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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/david-vallance/the-atonement-of-christ/
Let's turn to what I'm going to do is. We could adjust the time a little bit couldn't we like have a break early, okay? Let's go. Let's turn to Romans chapter 3. Excuse me, and I want to move on to talk a little bit about the atoning work of Christ.
So Romans chapter 3 and verse 24. Being justified freely. Well, let's read for context the beginning of the section so 21. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace.
Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God has set forth as a propitiation by his blood. Through faith, I think that's the right way to phrase that by the way. To demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance God has passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate the at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and The justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Now I want you to think about the structure of what we've just read here and some of these words justified. Redemption. Propitiation. Now if you allow me just a little bit of a stretch here. I'm going to create a chiasm here or an Situation we have ABCB prime a prime.
So what do I mean by that justification first? That's the first subject. It's also the last subject. Justified freely by his grace that he might be just in the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.
Then B and B prime have to do with redemption. The basis of justification is redemption. We're justified because of redemption so which. Through the redemption it is in Christ Jesus. Then we have the passing over of the sins committed a four time and that I suggest is Passover language.
But it works for my Chiasm. What that makes is propitiation the crux the pivot and the most important point or if you want to turn this thing on its side. It's the peak. Propitiation is the basis of everything.
Because of propitiation Redemption has been accomplished. Because of redemption justification is possible. You say well these are all terms. I've heard before I am sorry familiar with them, but Is there a simple way to understand them.
Well, there's nothing simple about it in a way, but yet there is. I mean I think there are some basic pictures. Now you say which one is the most true. They're all true. There are different perspectives on the same work so There are different emphases, and they're simultaneously true.
It's sort of like looking at us an object from four different sides, right? But yet in the scripture there is the priority that God's Interests must be met and satisfied first. Before salvation can flow out to the sinner God must be just and Then he's happy to be the justifier of him.
They believe within Jesus the God is just of course. But I mean he has to show himself to be just by how he handled the sin problem. So in these pictures, I'm going to use these three, and I'm going to bring in a fourth one.
We have four different scenarios. We have a shrine we have a. Let's let's follow this order specifically we have a shrine. We have a slave market. We have a family table and We have a law court all right.
Now in the shrine you say we don't believe in shrines. We believe in local assemblies in that shrine well. The word shrine is not in the Bible, but I'm referring to a sanctuary okay a holy place where God's Interests are being served.
Such as the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, right? That's where the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat are that's where propitiation is made. That's where propitiation belongs in the shrine. Then we move to the market the slave market and here we have the concept of redemption.
Then we move to the family table. This is a word that is not in this section, but we're going to pull it out of Colossians 1 it's called reconciliation and Finally we're going to come to the law court where we have justification.
Now in the shrine we have a holy God and we have one who comes in to satisfy him. This is propitiation. In the slave market we have slaves who are up on blocks with chains and manacles up for sale. Why are they for sale because they've sold themselves out to sin?
They're slaves of sin. They're helpless and they're doomed and the only way that they can be saved is to be delivered out of that slave market by the payment of a price. That's redemption. Then we move over to the family.
Here we have the problem of alienation because Sin is not only a debt that has to be paid. Sin is enmity in the heart sin that sin is not only fruit. It's the root. Let me just illustrate this briefly let's let's say I left my wallet on there and one of these upstanding young men here stole $20 out of it and I saw him so I said hey, I want my $20 back.
This is sure so he gives it back. So I'm fine. I got my money back. But is it fine between him and me? Not really. He's just he's just Violated me right sorry. I didn't pick which one of you did it. So there's alienation.
There's enmity. There's a problem. There's a relational problem between these two parties even though the debt has been settled. This is the enmity of sin. This is the the the fallenness of the nature of sin that has to be dealt with and in order for God to invite us into his family like Mephibosheth and to put us at his table and Make us one of his sons that alienation has got to be dealt with and finally in the law court.
Justification there must be a full payment for our sins and the provision of an offering that allows God to pronounce us righteous. Because of the substitutionary work of Christ, right? Now let's walk back and we'll walk through these maybe once more and then I won't tax you too much more than this.
Propitiation it's kind of a big word right you don't use it every day but it's important to keep these Bible words as they are not to dumb them down and You leave it as propitiation and you go find out what propitiation means and then you relate those when you read that word.
But if you start to dumb it down if you say it's just satisfaction, although that's a pretty close word. You are you are violating a very important principle of Bible study. Which is not to truncate and cut terms down to make them simple.
It's fine to simplify them when you're explaining them to kids or even to other people as a first approximation of what's going on in The Scriptures, but you don't want that to be the full and final understanding of it.
So we leave the words as they are and then we learn how to unpack them, right? Propitiation and A very close word expiation need to be thought of together. Now the Bible is great about giving stories and illustrations.
Probably much better than I am because all these abstract terms like they are boring unless you think about them. They don't need to be boring but I mean it's much easier to get your head around them if you see them illustrated, right?
So in that great act called the day of atonement, we have an understanding of what happens at the shrine. Where God's satisfaction is dealt with and therefore he can come out in grace to the sinner and There's one sacrifice, but it's in two pieces, right?
I'm talking about the two boats. There is the goat who is for the Lord and that blood is taken in and satisfies the throne of God and There is the goat of departure or the Azazel or the scapegoat Who goes out into the wilderness?
These are not two offerings. They're one offering. They're two sides. What is the object of propitiation? God. God is propitiated. What is the object of expiation? Sin sin is removed. So we have the situation where God is satisfied and At the same time the sin that led to his anger his righteous anger against us has been fully taken away.
So these are very closely related terms and they both need to be kept together as Leviticus 16 does. Now when the blood of the The so-called propitiatory offering is brought in it is sprinkled once Upon and seven times before the mercy seat you remember that ritual Christ said it is finished the work only needed to be done once God was satisfied.
The whole thing was rectified. God's heart was pleased his wrath was assuaged and he was completely propitiated. But as you and I stand there before him he provides the perfect platform For us to stand on as those who have been Brought nigh by the blood of Christ.
Seven stands for that kind of perfection. I suggest in that case so the root and the fruit are both dealt with and When Christ comes in to satisfy God, we just need to make a brief comment on this a lot of Christians have a big problem with the word appeasement and I guess I would have a problem with that word too depending on how you define it.
Appeasement Suggests that you have a very petty a very Selfish kind of deity who's easily upset and you've got to walk around him on pins and needles or on eggshells or whatever the right cliche is because he's so easily upset and It's like the Greek gods, right?
You got to constantly appease them and if that's your idea of appeasement, then I agree. There's no place in the scriptures. But let us not minimize the fact that God is righteously angry with our sin and that wrath.
That's so much we deserve. Every Christian knows he deserves it or she does Acknowledge that when we were saved That wrath has got to be satisfied. I suggest though that in propitiation there may even be more than that.
Not only did Christ in his death completely satisfy the wrath of God against my sin negatively. But as the perfect burnt offering as the perfect man who presented himself with such devotion and perfection to God I think there was a wonderful positive satisfaction as well so God was completely pleased and completely delighted and completely satisfied in the death of his son and Therefore in the shrine where it all needs to start God's needs and God's priorities and his his Prerogatives have all that have all been met now with that taken care of.
That's one view of the cross. We come to the second view and the second view is a slave market. Now there are Different words for redemption and we're not going to have time and you wouldn't have maybe just the patience at the moment to go through.
But I just want to conflate them a little bit and give you the general sense throughout the Bible that the Payment of a price is always central to redemption when you redeem something you've got to pay and When you have paid that price very often the image in the Bible is a release.
That is a release from slavery a release from obligation a release from debt. So if you go to the Old Testament you have the idea of the price in Exodus chapter 13 We have a price to be paid for the firstborn we have if you have a firstborn donkey and You need to redeem that with a lamb and if you don't redeem it with the lamb you break its neck, right?
So We have there the option. The option of redeeming somebody it wasn't necessary. But if you wanted to save that donkey you had to pay the price. That word for redemption Has to has to do with substituted value.
It has to do with the cost and it has to do with the grace of God the willingness that he had to rescue us he didn't have to. But he chose to. Then if you go over to the book of Ruth you have a different kind of concept of redemption.
But it's it's it's it's a it's just another way of looking at it. And this is the idea of the kinsman Redeemer or the relative Redeemer. Now in this case you have to put yourself in the mindset of people living in that day and you need to understand that they had a sense of family solidarity, and they were on honor culture and That it was very important to protect and preserve family interests, right?
We don't do that in the u .s. We hear about these honor killings in other countries, and we think that that's pretty horrible. But that's just a different way of I think I'm not saying I'm into that Vigilante and all that, but I mean we don't understand what honor is if an honor honor in the family.
It doesn't mean what it means in other countries right like the Middle East. So this is an honor culture that we're talking about here. Now if a family if a person falls into debt and has to lose some of his property.
It's the responsibility of the kinsman Redeemer to come and recover it by paying that price. So that's what happens with Ruth right she gets redeemed by Boaz there was a nearer kinsman, but he wouldn't do it so Boaz does it.
He has the obligation because he's related to her. Related to Naomi right so in this case. We have what we saw in Hebrews chapter 2 Christ coming into manhood and saying I'm taking responsibility. We have a fallen race.
We have people who are catapulted Heading headlong Into eternal destruction, and there's not one man who's ever lived who can do anything about it so we either write the race off and Do them all or some man somehow somewhere is going to have to take responsibility for this race.
Crisis. I'll do it here am I send me. He comes into the world and he assumes manhood. Now as a man. He is morally obligated in this way of thinking To pay the price to release all of his brothers and sisters.
And that's what he does is the kinsman Redeemer. Not only does he pay the price, but he promises to protect them and bring them to glory. And it's very interesting that even the Avenger of blood in the Old Testament is the kinsman Redeemer.
So even when there is a need for justice to be met to protect people. That was also the responsibility of the Redeemer now very briefly. We're going to Think about one more picture in redemption and this again in the Old Testament you can use the book of Hosea understand this third concept of redemption Kofar and It's much very closely akin to what we have in Galatians where we have being redeemed from the curse of the law.
It's the idea that When Christ comes to rescue us from slavery and pays that ransom price. That we are not only Taken out off the block so to speak, but we're taken completely out of the slave market.
We're no longer for sale. We're beyond the reach of any sort of despot or slavery from that point on and the only one we serve is the one who Rescued us. He was our Redeemer. So redemption comes at the cost of paying a price called a ransom.
Who Paid that price and to whom was it paid? Well, you've got interesting theories in church history very early on you had this concept of having been paid to the devil. That's absolutely not true. Do you think in the case of the children of Israel being delivered out of Egypt that Pharaoh got paid off?
Pharaoh was floating face down in the Red Sea. He didn't get paid off. The one who needed to be paid was God himself because it's God's Wrath and his righteousness that have been offended. So God pays himself.
The son makes the payment on the cross that the father accepts as full and complete remission for you and me. That's the wonderful truth of redemption. Then we come to the warmest of all of them. You say warm that sounds like it's gonna make me sleep.
Well, I'll be real quick on this one, but it's a very precious thing reconciliation. Now again, we have people who would say well God never needed to be reconciled because he's totally loving and good.
And he never had a no thought toward us. Again it depends on how you define this. Hmm. It is true strictly speaking that God is never The object of the verb to reconcile as such in the New Testament and yet there are contextual reasons to believe that God Needed to again reconcile himself in the sense of satisfying His issues with our sin in order that he might then Invite us to be reconciled to him.
So whether you think of it as two-way or one-way clearly this enmity this enemy Relationship this animosity this this breach that comes with two people where a relational problem has developed has got to be satisfied.
And Christ does that on the cross? Not only does he reconcile you and me he reconciles everything in heaven and earth. Just like that goat in Leviticus 16 the blood took care of everything in the camp everything all the burn Furniture all the vessels everything inanimate as well as individual people.
So it turns out that this is exactly what Paul tells us in Colossians 1 he has reconciled all things in heaven and on earth. That's why you don't have to worry about more angels falling. You don't have to worry about things going bad in the ages to come.
You don't have to worry about babies Who died before the age of accountability? You don't have to worry about any of those things because Christ's cross is taking care of all of it. He has reconciled all things to God except Not the things under the earth.
Not the people who have crossed the line into eternity and no longer have the opportunity to receive his grace. So that is wonderful now the reconciliation of The blood of Christ and the body of Christ would be an interesting time, but we won't do that right now from Colossians chapter 1.
Finally and we're going to stop on this and yes, I'm going to give you a 20-minute break at this point. We have the image of the law court often. That's where we start with in the gospel, but you see the other groundwork has to be laid.
You have to have a satisfied God you have to have a reconciliation. Before you can come to this fourth picture. Which is the forgiveness of the sinner in the law court. Here we have God the judge and you're in the dock and you're guilty.
So what's going to happen? You say well what God does is he goes and finds a third party, and he says you the third party you pay so that this one can go free and You're saying is that right how can God obligate a third party?
To pay my debt, I'm the one who sinned. I Mean if you voluntarily wanted to do it. I might understand that. But really is it right for a third party to enter into this? Equation and I suggest the answer is no it's not right.
There's no third party. Because the judge Gets up from the bench. Takes off his robe and comes down and pays the price himself. God Paid the price he demanded God. Through his son it was the self-offering of God.
He's the one who demanded the price. He's the one who paid the price and Therefore you the second party can go free so even in the gospel we need to be a little bit careful about making Christ some sort of third entity and divorcing him from.
The transaction that occurred in the Godhead to bring about our salvation. Ultimately it was really the self sacrifice of the God who gives. The God who loves that brings about the means whereby we can be justified.
Just as if I'd never sinned. That's good, but it's not good enough. Just as if I kept the law. That's good in a sense. Don't worry. I'm not computing the righteousness of Christ. I'm not a reformed person in that sense.
But God has given us a standing where it is as if there had never been a charge against us and as if Everything that we owed him had been done. Now you say it's not true. In fact, that's okay in justification.
Because God will perfect that in sanctification and he'll finish it in glorification. He'll do it. But at the start he justifies the ungodly. They don't have to shape up or clean up. All they have to do is take the substitutionary work of Christ and they have that perfect standing before him.
And that's the law court where the judge is satisfied because he pays the price now I've gone very very long, but I'm gonna reward you with a break until three and is that will that work? Okay, so let's pray.