The Ordo Salutis - Justification
Justification - If I were to ask you what you think is the best word in the Bible, what would you say? John Stott said it is justification.
Justification is about how a man can be right with God. When you stand before God and are put on trial for your sins, what will happen? Most people do not want to think about this and avoid facing it or discussing it because the thought of standing before the all-knowing eye of God and having your entire life scrutinized for every word, thought, and deed is an uncomfortable and awful prospect. They know that their Is nothing to shield them because they are hopelessly and helplessly guilty for breaking God’s laws and are going to be subject to the condemning sentence of judicial rejection that the Bible calls the wrath of God. Though that inescapable day is slowly and surely coming with every beat of their hearts, they ignore it as though it does not exist.
But for those with an alarmed conscience and who feel the need for mercy, justification is for them.
What is justification?
Literally, it is a legal term meaning “declare innocent” righteous or just. It is a declaration that you are “not guilty.” It is a free, Divine pronouncement about a sinner and where he stands before the justice of God apart from the Law or human works. It does not cause any moral change in a person. It announces he is forgiven, and there are no more charges against him. He is acquitted. It is as if you committed no sin and kept perfectly the Law of God. It cannot be and never ever needs to be repeated again because it is complete at once and for all time. There is no more or less in justification; a man is either fully justified, or he is not justified at all.
O.J. Simpson is a good example of this. Many people think he is guilty for the murder of his wife. Whether he is or isn’t makes no difference. In a US court of justice, a jury declared him to be innocent of his wife’s murder. He was acquitted. He can never be tried for that crime again. So it is with one justified by God.
Another benefit of justification is that when you are justified, you are also reconciled to God. We are no longer His enemy; our minds are no longer at enmity with God.
Colossians 1:21-22 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of[g] your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation
II Corinthians 5:19 “that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. . .”
Romans 5:1 says it beautifully, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.
Thus, we are restored to all the filial rights as a child of God and are adopted by Him.
How does justification happen? What is the basis of it? It is based on 2 grounds. One is Negative and one is Positive. Both are in Romans 3:21-5.
The passive obedience of Christ means the things that were done TO HIM. The things he suffered. When we think of the things that were done to X, the first thing we think of is crucifixion and His substitutionary atonement. But it is really more than that. His entire life was a substitutionary atonement. Many, many things were done to him all his life that were substitutionary from the pursuit of Him by Herod to His temptation and antithesis by Satan to His constant rejection by his brothers, Roman rulers, and religious leaders. But we want to focus primarily on the cross.
Two passages will help us focus on this.
Ro 3:21-26
A. The Necessity of the Atonement by shed blood
Why can’t God just forgive people? Why was Christ’s DEATH necessary
1. Because God is absolutely just - God is holy. Therefore, He must be just. He cannot overlook sin like we do.
Hab 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
God is a God of perfect justice who gives preference to no one.
Ps 130: 3-4 3” If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?4
Job 9:2 But how can a man be in the right before God?
Heb 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
If God is just, is justification “just”? How can even God forgive sin?
Prov 17:15 He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous
are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
2. Because we are God’s enemy and under God’s wrath
Eph 2:3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[ and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
3. Because God’s justice and wrath need satisfaction
B. The means of the atonement - How God’s justice was satisfied
Leviticus 16 and Romans 3:24-25 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation his blood, to be received by faith. Propitiation. The prefix pro means ”for,” so propitiation brings about a change in God‘s attitude, so that He moves from being at enmity with us to being for us. Through the process of propitiation, we are restored into fellowship and favor with Him.
But there is more. In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT) the Greek word for the Hebrew word “mercy seat” is the same Greek word here in Ro 3:25 translated as “propitiation”. The mercy seat was a gold plate over the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant rested in the Old Testament tabernacle behind a thick curtain that kept it secluded and out of sight. The room in which the Ark of the Covenant was placed was called the Holy of Holies. No one could go into the Holy of Holies because the presence of God dwelled in there. That is why it was called the Holy of Holies. If anyone went in other than Aaron on one special day a year, he would be struck dead.
Inside the Ark of the Covenant and under its mercy seat were 3 things: Aaron’s rod that budded, manna, and the tablets of the 10 Commandments.
Once a year in Leviticus 16, the Jewish nation celebrated the Day of Atonement, which the Jews call Yom Kippur. Normally when Aaron performed his High Priestly duties, he decked himself out in garments of glory and beauty prescribed by the Lord. He would be picturing Christ our High Priest who was “altogether lovely”. But on the Day of Atonement, Aaron cast off those garments and only wore very simple linen garments, signifying this time that he, like Christ, humbled himself when He once and for all came to bring redemption and cover all sins for His people.
Two goats were brought to Aaron. On both of them, Aaron laid his hands and confessed all the sins of the people for the last year. He was transferring, imputing to the goats, the guilt of Israel’s sins. When Aaron finished, he sacrificed one of the goats and took its blood into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the mercy seat. There are all kinds of types and double types in the acts. The sacrificed goat typified Christ to whom our sins were imputed. His blood was taken by the High Priest into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled on the mercy seat so that when God looked down from heaven, He would be appeased. His righteous justice against sin by the death of the one who bore the sin was satisfied. God’s justice was complete. Israel was justified.
Since Adam’s sin, God’s justice had never been satisfied. It would be one day, but it had not yet. If God had been just, He would have destroyed everyone the moment he had sinned. But He didn’t. For centuries and thousands of years, God was patient, long-suffering, forbearing, holding Himself back, restraining Himself against sin. That is, “he passed over former sins” (Romans 3:25). We are talking about all the sins committed from Adam all the way through the Old Testament until about 33 A.D. Until then, God’s justice had never been satisfied.
But, the Old Testament did enable God to hold himself back because He made temporary provision for forgiveness through the sacrifices of the Old Testament found in Leviticus and the Day of Atonement described above. But don’t think that OT sacrificial system actually accomplished any lasting appeasement of God’s wrath. You can read about this inadequacy of the OT sacrificial system in Hebrews 9 and 10 to satisfy God’s justice, but here is the bottom line from Hebrews 10:4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
But now read Romans 3:25-26 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
The time for God’s justice to be satisfied once and for all had finally come in 33 AD when He “put forth Christ as a propitiation.” The purpose for doing that “was to (finally) show his righteousness at the present time (during those recent days and times when Paul and the disciples were living), so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” The Lord committed His Son to be a propitiation “so that he might (at last) be just (for all the sins the world had committed in the past thousands of years.) But God’s justice was also satisfied for all the sins that would be committed in the future for those “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Ro 3:25)
So propitiation means we are restored into fellowship and favor with God. We are reconciled to God once His enmity and wrath have been placated.
The other principle on behalf of our redemption was Expiation. This word is not used in the Bible, but the concept is. The second goat that Aaron did not sacrifice was spared and led into the wilderness as far away as they could get him, never to be seen again, signifying that not only was God’s justice placated, but our sins were removed from us “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us,” Psalm 103:12.
Our sins were imputed to Christ so that God might be just and the justifier of those who believe in Him.
The necessity of appeasing God is something many religions have in common. In ancient pagan religions, as well as in many religions today, the idea is taught that man appeases God by offering various gifts or sacrifices. But God Himself provided the means through which His wrath can be appeased. Man is totally incapable of satisfying God’s justice except by eternal death.
C.The results of the atonement and justification
Ro 4:1-8 faith counted as righteousness (v 3), justified (v 5), lawless deeds forgiven (v 7), sins are covered (v 7), sin never counted against them (v 8)
Ro 5:9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Ro 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies.
Colossians 1:20-22
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
2. The Second element in justification is the Active Obedience of X - this represents the positive aspect of justification and deals with the imputation of righteousness
a. The Covenants - Covenants are mentioned many times in Bible. Covenants with Noah, Abraham, David. The Bible is breaks itself down into 2 covenants. The Old Testament is the Old Covenant. The New Testament is the New Covenant.
Covenants are a way to summarize and structure the Bible. They tie the Bible together like nothing else and give you the big picture. They explain the Bible and tell its story. They are the key to interpreting Scripture.
b. What is a covenant? It is a bond of life and death sovereignly administered
i). A bond - It binds 2 parties together into a relationship
ii). Life and death - The consequences of the bond are either blessings or curses
III) Sovereignly administered - In the Bible, covenants are one-sided. The Creator determines the terms and stipulations of covenants. The creature does not decide on the conditions of a covenant with God.
c. The Major Covenants
We can break the Bible down into 3 overall covenants.
The Covenant of Works or Creation
The Eternal Covenant
The Covenant of Grace or Redemption
d. The Covenant of Works in Genesis 2
Genesis 2 - the focal point of this passage is the covenant that God made with man in 2:17. It is sometimes called the Covenant of Creation, but one of the best designations is the Covenant of Works. (Hosea 6:7 But like Adam, they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me)
1. The covenant of works is the initial covenant that God made with Adam and Eve in Paradise.
2. Adam represents all of mankind, his progeny as its federal head (Romans 5:12).
3. Adam is put on probation, and God announces promises and curses on him for either obedience or disobedience. Hence, man’s destiny is dependent on his response, his behavior, or his work. Hence, we call this first covenant in Creation the Covenant of Works. Do good works, you live. Do bad works, you die. It’s that simple.
4. Adam’s works here, however, are not what Adam did in labor, or what he did on the Sabbath, or even what he did in his marriage. The works here are just one thing. In fact, they are always the same at any time anywhere. They are the same thing for everybody and for every one of Adam’s progeny. Obedience to God’s Word or Law. In this case, it was obedience to God’s command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Genesis 2:17. If he violated God’s command, he would bring down on himself the judgment of God and death.
e. The curse in the Covenant of Works
1. Here is the key question: Is everyone today and those who have lived after Adam in that covenant God made with Adam and Eve? Was this a covenant with just these 2 isolated people in the garden or every human being who came after him as well?
Isaiah 24:4-6 The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the highest people of the earth languish5 The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.6 Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.
Compare the above passage with Romans 8:19-22 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men[e] because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
It was with entire human race. You may not like that, but you cannot annul or change that covenant made with the first man or woman in the Garden of Eden. Adam was the federal head of the human race, and every human since then was represented by him. This is found in Romans 5:12-14:
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned-13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
ALL OF US were all in Adam when he disobeyed God. But since that time, all of us have added our own record of disobedience to God’s commands to the point of total corruption. We have not done it exactly in the same way Adam did when he ate of the forbidden fruit. But we have done it a million other ways. We have all failed to keep the original covenant of creation by disobeying the Creator.
3. The bottom line is that the whole world is populated by covenant breakers, which we normally call sinners. But the more accurate word would be covenant breaker.
f. The Covenant of Grace
Now God would have been justified to destroy the world and that would have been it. But, instead, he condescended to cover their nakedness and save them by introducing the Covenant of Grace (or the Covenant of Redemption) through Adam, Abraham, Moses, and David so that he could save his people by another way. And that way is through grace. Once we break the covenant of works, the only way we can be restored to fellowship with God is by God's mercy and grace.
1. The reason for that is because of the 2 Things The Covenant of Works Demanded
a) Perfection
The demands of the covenant of works were stiff. They demanded perfection. Perfect obedience. If you disobey God just once, there nothing you can do to make up for that. Once there is a blemish what can you do to become perfect again? You can't become perfect again because perfection doesn't allow for the slightest imperfection. But all of us have corruption that is far more than a slight blemish.
b) Death if Adam failed in perfection
2. So in order to cover those 2 things for Adam and his posterity, God ordained the Covenant of Grace to fulfill the Covenant of Works. Those 2 covenants go hand in hand. The Covenant of Grace insured that the Covenant of Works would be fulfilled.
Now let me add something that is going to sound like heresy and is the opposite of everything you have ever heard. In all the gospel churches they talk about being saved by grace through faith alone without works. That is pounded into the heads of Christian people. But In the final analysis, the only way any person is justified before God is BY WORKS. We are actually saved by works and by works alone.
Romans 2:6-11 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking[a] and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.
II Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
I Peter 1:17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
Matthew 5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Let me explain. There are two covenants - The Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works. The Covenant of Grace is God's covenant to insure that the original Covenant of Works is finally kept. When I say we are saved by works, I mean that the grounds of our justification (or being declared innocent) are the perfect works of Christ. We are saved by works, but not our own. That why we say we are saved by grace and by faith because the works that save us aren't our works. They are Somebody else’s.
In order to save His people, Christ became the second Adam and had to perform two functions,
a) Pay the penalty of the first Adam
God’s justice also demanded that the penalty of death for disobedience to His law also be covered. So He paid the penalty for sin with His own death on the cross as our substitute to satisfy God’s justice. That was the passive obedience of Christ.
i) But that was not enough. If all that was necessary for our justification was the death of Jesus on the cross, He could have come down to earth on a parachute on Good Friday, died on the cross for us, and three days later, risen again. But that’s not what happened. Why? Because that would never have been enough. The penalty would have been cancelled and no penalty would have been due to us.
ii) But what about the works that the first Adam had to complete to fulfill his obedience to God?
Paying the penalty for disobedience would have merely brought us to ZERO. But ZERO is not enough. That would have merely put us back in the garden at the beginning again to start over and complete the requirement of perfect obedience. However, this time we would not have the advantage of the perfect state Adam had possessed. If Adam was endowed with perfection and could not keep God’s law, how in the world could we keep it?
As Jesus said, "Unless your righteousness (positive) exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you shall in no way enter the kingdom of God." (Matt.5:20) We also need perfection and complete righteousness as the Covenant of Works required.
b) Fulfill the perfect works of the first Adam
What is often missed is that for 33 years Jesus’ life on earth He was tempted in every way like us and yet lived a perfect life keeping the Law of God perfectly without sin or disobedience.
Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
He satisfied the demands of the Covenant of Works. That life of obedience was the requirement that Adam and all men needed in the garden, and now that righteous life is credited to our accounts by faith.
Summary: So Christ became the new Adam, or the second Adam. Just as Adam’s sin was imputed to our account, so Christ’s righteous life as the second Adam was also imputed to our account. All of this is called the Active (the things done BY HIM) and the Passive (the things done TO HIM) Obedience of Christ.
These passages explain the Active obedience of Christ like this:
Romans 5:10
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life
Romans 5:17-19
By one man's disobedience, the world was plunged into ruin, but by one man's obedience, we are made righteous on His behalf. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
Philippians 3:9 “and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—“
Romans 3:21-22
I Corinthians 1:30, 31 “And because of him[e] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”
Justification has 2 parts that are strictly forensic. It is the declaration by God that your sins have been imputed to Christ and you are no longer guilty and that Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to you and you are perfectly righteous, having fulfilled all of God’s law.
Subtopic of interest: Was Adam the Federal representative of the whole human race so that when he sinned, the entire human race became guilty with him?
Or, did just Adam sin and he seminally passed on his sinful nature and tendencies to his posterity?
Two Sub-notes
1. The Active obedience of Christ that the Reformed say is necessary to complete justification is hotly disputed by many on the basis of 2 passages of Scripture: Romans 3:21-26 and Hebrews 10:11-14. It is their contention that the passive obedience of Christ alone appears to be sufficient for complete righteousness without any mention or reference to the active obedience of Christ. Whichever side you come down on, you will now be a sharper Biblical thinker and more theologically informed when you hear these discussions. A Southern Baptist you may be, but you are Biblically informed and will not be taken for an ignoramus.
2. Federalism vs Seminalism - Is guilt for our sin due to Adam representing the entire human race as our federal head or is it due to him passing on his sin nature to us and we add our own guilt to it?
Federalism sees Adam as the representative head of all humanity. When Adam sinned, he sinned not only for himself but as the representative (federal head) of all humanity. His decision was binding upon all people of all time. In the same way, leaders of a government may enter into agreements with other nations, and those agreements are binding upon all the citizens, even though they had no direct input regarding the agreement and may even be unaware of it. Adam sinned, making himself and everyone he represented a sinner. Adam’s guilt (not just his sinful nature) is imputed to every human being.
Seminalism sees Adam’s sin as something that corrupted the human nature he passed on to his posterity, as the entire human race was genetically present in Adam. Adam’s guilt is not passed on to his children, but his sinful tendencies are. His children, with their corrupted nature, readily join in Adam’s rebellion at the first available opportunity and are therefore guilty of their own sin.
Justification is about how a man can be right with God. When you stand before God and are put on trial for your sins, what will happen? Most people do not want to think about this and avoid facing it or discussing it because the thought of standing before the all-knowing eye of God and having your entire life scrutinized for every word, thought, and deed is an uncomfortable and awful prospect. They know that their Is nothing to shield them because they are hopelessly and helplessly guilty for breaking God’s laws and are going to be subject to the condemning sentence of judicial rejection that the Bible calls the wrath of God. Though that inescapable day is slowly and surely coming with every beat of their hearts, they ignore it as though it does not exist.
But for those with an alarmed conscience and who feel the need for mercy, justification is for them.
What is justification?
Literally, it is a legal term meaning “declare innocent” righteous or just. It is a declaration that you are “not guilty.” It is a free, Divine pronouncement about a sinner and where he stands before the justice of God apart from the Law or human works. It does not cause any moral change in a person. It announces he is forgiven, and there are no more charges against him. He is acquitted. It is as if you committed no sin and kept perfectly the Law of God. It cannot be and never ever needs to be repeated again because it is complete at once and for all time. There is no more or less in justification; a man is either fully justified, or he is not justified at all.
O.J. Simpson is a good example of this. Many people think he is guilty for the murder of his wife. Whether he is or isn’t makes no difference. In a US court of justice, a jury declared him to be innocent of his wife’s murder. He was acquitted. He can never be tried for that crime again. So it is with one justified by God.
Another benefit of justification is that when you are justified, you are also reconciled to God. We are no longer His enemy; our minds are no longer at enmity with God.
Colossians 1:21-22 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of[g] your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation
II Corinthians 5:19 “that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. . .”
Romans 5:1 says it beautifully, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.
Thus, we are restored to all the filial rights as a child of God and are adopted by Him.
How does justification happen? What is the basis of it? It is based on 2 grounds. One is Negative and one is Positive. Both are in Romans 3:21-5.
- The first element in justification is the Passive Obedience of X - this represents the negative aspect of justification and deals with the Imputation of Guilt
The passive obedience of Christ means the things that were done TO HIM. The things he suffered. When we think of the things that were done to X, the first thing we think of is crucifixion and His substitutionary atonement. But it is really more than that. His entire life was a substitutionary atonement. Many, many things were done to him all his life that were substitutionary from the pursuit of Him by Herod to His temptation and antithesis by Satan to His constant rejection by his brothers, Roman rulers, and religious leaders. But we want to focus primarily on the cross.
Two passages will help us focus on this.
Ro 3:21-26
A. The Necessity of the Atonement by shed blood
Why can’t God just forgive people? Why was Christ’s DEATH necessary
1. Because God is absolutely just - God is holy. Therefore, He must be just. He cannot overlook sin like we do.
Hab 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
God is a God of perfect justice who gives preference to no one.
Ps 130: 3-4 3” If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?4
Job 9:2 But how can a man be in the right before God?
Heb 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
If God is just, is justification “just”? How can even God forgive sin?
Prov 17:15 He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous
are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
2. Because we are God’s enemy and under God’s wrath
Eph 2:3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[ and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
3. Because God’s justice and wrath need satisfaction
B. The means of the atonement - How God’s justice was satisfied
Leviticus 16 and Romans 3:24-25 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation his blood, to be received by faith. Propitiation. The prefix pro means ”for,” so propitiation brings about a change in God‘s attitude, so that He moves from being at enmity with us to being for us. Through the process of propitiation, we are restored into fellowship and favor with Him.
But there is more. In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT) the Greek word for the Hebrew word “mercy seat” is the same Greek word here in Ro 3:25 translated as “propitiation”. The mercy seat was a gold plate over the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant rested in the Old Testament tabernacle behind a thick curtain that kept it secluded and out of sight. The room in which the Ark of the Covenant was placed was called the Holy of Holies. No one could go into the Holy of Holies because the presence of God dwelled in there. That is why it was called the Holy of Holies. If anyone went in other than Aaron on one special day a year, he would be struck dead.
Inside the Ark of the Covenant and under its mercy seat were 3 things: Aaron’s rod that budded, manna, and the tablets of the 10 Commandments.
Once a year in Leviticus 16, the Jewish nation celebrated the Day of Atonement, which the Jews call Yom Kippur. Normally when Aaron performed his High Priestly duties, he decked himself out in garments of glory and beauty prescribed by the Lord. He would be picturing Christ our High Priest who was “altogether lovely”. But on the Day of Atonement, Aaron cast off those garments and only wore very simple linen garments, signifying this time that he, like Christ, humbled himself when He once and for all came to bring redemption and cover all sins for His people.
Two goats were brought to Aaron. On both of them, Aaron laid his hands and confessed all the sins of the people for the last year. He was transferring, imputing to the goats, the guilt of Israel’s sins. When Aaron finished, he sacrificed one of the goats and took its blood into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the mercy seat. There are all kinds of types and double types in the acts. The sacrificed goat typified Christ to whom our sins were imputed. His blood was taken by the High Priest into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled on the mercy seat so that when God looked down from heaven, He would be appeased. His righteous justice against sin by the death of the one who bore the sin was satisfied. God’s justice was complete. Israel was justified.
Since Adam’s sin, God’s justice had never been satisfied. It would be one day, but it had not yet. If God had been just, He would have destroyed everyone the moment he had sinned. But He didn’t. For centuries and thousands of years, God was patient, long-suffering, forbearing, holding Himself back, restraining Himself against sin. That is, “he passed over former sins” (Romans 3:25). We are talking about all the sins committed from Adam all the way through the Old Testament until about 33 A.D. Until then, God’s justice had never been satisfied.
But, the Old Testament did enable God to hold himself back because He made temporary provision for forgiveness through the sacrifices of the Old Testament found in Leviticus and the Day of Atonement described above. But don’t think that OT sacrificial system actually accomplished any lasting appeasement of God’s wrath. You can read about this inadequacy of the OT sacrificial system in Hebrews 9 and 10 to satisfy God’s justice, but here is the bottom line from Hebrews 10:4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
But now read Romans 3:25-26 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
The time for God’s justice to be satisfied once and for all had finally come in 33 AD when He “put forth Christ as a propitiation.” The purpose for doing that “was to (finally) show his righteousness at the present time (during those recent days and times when Paul and the disciples were living), so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” The Lord committed His Son to be a propitiation “so that he might (at last) be just (for all the sins the world had committed in the past thousands of years.) But God’s justice was also satisfied for all the sins that would be committed in the future for those “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Ro 3:25)
So propitiation means we are restored into fellowship and favor with God. We are reconciled to God once His enmity and wrath have been placated.
The other principle on behalf of our redemption was Expiation. This word is not used in the Bible, but the concept is. The second goat that Aaron did not sacrifice was spared and led into the wilderness as far away as they could get him, never to be seen again, signifying that not only was God’s justice placated, but our sins were removed from us “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us,” Psalm 103:12.
Our sins were imputed to Christ so that God might be just and the justifier of those who believe in Him.
The necessity of appeasing God is something many religions have in common. In ancient pagan religions, as well as in many religions today, the idea is taught that man appeases God by offering various gifts or sacrifices. But God Himself provided the means through which His wrath can be appeased. Man is totally incapable of satisfying God’s justice except by eternal death.
C.The results of the atonement and justification
Ro 4:1-8 faith counted as righteousness (v 3), justified (v 5), lawless deeds forgiven (v 7), sins are covered (v 7), sin never counted against them (v 8)
Ro 5:9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Ro 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies.
Colossians 1:20-22
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
2. The Second element in justification is the Active Obedience of X - this represents the positive aspect of justification and deals with the imputation of righteousness
a. The Covenants - Covenants are mentioned many times in Bible. Covenants with Noah, Abraham, David. The Bible is breaks itself down into 2 covenants. The Old Testament is the Old Covenant. The New Testament is the New Covenant.
Covenants are a way to summarize and structure the Bible. They tie the Bible together like nothing else and give you the big picture. They explain the Bible and tell its story. They are the key to interpreting Scripture.
b. What is a covenant? It is a bond of life and death sovereignly administered
i). A bond - It binds 2 parties together into a relationship
ii). Life and death - The consequences of the bond are either blessings or curses
III) Sovereignly administered - In the Bible, covenants are one-sided. The Creator determines the terms and stipulations of covenants. The creature does not decide on the conditions of a covenant with God.
c. The Major Covenants
We can break the Bible down into 3 overall covenants.
The Covenant of Works or Creation
The Eternal Covenant
The Covenant of Grace or Redemption
d. The Covenant of Works in Genesis 2
Genesis 2 - the focal point of this passage is the covenant that God made with man in 2:17. It is sometimes called the Covenant of Creation, but one of the best designations is the Covenant of Works. (Hosea 6:7 But like Adam, they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me)
1. The covenant of works is the initial covenant that God made with Adam and Eve in Paradise.
2. Adam represents all of mankind, his progeny as its federal head (Romans 5:12).
3. Adam is put on probation, and God announces promises and curses on him for either obedience or disobedience. Hence, man’s destiny is dependent on his response, his behavior, or his work. Hence, we call this first covenant in Creation the Covenant of Works. Do good works, you live. Do bad works, you die. It’s that simple.
4. Adam’s works here, however, are not what Adam did in labor, or what he did on the Sabbath, or even what he did in his marriage. The works here are just one thing. In fact, they are always the same at any time anywhere. They are the same thing for everybody and for every one of Adam’s progeny. Obedience to God’s Word or Law. In this case, it was obedience to God’s command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Genesis 2:17. If he violated God’s command, he would bring down on himself the judgment of God and death.
e. The curse in the Covenant of Works
1. Here is the key question: Is everyone today and those who have lived after Adam in that covenant God made with Adam and Eve? Was this a covenant with just these 2 isolated people in the garden or every human being who came after him as well?
Isaiah 24:4-6 The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the highest people of the earth languish5 The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.6 Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.
Compare the above passage with Romans 8:19-22 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men[e] because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
It was with entire human race. You may not like that, but you cannot annul or change that covenant made with the first man or woman in the Garden of Eden. Adam was the federal head of the human race, and every human since then was represented by him. This is found in Romans 5:12-14:
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned-13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
ALL OF US were all in Adam when he disobeyed God. But since that time, all of us have added our own record of disobedience to God’s commands to the point of total corruption. We have not done it exactly in the same way Adam did when he ate of the forbidden fruit. But we have done it a million other ways. We have all failed to keep the original covenant of creation by disobeying the Creator.
3. The bottom line is that the whole world is populated by covenant breakers, which we normally call sinners. But the more accurate word would be covenant breaker.
f. The Covenant of Grace
Now God would have been justified to destroy the world and that would have been it. But, instead, he condescended to cover their nakedness and save them by introducing the Covenant of Grace (or the Covenant of Redemption) through Adam, Abraham, Moses, and David so that he could save his people by another way. And that way is through grace. Once we break the covenant of works, the only way we can be restored to fellowship with God is by God's mercy and grace.
1. The reason for that is because of the 2 Things The Covenant of Works Demanded
a) Perfection
The demands of the covenant of works were stiff. They demanded perfection. Perfect obedience. If you disobey God just once, there nothing you can do to make up for that. Once there is a blemish what can you do to become perfect again? You can't become perfect again because perfection doesn't allow for the slightest imperfection. But all of us have corruption that is far more than a slight blemish.
b) Death if Adam failed in perfection
2. So in order to cover those 2 things for Adam and his posterity, God ordained the Covenant of Grace to fulfill the Covenant of Works. Those 2 covenants go hand in hand. The Covenant of Grace insured that the Covenant of Works would be fulfilled.
Now let me add something that is going to sound like heresy and is the opposite of everything you have ever heard. In all the gospel churches they talk about being saved by grace through faith alone without works. That is pounded into the heads of Christian people. But In the final analysis, the only way any person is justified before God is BY WORKS. We are actually saved by works and by works alone.
Romans 2:6-11 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking[a] and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.
II Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
I Peter 1:17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
Matthew 5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Let me explain. There are two covenants - The Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works. The Covenant of Grace is God's covenant to insure that the original Covenant of Works is finally kept. When I say we are saved by works, I mean that the grounds of our justification (or being declared innocent) are the perfect works of Christ. We are saved by works, but not our own. That why we say we are saved by grace and by faith because the works that save us aren't our works. They are Somebody else’s.
In order to save His people, Christ became the second Adam and had to perform two functions,
a) Pay the penalty of the first Adam
God’s justice also demanded that the penalty of death for disobedience to His law also be covered. So He paid the penalty for sin with His own death on the cross as our substitute to satisfy God’s justice. That was the passive obedience of Christ.
i) But that was not enough. If all that was necessary for our justification was the death of Jesus on the cross, He could have come down to earth on a parachute on Good Friday, died on the cross for us, and three days later, risen again. But that’s not what happened. Why? Because that would never have been enough. The penalty would have been cancelled and no penalty would have been due to us.
ii) But what about the works that the first Adam had to complete to fulfill his obedience to God?
Paying the penalty for disobedience would have merely brought us to ZERO. But ZERO is not enough. That would have merely put us back in the garden at the beginning again to start over and complete the requirement of perfect obedience. However, this time we would not have the advantage of the perfect state Adam had possessed. If Adam was endowed with perfection and could not keep God’s law, how in the world could we keep it?
As Jesus said, "Unless your righteousness (positive) exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you shall in no way enter the kingdom of God." (Matt.5:20) We also need perfection and complete righteousness as the Covenant of Works required.
b) Fulfill the perfect works of the first Adam
What is often missed is that for 33 years Jesus’ life on earth He was tempted in every way like us and yet lived a perfect life keeping the Law of God perfectly without sin or disobedience.
Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
He satisfied the demands of the Covenant of Works. That life of obedience was the requirement that Adam and all men needed in the garden, and now that righteous life is credited to our accounts by faith.
Summary: So Christ became the new Adam, or the second Adam. Just as Adam’s sin was imputed to our account, so Christ’s righteous life as the second Adam was also imputed to our account. All of this is called the Active (the things done BY HIM) and the Passive (the things done TO HIM) Obedience of Christ.
These passages explain the Active obedience of Christ like this:
Romans 5:10
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life
Romans 5:17-19
By one man's disobedience, the world was plunged into ruin, but by one man's obedience, we are made righteous on His behalf. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
Philippians 3:9 “and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—“
Romans 3:21-22
I Corinthians 1:30, 31 “And because of him[e] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”
Justification has 2 parts that are strictly forensic. It is the declaration by God that your sins have been imputed to Christ and you are no longer guilty and that Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to you and you are perfectly righteous, having fulfilled all of God’s law.
Subtopic of interest: Was Adam the Federal representative of the whole human race so that when he sinned, the entire human race became guilty with him?
Or, did just Adam sin and he seminally passed on his sinful nature and tendencies to his posterity?
Two Sub-notes
1. The Active obedience of Christ that the Reformed say is necessary to complete justification is hotly disputed by many on the basis of 2 passages of Scripture: Romans 3:21-26 and Hebrews 10:11-14. It is their contention that the passive obedience of Christ alone appears to be sufficient for complete righteousness without any mention or reference to the active obedience of Christ. Whichever side you come down on, you will now be a sharper Biblical thinker and more theologically informed when you hear these discussions. A Southern Baptist you may be, but you are Biblically informed and will not be taken for an ignoramus.
2. Federalism vs Seminalism - Is guilt for our sin due to Adam representing the entire human race as our federal head or is it due to him passing on his sin nature to us and we add our own guilt to it?
Federalism sees Adam as the representative head of all humanity. When Adam sinned, he sinned not only for himself but as the representative (federal head) of all humanity. His decision was binding upon all people of all time. In the same way, leaders of a government may enter into agreements with other nations, and those agreements are binding upon all the citizens, even though they had no direct input regarding the agreement and may even be unaware of it. Adam sinned, making himself and everyone he represented a sinner. Adam’s guilt (not just his sinful nature) is imputed to every human being.
Seminalism sees Adam’s sin as something that corrupted the human nature he passed on to his posterity, as the entire human race was genetically present in Adam. Adam’s guilt is not passed on to his children, but his sinful tendencies are. His children, with their corrupted nature, readily join in Adam’s rebellion at the first available opportunity and are therefore guilty of their own sin.