INTRODUCTION – The false “gospel” of our age depicts God as showing love and mercy by the non-enforcement of His laws. By contrast, the God of the Bible acts in uncompromising justiceeven when He is gracious to the sinner who is loaded with guilt. The Scriptural doctrine of the atonement describes Christ’s work upon Calvary as that of a penal substitute. One may accurately say, “God only forgives what He pays for.” Therefore, even in acts of grace, God’s justice holiness, and righteousness are vindicated, demonstrated and preserved.

BY THE SACRIFICE OF HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, GOD TURNS HIS OWN WRATH AWAY FROM ALL THOSE WHO WILL BELIEVE

Propitiation is the turning away of wrath by an offering. In the NT this idea is conveyed by the use of hilaskomai (Heb. 2:17), hilasterion (Rom. 3:25), and hilasmos (1 Jn. 2:2; 4:10).

The words of the hilaskomai group do not denote simple forgiveness or cancellation of sin, but that forgiveness or cancellation of sin that includes the turning away of God’s wrath.

God’s holy response to man’s sin is divine wrath. The whole of the opening argument of the book of Romans is that Jew and Gentile alike are sinners who have come under the wrath of God.

When Paul addresses salvation in the book of Romans, he thinks of Christ’s death as propitiation(Rom. 3:25), the means of removing the divine wrath. The paradox of the OT is repeated in the NT that God Himself provides the means of removing His own wrath.

GOD’S LAW IS THE GREAT REVEALER OF HUMAN SIN AND THE DIVINE WRATH IT DESERVES

Romans 3:19,20 – The Law reveals the righteous character of God. The Law sets forth the penalty and wages of transgressing God’s Law. The Law shows sinners the power of sin over their lives (every natural person is in abject bondage to sin). The Law removes every excuse, alibi, covering and rationalization for sin.

To become “accountable” to God is to face divine judgment that is absolutely thorough and invincible.

God will judge the thoughts, deeds, words, and intents of the heart by His Law (i.e. thou shalt not covet).

Application – No wonder people despise God’s offer of mercy in Christ. It is because they do not respect His justice. Those who have never come to believe in God as Judge have not yet believed upon Christ for salvation. The doctrine of propitiation makes it clear that belief in God as Judge is a necessary part of belief in Christ as Savior. The God of heaven is a just judge. There would be no mercy for sinners if it were not for the satisfaction of justice for sinners by the death of Christ the Mediator.

Apathetic stone-hearted sinners need the application of the Law to break up the hard pavement of heart. Only pulverized heart soil is able to receive the good seed of the gospel with joy. Such radical humbling is necessary. Depraved man must be taught that he can have no part in his own salvation. The Law is that teacher that exasperates the sinner, showing him that efforts to gain salvation by law-keeping are futile and hopeless (Gal. 3:23,24). Man can contribute nothing, he can only receive (Romans 10:2-4).

THE GOSPEL DECLARES THAT THE ONLY GROUND OF ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD IS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT COMES BY FAITH

Romans 3:21,22 – “But now” introduces God’s plan of mercy to sinners. The glorious reign of God’s grace originated within God’s own divine government. The atoning power of Christ’s sacrifice is sanctioned by the eternal counsels of the Godhead.

The glory of the gospel is that the offended Lawgiver Himself who is our Judge gave His own beloved Son in our place. The gospel promises that sinners may have right-standing before God by faith. Christ provides a righteousness perfectly acceptable to God. God has taken salvation into His own hands.

Application – The cross is intended to disarm the natural man. The cross strikes at all the weapons men use to keep distance from God.

Note the arguments people cast up in their minds in order to stay estranged from God (fear, dread, guilt, severity of their sin, hatred of the Lord as Master, speculations about who God is, doubt God could love them).

In the gospel, we behold God’s own Son bleeding, paying so that sinners might go free, released from their guilt and condemnation. The sinner’s excuses are removed. It is only the avowed enemy of God who rejects the terms of peace and chooses to remain alienated from gospel mercy.

JUSTIFICATION IS THE GIFT OF GOD’S GRACE TO THE BELIEVING SINNER

Romans 3:23,24 – The justified sinner receives right-standing before God as a gift of God’s grace. Justification is a legal judicial action of God that takes place before the tribunal of God. It involves the removal of our guilt, the divine penalty having fallen completely upon Christ our perfect Substitute.

Justification is not only the removal of guilt, it is also the crediting of Christ’s righteousness to the account of the believer. Christ’s moral perfection is imputed to the believer. Because of that imputing or crediting, God is able to declare the believer righteous in His sight.

THE CROSS IS THE VINDICATION OF GOD’S JUSTICE

Romans 3:25,26 – The public display of the crucified Christ 2000 years ago was a mighty demonstration of God’s justice. God was declaring by His Son’s cross that He is completely just when He justifies and forgives believing sinners.

God can forgive believing sinners freely without compromise to His justice and righteousness. There is no forgiveness without the satisfaction of God’s justice. In fact, there is no basis for a single drop of mercy from God for our ruined race apart from the propitiation.

The great object of propitiation is to save the justice of God in pardoning sinners.

The great result of propitiation is that believing sinners are saved from the wrath of God.

Application – Propitiation rightly understood is to realize that you cannot make God kindly disposed toward you. You cannot soften up God by personal reformation.

The only appeasement of God’s wrath and anger toward our sin has been provided by the divinely provided Substitute who is the only propitiation for sins. The “work of God” is that you believe in Him whom He has sent (John 6:29). God is infinitely satisfied with what Christ has done on our behalf. There is labor involved in believing that! (Heb. 4:1,11).

Though our race is ruined by sin, we came from the hand of a holy and just God. We can never have lasting happiness until we have truth, pardon and holiness. These are in the propitiation of our Savior’s cross. In that propitiation alone is the answer to our fear, guilt and misery.

God has intended that His Son’s cross be the only way that peace is brought to the conscience of man. Propitiation is the only way a person can be rightly adjusted eternally to the attributes and perfections of the Godhead so as to live with God forever.

The love of the Father is shown in that He “sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn. 4:10). The purpose of Christ’s becoming “a merciful and faithful high priest” was “to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17).

INTRODUCTION – The actual or sovereign purpose of the cross pertains to God’s design in the atonement. No matter how men respond to the universal offer of salvation, God’s sovereign purpose in the cross cannot be thwarted or defeated in any way whatsoever. Despite the fact that the vast majority of the human race rejects the universal offer of the gospel, the intent of Christ’s death cannot be frustrated.

SCRIPTURE ALWAYS DESCRIBES CHRIST’S WORK AS EFFECTUAL

Hebrews 9:28 – By His death as a sin-bearer, there was an effectual removal of the sins that were laid upon Him.

John 10:27-30 - By His death, Christ secured the eternal safety of those given to Him by the Father. “They shall never perish.”

Isaiah 53:10,11 – By giving Himself as a guilt offering, Christ would justify the many by bearing their iniquities. The text says that Christ would be satisfied as a result of seeing “His Seed.” Seed refers to the spiritual “offspring” purchased by Christ’s death. (See also Heb. 10:10, 14; Rev. 5:9,10.)

BECAUSE CHRIST’S DEATH WAS EFFECTUAL, ONE MUST NOT CONFUSE THE OFFEROF THE CROSS WITH GOD’S PURPOSE IN THE CROSS

The offer is to be taken to “every creature” (Mark 16:15). The good news is to be preached, “be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20). But when men reject the Substitute who suffered for sinners, and prefer to stay in unbelief, it does not mean that one bit of Christ’s work was in vain.

God has not made the purpose of the cross depend upon the fickle will of man which is enslaved and corrupted. Mankind, by sinful self-determination, does not mold God’s purpose in the cross.

Application: In our humanistic age, the powers of man, his interests and his happiness are vaunted as preeminent. When this humanism is applied to Christianity, there is a tendency to view man’s will as that which makes the atonement effectual. To do so is to confuse the offer of the cross with the purpose of God in the cross. As soon as that confusion takes place, men resort to the language of potentiality.

THE SCRIPTURES KNOW NOTHING OF A HYPOTHETICAL ATONEMENT

Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). He purchased the church of God with His own blood (Acts 20:28).

God’s word knows no distinction between what Christ did on Calvary and what purpose was accomplished on Calvary. Christ’s one act of redemption is not made complete by the sinner’s act. It is a completed work with all its effects accomplished by His death.

Application: From the man-centered perspective, the atoning work of Christ could be compared to a life-giving remedy that sits waiting in a medicine chest. Spiritually dead men by opening the medicine cabinet and taking the remedy are made well.

A hypothetical atonement cannot be supported by Scripture. The death of Christ was not a general atonement without a sovereign plan. Christ died in order to sanctify the church (Eph. 5:26). Christ’s work is NOT the purchase of non-specific dead capital.

The only scheme that fully glorifies God and magnifies His grace and majesty is a complete salvation that actually does the saving and redeeming. The cross is mighty to save. It reaches the sinner in his ruin and helplessness.

CHRIST’S DEATH SECURED THE “DEATH” OF THE BELIEVER (The “death” of the believer in 2 Cor. 5:14 is defined in verse 15.)

2 Cor. 5:14,15 – Christ’s love constrains, controls and governs the child of God. It presses, coerces and impels the believer as a governing influence which controls the life (see also, Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:19). This is the trait of Paul’s experience and is therefore common to all Christians. As the believer is constrained by a sense of the love of his divine Lord, he responds by consecrating his life to Him. Faith in Christ’s deity, love and substitutionary work is the principle or source of the Christian life.

By stating, “having concluded” or “we thus judge,” the Apostle assigns the reason why the love of Christ exerted such a constraining power. It was because the Apostle judged that the death of Christ didn’t just place believers under obligation to be Christ’s servants, it secured this devotion! Why? It is because believers died in Him (Rom. 6:4,5).

CHRIST’S DEATH WAS A TRUE OR DIRECT SUBSTITUTION

“One died for all, therefore all died” (verse 14). Christ died in the place of His people. The idea of substitution is clearly expressed. His death in our place saves us from death. The “all” in verse 14 is a class of individuals characterized by the effects produced in their lives. The “all” is of necessity limited by what the Scriptures teach concerning the design of Christ’s death.

One of the effects of Christ’s death is stated in this clause, “therefore all died” or “then all were dead.” Christ died for all who died when He died.

Substitution is taught in the great doctrine of Christ as Last Adam (Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:20-28; 45-49). As Last Adam, Christ stands in the room of His people and as their Substitute, He does the work for all united to Him. The death of Christ was legally and effectively the death of His people.

In the mind of God, those whom the Father chose are so united to the Son that His death is their death and His life is their life. The Apostle’s argument is the same one he used in Romans 6. “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom. 6:2).

THE DESIGN OF CHRIST’S DEATH WAS THAT HIS PEOPLE MIGHT LIVE FOR HIM (2 Cor. 5:15).

The death of Christ secures our reconciliation to God and the reconciliation secures a life of devotion to His service. Christ died that He might be the Lord of His people. His people serve Him as Lord. They belong to Him and are devoted to Him (See also, 1 Cor. 6:19,20; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18).

There is no distinction between those for whom Christ died and those whom He sanctifies (Hebrews 10:10; 2:11; 1 Cor. 1:30). Those for whom Christ died really die to sin and itsdominion over them.

Application: Those for whom Christ died and upon whom His death takes effect, HENCEFORTH(from the time they apprehend their relation to Him and the power of His vicarious death) they do not live unto themselves.

This describes the Christian’s life in negative terms. In the next clause (2 Cor. 5:15), it is stated in the positive. “[They live] for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”

He is not a Christian who is simply unselfish or who lives for some noble cause. He only is a Christian who lives FOR Christ.

Many think they can be Christians on easier terms than these. Multitudes who profess to know Christ rest upon a “decision” for Christ or upon a mental assent to gospel truth, but they do not live for Christ. By contrast, the Bible teaches that if we are partakers of Christ’s death, we are partakers of His life (Heb. 3:14; 1 John 3:14; 5:11,12).

In the true believer, saving faith and consecration to Christ’s service are inseparably joined. Those who have put their trust and hope in the merits of Christ’s death will evidence thesovereign purpose of Christ’s death; they will be constrained to consecrate themselves to His service.

BY UNION WITH CHRIST, THE BELIEVER IS TRANSFORMED (2 Cor. 5:16,17)

Christ is covenant Head of His people as Adam was of our race. Those who are in Christ by faith are in Christ by covenant (1 Cor. 11:25; Heb. 9:15; 12:24).

By union with Christ, the believer is transformed. New life is imparted. A new creation is effected. A new perspective is given (verse 16).

For those in Christ, “old things have passed away.” These include old opinions, old views, old plans, old desires, old principles and old affections. New views of truth, new principles, new apprehension of purpose and destiny and new affections govern the soul.

Application: Those united to Christ gain eternal interest in the merits of His death. To be a partaker in Christ’s life and death is the whole foundation of the doctrine of sanctification (Rom. 6).

The term “creation” in 2 Cor. 5:17 indicates the greatness of the change wrought in us. It is a change produced by the mighty power of God that is so radical in nature that it is justly called a new creation.

RECONCILIATION BELONGS TO ALL IN CHRIST (2 Cor. 5:18,19)

“All these things” (verse 18) refers to the entire change of which the Apostle has been speaking. God is the reconciler. Man never makes reconciliation. The enmity or barrier between God and man is removed by an act of God. The propitiatory death of Christ is always represented as reconciling us to God. The reconciliation consists in the satisfaction of the divine justice by the sacrifice of Christ.

By the use of the word “world” without the article is meant mankind (verse 19). It means the class of beings towards whom God was manifesting Himself as propitious. (This is the same sense in which Christ is called the” Savior of the world” or of “all men.” John 4:42; 1 Tim. 4:10; 1 John 4:14)

“God…reconciling…to Himself,” does NOT mean that He was rendering friendly to Himself. The work of reconciliation is unfolded in the next phrase, “not counting their trespasses against them.” Not to impute sin is to forgive it (Rom. 4:7,8). Here is the basis of the ministry of reconciliation. God is propitious. He freely forgives sinners.

Application: When God is said to forgive men (or not count their sins against them), it of course does not mean all men, penitent, impenitent, believing, unbelieving. No, here as earlier in the text, there is a specific class indicated towards whom forgiveness is exercised (note the three uses of “us” in verses 18 and 19; all believers).

In the believer’s case, the reconciliation to God is made the source and cause of our new creation(our regeneration and holiness). Until God’s wrath and curse are removed, there is no possibility of holiness and love.

Application: It is the duty of believers to proclaim to men that God, justly offended by their sins, can be just and yet justify those who come to Him by Jesus Christ. The ministry of reconciliation is the preaching of the good news that God’s wrath has been put away by God’s Son bearing it upon the cross. The priceless peace won is thereby offered freely to men.

CHRIST’S SUBSTITUTION FOR HIS OWN IS THE JUDICIAL GROUND OF THEIR PERFECT ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD (2 Cor. 5:20,21)

“Be reconciled to God,” is a call to embrace the reconciliation effected by Christ’s death. God is propitious! He has provided the sacrifice to satisfy His offended justice and appease His righteous indignation and wrath. The sinner is guilty and deserving of eternal death and separation.

The very idea of substitution is that what is done in my place by another avails as if I had done it myself. If both parties die condemned, there was no substitution! Those for whom Christ was a true Substitute, have no condemnation. The design of the substitution is to make Him “sin” (bearer) that we might be made righteous.

Our sins were the judicial ground of the suffering of Christ so that there was a satisfaction of justice. His perfect righteousness is the judicial ground of our acceptance with God.

Application: Our pardon is an act of divine justice. Our justification is a declaration that justice is satisfied. We are set free NOT by a mere act of divine sovereignty, but by the judicial decision of the infinitely just. It is important that believers understand that the Apostle sets before our consciences a reconciliation that is in total keeping with the perfect character of God. God’s Law is immutable. When the believer is burdened with a sense of sin, his conscience cannot rest until it knows God to be just in justifying the sinner.