BACKGROUND:
In describing how God provided us with undeserved righteousness, Paul alludes to the sacrificial system in the Old Testament (Leviticus 17:11). Only now, the life offered as sacrifice is not a spotless animal, but Christ. God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins. That punishment involved his death—he shed his blood for sinners. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, God can accept those who put their trust in Jesus.
Why did the punishment require shed blood? God had said from the beginning, “For the life of any creature is in its blood . . . It is the blood, representing life, that brings you atonement” (Leviticus 17:11). But the blood Paul mentions here is a particular blood—it is Christ’s blood. Only the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross was the effective atonement for our sins. Christ stands in our place, having paid the penalty of death for our sin, and he could satisfy God’s anger against us.
If God did not eternally punish those who sinned before Christ lived, then why did Christ die? Paul shows that, at the cross, God forgave the sin of all who believe—Old Testament believers looked forward in faith to Christ’s coming and were saved, even though they did not know Jesus’ name or the details of his earthly life. Unlike the Old Testament believers, we know about the God who loved the world so much that he gave his own Son. The question to answer is, Have you put your trust in him?
God is entirely fair and just, both in his inherent character, and in his dealings with sinners. Christ’s death relates to both the past and the present. God did not completely reject his people, the Jews, even though they constantly rejected him. He was not being unfairly generous; rather, he was looking forward to the time when Jesus’ death would be effective for all those who believed in God before Jesus came, as well as those who come after. The only answer to humanity’s plight—that is, death because of sin—was given by God in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This action fulfilled God’s own law and his promises to Israel. The way to receive this answer for ourselves is through faith in Jesus Christ.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what i have read today?)
The last thing we can say about our salvation is that it cost God a lot. It is expensive. It is free but it is not free. It is a gift but somebody had to pay for the gift. The gift was Jesus Christ giving His own life. Romans 3:25. "God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood." Atonement is a key word - an important word. It is a word that is used only twice in the New Testament. Here and one other place in Hebrews. But it's used all through the Old Testament. In Hebrew it's the word Kippur. Yom Kippur -- the Day of Atonement.
Some translations use the word "propitiation". NIV uses "the sacrifice of atonement". A very limited definition is "satisfied". Ezekiel 18:4 says, "The soul that sins, it shall die." Romans says, "the wages of sin is death." When you break man's laws you pay man's penalty. When you break God's laws you pay God's penalty. God's penalty is death.
The question is how can a God who is righteous and totally just forgive us and yet judge the sin at the same time? How does He get away with that? That's the most important question you'll ever ask. How can a God who is totally pure and cannot stand any sin at all forgive us and yet deal with the sin at the same time?
The answer to that is this one word - atonement. This one word explains why Jesus Christ had to come and die on the cross. The point is this, God, when He forgives, can't just say, "Forget it! It's no big deal!" God is totally just. So He has to have a reason to forgive us. There has to be a basis for it. God has a basis for it in the fact that Jesus Christ died for us. All of this is seen in the Old Testament.
Leviticus 16 explains the Day of Atonement. It was a Jewish Holy day that was a symbol of what was to happen thousands of years later when Jesus Christ came to earth to die for an atonement. In Leviticus 16 we have the story that one day a year they were to go out and get two goats. The high priest was to take these two goats as a symbol. One of the goats he was to sacrifice as an offering, representing someone giving their life for the sins of the whole nation.
The other goat the priest would place his hands on him and pronounce all of the sins of the entire nation of Israel for the previous year and symbolically put them on that goat and then they would take that goat out to the wilderness and let him go to represent that all of the sins were being forgotten and going out into the wilderness. That goat was called the scape goat. The scape goat was the goat that symbolically took all of the sins onto himself and then was thrust out into the wilderness and that was to be a symbolic thing that God was forgiving it all and putting it all on one person. That doesn't mean a whole lot until you look at John 1.
John 1:29 This is what John the Baptist said the very first time he saw Jesus Christ. He saw Him walking at him from a far enough distance and turns around and says to the entire crowd listening to him, "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and he said, `Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'" Who is the scapegoat? Jesus is our scapegoat. All of those sacrifices in the Old Testament was simply to represent somebody who was coming eventually the Messiah, to take the blame of the entire world on His shoulders.
2 Corinthians 5:21. This is what atonement is all about. "God made Him who had no sin [That's Jesus. Jesus had no sin. He was perfect.] to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." God took all of the sin of the world and put it on Jesus Christ. Why? Because He loved us.
Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this while we were still sinners Christ died for us." That is what atonement is all about.
Why did God create the plan of salvation? Why did God send Jesus Christ to do that? He did it for two reasons:
1. v. 25b. "He did this to demonstrate His justice because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished."
Did God let people get away with sin in the Old Testament? Was God a softie in the Old Testament and all of a sudden got severe in the New Testament? He said God was patient with people in their sins in the Old Testament but He's not anymore. He's talking about those who lived before Christ. He's referring to all of the sins committed B.C. -- Before Christ. He's saying God passed over those sins because God looked ahead and knew what Jesus Christ would do.
He said, "I know what's happening now but I know who's going to pay for it. There is someone who is going to pay for them. There is a coming Messiah." He was patient when people sinned in the Old Testament because He knew Jesus would die. All of the Old Testament animal sacrifices never saved anybody. They were just the symbol of what was really going to happen years later. When Jesus died he reached all the way back to Adam and paid for every sin that had ever been done wrong since the beginning of the world. That took care of the past but that doesn't help us.
2. v. 26 "He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time so as to be just and the one who justifies the man who has faith in Christ."
The next verse helps us. All of us were born A.D. He said God did this to show His justice regarding those born after Christ -- "at the present time". "So as to be just as the one who justifies" -- Jesus was God's representative and Jesus was man's representative. He played both sides. God is just in forgiving us. He has a reason to forgive us because of what Jesus Christ did.
The cross covers the past, the present, and the future. When Jesus Christ died on the cross He's already died for sins you're going to commit tomorrow. He not only died for the ones you committed yesterday, and the ones you committed today but when Jesus died on the cross He died for everything I'm going to do for the rest of my life. He died for the sins my kids are going to commit and their kids. See why I said this is the heaviest section in the entire Bible? It paid past, present, and future.
I'm praying this foundational passage sinks deep into your heart and mind today. The next time someone says to you something like -"All religions are the same or all roads lead to the mountain top", remember this passage. No one else paid for your sin, except Jesus. No one else came back from the dead and proved he was God - except Jesus.
I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
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