When John the Baptist saw Jesus walking towards him, he cried out, “Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” That was a statement of tremendous significance. On the one hand, he was saluting Jesus as the Savior, as the One who came from God, the Messiah. And in that, he was indicating the true mission of the Messiah. Not a military mission, not a political mission, not a mission of social activism, but a mission to save sinners.
And additionally, John was referencing a prophecy that was typified by a Jewish holiday which was known as the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That was the beginning of the Jewish New Year, and it had been celebrated since the days when Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery to Egypt. It’s interesting that Jesus began His ministry with this clarion call of John that the Passover Lamb had entered on the scene of Jewish society, and 3 and a half years later Jesus would be crucified on the day of Passover.
What is also interesting is that this week, starting on Wednesday is the beginning of the celebration of the Jewish Passover according to the current Jewish observation of it. Christians today do not celebrate Passover per se, but we do celebrate the Lord’s Supper, which is the Christian celebration of the Passover. In Luke 22:15-20 Jesus said to the disciples, "With [fervent] desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, "Take this and divide [it] among yourselves; "for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." And He took bread, gave thanks and broke [it], and gave [it] to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." Likewise He also [took] the cup after supper, saying, "This cup [is] the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” So with that meal, Jesus transformed the Passover into the Lord’s Supper which we celebrate today.
The Old Testament Passover which Jesus and His disciples were taking part of, finds it origin in Exodus 12. I’m sure you are very familiar with the story of how God delivered the children of Israel from captivity and from the angel of death. You will remember that God had exercised a series of judgments upon Egypt who had continued to harden their hearts against Him. Finally, Moses announced to Pharaoh that God would execute the first born male child of all the families in Egypt at midnight.
In preparation for this judgment, God told Moses to instruct the Jewish people to take a lamb, spotless and without blemish, on the 10th day of the month, and they were to live with it until the 14 day of the month, then at that time to slay the lamb and put the blood upon the door posts of their house. That night they were to roast the lamb and eat it with bitter herbs. And at midnight the angel of death would pass by throughout all of the land of Egypt, and if he saw the blood on the door post, he would pass over that house and they would be spared the Lord’s judgement. And of course all that transpired just as the Lord said it would, and the Israelites who had the blood on the doorposts were passed over, but for those who had not done so, the first born son died.
Now as I said, the Passover was a type, a foreshadowing of what Jesus Christ would do on the cross. Jesus was the Passover Lamb, whose blood was shed so that the judgment of God might pass over us, we who had the condemnation of death upon us. Notice the parallels of the Passover lamb to Jesus; first, Jesus lived on earth with man as a member of the human family before He was sacrificed for them. Second, the sacrifice of Christ has to be appropriated personally to each home, not simply on a national or community scale. Third, Jesus was the spotless, perfect Lamb of God, not stained by any sin or moral failing. Next, it was only the blood of Jesus, His sacrificial death, that could atone for sin. Then, in His death, Jesus drank the bitter cup of God’s judgment against sin. Another parallel is that the work of Jesus, as with the Passover meal, has to be taken in full, without leaving anything out. And finally, the Passover of Jesus for those who believe in Him and have appropriated His sacrifice for their sins, provides deliverance from death/wrath, and deliverance from the enslavement to sin.
Another important element of the Passover is the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. On the day of the Passover, the Jews were to make careful search of their house for leaven. And they were to expunge any old leaven from their homes and not eat any thing that was leavened for 7 days afterwards. And what we learn from the New Testament especially, is that leaven is symbolic of sin. Paul said in 1Cor. 5:6-7 “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump [of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are [in fact] unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”
So in the Passover feast, the Jews were to, in effect, repent of sin and be cleansed of sin, which is analogous to what transpires in our salvation.
Now in this passage in which we are focusing today, Paul is expressing the characteristics of our justification and particularly that which in theological terms is called “substitutionary atonement.” This principle is illustrated by the Passover lamb in which the innocent is slain for the guilty. It’s the principle that one person dies as a substitute, or in place of, another. The blood of the innocent lamb was a substitutionary atonement for the Israelites living under the condemnation of death in Egypt.
Paul spent the first three chapters of Romans showing that all men are under the condemnation of sin, and were due the wrath of God, which is death. And then Paul showed that though no one is righteous on the basis of their own merit or works, yet by faith in Jesus Christ and His righteousness, we might be made righteous in Him and by His work on the cross. So now Paul wants to explain how that is accomplished. How sin is dealt with by God so that He might be holy, and just, and yet merciful and loving. How God can reconcile sinners to Himself without denying justice and the law of God.
The point of why Jesus came to earth was to save sinners. He said so Himself. He came to die for sin, and from the beginning of His ministry He set His face resolutely towards that hour that was predestined and prophesied, the hour of His crucifixion, when He would offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin. But not only a sacrifice for sin, but a substitute for sinners. Isaiah 53:5 says, “But He was wounded[a] for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”
Christ died for sinners, thus it is necessary that to be delivered from death that one must first recognize he is a sinner. James said, “Confess your sins one to another that you may be healed.” Christ died for the sins of the world, but all the world is not saved; only those who confess and repent of their sins and by faith accept the substitutionary death of Christ for their sins. Remember the serpent that was raised on the pole by Moses after the nation of Israel was bitten by vipers. Whoever looked at the serpent on the pole was healed, but he who did not look at it perished. The one who looked must first recognize that he has a disease unto death, he must believe the message that if he looks to it he will be healed, and then he must turn to it, look to it, to be healed.
Now as we go through this passage before us then I just want to use some words to act as headings for the principles of our salvation, so that it might help us to learn the essential elements of our justification as laid out in this passage. And the first word I would like to suggest is the word motivation. What was the MOTIVATION for our salvation?
The answer is, that God’s motivation for Christ’s atonement is love. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Paul says in vs 8 of our text, that “God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s love is the reason that Jesus offered Himself in our place.
It’s interesting that in describing the condition of those who Christ came to save in vs 6 is that Paul says God loved us when we were powerless. Not only did He choose to die for sinners, but for those who are powerless, that is helpless and hopeless. The corona virus that has paralyzed our country is stark evidence that we are powerless as humankind to really determine our safety or insulate ourselves from death and disease. It should heighten our recognition of our need for a Savior. I only pray that it does.
Mankind is powerless to help ourselves from the effect of the fall. Mankind is hopelessly, helplessly bitten by the sting of death and we cannot heal ourselves. Because of our sin nature we are powerless to be righteous according to the standard of God’s righteousness. We are estranged from God, we cannot reach up to God, so God had to condescend to us. And so Christ, motivated by love, stooped to become man, to dwell among us, to live a perfect life without sin, and yet die for our sins as our substitute, so that we might be healed.
Christ’s love is even more significant because it is given not on the basis of our deservedness, but even when we were undeserving. Paul says that it’s possible, though not likely, that someone might offer to die for a good person. But Christ’s love is so remarkable because He chose to die for the unrighteous. He chose to die for His enemies.
So the first word is motivation. The second word I would like to give you is PROPITIATION. Propitiation means to satisfy or appease. At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died to satisfy the wrath of God against sin. Paul says Christ died at the right time, The right time was the time which had been prophesied. It was the time which was typified by the Passover. Christ died on the Passover at the appointed time. And in dying for sinners, Christ satisfied the justice of God.
Around the turn of the 20th century, Dyson Hague, an Anglican theologian wrote this about propitiation, or satisfaction. “As sin is debt, there are only two ways in which man can be righted with God; either by incurring no debt, or by paying the debt. But this, man cannot do, and herein comes the glory of the Gospel of the atonement, securing at once the honor of God and the salvation of the sinners. No one ought to make satisfaction for the sin of man except man, and no one can make satisfaction except God Himself. He who makes the satisfaction for human sin must, therefore, be man and God; and so in wondrous love, the God-Man of His own accord offered to the Father what He could not have been compelled to lose, and paid for our sins what He did not owe for Himself.” Jesus satisfied, propitiated, atoned for our sin.
1 John 2:2 says, “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for [those of] the whole world.” All who would come to Him for salvation He will in no wise cast out. He alone could satisfy the demands of God’s holy law, and pay the penalty for the sins of the world.
The third word is SUBSTITUTION. Another word for substitution which you may have heard before is vicarious. Vicarious means to experience for yourself what is done by another. Vicarious is from the Latin word vicarius which means substitute. Paul says four times in vs 6-8 that Christ died for sinners, that Christ died for us. He uses the Greek word “hyper” which means vicarious, or about, in the place of, for the sake of, or on behalf of. And in the KJV of 1 Cor. 5: 7 it says, “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us.” The word translated as “for” there is the word “hyper.” And Peter states the same principle of substitutionary atonement in 1 Peter 3:18, saying, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, [the] just for [the] unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”
And so as the Passover lamb was slain as the substitution for the children of Israel, so Christ was slain as a substitute for those who would believe in HIm. 2 Cor. 5:21 says, “[God] made [Jesus] who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Christ died for your sins, so that you might be made righteous with His righteousness, and that He might pay the penalty for your sin, if you will just believe in Him, and receive His atonement on your behalf.
The next word that we should consider is DEMONSTRATION. Actually, Paul uses the word “demonstrates,’ present tense in vs8. What he means is that though it happened in the past, it remains an ever present reality. The object of this word really is the same as the object of motivation. God’s motivation was love. And God demonstrated His love, or God manifested His love. How did God demonstrate His love? By sending Jesus to die for us, even while we were yet sinners. Jesus said “Greater love has no man than this, than a man lays down his life for his friends.” But what Paul indicates is so astonishing about God’s love is that He laid down His life for His enemies. When man was in rebellion against God, still Jesus loved us so much He was willing to die for us. He demonstrated His love in a way that is beyond comprehension.
The next word I want you to notice is JUSTIFICATION. Vs9, “Since then we have been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” Justification is our legal standing before God. Believers are those who by the gift of God received righteousness from God, a right standing before God. The demands of God’s justice concerning our sinful condition is the wrath of God, which is death. And that death was satisfied by the death of the Lamb. The blood points to an offering, a sacrifice, so that we are saved from God’s wrath. We escape the judgment of death that has been pronounced upon all men, even as Israel escaped the death on all of Egypt which was pronounced as God’s judgment.
The next word I want you to consider is RECONCILIATION. In vs 10 it says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Reconciliation means to make friends between warring parties, to make peace between two opposing factions. God loved us so that He might make us His friends, HIs people, His family, who formerly were His enemies. We were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son.
Paul said in 2 Cor. 5:10, “Be reconciled to God.” That indicates there is human responsibility to respond in faith and repentance, to surrender to Him, to love and obey Him. It requires obedience. Phl. 2:12-13 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for [His] good pleasure.” To be reconciled to God is to surrender your will to God, to claim a new allegiance, and submit to His authority as Lord.
The next word should need little explanation. And that is SALVATION. In vs 10 Paul says we shall be saved through His life. The Spirit of God works in us to complete in us the work of salvation, from justification, to sanctification, to glorification. From beginning to end, salvation is of the Lord.
In vs 9 Paul says having been justified we are saved from wrath. Then in vs 10 he says having been reconciled by His death, we are saved by His life. What’s the difference? That by His death we vicariously died to sin, and by His resurrection He lives, and because He lives, we live and shall live with Him forever. And then for the second time, Paul uses the phrase “Much more then.” It means, if this is true, then how much more is the other true? So if God justifies sinners by HIs death, how much more will He certainly save His friends, His family by the power of His risen life. Because Jesus said after His resurrection He would ascend into heaven, and then send His Spirit to dwell in us, so the Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies. We live, because He lives in us. That is the power of Christ in me and in you, that we now have the Spirit of God living in us, giving us the power to live the new life He gave us.
Now that realization that the Spirit of Christ lives in us should bring rejoicing. That rejoicing is articulated in what Paul describes as EXULTATION. That’s the last word I want you to consider, exultation. Look at vs 11, “And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” This is the third time Paul uses the word exult. In vs 2 he says, we exult in hope, speaking of the coming glory of the Lord in which we joyfully look forward to. And then in vs 3, we exult, or rejoice in tribulations, because though we suffer tribulation now, we know that tribulations are the fiery trials which are used by God in our lives to refine us as gold.
And then now in vs 11, We exult in God through Jesus Christ, because of our reconciliation. Because of our reconciliation through the death of Christ we are now the friends of God, we are the family of God, we are the chosen seed which God has promised to bless and love forever and secure forever.
What a tremendous blessing it is for those who have been reconciled to God. Just think of it. God loves the unloveable. God loved us even when we were sinners. How much more does He love us now that we are adopted into His family? Not only has our legal standing been changed from guilty to righteous, but our relationship to God has changed. Justification, as I said earlier, speaks to our legal standing before God. But reconciliation speaks to our relationship to God. Through Christ’s death His former enemies are changed into friends, and adopted as His children. So if God is willing to die for His enemies, then how much more is He willing to do for His children? He will certainly deliver us from the wrath to come, He will certainly give us all that we need for life, and He will certainly give us the inheritance in glory that He has promised us. And for that we should rejoice, even though now, for a little while we may suffer tribulations. But for the joy set before us, we endure the shame and hardship of this fallen world, looking for that blessed hope of the glory of Christ revealed at the end of the age.
I pray that you have turned and looked to Jesus. Heb. 12:2 says, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” I pray that you have trusted in Him for your salvation. Be reconciled to God. He has offered you peace with God though His sacrifice. I pray that you receive that gift of salvation. Look to Jesus and be saved.
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