Monthly Archive for April, 2011

²⁷ Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.

Paul abruptly reverted to a diatribe style (rhetorical questioning) of writing in verses 27 to 31. The argument of verses 21 to 26 was that God justifies by faith. Now Paul argued the tension this creates with why God gave the law. He argued by showing antitheses between the two principles of works and faith.

²⁷ Where is boasting [ground of bragging] then?

The “then” of this phrase harks back to verses 21 to 26. Boasting is excluded because God gives a state of righteousness before Himself by faith. Paul challenged the self-assurance of anyone who thinks he can have salvation before God by keeping the law.

It is excluded [decisive—aorist tense—banned].

No one can brag about keeping the law because no one can keep it. We find the Greek word for “excluded” only here and Galatians 4:17. God is the one who does the excluding (passive voice). Christ’s death made the difference; thus, there is no place for bragging about keeping the law. Salvation by works is permanently banished in God’s view.

By what [kind of] law?

The word “law” here carries the idea of principle—“By what principle?” This is not referring to the Old Testament but to any kind of law or principle.

Of works?

People do not have acceptance before God by the principle of “works” derived from the law.  

No, but by the law [principle or system] of faith.

Those who have acceptance by God have it by “faith.” The antithesis is between the works of the law and faith. Faith in our justification before God by the death of Christ for our sins is the only way of salvation. Faith does not allow for bragging because it places trust in what someone else has done; salvation is a gift from God. That is why bragging is excluded in God’s economy.

PRINCIPLE: No one can fellowship with God apart from grace.

APPLICATION: Boasting about our part in salvation is inconsistent with the grace principle of salvation. Grace precludes any place for boasting. Grace does not allow any place for boasting because God did all the work. If we do the work, then we can brag. If God does the work, then we can only rejoice in what He did. There is no satisfaction God finds in human achievement. We do the sinning; God does the saving. There is no way anyone can offer to himself self-congratulations for his salvation. God’s way of salvation strips away human effort. God places the basis of salvation completely outside of ourselves.

Note this hymn:

“When I survey the wondrous cross…I pour contempt on all my pride.”

God does not sully His absolute righteousness by meager human standards. It is impossible to come to God by human standards. 

Ep 2: ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, lest anyone should boast. 

²⁶ to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

How can God be both just and the justifier at the same time?

and the justifier [present tense]

Not only did God want to be deemed to be just, but He wanted people to see Him as the means of justification; that is, the One who declares that the one who places faith in Jesus as right as He is right.

God had a dilemma; the dilemma was how He was to justify people yet maintain His own consistent righteousness with Himself. If He were to forgive without justice or judgment, then He would violate His own character and standards of being. His answer to this dilemma was the death of Jesus as judgment for the sin of the world. Christ’s sacrifice vindicated His standards of righteousness.

PRINCIPLE: God justifies Himself by the sacrifice of Jesus for all sins of all time and remains consistent with Himself in doing so.

APPLICATION: God would sully Himself if He allowed men into His fellowship while doing nothing about the sin problem. God must be both simultaneously loving and just. He removed any scandal from His name by what Christ did on the cross.

The problem with the sin issue is not primarily the sin of man but the perfect righteousness of God. The difficulty is not getting sinful men to an absolutely righteous God, but that God has to resolve the sin issue with Himself. The only way God could resolve this issue was to send His Son to pay for our sins on the cross. In this, God is satisfied (propitiated). The righteous demands of His character are satisfied by the death of Christ for our sins. The cross demonstrates that God is just with Himself in saving man. There is no way that God could abrogate His own righteousness and be true to Himself.

God resolves the conundrum of keeping to His absolute standard of righteousness by offering mercy to the sinner through sacrificing Jesus to pay for the sins of the sinner. 

²⁵ whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

because in His forbearance [literally, holding back of God’s judgment]

The word “forbearance” means to hold back, delay. God did not execute justice in the past until Christ came. Atonement for sin was only provisional in the Old Testament; that system is no longer necessary in light of the effectiveness of Christ’s death. The Temple sacrifice was no longer necessary. God passed over sins in the Old Testament (atonement), but Jesus’ death was the ultimate and final answer to the sin of man. This does not mean that God disregarded sin but that He anticipated an ultimate answer to sin.

God’s “forbearance” is His longsuffering or delay in His wrath toward sinners. Because God did not finally deal with the sin issue in Old Testament sacrifices, that did not mean He would neglect ultimately dealing with sinners’ sin (by the death of Christ as the final sacrifice). God held His forbearance from the time of Adam.

God had passed over [unpunished] the sins that were previously committed,

Sins “previously committed” refers to sins committed prior to God’s provision of the cross to forgive sins. These are the sins committed under the Old Testament dispensation. God forbore the punishment of the sins before the death of Christ. Those who sacrificed for sin before Christ only received forgiveness provisionally or prospectively until Christ died.  There was only a temporary suspension of God’s executing the penalty of sin. God could forbear sins because He anticipated the death of Christ. This is evidence of his grace. He passed over sins of the Old Testament temporality to be dealt with permanently by the death of Christ.

Ac 17: ³⁰ Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, ³¹ because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.

God bypassed dealing with sins in a permanent manner in Old Testament sacrifices because He would deal finally with the sin of man by the cross. God always operates inherently justly.

This is the only place in the New Testament where the Greek word “passed over” is used. Thus, Paul carefully selected this Greek word to demonstrate the non-finality of the penalty of sin in the Old Testament. The sacrificial system in the Temple did not fully pay for sin—“the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin.”

There is a difference between a type and the antitype, between the foreshadowing of the death of Christ and the actuality of Christ’s death. The type points to the reality. This was true of the mercy seat. Blood shed on the mercy seat could not save, but only point to the One who would save. Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins is where God meets man to justify him.

PRINCIPLE: God did not appear righteous in punishing man’s sin until Christ died on the cross.

APPLICATION: God put off punishment of sin until He was satisfied with the suffering of Christ for our sin. God was righteous but He did not appear righteous until Christ paid for the sins of man. 

²⁵ whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

through faith,

The phrase “through faith” connects to the fact that God is satisfied (propitiation) with Christ’s sacrifice for our sin. The idea is that God is propitiated by the blood of Christ received by faith. We direct our faith toward a living person who shed His blood.

Faith in the blood of Christ saves our souls. “Through faith” is the means by which we engage our redemption or freedom. It is the link to our justification. We appropriate God’s grace by faith (3:22).

Faith is a non-meritorious system of action. Faith receives something, not gives something. It is the object of faith that is important, not the action of faith. Faith in faith is of no value biblically. Exclusive reliance on the sacrifice of Christ is at the heart of becoming a Christian—that is, reliance on His propitiatory sacrifice. This is something done for us, not by us. God’s acceptance of us is by something outside of us.

There is no ability in us to do anything to merit salvation. The only entity that satisfies God is our faith in the sacrifice of Christ.

PRINCIPLE: Faith in itself does not justify, but faith placed on the right object does.

APPLICATION: Faith is the means of appropriating what God provides. There is no intrinsic value in faith; the value of faith rests in its object—the sacrifice of Jesus’ life for our sins. Under biblical principles, Christ and His sacrifice for our sins is the proper object of our belief. Jesus made that possible through redemption. 

²⁵ whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

as a propitiation [appeasement—satisfaction]

The word “propitiation” means to satisfy. The classical Greek used this term for appeasing the gods by sacrifice so that they would act favorably toward those who made the sacrifice. The idea was to buy off the anger of the gods to gain their favor by placating them. This is not the New Testament usage, for God’s favor is not for sale.

The Old Testament Greek (LXX) uses “propitiation” with the ideas of atonement or reconciliation. The word carries the idea of getting rid of that which stands between God and man. This was the purpose of the mercy seat; the blood comes between the sinner and God. The mercy seat was the lid of the ark on which the high priest sprinkled blood on the Day of Atonement. The significance was that the life of the animal was sacrificed so that the person who offered the sacrifice was not charged for his sin and was made acceptable to God. 

Although the shed blood on the mercy seat covered sin, it could not remove sin. It only pointed to the One who would ultimately remove sin permanently and forever. The mercy seat was the point of contact between God and the sinner.

He 10: ¹⁰ By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

¹⁴ For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

It is important to note that in the New Testament it is God who satisfies Himself by meeting His own standards by the death of Christ for our sins. Man cannot appease the absolute righteousness of God. That is why God sent Jesus in human flesh to die in that flesh (1 Ti 2:6). Jesus appeased God’s wrath by this action.

The New Testament idea of the word is to remove the obstacle of penalty between an absolutely holy God and sinful man. God is satisfied with this arrangement, thus satisfaction for payment of sin is the idea. The idea is that God is satisfied with Christ’s expiation for sin. In New Testament parlance, Jesus is both the mercy seat and the sacrifice for sins.

God is satisfied with the payment Jesus made for the sin of man. We find this Greek word only two times in the New Testament, here in our passage and Hebrews 9:5 where it is translated “mercy seat”:

⁵ and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

The “mercy seat” was the place of atonement in Old Testament sacrifices. It was the spot in both the tabernacle and temple where the goat’s blood was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement to atone (cover) the sin of Israel (Le 16:15). Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers used this word 21 times for the lid of the ark—the mercy seat. Today we call this day Yom Kippur. Luke 18:13 and Hebrews 2:17 use a related term, to satisfy by sacrifice. First John 2:2 and 4:10 use the noun “propitiation.”

This shedding of blood satisfied God’s righteous demands. The “mercy seat” is the place of satisfaction. This was the place God satisfies His wrath toward sin.

PRINCIPLE: The Father is satisfied with what Jesus did about our sins.

APPLICATION: The New Testament speaks of Christ as a propitiation three times:

1.     Romans 3:25

2.     1 Jn 2:² And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. [This verse shows Jesus as the means of propitiation.  He is the propitiation for sins of believers and sins of the whole world.]

3.     1 Jn 4:¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [This verse presents God’s love in sending His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.]

We find the word propitiation also in Hebrews 2:17.

We cannot buy God’s love by what we do. We cannot appease God by any payment we may make. Propitiation means that God is satisfied with what Jesus did about our sins. God satisfies His justice in that. This appeases God’s demands of Himself.

Had there been no mercy to cover the Ark of the Covenant, there would be no way to avert God’s judgment. None of us could approach the presence of God. The Ark contained the commandments that judged man as God measures Himself against man. Because God put a cover on the Ark box, He atoned for sin. The high priest on the day of atonement (yom kippur) sprinkled blood on the mercy seat. God showed Himself the God of mercy in this action. The Word of God pictures Jesus as our mercy seat. The mercy seat was the place of blood sacrifice.

“Mercy,” as in the mercy seat, is a wonderful idea. Mercy is something we receive that we have no right to receive. This word carries the ideas of forgiveness of our offenses to God and forbearance on God’s part toward us.

God was satisfied by the death of Christ for our sins. Propitiation is always directed toward God; God must satisfy Himself with His own standards of righteousness. He expiates (cancels guilt) by the substitution of Christ’s death for our death. The effect is to pardon the offender and declare him or her as right as God is right.