Why the Cross sets us Free (Romans 3:21-26)
By Jay Wegter
The cross is a monument to the world that man deserves to die (the ultimate statement on God’s hatred of sin—even more forceful than eternal hell.) The cross lays us low, levels mankind, strips us of all self-righteousness that we may find our righteousness in Christ alone.
The cross sets us free—by giving us life in Christ—thus through the cross we discover how we as believing sinners are related to one another with a bond stronger than DNA. For we have life in Christ in common. It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who said that apart from justification through Christ, ego blocks us from intimacy with one another (but in Christ we have the potential of ‘deep community’).
And the ‘one-anothers’ in Scripture then are about translating the vertical (our life in Christ in common) into the horizontal—into our relationships with other believers— demonstrating and manifesting that we have life in Christ in common. 1 John 4 is the test that you are the object of the redemptive work of Christ—the proof being that you have love for God and the brethren.
The cross applied to our carnal natures keeps slaying our sinful passions (selfcentered-ness, self-protective, self-advancing, self-indulgent, etc.), so that Christ might manifest His personality through us by His Spirit.
Our text this morning is about the propitiation (atoning sacrifice) wrought by Christ: ‘propitiation’ is not simply the doctrinal name of Christ’s cross-work. No, it is the Mt. Everest from which we view the entire panorama of Scripture and redemptive history (and the driving force in Jesus’s life).
The doctrine of propitiation opens up the mystery of salvation (Rom 16:25-27 —“Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.”
The very theme of the book of Romans: How can guilty sinners be right with a Holy God?— is answered by propitiation. God gave the Son for sinners while in their ruin, defilement, bondage—He was offered to you in your brokenness before you could reach out and climb, before you could grasp the rung of a moral ladder and pull yourself up a notch.
The cross runs across the grain of our natural religious instincts—the whole gospel is counter-intuitive. (Intuition says you do your bit/part and God will do His—some kind of barter or transaction in which you make yourself acceptable to God or God more accepting of you.) God’s invasive sovereign mercy and righteousness are on display in the book of Romans. His righteousness and justice become the cause of the sinner’s salvation (a very costly forgiveness). His righteousness reaches into the world of sinners as lovingkindness—a refuge for sinners who couldn’t hide themselves from divine judgment. Romans 1:16-17— righteousness is the source of our salvation (the righteousness of Another; of Christ).
The righteousness of God is on display in the cross work of Christ. Righteousness is His zeal for His Name. The Name of God is the sum total of His perfections/excellence made sensible to the creature—it is who God really is. His righteousness is not merely His standard of holiness and purity—but is joined to His zeal for His name. He sanctifies His Name—setting it apart, and in saving a peculiar people for His own possession, He sets them apart unto Himself for His Name sake.
Now concerning the human dilemma/predicament of our total depravity in God’s sight— from a human perspective we could say that God is faced with an insurmountable problem: How can He clear any wicked person of sin without profaning His holy Name? The cross is the answer/solution. How can He forgive so freely that He takes joy and pleasure in pardoning a sinner and receiving him as His own child? Much more, how can the cancelling of your evil deeds and the clearing of your record be a display of divine righteousness and justice?
This is the gloriousness of the gospel—for it displays and exhibits Christ to us —it showcases who God is toward us in Christ (Heavenly Father, faithful to the New Covenant, the atoning and the ‘atoned for’ God, lover of our souls, etc.)—the gospel is our food (Jn 6). In the gospel God tells us that through Christ, He accomplishes your rescue and His glory at the same time. This profound truth generates love for God, passion for God’s glory and a hunger to keep feeding on His grace. Our recovery from the ruin of sin, and God’s glory are joined in Christ so that endless installments of grace, love, and kindness poured out upon you glorify God (this is light years beyond the capacity of natural reasoning). (It makes your soul sprout wings with eager desire to fly into the presence of God. This truth, of our good and His glory bound together in Christ is the golden key to delighting in God.)
George Mueller said, “My primary morning duty which fits me for all other duties: is to make myself happy in God.” Satisfaction in God helps drive our motivation to serve selflessly/sacrificially—this must come from delight not duty and drudgery. Where does that delight come from? Answer: from understanding/perceiving in one’s affections/spiritual eyes of the heart that His glory and your redemption are accomplished together in Christ.
Vv. 21-22
This divine, once for all act (redemption) is both a revelation of the righteousness of God, AND also a revelation of the wrath of God against sin. Our relationship to the righteousness of God came at an infinite price. God has wrought a very costly forgiveness— purchased in a way which reveals His righteousness (Cranfield, p. 68).
In our text, “But now,” points to the decisiveness of faith in the gospel events. And ‘righteousness’ here is the status of righteousness before God which is His gift to sinners (Ibid, p. 69). “But now apart from the law,” in regard to justification there no contribution, nothing preparatory, accessory, or subsidiary that is given by the works of the law. Yet, the righteousness of God is not without law, for faith in Christ is faith in Him who is perfect in faithfulness to God (John Murray, Romans Commentary, pp. 109-110).
V. 23
In verse 23, the apostle tells us that we forfeited the sight, passion, love, and reflection of the glory of God. By default we are worshipping and serving the creature and the creation. By reason of sin, we are blind to the glory of God—we will worship everything down here.
Thus if salvation is to reverse our ruin, it must restore us to the glory of God (sight, love, passion, reflection). That restoration comes at a great price. The cost to God is beyond calculation: G R A C E (God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense). Grace came through the redemption described in verse 24.
V. 24
Nothing we could do predisposed God to this act of justification—it is His free sovereign mercy (Murray, pp. 114-115). To be justified is to be set right with His righteousness. “Redemption” is taken from commercial language—a price paid to purchase or release or set free (in our case from the slave market of sin). Redemption is the cost of our justification to make us reconciled sons and daughters of God. Redemption (the result of Christ’s work of propitiation) is the foundation for justification—God can justify without profaning His Name because of the cost of redemption paid by Christ’s atoning sacrifice.
Redeemed from the bondage of sin and from the eternal just consequences of sin is a gift given freely. The accent here on the freeness of grace does not eliminate the medium through which the free grace has come into operation—which is why he says, “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Thus, the great price in procuring grace is not a negative but enhances the gracious character of the act. The price (redemption) magnifies the marvel of free grace (Murray, pp. 115-116).
This grace gift poured out upon us freely became of place of refuge—recently studied the term “refuge” in the book of Psalms (marked up my Bible). The righteous take refuge in God—the unrighteous do not. Even though before salvation—both are equally guilty, God regards those who take refuge in Him to be righteous.
Only those who are righteous by faith are the citizens of heaven. “Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith” (Hab 2:4). This tends to scandalize all of our natural religious instincts—namely that a righteousness by faith alone is what God requires (which is ultimately, or becomes, the source of your practical righteousness).
When you take refuge in Christ, God regards you as righteous—as you hide in Him. R. C. Sproul: “Only God can protect you from God.” The Lord has carved out a perfect place of hiding and refuge for guilty sinners. The need of which is all driven by the fact that God’s burning holiness makes us highly flammable. For God is a consuming fire who has determined to consume as a furnace all that is not like Him in holiness, and all those who do not share His desire to be glorified (Heb 10:27; 2:29).
If we understand God’s burning holiness—the terror of the Lord, we hide ourselves in Christ. Our natural religious instincts go the other direction: to try to do something to protect ourselves from God—rather than flee for refuge to Christ—the place of safety God has provided in His Son. All false religion is an ‘effort to protect oneself from God’—an impossible task. For God is not manageable; you can’t pacify, mollify, obligate, propitiate, negotiate, or domesticate God. This is ‘scary love’ but perfect love—God is satisfied in Himself and needs nothing from us. Our proper response to who He is and who we are is to run without delay to the place of refuge He has provided. You can’t make God more kindly disposed toward you—you can’t make Him more propitious than He is. He bids us hide in the place of refuge He has provided for you—for He is mightily glorified when you take refuge in Christ.
God has not dispensed His grace grudgingly. Of all the ways God could have chosen to make Himself known: rainbow, star systems, His all-wise providence in history, the joys of life (baby’s laugh, marital love)—the manner in which He has chosen to manifest His great name is: the way in which He receives sinners in Christ. This is the great revealer of who God is—the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:4-6). How He is manifesting Himself (by the gracious redemption of sinners) is the incredible news of the gospel.
V. 25
The O.T. saints viewed redemption through the Levitical types and shadows, thus they saw in a mirror far more dimly than we do in this gospel age, yet they could say, “The Lord our righteousness” (Jer 33:16).
“God passed over:” God exhibited patience and longsuffering in past generations (‘gone by’) when God permitted the nations to go their own way (Acts 14:16). Passing over the sins previously committed made necessary the demonstration of His justice (righteousness). Now that the work of Christ is being proclaimed to the nations, the time of ignorance is over (Acts 17:30). God is now declaring/commanding all men to repent.
The satisfaction of divine justice lies at the heart of redemption—the necessary provision of God’s grace to justify sinners (Murray, pp. 119-120).
I also want you to think about the millions of believers who lived before Christ’s birth. How could they go to the grave with the confidence of being accepted and pardoned? ANSWER. All those animal sacrifices pointed to the Lamb of God who would someday take away the sins of the world (Jn 1:29).
They looked forward; we look back to the cross. Man’s greatest need is God’s greatest deed. Propitiation is the quenching and pacifying of God’s wrath through the offering of the sacrifice which He Himself has appointed.
God purposed from all eternity that Christ would be this propitiatory sacrifice in order to prove (demonstrate) His righteousness at the present time. This is absolutely essential to the reputation and integrity of God. For He is only righteous in Himself IF He proves His righteousness—so that He might be righteous in the act of justifying sinners (all without compromising His righteousness). He demonstrates/proves that He does not condone evil, but bears that intolerable burden of evil Himself in the Person of His own Son. God has willed to forgive us righteously (Ibid, pp. 74-77).
Now God’s wrath is not a divine punitive tantrum; it is not caprice or irrationality; it is not a temporary explosion of anger—it is the settled retribution of God that will flow from His throne forever like white hot lava (Dan 7:9-10). It is His righteousness reacting to unrighteousness, His holiness reacting to unholiness.
We must never for a moment think that wrath is unbecoming to God. His wrathful response to sin is who He is in His holiness. It is His just response to sin in His creatures—justice toward their defiance of His character. His wrath will be poured out upon all sin in a comprehensive way (see the SOTM: every idle word, every lustful thought, etc.).
This is indeed terrifying: Luther captures the dread when he says that the Sermon on the Mount is designed to exasperate: the disciples’ response to the divine demand for absolute righteousness was: “Then who then can be righteous—who can be saved?” “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.” The law is the great avenger of God’s character—it is designed to drive us to Christ our city of refuge. If God did not punish all sin He would not be just and righteous—His holy character is revealed in His determination to judge all sin (He cannot excuse it and remain holy).
Only the cross of Christ applied can provide the pardon necessary to cancel our slavery to sin. No one is sanctified by guilt. Scottish divine, “No sin can be mortified (put to death) in heart or in life unless it is first forgiven.” That almost looks backwards to us. But God has done a preemptive strike on our legalistic hearts by forgiving and justifying us up front so that our holiness is grace-driven. That is the gospel order according to Romans 4:5 (He justifies the ungodly who believe)—now called to a life of personal holiness.
What is the Lord doing in this public execution of the Son of God? As I teach each new class of students in systematic theology, I frequently issue this challenge: how could the most wicked deed in human history (the murder of the innocent Son of God? How could that event be the placarding, the exhibition, display, demonstration, of God’s righteousness/justice? How is that possible, chew on that. ANSWER. God did not stage/plan that His Son’s death would take place in a lonely alley in Nazareth, but at the crossroads of three continents.
He wanted the world to know that He has a legal basis to forgive you. He is not in the business of handing out unpaid pardons, leniency, clemency, excusing sin. Not making a new law to wink at sin. He wants the world to know that He has a legal basis for releasing the ungodly from their sins. So Christ was displayed publicly as a propitiation—an atoning sacrifice—suffering substitute—so that your evil deeds could fall on Him the sin Bearer.
But even more: this work on Calvary was not a mere symbol, or example, or divine fiction about a kind of payment; it was a real courtroom in every sense of the word! It was Christ bearing our sin and penalty before the judgment bar/throne of God. It was the satisfaction of ineffable, immutable, unbending justice—the Law of God doing its worst—prosecuting its penalty to the “Nth” degree.
But even more: The demonstration of God’s righteousness at the cross means that under the moral government of God, Christ became officially guilty of the sins of His people (all who would ever believe). Bearing their sins up the cross (1 Pet 2:24; 3:18). The righteousness demonstrated here is an attribute of divine justice—propitiation makes for the provision of grace to be released. Redemption contemplates our bondage; propitiation contemplates our liability to wrath; and justification contemplates our arraignment as condemned under God’s pronouncement (how wonderful that the intertwining of the salvific words addresses each aspect of our ruin) (Murray, pp. 116-118). When we meditate on Christ’s work on our behalf we need to speak to our own hearts that real objective justice was done in the case of my personal sins—God-satisfying justice. It is that satisfaction of justice displayed to your conscience which must make its impact or you will never love God. Propitiation must go the deepest part of your conscience, penetrating all of its crevices where self-righteousness hides or the offices of Christ will not be infinitely precious to you. “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb 9:14). Only then will your conscience come to a full stop/rest—so that in the matter of your sins, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the justice of God against your sins has been satisfied and fully met in your case.
For only that which satisfies God Himself can bring ultimate peace to your conscience—for it is small annex of God’s courtroom (it is a place of verdicts, trials, subpoenas). Propitiation exhibits to the conscience the justice of God at Calvary. The Spirit shows us the blood yet one more time that we might have the peace which passes all understanding. You must learn to preach this to yourself. Real, God-satisfying justice was done in the case of my sins—this was accomplished for me when Christ was in His agony on my behalf. God has a legal basis under His moral government for releasing me of my sins. It is not God saying: I barely tolerate you; I will put up with you one more day. No in releasing you, God is glorifying His grace in your pardon and redemption. Now if this deeply affected you, how would it change your life/walk with God? So many true believers paralyzed by their defeats which they believe define them. As a consequence they are neutralized, and do not seek to minister to others or bear witness of Christ. But how healing it is to the soul to know that God is putting His perfections on display in your justification and forgiveness: that He might be known as JUST and JUSTIFIER.
V. 26
The cross of Christ reveals God as JUST and JUSTIFIER. By contrast, every religion in the world but Christianity (the gospel) raises up fortresses against the knowledge of God—false gospels do not, and cannot tell the truth about God. False gospels have no penal substitution: as a consequence, they compromise either justice or mercy. The Ark of the Covenant kept both (note what took place on the Day of Atonement).
Our Shekinah glory ‘proof’ of God receiving the work of Christ on our behalf is the empty tomb. Now He ever lives to make intercession for us—saving us to the uttermost (Heb 7:25). He was raised for our justification. “Do you have a clear conscience?” One of the greatest benefits of the new covenant is an endless provision for cleansing (Heb 8).
The demonstration of God’s righteousness manifests God as Just and Justifier. Thus two things cohere and coalesce: the justice of God, and the justification of sinners (made possible by the propitiation). God’s righteousness is conserved and vindicated in the justification of sinners (Murray, pp. 118-119).
So God is making Himself known as Just and Justifier in the public display of Christ crucified for sinners. Without shedding of blood, there is no remission (Heb 9:22). But Christ paid and paid until God said . . . “I am satisfied, you have paid more than enough, I am free to forgive all who believe, even the worst—and I am eternally glorified thereby.” God never forgives by leniency, turning a blind eye, or indifference. He only forgives what He pays for. He has paid the infinite price to purchase your pardon. Therefore, your forgiveness is grounded in a judicial act of God which vindicates His righteousness/justice and holiness when he pardons the ungodly (accomplishing real divine justice). He has a legal basis to forgive you—He is free to pardon the believing sinner because of the cross. This has profound implications for your walk with God. The real issue: how bookkeeping of the conscience? By moral comparisons? We must employ Christ for the reasons God gave Him: He is righteousness for the unrighteous—He is cleansing for the defiled. We must make the verdict of heaven the verdict of our hearts. For what does God look at to clear our books?
Only what satisfies God can bring peace to your conscience. This trust in the atonement is the heartbeat of your walk with God. Relate to atoning and atoned for God. Justice satisfied there in your forgiveness (not longsuffering alone that keeps cleansing you). This affects all of our relationships. If you don’t carry your status before God but Christ does, then . . .(Unlike the spiritual crisis at Corinth), when the cross is central, pecking orders, self-differentiation, ‘haves’ versus ‘have-nots’, achiever versus non-achiever become less significant. God loves me for no good reason in myself.
Christ is my eligibility and qualification for the unimpeded flow of God’s love to me. And passing that love on to God and other is the chief mark that I am the object of Christ’s atoning work (1 Jn 4).
The cross-centered believer understands that the perfectly fit one died for the unfit. The perfectly holy one was broken for broken people (fills me with compassion— becomes a life perspective). The cross lets us draw near to one another. ‘Without a veneer’ (a sincere love) as it says in 1 Peter 1:22. (self-protection, agendas, self-advancement, versus doing good to you in light of eternity). The gospel of the cross lets me feed on God’s love and pass it on to others (1 John 4).
Our fellowship with God, our saving knowledge of God, our enjoyment of God is all based upon the massive guilt exchange which took place at the cross. The massive guilt transfer at Calvary is to exert greater control on our lives. This produces a maturity in which we are perfected in love (1 Jn 4:18). God has made Himself known by how He saves sinners. He saves in such a way that He puts His own character on display in your salvation. Thus I ask you today, do you know Him as Just and Justifier? For how you deal with your sin (by the cross or not) is a prime revealer of whether or not you know the God of all grace.