Romans 3:25

Second, he shows whence this redemption has efficacy, when he says whom God has proposed to be a propitiation. For Christ's satisfaction was efficacious for justifying and redeeming by the fact that God had assigned him to this in his plan, which he designates when …

He mentioned purification (the propitiatory sacrifice) and blood in order to convince the Jew that forgiveness and justification are accomplished through Christ. If, he reasons, you believed that sins were absolved by the blood of sheep, then all the more are they absolved by the …

But if, as some teach, God never was offended, there was no need of this propitiation. And, if so, Christ died in vain. To declare his righteousness - To demonstrate not only his clemency, but his justice; even that vindictive justice whose essential character and principal office is, to punish sin.

): Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, &c. Note, [1.] Jesus Christ is the great propitiation, or propitiatory sacrifice, typified by the hilasterion, or mercy-seat, under the law. He is our throne of grace, in and through whom atonement is made for sin, and our persons and performances are accepted of God, 1 John ii.

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Whom God had set forth to be a propitiation,....

Whom God hath set forth - Margin, “Fore-ordained” (προέθετο proetheto). The word properly means, “to place in public view;” to exhibit in a conspicuous situation, as goods are exhibited or exposed for sale, or as premiums or rewards of victory were exhibited to public view in the games of the Greeks. It sometimes has the meaning of decreeing, purposing, or constituting, as in the margin (compare Rom 1:13; Eph 1:9); and many have supposed that this is its meaning here.

THE death of our Lord Jesus Christ answered many valuable purposes. It manifested the manifold Wisdom of God. To angels in Heaven and to saints on earth, God never appeared so infinitely wise as in the ordaining of the plan of salvation by the substitution of His Son for guilty sinners. That death also revealed God's amazing love. It proclaimed to astonished worlds how "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The Atonement of Christ answered the purpose, moreover, of purifying His people.

We commenced the services in this place by the declaration that here Christ shall be preached. Our Brother who followed us expressed his joy that Christ was preached herein. He did rejoice, yes, and would rejoice, and our friends must have observed, how, throughout the other services there has been a most blessed admixture not only of the true spirit of Christ, but of pointed and admirable reference to the glories and beauties of His Person. This morning, which is the beginning of our more regular and constant ministry, we come again to the same noble theme.

We commenced the services in this place by the declaration that here Christ shall be preached. Our Brother who followed us expressed his joy that Christ was preached herein. He did rejoice, yes, and would rejoice, and our friends must have observed, how, throughout the other services there has been a most blessed admixture not only of the true spirit of Christ, but of pointed and admirable reference to the glories and beauties of His Person. This morning, which is the beginning of our more regular and constant ministry, we come again to the same noble theme. Christ Jesus is today to be set forth! You will not charge me for repeating myself—you will not look up to the pulpit, and say, "Pulpits are places of tautology." You will not reply that you have heard this story so often that you have grown weary of it, for well I know that with you, the Person, the Character, and the work of Christ are always fresh themes for wonder! We have seen the sea, some of us, hundreds of times, and what an abiding sameness there is in its deep green surface; but who ever called the sea monotonous? Traveling over it as the mariner does, sometimes by the year together, there is always a freshness in the undulation of the waves, the whiteness of the foam of the breaker, the curl of the crested billow, and the frolicsome pursuit of every wave by its long train of brothers.

THE death of our Lord Jesus Christ answered many valuable purposes. It manifested the manifold Wisdom of God. To angels in Heaven and to saints on earth, God never appeared so infinitely wise as in the ordaining of the plan of salvation by the substitution of His Son for guilty sinners. That death also revealed God's amazing love. It proclaimed to astonished worlds how "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The Atonement of Christ answered the purpose, moreover, of purifying His people. That He might sanctify the people by His own blood, He suffered outside the camp. He loved His Church and gave Himself for it, we know, "that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." The Cross has also been the great battering-ram for breaking down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. It is by Christ's blood that we are made one. "Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." Caste is abolished and invidious distinctions are set aside. There is no longer in Christ Jesus barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, circumcised or uncircumcised, but Christ is All-in-All. That same atoning Sacrifice also broke down the wall which separated both Jew and Gentile from God—"that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross, having slain the enmity thereby." The alienation prevailed till the reconciliation was effected by the precious blood of Jesus. We remain enemies in our minds by wicked works until we see the great love with which He loved us, and then that love melts our heart and makes us friends ofGod.

I think, dear Friends, some of you will be saying, "There is that same old Doctrine again that we are so continually hearing," and I am sure if you do say it I shall not be surprised. Nor, on the other hand, shall I make any sort of excuse. The Doctrine of Justification by Faith through the substitutionary Sacrifice of Christ is very much to my ministry what bread and salt are to the table. As often as ever the table is set, there are those necessary things.

I think, dear Friends, some of you will be saying, "There is that same old Doctrine again that we are so continually hearing," and I am sure if you do say it I shall not be surprised. Nor, on the other hand, shall I make any sort of excuse. The Doctrine of Justification by Faith through the substitutionary Sacrifice of Christ is very much to my ministry what bread and salt are to the table. As often as ever the table is set, there are those necessary things. I regard that Doctrine as being one that is to be preached continually, to be mixed up with all our sermons, even as, under the Law of God it was said, "With all your offerings you shall offer salt." This is the very salt of the Gospel! Indeed, it is impossible to bring it forward too often. It is the soul-saving Doctrine—it is the foundation Doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It is that by which God is pleased to bring many into reconciliation with Himself. As the schoolmaster takes care to ground his scholars well in grammar, that they may get hold of the very roots of the language, so must we be rooted and grounded in this fundamental and cardinal Truth of God—justification through the righteousness of Jesus Christ! Martin Luther, who used to preach this Doctrine very vehemently and forcibly, yet declared that he felt as if he could knock the Bible about the peoples' heads if he could by any means get this Doctrine into them—for as soon after they had learned it, they forgot it! Over and over, and over again must the Christian minister continue to insist upon this Truth—that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.

Whom God hath set forth - Appointed and published to be a propitiation, ιλαστηριον, the mercy-seat, or place of atonement; because the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on and before that, in order to obtain remission of sin, punishment, etc. The mercy-seat was the lid or cover of the ark of the covenant, where God was manifest in the symbol of his presence, between the cherubim; therefore the atonement that was made in this place was properly made to God himself. See the note on Luk 18:13. Through faith in his blood - This shows what we are to understand both by the απολυτρωσις, redemption, and the ιλαστηριον, propitiation; viz. that they refer to the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, as the atonement made, and the price paid down, for the redemption of the souls of men. To declare his righteousness - εις ενδειξις, for the manifestation of his righteousness; his mercy in saving sinners, by sending Jesus Christ to make an atonement for them; thereby declaring his readiness to remit all past transgressions committed both by Jews and Gentiles, during the time in which his merciful forbearance was exercised towards the world; and this applies to all who hear the Gospel now: to them is freely offered remission of all past sins.