Romans 3:21-4:25 | Aaron & James Podcast

Hello, my name is James Rathman.

And I'm Aaron Nev.

And this is the Aaron and James Podcast.

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All right.

We're in Romans today, Aaron.

What what chapter are we in again?

I I missed the last the last week.

Yeah, that's right.

So this is uh week four in the study.

Uh and uh the title of this this week is uh the saving the saving righteousness of God.

Okay.

And this covers sections or chapters three verses twenty-one till chapter four verse twenty-five, the end of chapter four.

So midway through chapter three to the end of chapter four.

Okay.

Man, this is a good section.

So I missed the wrath.

You missed the wrath.

That was close.

That was close.

But now now you just showed up for the good stuff.

Great.

And this is uh one of the man well this is an unbelievable section of scripture.

The description of justification by faith is made, the argument is just driven home.

Yeah.

And this section of scripture, it was rediscovered in the Reformation.

It's been a comfort to the hearts of Christians forever.

It is just like uh thrilling and wonderful and amazing.

And we don't have much time.

So let's do it.

15 minutes?

Let's do it.

No, we'll go longer than that.

I'll just be a little late.

Okay.

All right, so let's jump in.

Let's jump in.

Um chapter three.

He had just laid out why the uh uh God is righteous in his judgment, and he had made it as universal as possible in this final end where it's just nobody seeks after God.

Yeah, everybody has turned from him.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

So everybody is accountable to God.

The mouths of everyone is stopped before him.

Yeah.

So what hope is there for anybody?

But now.

But now.

Yeah, take us there.

Well, I just I just really wanted to say, but now.

Yeah, yeah.

That's w that's where he comes in.

But now, yeah, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

That's that Romans 3.23, that's a good one to have in your back pocket.

Yeah.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Yeah.

Uh that's where that's where he brings us, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.

So uh with regards to this section, are there any uh what stands out to you in this?

Yeah, so I mean, so um, I think what was interesting to me was in in the previous week's chapter, one of the things the um the study guide calls out is that you begin evangelism first with the wrath of God.

Yeah.

Um, and so essentially what we're gonna talk about today is you have to have that in the back of your mind.

It's not like you just skip right over it.

Yep.

It's almost as if there would be no faith if there wasn't wrath.

Yeah.

Um, in that sense.

Um, but then the other thing that that goes along with that is he he's reminding us again of of the law and the prophets.

Um and we already did that uh in the first or the second episode of the study.

So I I just think it's interesting that it seems to call to attention that the Jews, um, but also us today, we have this tendency to need reminded of things, um, to forget the circumstances or to be ingrained in in a pattern of life and a way of doing things that we just easily fall back into.

Yeah.

Um, which would be the tendency of the Jews just to fall back into that position of I'm in this special spot, I'm one of God's people, I'm in the covenant, um, he's made these promises to us specifically.

So while I believe in Jesus now, there's still probably that tendency to fall back into that.

Um so I I think he's calling us to remember, you know, the wrath of God is is on everybody, and we really need to believe that before we get into this piece of faith, which is a gift.

Yeah, that's right.

And you know, it's interesting how he says that the righteousness of God is manifested apart from the law, but the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

Yeah.

How do you think that the law and the prophets bear witness to the righteousness of God?

Uh although it does although the righteousness that we receive in Christ does not depend upon the law and the prophets.

Sure.

Um, so I I I think one of the ways that it bears witness to it, um, and because it because later he'll talk about the um the forbearance of sins or the passing over former sins.

I think one of the ways that the law and prophets bear witness to it is that they've given us this reminder, same way he's saying, remember the law and prophets here.

That's what actually the law and prophets were doing for Israel over the course of history, was essentially saying, remember, remember who God is.

Yeah.

Remember that when you live with God, God requires you to be righteous and holy, and he requires you to live your life this way.

And then the prophets would be, hey, remember, you're not living the way in which God is asking you to live, um, kind of over and over and over again.

And if you if you don't repent, wrath is coming.

Um, so I think that's one of the ways in which the law and the prophets bear bear witness to it, um, in addition to pointing to Christ and what he's what he's uh ultimately going to do in the sacrificial system and so forth.

But um, yeah, I think probably those two types of things would be a way that it it bears witness.

Yeah, I completely agree.

You know, we see without the framework or the vocabulary that we're given by the law and the prophets, we don't have a way of understanding the requirement of righteousness, of the fulfillment that Jesus offers to that requirement of righteousness, and of what it would mean that a propitiation could be offered in our place.

Yeah.

If we aren't given this vocabulary in the sacrificial system that the law and the prophets revealed to us, that all testify to Jesus, that are all ultimately fulfilled and find their meaning in Jesus.

Yeah.

So apart from Jesus, they mean condemnation.

But with Jesus, there's the free gift of his righteousness for us.

So it goes on and it says, For all have sinned fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

I mean, you can just hear these words, they should just melt the Christian's heart.

Yeah.

It is God's grace that saves you.

Well, what do I do to get it?

It's a gift.

I mean, I remember like in college being taught to do initiative evangelism, and you'd want to lead people to this moment of like teaching this distinction between wages that you earn and a gift that you receive.

And you you would ask, well, how do you receive a gift?

And you would hold up a pen, you know, and be like, Well, how do you receive this pen?

You just receive it.

Yeah.

You just receive it.

It's uh freely given.

Uh even that that uh yeah, by his grace as a gift, uh, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Redemption, the purchasing, the payment, the um acquiring that Christ Jesus did on our behalf.

So let's get in.

So then we get this like sort of strange technical word.

It says, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

So what is what's a propitiation?

Okay.

So I've I've got some a couple things maybe that will help give the like give a word picture in some sense.

Great.

Um and then we can talk about um maybe the what it means in terms of relationship.

Yeah.

So um there's a the term propitiation and the word that's used for that is the same word that's used for mercy seat uh in the Old Testament.

Now, I don't I'm not gonna say this is a one-to-one relationship here because Jesus isn't ever called the mercy seat.

Um but the mercy seat was basically that place in the Ark of the Covenant Um where the high priest would come in and he'd sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on it.

Right.

Um and if you think of that kind of from God's view, maybe like from heaven looking down, what what he'd be seeing there is that place where the atonement is being made, and directly underneath that mercy seat is the law of God.

Um and so, in a way, when Israel's and the high priest is coming and making this um atonement sacrifice, he's sprinkling the butt on it saying that the law, the demands of the law have been met.

Yeah.

Um so I I think that's a good picture for us to even to relate it to the law and the prophets.

Um, but as I mentioned, Jesus is never called the mercy seat anywhere.

So it's not necessarily a one-to-one equivalency there, but I think maybe in uh Martin Lloyd Jones kind of calls out him being not the mercy seat itself, but the propitiatory sacrifice itself.

So he's like the actual blood that's being sprinkled in that place, yep.

Um, that act that covers it.

Um and I just thought that was really helpful in thinking about it and viewing that, um, even seeing the fulfillment of the scriptures in in the sacrifice there.

Yeah, I've heard it described as the the mercy seat is not so much a place as an event.

Yeah.

And the event that takes place is the sprinkling of the blood for the covering, the the fulfillment of the law and the atoning of the people.

Yeah.

And that's what the propitiation is.

That there's uh that Jesus is offered by his blood to the Lord for the fulfillment of the law.

What does the law require of us?

It requires death because the wages of sin is death.

Yeah.

And so he offer, and where is the life?

It's in the blood.

You offer the blood, that's the the wages of sin.

Yeah.

Being paid.

Yeah, it's an exchange.

Yeah.

Um, well, and I think that leads us into like when you when you view it in terms of a relationship, uh John Owen has what he calls four elements of a propitiation.

Uh the first one is that there's an offense that needs to be taken away.

The second one is there's a person who needs to be pacified or appeased.

The third is there there's an offending or a guilty person, and then uh who's who's committed the offense, and then the last one is a sacrifice or some other means of making atonement for the offense.

Um, and and you can see all of that here, whether it's in that in the sacrificial system or in this case with us, so the offense is our sin, that needs to be taken away.

Yep.

Um God is the one that needs to be satisfied and appeased.

Yeah.

Um, we're the offending persons, and then Jesus is our sacrifice.

Yeah.

You know, I think the the thing that people flinch around is the appeasement of God.

And that's why some folks don't even like to translate it as propitiation, they're wrong.

Because they don't want to hint at this implication of that word, which is appeasement.

Yeah.

The wrath of God needs to be appeased.

But what one way to think of that is that the perfect justice demands appeasement.

Because if there is not an offer of vengeance or retribution, then the justice cannot be considered it cannot be satisfied.

And so peace cannot be made between the parties.

One thing that I so I th this is the example that that comes to mind.

So it that I noticed in um when I first started doing ministry, I did ministry in Denver County Jail.

And there was I I got to know one of the uh uh inmates, and he his brother was murdered while he was in there, and so I came in and was talking with him about it.

And uh his I was like, man, what you know, I'm this is awful, I'm so sorry, and what horrible news to receive, and especially you know, when when you're incarcerated and there's no you can't be there for for your family, and um and I was asking, like, is there any news on what's gonna happen for your brother?

And he was like, No, man, nobody's gonna do anything.

Uh and the uh his he's like, nobody's gonna investigate, nobody's gonna do anything.

Um and what what he then was wrestling with is like, when I get out of here, I'm gonna find the guy who did this, and so you can see that there's this because there was not a satisfaction of justice, because there is no avenging of this terrible wrongdoing, yeah, then uh this wrath is building and there cannot be peace until the wrath is satisfied.

How could you say that his wrath was wrong?

Yeah.

To want to see some demonstration that his brother's life was meaningful, and that if someone took it, then there should be repercussion for that.

You know, if you think of peace being brought between warring parties or i the the peace could not be sustainable unless there's some justice or satisfaction of that justice.

And God's justice is perfect.

And so to think that there could be some sort of lasting peace against this true justice without him being appeased, meaning he would be able to say my vengeance is satisfied, I am able to uh be at true and lasting peace with these people.

He must be appeased.

Yeah.

There must be appeasing in that uh uh situation.

That I hope that helps kind of for folks to kind of see the necessity of appeasement.

It's not like a pettiness in God, it's the absoluteness of his justice, yeah, which demands that.

Well, it's interesting that when I was thinking when when you're walking us through that, is there's I think we often think about transgression of the law in terms of the sins that I commit, but you're you're also bringing up another category.

It's the sins that have been committed against me.

Right.

And the law can't necessarily help me with those.

Yeah.

Um, like the retribution or the vengeance or the judgment there, the law is just telling us what's right and wrong.

It it actually can't help me find the justice that I need.

Um, and so when we are appealing to God's justice, we're saying that God is the one who can fulfill that perfectly, uh, in addition to even saying what's right and wrong through the law.

Yeah, for sure.

And so there's this question that so it's received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness.

So that propitiation, you can see it's like these are all the necessary ingredients for peace, for true and lasting peace between adversaries.

Yeah.

Are found in in that propitiation.

But the crazy thing is that God uh in order for that peace to take place, he demands nothing from us.

He offers it completely in his son.

He satisfies all that he requires for peace with us, he gives to us in Jesus.

Yeah.

And it says this was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

What what is it what is that referring to?

Yeah, so I mean I think there's no coincidence here that it's in the same section with referring back to the law and the prophets.

Um but you would have, as a as an Israelite, you would have heard the wrath of God is coming, the wrath of God is coming, you're going to be judged, um, and then for hundreds and hundreds of years nothing happens.

Yep.

And Israel keeps on sending them the way in which they want.

They they get a king to be like the other nations, they adopt the gods of everyone else.

And it's like, where's put so I guess God's wrath doesn't mean anything?

Yeah.

He doesn't actually care about any of this stuff.

Yeah.

That's right.

Like that yeah, does God not care?

Either he doesn't care or He's not powerful, or He doesn't know all these things that would make him not God.

Right.

Which I feel like is the argument of our most of our culture today is that Christians have been saying these things for thousands of years.

Yeah.

The return of Christ is coming and he's not yet come.

Yeah.

Um it seems like that's our standard argument to a lot of this, and and he's giving us a reason why God, God's wrath didn't come upon us at that point in time in history.

Yep.

And then it goes on and it says, it was to show his righteousness at the present time, which is now that this is we've seen what's taken place in Christ.

Yeah.

At the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

I just want to hang on that verse.

He might be just and the justifier.

He is just because he is not winking at sin.

He is not pretending it didn't happen, he is not neglecting the the uh uh vengeance that would be required against the retribution that would be required against sinful things that have taken place, he is just because he offers the true sacrifice.

There is a punishment.

The punishment is laid on Jesus.

Yeah, the punishment takes place, those all sins in it are paid for.

They're not just winked at.

But without this offering, like you think of faiths that don't have this offering, and ultimately it requires their God to not consider the weight of sin.

You know, you think of like if there's a if at the end of time it's just like the Muslim God who's weighing your good deeds and your evil deeds at the end of your life, ultimately he's saying, okay, I'll just not really look at those evil deeds.

I'll just pretend they didn't happen.

Yeah no matter what they were, if you were to be saved.

That's a neglect of justice.

Not in Christ.

All sins are paid for.

God is righteous.

So he is just, perfect righteous, and the justifier.

He makes you just because of what Jesus does.

He gives to you that righteousness.

So the the it's just like the wonder of the cross of what's of what's accomplished here.

Um that we see.

So anyway, I just want that verse to just kind of be like, whoa.

Yeah.

Well, it's a it's you know, I think it's a lesson for us too, for like those Jews or anyone that was questioning the righteousness of God.

I think we uh we often do that in our own circumstances in our lives of like how could you do this to me?

Yep.

Or I can't believe, you know, what whatever the questioning might be, there's a sense in which one, we don't understand the grand scheme and the timeline and and everything that's going on, but in the end, like God will be found righteous.

Yeah, that's right.

That's right.

Now it there's uh it introduces this theme we're not gonna be able to hit on everything, so we just don't have time.

Uh we're squeezing this in.

Thanks for squeezing this in, Aaron.

Yeah, no problem.

Um but it so this goes into so like why is there no boasting?

Well, because Jesus is the one who fulfills it.

So we don't get to boast in our own works.

And I remember thinking it's almost seems arbitrary that he just suddenly talks about boasting.

Like, what's the thing there?

But what that means is that for our salvation, God receives 100% of the glory.

That our salvation puts us in a in a position where we say he did it all.

Like when we sing Jesus paid it all, I like to say that song's true, you know.

That's really true.

Right.

Jesus paid it all.

Yeah.

So when you stand before the Lord, you nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.

You know, He has completely done it.

You can't satisfy the works of the law.

Jesus went on your behalf and took your place.

I'm preaching on it this Sunday, but it's a little preview.

It's you know, what would Barabbas say later when somebody came to him and they were like, hey, uh Barabbas is the guy who is uh about to be crucified, and then the crowd chants for him to be set free and for Jesus to be crucified.

Yeah.

And he like runs into somebody, you know, later that week and it was like, Barabbas, well, I didn't expect to see you here.

I thought you'd be you were crucified.

You were said to be crucified earlier.

Why weren't you crucified?

And he would say, An innocent man took my place.

And he was crucified so that I was set free.

That's what we say.

An innocent man took my place.

How did what could Barabbas boast in?

Only the man who took his place.

And that's the that's what we see in the no boasting.

And then maybe we'll just not really cover chapter four.

But let's just we can talk about Abraham a little bit.

Yeah, yeah.

So let's lay out so then he's laying out so the justification is not by our works, just by faith in what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf, which is faith in the promise.

Well, has that always been true?

We have any examples of that being true?

Aaron Ross Powell I mean, it seems like we do.

Abraham might be a good place to start.

Yeah, so that's where Paul goes.

So he's making this argument that this is not an innovation, that it's a righteousness by faith.

This is the way it's always been.

And so we'll go back to the beginning of the covenant with Abraham.

Yeah.

And we'll show that it's always been by faith.

Um so he quotes Genesis 15 6, which after this interaction with the Lord, uh it says in Genesis 15, 6, and he, Abraham, believed the Lord, and he, the Lord, counted it to him as righteousness.

And Paul's like, case closed.

Yeah.

He believed the Lord and counted it to him as righteousness.

It's always been righteousness by faith.

And it was counted to him, which shows that it's a gift.

The righteousness is a gift.

And uh that's the way that it's always been.

Uh and the argument continues, I'm just blitzing.

That's all right.

Do you want to I mean we could talk about so the argument continues that it was counted to him as righteousness, but I think one of the like the summary here of this is that Abraham believed, um, which is like sometimes you can believe and then you can just go do things.

Uh-huh.

Um so like Abraham was was told he was gonna have kids.

Yeah.

So if you wanted to think that about that in a law perspective, he could have just gone and tried to have kids.

Yeah.

Um, but I think when it it talks about his belief, the big thing that for us to come away with here is that he looked at his circumstances and he didn't waver in his belief.

Yeah, because what were his circumstances?

It's not like he It's not like God was like, hey, you're gonna have kids to like these like newlyweds, right?

Spring chickens.

And it's not like he could just go take some you know, beef liver pills.

Yeah, that's right.

And just transform his body.

That's right.

You know, his body was as good as dead.

As good as dead.

And Sarah his wife is barren.

Yeah, barren.

Um and so the works the reason that you can't be saved by the works of the law here is that Abraham couldn't do anything to change his circumstances.

He can't make himself not 99.

Yeah.

He can't make Sarah's womb not barren.

Right.

What can you do?

Right.

All all you can do is believe.

Yeah.

And so we we have that same impotence with regard to the law.

Yeah.

We we look at the law, you can't you can't fulfill the law.

You're bound in sin.

Right.

What are you gonna do?

Trust that God will save you.

Yeah.

And that that trust is counted to you as righteousness.

Counted as righteousness.

I think the other thing here where I think it's interesting about his faith in it not wavering, um, and is just looking at the greatness of the promise of God in what God promised Abraham.

Is not only did he promise them that he would have one son, but he said he would be the father of all the nations.

Um, and or all the nations of the world be blessed to him.

Paul calls him the heir of the world.

So the promise isn't just uh this piece of land in Canaan or or Palestine, and it's not just that he would have Isaac, which eventually Jesus would come from.

Yeah.

Um, but it's he's seeing that Christ is coming, he's seeing that Christ will is the way in which the entire world will be blessed, you know, in dimly, in which the way that Paul says, we don't see perfectly, but dimly.

Um, but it's like Abraham had two reasons to doubt.

He had just the facts of his circumstances, and then he had the greatness of the promise of God.

Yeah.

But neither of those caused that in him.

And it seems like that's what we're being called to hear is to be justified in the same way that Abraham was was justified, and it's looking at our circumstances, knowing that I'm sinful, knowing I can't do anything, looking at the fact that God is the one that condemns us but also justifies us.

Yeah.

And and being like, how is this possible?

Yeah.

Um, and it uh amidst all that, still believing, anyways.

Because what do we get to turn and see?

We get to turn and see the cross.

Yeah.

There he is.

There's the one who atoned for me.

Yeah.

There's the promise.

And he ascended to the right hand of the Father, intercedes for us now.

And yeah, like as you're saying, this is probably a good place to close that there's we uh the I I love how you laid that out.

The the like negative you look at your circumstances and say, well, of course, it's just condemnation coming.

And then you look at the wonder and it's like every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, yeah, not even one out.

Yeah.

It doesn't seem yeah.

And then on the cross, well, what wouldn't he give?

Paul will go here later in four more chapters, but he who didn't spare his own son but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?

Yeah.

In Christ we see, oh, it's uh utterly reasonable that we would have this a faith like Abraham.

Yeah.

In what Jesus has accomplished, because we can see it.

So cool.

So cool.

I hope people really savor this chapter.

Me too.

All right.

There you go.

Quick quickest episode ever.

Great job out there, everybody.

We'll see you later.