Even though I regularly attended a Baptist church in my hometown as a child and teenager, I don't ever remember hearing a sermon on justification, redemption, or propitiation. It could be poor memory on my part. Maybe there were a couple of sermons here or there by guest speakers that addressed these noble gospel truths; I just cannot remember them. It could be that knowing so well the lack of gospel clarity that seemed so prevalent in that era, that it's likely my memory serves me accurately. These doctrines were things not discussed. And for what reason? Maybe they were thought to be too theologically freighted; or that people would not find this kind of terminology to be of interest or usefulness; or that it seemed unnecessary to go to the trouble of stretching the mind a little for such explanation.
Ironically, I heard the term "saved," over and over. We sang, "Jesus saves! Jesus saves!" and "For I'm saved, saved, saved!" That was the key word in Baptist vocabulary—a good word, no doubt, because it is a biblical word. Yet without some grasp of justification, redemption, and propitiation, "saved" has little meaning. It might even be misunderstood; it certainly lacks the precision given in Scripture so that we might walk in full assurance of salvation.
So, I don't want to presume anything with you as we consider our text today. Though you've heard all of these terms many times in our Bible studies and worship services, and likely in some discussions, what do they mean? Why are they considered to be the very heart of the gospel? Why did Martin Luther say of justification, "if that article stands, the church stands; if it falls, the church falls"? Or why did he call this paragraph that contains these terms "the chief point…of the whole Bible"? [Quoted by Doug Moo, NICNT: The Epistle to the Romans, 242, from Luther's Exposition of Ps. 130:4]
Every word that explains the gospel is important and therefore, of necessity, we must pursue their meaning and application. Some words are especially saturated to assure our hearts of the sufficiency of Christ in the gospel. Such is the case with our text. Here Paul expounds what it means to be saved by grace. Our salvation displays the grandeur of God's grace. How is that so?
To help us investigate our text, I want to borrow and adapt a very simple approach and outline to this text that Martyn Lloyd-Jones used in one of his expositions on this text. We'll consider it from three questions: (1) what is salvation? (2) how can salvation become ours? (3) how is it possible that God could save sinners?
Growing up with the term "saved" in reference to salvation, I'm accustomed to the way many disdain it. As a religious term, it's odd in our vocabulary. We might refer to someone being saved from a house fire or refer to having saved our money to make a purchase. But singing, "For I'm saved, saved, saved" begs the question: saved from what? What even makes you think that you need this condition called "saved"?
You recall the question asked by the Philippian jailer when the earthquake shook the prison doors loose and he feared that all of his prisoners had escaped (Acts 16). As the jailer prepared to commit suicide lest he be tortured for losing his prisoners, Paul cried out, "Don't harm yourself! We're all here." The jailer rushed in with trembling knees and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" What did the jailer understand that he needed to be saved from? He had not attended church. There was no synagogue in the city so that he might have learned it from Jewish teaching. What little he knew he grasped from Paul and Silas' praying, singing, and discussions during the previous night. But much more, by the convicting power of the Spirit, he felt the need to be "saved" from God's wrath, so much so that he wasted no time right after an earthquake to discover the truth to his most important question.
We don't know the details of the conversation that ensued but we can be sure that Paul likely used some of the same terms to explain the meaning of salvation that we consider from his epistle to the Romans. No word captures the meaning of "saved" more than the word justified. Paul wrote, "Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." If you've ever thought that the flow of the grammar seemed a bit odd here, then you're not alone. Most Bible students have thought the same thing until the passage is broken down a bit more. If we recognize that at the end of verse 22 through verse 23, Paul is adding a parenthetical reminder of the plight of depravity so that verse 24 actually is a continuing explanation of what he had stated in verse 22, then it makes much better sense grammatically. Let me leave out, for a moment, the parenthetical comment. "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe…being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." Or we might say, "…even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, [who are the ones] being justified as a gift by His grace…" Paul had just set forth the remarkable news that in spite of human rebellion against God, He has made known the gospel, which is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, which righteousness is the divine act of "being justified as a gift by His grace."
"Justified" (dikaioumenoi, a plural participle in this case) is related to the same root stem as righteousness (dik is the stem). While righteousness conveys the condition of judicial rightness, justification conveys a declaration of rightness. Let me put it like this to show the contrast: God is righteous; Christians are declared righteous.
The reason that the word "declared" is important in understanding justification is due to its use in ancient legal circles. It's a forensic or legal term not a moral or ethical term. So when Paul referred to "being justified" he did not mean that Christians are made virtuous or made morally acceptable. This is precisely where many struggle. They cannot get away from thinking that in order to be accepted by God I must do something that will make me virtuous enough or moral enough to find God's favor. For example, the Catholic Church combines the work of Christ with one's works and the merit of various saints in order to achieve a right relationship with God. Yet what Paul has sounded so strongly in the context is that "by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight" (3:20).
But how can I find acceptance with God if I don't have enough personal merit or virtue to make me acceptable to Him? That's right where Martin Luther struggled for many years, even to the point of hating God for demanding righteousness while recognizing that he fell far short of God's demand. Then he began to see what the Bible meant by justification. He phrased it in Latin, simul iustus et peccator; "at the same time just and sinner" [R.C. Sproul, Getting the Gospel Right, 64]. He realized that this biblical teaching stood contrary to Catholic theology that taught that one must achieve a righteous state before he could be justified, thus keeping multitudes under bondage to acts of penance, praying to the saints, buying indulgences, etc. Yet what Paul explains is that God justifies the ungodly by faith in Christ alone (4:5) rather than by achieving enough personal merit to be considered righteous.
The passive voice of the verb indicates that God is the one doing the justifying. That's essential to our understanding. Justification is not something that you do; God alone does it without your help or contribution. In a legal way, He declares that the sinner who has faith in Christ has a new standing of righteousness before Him. So, to be "saved," means that my standing with God has changed from one of guilty to that of not guilty.
But, we argue, I'm still a sinner! I still deserve God's condemnation!
Yes, that's true; but the fact is that through faith in Christ, God has acquitted you of all "charges" that could be brought against you due to your sin [Moo, 227]. Being justified doesn't mean that you've been made righteous, that's the labor of sanctification and ultimately, glorification, both secured by Christ's work. Nor does it mean that God sees us and winks, while calling us righteous, as though He knows better but because of His great love He lets our sinfulness slide. Rather, God has entered into legal judgment in His eternal courtroom. Because of the sufficient righteousness of His Son, both in His obedience to the Law (thus, active righteousness) and His satisfying the Law's demands through His death at the cross (thus, passive righteousness), God declares that the one having faith in Christ is righteous before Him. That's what it means to be saved!
Immediately, our minds begin to argue with justification by Christ alone without our contribution. We think that there's surely something that we must do to earn this righteous declaration. Surely, God doesn't just look on Christ as our Substitute, and count us righteous because of Him?
Yes, thank God, He does! Luther joyously vented some of his own sense of gratitude concerning Christ as our Substitute:
This is that mystery which is rich in divine grace to sinners: wherein by a wonderful exchange our sins are no longer ours but Christ's: and the righteousness of Christ not Christ's but ours. He has emptied himself of his righteousness that he might clothe us with it, and fill us with it: and he has taken our evils upon himself that he might deliver us from them [quoted by J.I. Packer, "What Did the Cross Achieve?" in Packer and Mark Dever, In My Place Condemned He Stood, 85, from Luther's Werke, 5:608].
Notice that first phrase, "rich in divine grace to sinners." That's what Paul explains: "being justified as a gift by His grace." Grace…the word is part of Christian vocabulary—maybe the most beloved in many circles, that points to the Lord God as the source of all saving action. Grace is not a passive term; it's not some state of being in God. While we say that God is gracious, that in itself is but an acknowledgement of the action of grace displayed by God. Grace is an active term. It refers to something that God does, not because we earned it or deserved it, and certainly not because we constrained or convinced Him to take action. It's a "gift," as Paul clarifies. He actually adds that word for emphasis even though it is not needed since "grace" implies a free gift ("freely given grace gift"). "Gift" means that it is freely given; that is, something that is given without payment or cost to the recipient. That doesn't mean that it is not without cost! It is costly; but not to the recipient and only to the Giver. Out of God's sheer kindness and love, He lavishes grace upon sinners so that sinners might be declared righteous before Him!
Oh, pastor, I believe all of that. You can go on to something else!
That's all fine that you believe this but do you live in this reality of grace alone? Do you live conscious that your standing with God is wholly of grace? Do you believe this consistently?
I suggest to you that many of the doubts that plague us and much of the discouragement and often, depression that assaults us, has its roots in failing to live consciously in the grace of God. We tend to revert to trust in our works or confidence in our level of performance or lean toward the idea that we find more favor in God's eyes because of something that we do. If that's the case, then salvation is no longer of grace. That was the grave danger in Galatia as Paul rebuked those churches; they were slipping from resting in the grace of God alone for their salvation. It's still a present danger.
What does Paul convey when he tells us that justification is "a gift by His grace"? For one thing, he reiterates that salvation is not by the works of the Law (3:20, 28). Standing faithfully upon that is a constant struggle, especially for those who have come from legalistic backgrounds and those with certain personalities that like to take charge of everything. It's difficult to step back and acknowledge that salvation is all of grace. Yet when we read that we're justified "as a gift of His grace" then we're called to repent of self-trust and self-confidence in relationship to God. It's a call to rest in Christ alone.
"Grace" also reiterates that God is the one taking the decisive action to justify us. We've heard often that grace means "God's unmerited favor," and indeed, that is true. But sometime we get the idea that grace is simply a disposition of God instead of seeing it as the action of God. Grace is God doing for you what you could never do yourself. We see this in the opening words of the paragraph, "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested." Who manifested it? God did! The Law and the Prophets bore testimony to it but only as the revelation of God's own action. "But now" implies God's action on our behalf due to our hopelessness in sin. When Paul told the Ephesian church, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God," he coupled grace with the divine act of saving or justifying (Eph. 2:8). As Pascal wrote, "Grace is indeed needed to turn a man into a saint; and he who doubts it does not know what a saint or a man is" [Moo, 228].
So, if justification is a gift of His grace then we have no ground for boasting except in regard to the cross of Christ. "But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…" (Gal. 6:14). That's why later in Romans 3, Paul chides, "Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith." He certainly doesn't consider the instrument of faith to be works on our part because, if that be the case, then we would have ground for boasting. But no room for boasting exists! Our standing with God is found in God's action alone on our behalf.
This is especially important when we think of assurance. Doubts often arise due to getting our eyes onto our performance, trying to find some righteousness or virtue or merit in our works or service or level of devotion; yet doubt comes as we see just how far short we fall of the kind of righteousness that pleases God. If we rely on works for assurance then we will live in doubt! But your justification is "by His grace" so therefore it cannot be of works. Paul wrote in Romans 11:6, "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace." Works cancels out grace—that's what he's saying; so salvation cannot be by works and grace simultaneously. We cannot rely on the arm of the flesh and the effective work of God at the same time. Assurance is found only by relying on God's decisive work on our behalf through Christ.
Yet grace does not mean that God has no regard for justice so He just declares someone to be righteous even though nothing has been done to satisfy eternal justice. God can act in grace toward us because He put forth His Son to satisfy His righteousness. Let's consider the next question that addresses this foundation of our justification by God's grace.
God's declaration of righteousness is no legal fiction, as some would term it, by which He just says we're righteous even though we're not. That's why the use of legal terminology by the Apostle is important. He wants us to see that God's honor and justice is fully maintained when He declares a sinner to be not guilty, righteous, and forgiven. Yet that can only be done if God's wrath against sinners has found its mark, His justice has been properly served, and His righteousness fulfilled. Paul gives us two terms that explain what God has done through Christ as our Substitute.
First, this justification by grace is "through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." The word "redemption" indicates bondage and the act by which one is delivered. Ancient prisoners of war would be held until they were redeemed by some act on the part of their kingdom to deliver them from bondage. A slave would be held by his master until someone redeemed him by the payment of the price demanded to set the slave free. So, redemption indicates (1) the certainty of bondage from which a person cannot deliver himself, (2) the action on the part of another to deliver him, and (3) the satisfactory payment of the price necessary to secure release from bondage.
Paul has clearly set forth our bondage to sin: "for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God" (3:9, 23, 19). Sin holds us as a wicked master, enticing our rebellion against the Creator, enslaving our passions to follow the ways of lawlessness (6:12-19). We need deliverance from sin's mastery! But we also, due to our sin, need deliverance from the curse of the Law. "For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, to perform them"" (Galatians 3:10). Yes, we're under the sentence of eternal death. We stand condemned with no ability to alleviate our condemnation and spare us from wrath. We cannot redeem ourselves. We cannot offer silver and gold as redemption payment; for we're not trying to redeem some perishable commodity but an eternal soul.
Paul asserts that this redemption is "in Christ Jesus," or as he wrote to the Galatians, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"" (3:13). Here we find the payment necessary to deliver us from sin's curse: Christ Jesus became a curse for us; He became our Substitute to bear the judgment against us. Therein we find the reason for the cross—for the Son of God bore the full payment of redemption to deliver us from bondage to sin and from the curse of the Law. In that act of redemption, He has delivered us to a new Master whom we follow with "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17). This redemption "is in Christ Jesus," Paul writes. In other words, it's a redemption that Jesus Christ accomplishes, yes, but also a redemption that is in relationship to Him through faith. That's why he told the Corinthians, "But by His doing are you in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). That's why we call Him Redeemer and Christians the redeemed. It is Christ that has paid the price necessary to deliver us from bondage to sin and the curse of the Law due to sin.
Connected with this act of redemption is propitiation: "whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith." Again, we're struck by God's initiative in this act of propitiation. The text emphasizes that God publicly set Christ forth or God purposed and designed this act by which Christ Jesus would propitiate on our behalf. Now, what does "propitiation" mean? Some of the translations have "expiation" which means to take away sin. While that is subsumed under propitiation it stops short of what Paul is conveying by the word (hilasterion in the Greek). The word means to appease or satisfy a deity in order to avert his wrath. Some object to using such language with reference to God, thinking that God is a God of love and not of wrath. But Paul has left no question about God's wrath in this context (cf. 1:18ff.). He explains that God's wrath is already revealed from heaven; it's in process and must be averted if we would escape the judgment of hell. The ancient Greeks would bring their gifts to their gods to appease their wrath and thus propitiate them. But Paul has something much different in mind. It is not us that propitiates God, though some people try by offering their trite little works to an altogether holy God. No, that won't work. God propitiates Himself through the bloody death of His Son!
"Publicly," that is, at the cross before the eyes of the world, God offered up His Son "as a propitiation in His blood." What does that mean? "Rabbi" Duncan, with his Scottish accent, put it succinctly. "D'ye know what Calvary was? what? what? what?" With tears, he answered, "It was damnation; and he took it lovingly" [quoted by Packer, In My Place, 95]. The Son of God absorbed the damnation that belonged to you and me! All of the wrath that divine justice requires concerning our sins, Christ took on Himself, and thus propitiated God with reference to our sins, averting wrath to Himself in our place. "In His blood" indicates the weightiness of divine justice and the costliness of our salvation. Here was not mere animal's blood being sprinkled on the golden mercy seat in the tabernacle. No, here was God the Son—perfect, spotless, beloved by the Father, without sin, righteous in every way—intentionally put forth by the Father to avert His wrath against us. If you ever for a moment question God's love then look upon this sight! See God doing what we could not do by satisfying His own justice through the bloody death of His Son at the cross.
"Through faith" we look to the satisfaction that God has made for us and rest our hopeless, hell-bound souls on all that Christ Jesus has done on our behalf. Through faith, God declares sinners "not guilty" and even more, righteous, in His sight. Through faith, we rely upon the redemptive death of Christ to deliver us from sin's dominion. Through faith, we accept the bloody death of Christ as eternal satisfaction of God's justice. Through faith, not works, we look to Christ and are saved forever.
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