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It's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. If that's true, then in Old Testament times literally volumes were written. Because the Old Testament believer saw year after year hundreds of thousands of pictures to help them understand exactly why Christ would eventually have to die. Those pictures, of course, being in the form of animal sacrifices. God was making it clear through that complex sacrificial system of the Old Testament that sinful man could only approach Holy God through sacrifice. But I think people often miss the big point that really stood behind all of the Old Testament sacrifices.

Understand this: the sacrifice was always for God not for the worshiper. In fact, there's a phrase that occurs some 42 times in all of those instructions about sacrifice in the Old Testament. It's this phrase: God says you will offer this sacrifice, and when you offer it, it will be a soothing aroma to Me; a soothing aroma to Me. It literally means a smell of satisfaction. An aroma that calms or soothes My anger. Now that's a terrifying thought if you think about it for a moment. Because it paints a picture that is very true to the rest of Scripture and that is our sin which we take so lightly, the sins that we sort of commit and brush aside, reach inside the person of God as it were and stir up His anger against sin.

It's equally true of the great fulfillment, the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that it too was for God. So, understand then that all sacrifice, the Old Testament sacrifice as well as the ultimate fulfillment of those sacrifices, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, they were always for God. Jesus died for God. When we think of the crucifixion, we tend to focus on the human side with all of its physical suffering. But the most important thing that happened that day outside the city walls of Jerusalem wasn't physical suffering. Many people have suffered physically horrific deaths. It was instead the divine transaction that occurred between the Father and the Son. That was the primary purpose of the cross. And the clearest insight into that divine purpose in all of Scripture I think comes in Romans 3 where I invite you turn with me this morning.

I've decided to step away from our study of Ephesians 6 this morning as we continue to work our way through that wonderful letter of Paul's and the armor of God, and to prepare our hearts for the Lord's Table I want us to look at this passage in Romans 3. There are two verses here that if you want to know what was in the mind of God during those six hours on that Friday now almost 2000 years ago, you'll find it in these two brief but powerful verses. Now to set it up for you let me read the context. I'll begin in verse 21 of Romans 3. Paul has just finished his indictment of all mankind. Both religious and irreligious they all stand guilty before God, he says, without exception. Now he gets to the good news. Romans 3:21,

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 … [in] faith … [through] Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration I say of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

In these verses Paul unfolds the message of the gospel that he first introduced back in chapter 1. The themes of theses 6 verses that I've just read for you is how a sinner can be declared right before God; how he can receive a right standing before God; or the biblical doctrine of justification. Notice Paul concludes verse 24 by explaining that that happens, that we are justified, or we're declared right with God, notice the end of verse 24, "... through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." That phrase identifies the grounds on which God can offer this gift of righteousness to us. It's the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. That is the great divine transaction that makes our justification possible.

And then in verses 25 and 26, Paul develops that theme of the sacrifice of Christ, and in so doing, he provides us with a divine commentary on the cross, a divine commentary on the crucifixion. Notice, at the very heart of the crucifixion, at the foundation of the cross was the work of Christ that Paul here calls "propitiation". You don't hear much about propitiation these days. And yet it is absolutely crucial and foundational to our faith although the word group of the word propitiation in Greek "hilasterion" in all of its forms this word group occurs only six times in the New Testament, and yet it is always at the heart of the work of Christ. What does it mean? Propitiation simply means to satisfy. It is the satisfaction or the turning away of God's wrath. But that immediately raises a provoking question. Why is God angry? Why does His wrath need to be satisfied?

Now folks, this is a very unpopular concept today. Nobody wants to talk about this. Nobody wants to talk about God being angry with man. Instead, they want to talk about God's love, and He does love but this is nonetheless true as well. Whether we like it or not, whether we find it comfortable or not Scripture everywhere pictures man as living and remaining under the wrath of God. In fact, the Old Testament speaks of the wrath of God against man's sin some 585 times.

And the New Testament does as well. John the Baptist, the forerunner, warned that the wrath of God was coming. Jesus, who brought the message of the good news, talked about the wrath that was to come. And Paul does the same here in this wonderful letter to the Romans. Look back in 1:18. Right after he mentions the theme of the book in verses 16 and 17 in verse 18, he says for here's why the good news is so important. Here's the bad news, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Here he's talking about the wrath of God that is, the wrath of abandonment.

It's happening right now he says. God's wrath is constantly being revealed. How? By His abandoning sinners to their own way, and Romans 1 goes on to describe that. As God displays His wrath today, it often doesn't look immediately like wrath. Instead, it is the wrath of simply letting people pursue their sin to the nth degree, and Romans 1 unfolds that. And frankly folks, read Romans 1. We're seeing God's wrath of abandonment unfold before our very eyes in our own country.

But Paul gets to another kind of wrath in chapter 2. He begins to talk about the coming judgement. Notice 2:2, the judgement of God is going to rightly fall upon those who practice sins. And do you think, verse 3, "... that you're going to escape the judgment of God?' It's coming. "Or do you think lightly ..." verse 4 "... of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience ..." right now ".... not knowing that the kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?" But if you won't do that, what's happening verse 5; what's happening right now is because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up. You are stock piling God's wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Paul says it's coming. It's coming. Right now, it's the wrath of abandonment. Here he's talking about the eschatological wrath, the wrath that is still to come when God outpours that wrath upon sinners at the judgement.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks the questions, what does every sin deserve? The brief answer is this: the wrath and curse of God. And that's exactly right, and because of that, unbelievers live every day of their lives under this sort of looming shadow, cast by the coming wrath of God. That's why when we studied Ephesians 2, you remember Ephesians 2 all unbelievers are called "children of wrath" verse 3 says. But notice here in Romans 3, Paul says that God has publicly displayed Christ Jesus as the propitiation, as the satisfaction of His wrath. So, this word propitiation then identifies God's great reason for the crucifixion, and it all had to do with Him. Jesus died for God to satisfy His wrath.

Now, the Roman Christians to whom Paul wrote this letter were very familiar with the concept of satisfying the wrath of the gods. Rome had a pantheon of gods. And those gods were often angry. But there were and are, profound differences between the satisfaction of pagan gods and the satisfaction of the true and living God. First of all, the pagan god's wrath was capricious. You didn't know when it was going happen, you didn't know why it was going to happen; you had no idea what would set it off. But with the true God the Creator God there was only one reason. It was always human sin.

A second difference was that the wrath of the pagan gods was like an uncontrollable outburst. It was more like our anger. But the Bible everywhere describes God's wrath as a settled, holy, disposition against sin that must deal with sin wherever He finds it.

There was a third key difference though and it really is the key one. In pagan religions the worshiper himself was always responsible to satisfy the offended deity. Somehow you had to do something. Offer your first born. Offer the fruit of your hands. Offer something you had done. But the true God instead of demanding a bribe from us, instead of receiving payment from us, the true God set forth His own Son as the satisfaction. God crushed His Son on the cross to completely satisfy His own wrath against every sinner who would ever believe.

Now, in these two verses in Romans 3 Paul makes several great declarations about the wonderful reality of propitiation or the satisfaction of God's wrath. I'm just going to mention the first several because I want to get to the last one which is really the key. But if you look through this text you will see that propitiation was initiated by God. Verse 25, "Whom God the Father publicly displayed." It was initiated by God. It was defined by substitution. If we reorder this clause into a normal sentence, it would read: God publicly displayed Him as a propitiation. Christ Himself was the object of God's public display of wrath.

So, it was initiated by God, it was defined by substitution, thirdly it was accomplished by Christ's death whom God publicly displayed as a propitiation in His blood. When you read of Christ's blood in Scripture, understand that it refers to His violent death as a sacrifice in our place. We deserve to die. Ezekiel 18 says, "The soul that sins it shall die." Romans 6 says, "The wages of sin is death." But Christ didn't deserve to die. Over and over again His innocence is proclaimed by Pilate, by the thief on the cross and by others. So, His death was not for Himself. His death satisfied God's demand for our death. He was our substitute. He accomplished propitiation by His death.

Number four it is appropriated by faith alone. Notice verse 25, "Through faith ..." The only way a sinner can come to personally benefit from Christ's satisfaction of God's wrath is by faith. But that brings us to the fifth declaration in this passage and the one I really want to concentrate in our remaining time this morning. It is required by God's character. It is required by God's character. Propitiation: the satisfaction of God's wrath is required by God's character. Look again at verses 25 and 26. God publicly displayed Christ,

… as a propitiation … to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

This is Paul's primary point about the wonderful reality of propitiation. It is required by God's character. This is why God publicly displayed Christ. By the way that verb "publicly displayed"; Plato, the Greek philosopher, uses that verb to describe the laying out for the viewing the body of Socrates. God laid out Christ as it were on the cross for viewing. In one sense we can say that God put Christ on display, His entire earthly life and ministry. But here the reference is obviously to His crucifixion.

At the cross God intended to make a public point that no one would miss. He made a public spectacle out of Christ, and the rest of the paragraph tells us why. God planned this public display of His wrath poured out on Christ to defend His own character. Specifically, to defend His justice. You see there are two decisions that God made, and if the cross had never happened, those two decisions would open God to the rightful charge of injustice. Let's look at what He needed to do to defend His own character.

First of all, He needed to display Christ as a propitiation to vindicate His justice in showing common grace to sinners; to vindicate His justice in showing common grace to sinners. Notice verse 25, He publicly displayed Christ to demonstrate His righteousness. The Greek word translated "demonstrate" means proof or evidence. God wanted the cross to give evidence or proof of His righteousness. The word "righteousness" when it refers to God is used in two senses in the early chapters of Romans. It's used of the righteousness which He gives to sinners as a gift. In other words, the gift of a right standing before God. It's also used of something that is true about God in His character, and that's the sense here. In this context of a judge rendering a verdict, it can be translated justice. So, we could translate it like this: To prove or vindicate His justice. Now why was it necessary for God to vindicate or prove His justice.

Well, the next phrase I should say explains there in verse 25. Because, here's why. "In the forbearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed." Now there's a very difficult phrase to interpret. But let's start with the one word that will help us most understand what Paul is trying to say here. It's the word "forbearance". That same word occurs back in 2:4 where it's translated as tolerance. It means a temporary truce. It means patience for a time. In describing this word one author writes this, "Rather than destroying every person the moment he sins, God graciously holds back His judgement. He saves sinners in a temporal way from what they deserve to show them His saving character that they might come to receive salvation that is spiritual and eternal."

Because of God's forbearance, Paul says, He passed over sins. Passing over. That refers to letting go unpunished. It's not forgiving. It's simply not punishing right now. If you're a parent, you understand this word. If you have children, you've probably heard yourself say it at one point or another to yourself or perhaps to them "… they really deserve a spanking. They really deserve to be corrected for what they've done." And then you don't spank them. That's forbearance. But the difference between our forbearance and God's forbearance is that when we don't carry through, usually it's because we're too tired or too busy or too distracted. With God it's an expression of His grace. He's giving sinners time to repent. And notice what He passed over, the sins previously committed.

Now, that could refer to the sins committed before Jesus Christ came into the world. That's possible. Or it may refer as Martin Luther thought, to the sins that each of us committed before conversion. But frankly either way the point's the same. Here's the point: God has every right to destroy us the moment we sin. His justice demands our immediate death. You remember Genesis 2:17, "In the day that you eat ..." what "... you shall surely die". In Exodus 34:7 when God declares His Holy character what does He say about Himself? "I will by no means leave the guilty unpunished." And yet we live our lives for decades, and there's no reckoning.

In His forbearance, God graciously allows guilty sinners to live. But more than just letting them live He gives them as He gave us before Christ a steady stream of blessings. He gives them family and food and all the joys of this life and sunsets and children and all of those things that make life here rich. He just keeps pouring out His blessing on those who deserve death.

Here's Paul's point, and frankly it's a shocking point. Even the common grace that God shows in sparing sinners lives and in providing them with temporal blessings in this life could undermine His justice, could stain His justice. And so, at Calvary God vindicated His character. Christ's death makes it possible for God to show unbelieving sinners what theologians call "common grace"; and to do so without staining His righteousness. That's not the primary purpose of the death of Christ, but it's an important one.

I want you to think about this for a moment. Let the gravity of this settle into your heart and mind. Paul is saying here that if God had not poured out His wrath on Christ on the cross, His very character would be stained by letting us live one second after we sin the very first time. You remember back in your own mind the first time you were really aware of sin? The first time you were really aware. When you made a choice knowing what was right, and yet you chose the evil instead? You remember that? Most of us do. We all have a memory that goes back a long way. God's justice demanded that at that moment He snuff out your life. How lightly we take our own sin. And the only reason we live today, the only reason an unbelieving sinner lives a moment longer than His first sin is because of what Jesus did at the cross. He bought that right for God.

But there's a second reason God's character demanded that He display Christ as a propitiation. Not only to vindicate His justice in showing common grace to sinners, but secondly to vindicate His justice in showing justifying grace to those who believe; to vindicate His justice in showing justifying grace to those who believe. Look at verse 26. And Paul here is making another point that the New American Standard adds in the words "I say" as if he's repeating himself. He's not repeating himself. This is the second point he's making, "For the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time so that he would be just and the justifier."

God displayed Christ as a propitiation to prove or to give evidence of His righteousness so that He could be both just and yet justifier to declare righteous ungodly men. You see, we tend to think that God can just say you're forgiven. God can just say you're right with Me. Absolutely not! If God did that, He wouldn't be God. If God did that, it would stain His justice. His justice demands that the guilty be punished. And so, for Him to say, "it's okay I'll just let it slip" is to stain His very character. And so, He couldn't say you're righteous when you're not. Paul here is talking about more than patience toward unbelievers. He's talking about the justification of true believers.

God had to satisfy His wrath on Christ so He could justify us. Somewhere His justice had to find its mark, had to find its penalty. It would either be on us forever in hell, or it would be on Christ on the cross. But He couldn't just let it go. If you ask the average Christian why the cost of our salvation was so high that it demanded Jesus suffer so much, what will they say? The average Christian will say the reason the price was so high is because of the value of my soul to God.

Well, God does love the sinner. But that's not the reason the cost was so high. The cost was so high, what the Bible says is the reason the cost was so high was because of the size of our debt to God; the debt of our sin; what our sin really deserved. Nothing less than the death of the Son of God could pay the debt and allow God to be at the same time a God of justice and yet say you're forgiven, and you stand right with Me. In other words, our justification demanded Christ be displayed as a propitiation, the satisfaction of God's wrath.

What is justification? If you have been at our church any time at all, you'll know this is the dearest doctrine in the world to me and should be to you as well. Sadly, most Christians don't even know about it; and yet it's the gospel; it's the heart of what Paul teaches here in Romans 3 we just read a few moments ago. Let me just give you a summary. What is justification? Justification is three legal decisions by God. Three distinct legal decisions by God.

Number one, God credits our sins to Christ. God has a record of every sin that has ever been committed. In Revelation it talks about bringing out the books at the judgement. God doesn't need books. That's merely an image, a picture. God's omniscient, His great mind remembers and stores everything that ever happens. He knows every sin you have ever committed in your heart or externally. Every word you've ever spoken He's recorded it. And here's what justification does. God takes the believing sinner's sins, every single one of them, every individual act, every individual sinful thought. every individual word; and He takes that debt, and He credits it to Jesus Christ. And then on the cross He treated Jesus as if He had committed every single one of those sins. He poured out on Him the wrath, my sin and your sin deserved. That's legal decision number one.

Legal decision number two in justification, is God credits Christ's righteousness to me. You see, Jesus lived 33 years in this world and never one time did He sin. Never one time did He violate God's law. Never one time did He speak an angry word in a sinful way. Never one time did He have an attitude that crossed the purposes of God. Never one time did He do anything except perfect love for God and perfect love for others. And God takes that perfect life, all of those individual perfect acts and actions and attitudes and thoughts and words and He takes all of that, and He credits it to my account as if I had done them. This is what 2 Corinthians 5:21 describes. The first distinct act, Paul says, "He ..." that is God "... made Him ..." that is Christ "... who knew no sin to be sin for us." There's the first one.

"That we might become the righteousness of God in Him." There's the second distinct act. My sins to Christ and then He treats Christ as if He had committed every single one of them and then Christ's acts of righteousness, a life of righteousness and He credits that to me and treats me as if I had lived that life.

And there's a third distinct legal decision by God that's part of justification. On the basis of crediting my sin to Christ and Christ's righteousness to me, God renders a legal decision as judge. He forgives my sin, and He declares me to be forever right with Him the very moment I believe. And to whom does God do this? Whom will God declare righteous in His sight? Look at the end of verse 26; the one who has faith in Jesus. The gift of a right standing before God is only for the one who appropriates it by faith in the Son of God; who says Lord, impute my sins to Christ; credit all of my sins to Christ, and judge Him for them. And then take His perfect life, and credit it to me.

God had to publicly display Christ as the satisfaction of His wrath. And He had to do it because it was the only way He could at the same time be a God of justice and yet declare ungodly sinners to be right before God. That's God's perspective on the death of Christ. It had to be propitiation to vindicate His justice in showing common grace to sinners and in showing justifying grace to believers.

Now, this great doctrine of propitiation has huge ramifications for all of us. Listen, if this morning you're not a true follower of Jesus Christ, and I'm not asking if you've prayed a prayer, or you walked an aisle. If you're not a true disciple of Jesus Christ; if He is not your Lord; if you have not acknowledged Him as Lord and Savior; if you don't love Jesus Christ; if that doesn't characterize your life, then let me tell you that this morning what He accomplished on the cross is the reason your heart is still beating, and you are still breathing. It's the only reason God lets you live. As hard as this is for me to say, and I'm sure as hard as it is for you to hear, the truth is, someday God will unleash His full anger against your sin. Do not mistake what you enjoy now as God tolerating what you do. Paul says you are storing up wrath. 2 Thessalonians 1 says,

The Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire dealing out retribution to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.

Listen if you want the real benefits of Jesus satisfaction of the wrath of God to be yours you've got to cry out to God. You've got to cry out to God and ask Him to credit every single sin you've committed to Christ and to judge Him on the cross for those sins and then to take Jesus' perfect life and credit it to your account and on the basis of that to declare you right with Him. Where your only hope is in Jesus' death and in His righteousness.

Maybe you're here this morning. and you're already a follower of Jesus Christ. How do you respond to all of this? Listen, understand this believer, the personal guilt for every sin you have ever committed is forever gone. Look at Romans 8:1. I love this. Here's the conclusion of justification, "Therefore there is now no condemnation ..." no guilty verdict, no sentence carried out, "... for those who are in Christ Jesus."

Look down at verse 33, "Who will bring a charge against God's elect?" God is the one who's declared us righteous so who's going to declare us guilty? "Christ Jesus is He who died yes rather who was raised who's at the right hand of God who intercedes for us." So, what's going to separate us from the love of Christ? And he goes on and concludes down in verses 38 and 39, absolutely nothing can separate us. Listen you will never face God's wrath against sin.

Romans 5:9, "Now having been justified by His blood we shall be rescued from the wrath of God through Him." That's true because Christ volunteered to be our substitute. Our heart should flow out every day, Christian, in great gratitude for what God did. He initiated all of this; crushed His own Son. Do you remember what we read in Isaiah 53? It pleased the Lord to crush Him for you.

My favorite human story of this reality comes from World War II. It was July of 1941 in the infamous German prison camp of Auschwitz. That July one man escaped from Bunker 12. The remaining men of the bunker were led out. For an entire day they were made to stand in the sun without food or water. But the man who had escaped was still not found. Eyewitnesses reported that the commandandt, a man named Karl Fritz, screamed, "The fugitive has not been found. You will all pay for this. Ten of you will be locked in the starvation bunker without food or water until they die."

You see to discourage escapes Auschwitz had a rule. That rule was for every one man who escaped ten others would be killed in retaliation. So, the guard began to call out the names of the ten men who had been chosen to die because of the escape. One of those men who was on that list was a Polish sergeant in prison for helping the Polish resistance. And as his name was called, he just couldn't help himself, and he began to cry out and to sob, and witnesses say he said, "My poor wife. My poor children. What will they do?"

And then suddenly in the angst of that moment, another man stepped forward another prisoner. He silently stepped forward, he took off his cap, he stood before the commandandt, and this is what he said, "Let me take his place. I'm old. He has a wife and children." To every one's amazement the commandandt accepted the offer, and that man and nine others were sent to the bunker to starve to death. Within some two weeks' time, all of them were dead, and their dead bodies were tossed in Auschwitz ovens.

The sergeant whose life was spared later wrote these words, "I could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. The immensity of it. I, the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me a stranger. I was saved." In 1995 that sergeant whose life was spared celebrated his 95th birthday.

Think about that for a moment. For 50 years every morning he opened his eyes, he was confronted with the reality that he was alive because someone else had volunteered to take his place and to die for him. Our names were on the divine list of those appointed to eternal punishment and rightfully so not for the sins of someone else but for our own, and our only hope was for someone to step forward and satisfy God's wrath in our place. Listen Christian, every day that we live and into eternity. Every day that we open our eyes you and I should remember that we live because the eternal Son of God volunteered to be the lightning rod for the wrath of God in our place; to be our propitiation.

Let's pray together.

Our Father, we thank You for the blood of Christ. We thank You for the cup that reminds us that He willingly, freely, poured out His own life in death. Not because He deserved it but because we deserved it. Father, we thank you that He volunteered to take our place. That He took upon Himself every single sin we have every committed; and then endured Your just punishment against every one of those sins. We thank You, oh God, that because He drank the cup, we never will. We thank You that in Him there is no condemnation because we are clothed in His righteousness and some day, oh God, we thank You that when Your wrath is unleashed against sin and sinners, we will be safe because we are in Him shielded by His full satisfaction and His perfect righteousness.

Father, help us to live our lives in keeping with that reality. Help us to love Jesus Christ. Help us to live our lives not for ourselves; not for what we want out of life. But Father, as Paul reminded us, help us to live for Him who loved us and who gave Himself for us.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.