luke 1:26–38; John 1:1–14). Throughout the centuries, Christian thinkers have pondered this truth, asking, Why did God have to take on our humanity to save us? Anselm of Canterbury, the archbishop of Canterbury from AD 1093 to 1109, provided some of the most profound exploration of this issue in his work Why the God-Man? We lack the space to consider Anselm’s argument in depth, but the basic point of the work is that because God is an infinitely perfect being, our sin against Him incurs an infinite debt that must be satisfied if the Lord is to remain just. Only an infinitely worthy being can pay that debt, and yet because humans sin, a human being must satisfy the debt. Therefore, the infinitely perfect Son of God, being very God of very God, took on a human nature so that He could pay the debt of sinners. The infinite worth of His divine person makes the atonement He offered according to His humanity sufficiently worthy to pay the infinite debt of sin.
Scriptural texts such as Romans 3:21–26 clearly teach that God’s justice must be satisfied. Until the incarnate Son of God died, the Lord was merely passing over the sins of His people (v. 25), not truly atoning for them but bearing patiently with them, looking forward to the time when Jesus would come as our propitiation, our wrath-bearing and wrath-satisfying sacrifice. This death of Jesus had to happen so that the Lord would remain just even as He justified—declared righteous—those for whom Christ died (v. 26). If the Lord had simply declared us righteous without the death of Christ, He would not have been just, for His justice would have remained unsatisfied.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Many people reject the idea that God’s justice must be satisfied, thinking that He can simply forgive without judging our sin, that He can merely wave sin away, as it were, by offering a forgiveness that costs nothing. Yet Scripture teaches otherwise. If we do not understand that God’s justice must be satisfied, then we have not understood the character of God at all, and if we have not understood the character of God at all, then we cannot truly worship Him.
For Further Study
- Psalm 36:6
- Isaiah 45:21
- 1 Peter 3:18
- Revelation 15:2–4