Verse by Verse

David Johnson: 00:00

Anyone who seriously studies the writings of the apostle Paul cannot help but be amazed at the amount of profound information Paul was able to pack into a short passage. The 3 verses we are considering today give us an example of that. Here is what Paul wrote in the 3rd chapter of the book of Romans. Romans 3 verses 24 through 26. Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

David Johnson: 00:51

Let's begin by setting the passage into the context in which Paul wrote it. This entire section of Romans is written in the style of what is called a dialectic. In a dialectic, the writer is having a discussion with an imaginary questioner and seeks to answer the questions that might reasonably arise in considering a matter. In this section, it appears that some may have been questioning whether God was really dealing fairly with both Jews and Gentiles. The questioner has argued that the Jews had a great advantage because God had anciently given them his laws, while the Gentiles were in ignorance of those laws.

David Johnson: 01:30

As this chapter begins, Paul acknowledges that the person who has the knowledge of God's standards is potentially better off. But he goes on to show that having access to God's laws and living by those laws is not the same thing. And as he says in verse 13 of the previous chapter, for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. In other words, God ultimately judges people by what they do with his truth, not just what they know. At this point, we need to briefly define a few terms.

David Johnson: 02:04

Once we understand those terms, it'll be easier to pull this all together to understand the full meaning. The first term is justified, or justification. What does that mean? In some ways, it's the most important word in this entire passage. Paul's going to explain how it is possible for a guilty person to have his or her guilt removed.

David Johnson: 02:26

The expositors bible commentary says this. Justify is a forensic term borrowed from the law courts. It means to declare righteous or innocent. The opposite of to justify is to condemn or to pronounce guilty. In verse 23, the verse just prior to the ones we read, Paul made it clear that all people, regardless of their background or knowledge of God's laws, are guilty of sinning.

David Johnson: 02:52

People who have sinned have no physical way to do something that removes their personal guilt and its penalty. As one of my students once put it, you cannot unsin. Only God has the ability to forgive our sin and pronounce us no longer guilty. Paul shows that not only is every person guilty of sin, every person has been enslaved by his own sins. Forgiving past sins is wonderful, but unless there is a way to break free from our enslavement to sin, we would quickly make ourselves guilty all over again.

David Johnson: 03:26

The metaphor of slavery was easily understood by Paul's readers. In the 1st century Roman world, slavery was common throughout the empire. Some estimates are that 1 third to 1 half of all of those in the empire were slaves. If an enslaved person wanted to be freed from his or her slavery, it was sometimes possible to save enough money to buy their freedom. The price paid to be released from slavery was known as the redemption price.

David Johnson: 03:52

There was a specific Greek word, which Paul used here, that meant a release affected by the payment of a ransom. The word that's translated as redemption was used to describe paying a ransom to release a prisoner or the amount paid to buy a slave out of slavery. So, Paul tells us that we have been justified, made innocent from our past guilt, and that this has occurred freely or without any payment from us. The payment that purchased us out of our slavery to sin was given to us as a gift, free of charge, based upon God's love, mercy, and goodness. What did we do to earn this amazing gift?

David Johnson: 04:33

Nothing. There is nothing we could ever do, not in a 1000 lifetimes, to earn a gift of this magnitude. So why would the God of all the universe give us, you and me, such a priceless gift? Because intrinsic to the mind of God is a character trait the Bible simply calls grace. Grace has been defined as a gift given from the goodness of the giver without regard to the worthiness of the recipient.

David Johnson: 05:02

Some sources say that rather than considering the nature of the gift or the worthiness of the recipient, the word grace deliberately focuses our attention on the giver and his kindness in giving the gift. We are next told that this ransom payment is to be found in Christ Jesus. That has not yet been explained. So Paul will cover that as we move into the next verse. But let's stop to consider what we now understand about verse 24.

David Johnson: 05:29

Remember that in the previous verse, Paul has made it clear that every human being, regardless of background, ethnicity, knowledge, or any other factor, everyone is guilty of sinning. And therefore, has incurred a death penalty because of their sin. He has then told those sinners, all of us, that God has generously, without cost to us, accepted a ransom payment to both forgive our guilt and purchase our freedom from the slavery of sin. Unless we misunderstand or take our new freedom for granted, Paul now focuses on that unique ransom payment and why it is the only possible payment that could provide this forgiveness and freedom from sin's power to enslave. In the next two verses, Paul draws our attention to 2 distinct periods of time.

David Johnson: 06:17

One, he simply refers to as previously, and the other is called at the present time. So, what took place previously that has an impact on the present time? At the end of verse 24, he said that the redemption price was to be found in Christ Jesus. Verse 25 describes that ransom. He says the ransom was provided by the blood of the Messiah, Jesus.

David Johnson: 06:42

In scripture, the blood, whether of a sacrificial animal or of a human, is symbolic of the life of that being. So when we read of the blood of Jesus, we're not simply talking about the physical substance we call blood. We're talking about the offering up of his life. And when it says that God set forth this offering, the Greek wording implies that this was a matter God placed in front of us, so that we could consider it very soberly. He then refers to the sacrifice as a propitiation.

David Johnson: 07:13

Now, there's a word we don't use very often. What exactly is a propitiation? Keep in mind that what the word might mean today is not necessarily exactly what it meant 2000 years ago when Paul wrote this. Author Kenneth West in his multi volume work, Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, explains the concept very well. Let me quote.

David Johnson: 07:34

The word, in its classical form, was used of the act of appeasing the Greek gods by a sacrifice, of rendering them favorable toward the worshipper. In other words, the sacrifice was offered to buy off the anger of the god and buy his love. West continues, such a use is not brought over into the New Testament because our god does not need to be appeased nor is his love for sale. Okay. So that shows us what the word does not mean.

David Johnson: 08:02

It does not refer to some kind of bribe given to God to keep him from striking out at us in his anger. The Greek word is only used one other time in the New Testament. And the use is both unique and instructive. It has to do with a place where God offers divine mercy. In the ancient Tabernacle, and later in the Temple, there was a sacred area called the Holy of Holies.

David Johnson: 08:25

Only the high priest was allowed to go into that area, and even he was only permitted to enter on one unique day each year, the day of atonement. Inside the holy of holies was an object shaped like a box and covered with gold. This box was known as the Ark of the Covenant. Inside the Ark were 2 stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments, the guiding principles given to Israel so they could live in a way that would both keep them safe from harm and lead to blessings, a way that would be pleasing to God. Living contrary to those ways was sin, and would bring upon the sinner the death penalty.

David Johnson: 09:01

It's important to understand that the death penalty did not come upon the sinner because sin made God angry enough to kill the sinner. Sin is a way of living that automatically produces suffering and ultimately death. There's no need for God to strike the sinner with some special curse. Sin by itself produces a death penalty. If you'd like to know more, be sure to check the show notes to see how to obtain a free copy of our booklet, God's 10 Commandments, still relevant today.

David Johnson: 09:30

The biblical history shows us that Israel failed to keep those laws, and because of their sin, they were cut off from coming into the presence of God. God symbolically dwelt in the holy of holies, but they were forbidden to enter in because they were a sinful people. We should keep in mind that God's attitude toward sin has not changed, and it never will. He always refuses to dwell in the presence of sin. There's one more important feature of the ark for us to consider in the current passage.

David Johnson: 09:59

On top of the ark, beneath the outstretched wings of 2 golden carobs, was a flat, golden covering called the Mercy Seat, which was symbolic of God's throne in the heavens. The word translated as propitiation in our passage in Romans is tied to that mercy seat. Each year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest brought the blood of 2 special sacrifices into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled the blood on the ark and the mercy seat as a symbolic sacrifice on behalf of the people of Israel, asking God's forgiveness for their sins. From the time God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, he had made it clear that sin would always produce death. Since, as verse 23 showed us, every human being has been guilty of sin, every one of us has been sentenced to death.

David Johnson: 10:48

For God to be just and righteous, he cannot set aside the penalty for anyone, whether Jew or Gentile. As the sacrifice is pictured, though they could not fully accomplish it, if a person repented of sin, God was willing to allow someone else to pay the penalty for them. But, where could we find a person willing and able to give his life to save us from our own death penalty? Since every human has sinned, everyone has to pay the penalty for his or her own sins. The only one who could possibly pay for my sins on my behalf would be someone who had never sinned and was thus free from a death penalty.

David Johnson: 11:27

Since Jesus is the only one who never sinned, he is the only one who could offer his life as payment for my sins. And since he created all mankind, Jews and Gentiles alike, he is greater than what he created and his sacrifice is more than adequate to pay for the sins of everyone who's ever lived. By accepting the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf, God has clearly demonstrated that he will never overlook or accept sin. But in his love for his children, he is willing to accept Jesus Christ's voluntary sacrifice as payment in full for our sins. God's justice, his righteousness, and his total faithfulness to his own laws is powerfully demonstrated by this once for all sacrifice.

David Johnson: 12:14

The Old Testament Levitical system, whereby bulls and rams and goats gave up their lives in sacrifice for human sinfulness, was never intended to produce total forgiveness. They were symbolic of the sacrifice that would come with the death of Jesus Christ. As the author of Hebrews later stated, it was not possible that the physical blood of bulls and goats could actually pay the spiritual debt incurred by sin. Instead, as this verse explains, these sacrifices only showed that God was willing to temporarily set aside the ultimate penalty of sin until Christ's sacrifice could be given. The Greek word Paul used referred to the temporary setting aside of a debt, while still requiring it to be paid at a later date.

David Johnson: 12:58

Before we move to verse 26, we must notice one more important aspect of this verse. Paul writes that our access to this unparalleled sacrifice is made possible through faith. Remember our original question had to do with whether God is fair in His treatment of all people. Under the old covenant, God had offered blessings for Israelites, those who were physical descendants of Abraham and his grandson Jacob. He offered no such promises to the gentile nations.

David Johnson: 13:25

Now, he is making it clear that the forgiveness available through the sacrifice of Jesus is available to all people who have faith, not just the physical people of Israel. Being a Jew or a Gentile was irrelevant to God's plan. How much more just and fair could God be? Now before we move to verse 26, let's summarize what we've seen in verses 2425. Forgiveness of our past sins is available to people who put their faith in a just, righteous, patient, and gracious God who is willing to accept Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf as payment in full for the sins of which we have repented.

David Johnson: 14:05

Paul now moves from the significance of what took place in the past to what all of this means in the present, inviting us to consider what the knowledge of this freely given pathway to forgiveness should tell us. Just as Jesus always directed the attention to his father, Paul likewise shows us that the God we are called to serve is always loving, just, merciful, and righteous. He never condones or overlooks sin for anyone. Yet, he is willing to forgive sin and erase its awful penalties for those who commit to a changed way of living. As a result, he is always just and fair with all people, and he is the only one who has the ability to declare the sinner justified, no longer guilty of past sins, and at the same time, give him the strength to break free from the enslaving power of sin.

David Johnson: 15:01

We've taken several minutes to consider 3 short verses. 68 words in this translation, but those words contain some of the most important concepts we could ever consider. This book that we explore in the verse by verse podcast, the Bible, is unique and unparalleled in its richness and depth. Please join us again next time as we examine this enduring masterpiece verse by verse.

Kevin Scarbrough: 15:28

Verse by Verse is a companion podcast to the daily bible verse blog, which you can find on the Life, Hope, and Truth Learning Center. Check out the show notes for more.