Bill Bremer
Senior Member
Joined: 02/29/2016 Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 81
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Posted: 03/04/2016 at 5:50am
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Our
righteousness is God’s covenant justice in action. Through the act
of God’s covenant justice, God declares us to be in the right. The
typical translations of Romans
3:19-26 make it hard to understand. N.T. Wright in his
contemporary translation, THE
KINGDOM NEW TESTAMENT, clearly brings out the meaning. God’s
covenant justice
Now we know that whatever the law
says, it is speaking to those who are “in the law.” The purpose
of this is that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may
be brought to the bar of God’s judgment. No mere mortal, you see,
can be declared to be in the right before God on the basis of the
works of the law. What you get through the law is the knowledge of
sin.
But now, quite apart from the law
(though the law and the prophets bore witness to it), God’s
covenant justice has been displayed. God’s covenant justice comes
into operation through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah, for the
benefit of all who have faith. For there is no distinction: all
sinned, and fell short of God’s glory—and, by God’s grace they
are freely declared to be in the right, to be members of the
covenant, through the redemption which is found in the Messiah,
Jesus.
God put Jesus forth as the
place of mercy, through faithfulness, by means of his blood. He did
this to demonstrate his covenant justice, because of the passing over
(in divine forbearance) of sins committed beforehand. This was to
demonstrate his covenant justice in the present time: that is, that
he himself is inn the right, and that he declares to be in the right
everyone who trusts in the faithfulness of Jesus.
Romans
3:19-26
The
New American Standard Bible renders the same scripture this way:
Now we know that whatever the Law
says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth
may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God;
because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His
sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
But now apart from the Law the
righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law
and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in
Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being
justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in
Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His
blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness,
because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously
committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the
present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one
who has faith in Jesus.
Romans
3:19-26 NASB
In
his book,
KNOWING GOD, J.I. Packer presents the meaning of the key words
“justified” and “propitiation” we typically find in that
portion of scripture. And what does it mean to be justified? It
means to be forgiven and accepted as righteous. And how do we come to
be justified? Through faith—that is, self-abandoning trust in the
person and work of Jesus. And how does Jesus’ blood—that is, his
sacrificial death—form a basis for our justification? Paul explains
this in Romans
3:24-25, where he speaks of “the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in
his blood” (KJV). What is a propitiation? It is a sacrifice that
averts wrath through expiating sin and canceling guilt.
This is the real heart of the gospel:
that Jesus Christ, by virtue of his death on the cross as our
substitute and sinbearer, “is the propitiation for our sins” 1
Jn 22 KJV. Between us sinners and the thunderclouds of divine
wrath stands the cross of the Lord Jesus. If we are Christ’s
through faith, then we are justified through his cross and the wrath
will never touch us, neither here nor hereafter. Jesus ”delivers us
from the wrath to come. 11
Thes 1:10 ISV
Jesus’
blood of the covenant in communion
Just
before He was crucified, Jesus ate the Passover, meal with His
disciples. The annual Passover supper was the most reverent gathering
in the homes of Old Covenant Israelites. God commanded the
Israelites’ to eat the Passover meal in remembrance of the Passover
supper God had the Israelites eat when He passed over their first
born male, delivering them from Egyptian bondage. The Passover supper
was also a prophetic sign looking forward to their promised Messiah
coming to deliver them.
While they were eating, Jesus took
some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the
disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And when He
had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink
from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is
poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. “But I say to you, I
will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day
when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.
Matthew
26:26-29 NASB
With
that prophetic sign of the New Covenant, Jesus assures us of the
forgiveness of our sins. We know He shed His blood for us. “Get
rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch as
you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed”
(1
Cor 5:7 NIV). “But if we
walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin”
(1
Jn 1:7 ESV).
Christ’s
blood cleanses our conscience
God
gave His First Covenant with the law to hold His people Israel
together and to help them come near. Priests offered blood sacrifices
and other offerings to atone for sins. These pointed to the New
Covenant sacrifice Jesus would make to cleanse our sin (1
Jo 1:7; Peter 1:2), but religious rituals didn’t cure their
guilty conscience. The blood of the Messiah purged our sin and
cleanses our conscience so we can give ourselves up to the service of
the living God.
But now Christ has made his
appearance, a high priest concerned with blessings already won. The
tabernacle of which he made use was the greater and more perfect one,
the tabernacle not fashioned by any human hand, that is to say, the
one which does not belong to this order of creation at all. Moreover,
if he has entered the sanctuary once and for all, securing a
deliverance which lasts forever, it was his own blood, not that of
goats and calves, which was his means of accomplishing this. And
indeed, if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer
sprinkled upon those who have suffered defilement hallows them, so as
to restore their outward purity, how much more effective will be the
blood of Christ, who, by virtue of the eternal spirit which was his,
offered himself up to God, as a sacrifice free from all blemish; how
much more effective, I say, will be Christ’s blood in cleansing our
conscience, so that we turn our backs on actions without any life in
them and instead give ourselves up to the service of the living God.
Hebrews
9:11-14 Cassirer
Since
God has declared us in the right, we have peace with God
Since
God has declared us in the right, we have peace with God> Because
God has declared us to be in the right, our guilt is washed away and
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we
have obtained access to his grace in which we stand. Notice faith,
hope and love and suffering, endurance and character in the following
Word,
Therefore, since we are justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through
him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we
rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we
rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and
hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.
Romans
5:1-5 RSV
Our
hope of sharing the glory of God points to the environment of the
kingdom to come. When we see the glory of God, He will have made all
things right and He will have changed our mortal bodies into
glorified bodies and we will know Him as He has know us. This hope
doesn’t disappoint, because the Holy Spirit poured God’s love
into our hearts (Rev
21-22).
While we were still weak, at the
right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for
a righteous man—though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to
die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet
sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by
his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
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. Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation.
Romans
5:6-11 RSV
__________________ Bill Bremer Kingdom Relationships http://billbremer.org
billbremer04@yahoo.com
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