What Is Propitiation? Romans 3:25-31 Finally Explained

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. And again, it's good to have everybody with us. And our television audience, we just want to welcome you. And there's nothing we like better when someone writes and says, I feel like I'm sitting right on the back row of your class. And that's what we try to project. We want to have the classroom setting. I've always said I'm not a preacher, I'm a teacher. There is a big difference. Once in a while, I may get close, but I try not to. I want to just remain teaching, and I want to keep it on a rather low level. We don't want to get emotional, but we certainly do hope that the Holy Spirit would open hearts to understand what the Word really says. And again, we're going to let the camera just pan our books for a moment to remind our television audience that all these programs are available now in printed form, and we're getting such a good response. These little books, people are just loving them, learning from them. And, of course, all they are are word -for-word transcriptions from the videotapes of the programs. And, of course, those also are available. Now, again, we want to come right back to the Book of Romans. As I said in my introduction to the book several weeks ago, I could very easily spend five years, I think, in Romans. And then, you know, someone called me right after that, and not having heard me say that, we were talking about Romans and what a tremendous book it is. And he says, you know, I read the other day of a pastor on the East Coast, and he didn't know what city or who it was, but he said, I read the other day of a pastor on the East Coast that spent 20 years and never preached a Sunday morning sermon out of anything but the Book of Romans. And I said, well, praise the Lord, he must have been a good one. So, anyway, we're going to stay in the Book of Romans, and we're going to pick right up where we left off, and that was at verse 25. Reading verse 24 for a review, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now, again, I'm going to reflect back three, four weeks. Remember I had on the board two absolutes, two imperatives that no one, I don't care whether they're Catholic, Protestant, Jew, or anything else, they can never detour them, they can't put a bridge over them or tunnel under them, we have to face them head on. Two absolutes in Scripture. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. And the second one was, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. All right, now I want you to see then that here we're satisfying both of those imperatives. We are dealing with the shed blood because that was the price of redemption. And then when we come on down to verse 26, we're going to see that all of this is appropriated when we believe. And what is believing? It's faith, see? So we got both of those right here in short order. All right, now let's come on up then to verse 25. The Christ Jesus of verse 24, who has shed His blood, He's paid the price of redemption, and God hath set Him forth to be a propitiation. Now that's a big word that most people just slip over and they never stop to consider it. But He has made Him a propitiation through, and here's the word again, I even missed it a moment ago, through what? Faith, see? And not only faith, but faith in His what? The blood, there you got them both within half a verse. You can't go around them, all right? So God has made Christ then a propitiation when we place our faith in His blood, and then God can declare His righteousness again for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. All right, now let's look at that word propitiation. We looked at it when we were way back in Exodus, and consequently when you get up here, we're going to have to look at what we looked at back then. But before we go back and consider the Exodus account as I look at propitiation, I want you to turn with me to 1 John, the little epistle of 1 John. And turn to chapter 2, and verses 1 and 2. 1 John, chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. My little children. Boy, I love that. You know what that is? I call that the term of endearment. That's a term of endearment. My little children, these things I write unto you that you sin not, and if... In other words, we will. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Oh boy, now another thought comes to mind. See, I told Willie, there's no way I can prepare a message with notes because too many other things enter in. Why do we need an advocate with the Father, scripturally? Why do we need an advocate? Turn back with me to Revelation chapter 12. Now again, I didn't intend to do this, see, so this is free for nothing. Revelation chapter 12. And we know that from the chronology of the book of Revelation this great event is going to take place at the midpoint of the seven years. At the end of the first three and a half years, as I've taught Revelation to most of you now, a whole series of things take place almost simultaneously. One of those events is what we're going to read about here in Revelation chapter 12, beginning at verse 7. Now remember, why did I come here? Why do we need an advocate? Don't lose why I go where I go. Chapter 12, verse 7. Midpoint of the tribulation, and there's war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, Satan. And the dragon fought, and his angels. In other words, Satan and his angels are in a warfare in heaven. Verse 8. And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven, and the great dragon, Satan, was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth. Now let's take that literally. He has had access to the very throne room of heaven, and he will have until the midpoint of the tribulation, but then he's going to be cast out for the last time. Now read on. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. Why? For the accuser of our brethren is cast down. This accuser who accused them, accused who? The believer, you and I. He is up there in the very presence of God, if I understand Scripture, and he is accusing us before God the Father every time we sin. But what have we got going for us? An advocate. What's the other word for an advocate? An attorney. See? We have a legal mouthpiece, is the way the world would put it, that just as soon as Satan points the finger at us and says to God the Father, look what that believer just did. What does Jesus do? He said, but wait a minute, he's under the blood. I've purchased him. He's mine. See? All right. Now that's exactly what John is referring to then in chapter 2, verse 1. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. That isn't what I intended to teach here. I want the next verse. Verse 2. And he, Jesus Christ the righteous, is the propitiation. Now those are the only two times those words are used that I'm aware of in all of Scripture. Back here in Romans chapter 3 and in 1 John chapter 2. And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. Now you know there are some that teach that Christ's atonement was only for those who become believers. It was a limited atonement. Well, that's not what my Bible says. My Bible says he died, he paid the sin debt for every human being. Everyone. But it doesn't automatically apply to them until they believe. See? And that's where we have to be careful. All right. So what's propitiation? Well, now I've got to take you back to Exodus, at least in your mind, not in Scripture. You can come back to Romans 3. But I'm going to draw another little floor plan, I'll try anyway, of the little old tent in the wilderness that we call the tabernacle. And you remember that it was divided into two rooms, and back here in the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant with the mercy seat. Over here was the table of showbread, and here was the altar of incense, and down here was the candlestick. Outside the door was the laver of cleansing, and then way out here was the brazen altar, and then, of course, out here was the outer fence. Then on the Day of Atonement, why, Aaron the high priest would have to bring three animals. And he would kill one and make his way all the way back here and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat, first for his own sin, and then he would take the blood of the second animal, and he'd bring it and sprinkle it in here for the sins of Israel, and then he would go back and symbolically lay his hand on the head of that goat, and that was called the scapegoat, and he was taken out into the wilderness, the scapegoat. All right. All the materials, if you remember when we studied this back when we were in Exodus, all the materials of this tent, of the outer fence, of the altar, of the laver of cleansing, of the table of showbread, the altar of incense, the candlestick, the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat, covered with gold, made with wood, all the materials that covered it, everything in that tabernacle was a picture of whom? Of Christ, of the Lord Jesus. Now then, this is the way I explain propitiation. He was the high priest. He was the sacrificial animal. He is the place of sacrifice. He's the laver of cleansing. He's the table of showbread. He's the altar of incense. He's the candlestick. He's the Ark of the Covenant. He's the mercy seat. He is everything that you can possibly think of in that tabernacle day of atonement. The very word propitiation indicates that not only is He the sacrifice, He's the place of applying the sacrifice. And see, that's why I like to use this whole system of the tabernacle as a picture of Christ's finished work of the cross. That's what we talk about when we say that the work of the cross finished it, because He was everything that possibly was demanded of a holy God of us. And He did it all on our behalf. He was the sacrificial blood. Go through it briefly again. He was the high priest that presented it. He was the very mercy seat where He presented His own blood. See that? Everything in that tabernacle spoke of Christ, and when you take the whole picture and put it together, that's propitiation. At least that's the way I like to look at it. Now, the Greek scholars probably wouldn't agree with me totally, but nevertheless, that's basically what propitiation is all about. That everything that was in that tabernacle picture on the Day of Atonement, Christ accomplished on the cross with His shed blood, His death, His burial, and His resurrection. It's all been done on our behalf. All right? Back to verse 25, Romans 3. So God hath set Him forth to be a propitiation when we can place our faith in His what? His blood. Now, you see, we're living in a sophisticated day when people don't like to talk about sacrificial blood, and we're just not programmed to that, but nevertheless, we cannot ignore the demands of Scripture that God, in His own reasoning, in His own line of thought, has demanded shed blood for the remission of sin, and we can't abrogate that. We can't go against it. All right? So now let's read on. So He's been made a propitiation when we place our faith in His blood. And why do we place faith in His blood? For the remission of sins that are past and through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness, that He, the Lord Jesus, might be... What's the next word? Just or fair, as well as being the justifier of Him who keeps the law, who joins the church, does this or does that, but what? Believe it! See? Oh, people don't like that, but that's what the book said. All right, now let's come back to verse 25 for a minute, and here's another statement I think most people just sort of gloss over because they don't really know what it's talking about. When it says that God declared His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past. Now what's He talking about? Well, the Old Testament believer. Now do you remember when I taught the difference a long time ago between hell and the lake of fire? And I pointed out and I put it on the board that all through the Old Testament economy, even the believers with the exception of Enoch and Elijah, when they died, they didn't go to heaven. Where did they go? They went down into paradise. Remember that? I drew the circles on the board and they went down into paradise, and we get just a little window of information on that between Abraham and Lazarus and the rich man in torment. You remember that? And there was a great gulf fixed that they couldn't cross over. Well, all right, Abraham and Lazarus, of course, were down in that area called Hades or hell, and that explains the creed when it says that Jesus descended into hell, but He went into the paradise side. And then at His resurrection morning, He took paradise to heaven. And so now Paul tells us to be absent from the body is present with the Lord. But in the Old Testament, it wasn't that way. They couldn't go into heaven. God made two exceptions, but on the whole, the believer in the Old Testament could not go into heaven. Why? There had been no atoning bloodshed. The blood of animals and goats couldn't take away their sin. It was a stopgap. I always call it sweeping it under the rug. But once the true atonement had been accomplished, now there was no reason to send people down into paradise. Paradise was taken directly to heaven. All right, now that's exactly what Paul is reminding us, that he's not only talking about the New Testament believer, he's also bringing in the Old Testament saint. His sins were now totally atoned for by virtue of the shed blood of Christ. Brings us right up to date, doesn't it? All right, now then verse 26. To declare, I say at this time, His righteousness. Now what is Paul constantly hammering home, either one way or another? That there's nothing we've got going for us. See, we have nothing good. We have no righteousness. We have nothing to barter. All we can do is, again, like Israel at the Red Sea, is say, I'm helpless. I'm hopeless. There's nothing I can do. But oh, that's when God steps in, see? All right, and so he might be just. Now I remember some time ago, either hearing or reading, I never remember which, someone presented the same question that I've had in my mind, and I'm sure everyone has. How will God justify sending someone to the eternal lake of fire, when so far as we know, they have never had an opportunity to hear the gospel? The human response is, but God, that's not fair. They never had a chance. Well, whoever the individual was, and if I knew, I'd give credit, but I don't remember, he said, you know, the only way we can answer that dilemma is that God is never unjust. He is never unfair. So in his own higher way of thinking, he knows how he's going to take care of it. There's no way we can comprehend it. But always remember that God can never be unfair. He is totally just in all of his dealings. All right, now you come back again to the text. So in order for all of this to be consummated, the work of propitiation, the work of his shed blood, the work of redemption, as we saw in the last program, he's going to end up being just, and he's also going to be just in justifying, declaring, just as if they had never sinned, any sinner who is a child of Adam who will simply believe in Jesus. Now, of course, when Paul says believe in Jesus, he's not talking about the Jesus of the Gospels. He's talking about the Jesus after his resurrection, the Christ of resurrection, and let's never lose sight of that. So he is the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus. Now again, I'm always reminding you, aren't I? What's left out of there? Well, all the things that the rank and file people think should be in there, but it isn't. There's a lot of things in here that the world says, well, this is what I'd have to do, or when I mean the world, I mean the Christianity. They'll say, but you have to do this, and you have to do that, and you have to do this, and every other thing. It's not in here. All the Bible declares is that these things will be, and we'll be coming to the word imputed probably in the next chapter, these things are imputed to us when we believe. But when we believe, things are going to start happening. We're going to see some life changes. We're going to see a whole new personality makeup, and that takes care then of all the problems that these people say, well, you have to do this, and you have to do that. No, we don't. Those things are going to come naturally as a result then of our faith, see? All right, verse 27. So where is boasting? Remember I told you in one of the last taping programs, wouldn't heaven be an awful, boring place if you had to stop every five seconds and listen to somebody tell you everything that they did to get there? Oh, it'd be awful, and that's what it would be. That's what the next chapter is going to say, that if Abraham would have been saved by works, he could have boasted. And if he'd boast now, he'd still be boasting a jillion years from now. But that's not the way it's going to be, see? But there is going to be no room for boasting. It's excluded. Can't make any plan or that. You can't argue with that. It's taken out of the way. By what law? What law says we can't work for our salvation? Is it the law of works? No. But the law of faith. See? Isn't that beautiful? The law of faith. Without works. Now I know the book of James says, faith without works is dead. And I'm not going to get into the controversy. But you see, Paul on the other hand says, it's faith plus nothing until we're saved. And then what follows? Works, of course. So that we can never come back and say, but I did this for my salvation. We have to totally rest on that which has been done on our behalf. All right, now verse 28. See how often Paul repeats things? And that's by spirit inspiration, and it's for a reason. And we have to do the same thing. We just have to constantly repeat some of these things in order for them to soak in. Therefore, we conclude. Now what does that mean? Hey, there's no more room for argument. Forget it. It's all settled. It's done. We conclude that a man is justified. Now remember the definition. Made just as if we'd never sin. We are justified by faith. Oh, but what's the next word? Without the deeds of the law. Oh, isn't that fantastic? We are justified by faith. You know, years and years ago I had a lady in one of my classes, I think it was down at Macalester, and she was a fairly good artist. And one day she came up with a little painting of an odd-looking little character with the most quizzical look on his face that you can imagine. And her caption was, faith plus nothing, perfect. Because isn't that exactly the general rule of people? When they hear me teach that it's faith plus nothing, they just quizzically look and say, now wait a minute, Les, what are you talking about? Don't I have to do this? Don't I have to do that? No, not for salvation. It is faith plus nothing. I know it may be hard to swallow, but listen, that's what the book teaches. Therefore, we are justified by faith without the law. All right, verse 29, I think we can finish the chapter in the minute we have left. Is he the God of the Jew only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Now, you know, that wasn't the concept back in the Old Testament, was it? All the Gentiles were in God's mind, but you remember what I've always shown you in Ephesians 2 when Paul says, remember that when you were in your uncircumcision, you were strangers from the covenants of promise. You were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel without hope and without God in this world. That was the Gentiles' lot back there before the gospel of grace came along. But see, now it's on a level, well, I used the word before, I'll use it again. We're now on a level playing field. The Jew has no advantage over the Gentile. We have no advantage over the Gentile or over the Jew. So then, seeing verse 30, it is one God who shall justify the circumcision or the Jew by faith, and put in the word justify, and he will justify the uncircumcision, the Gentile, through faith. Now, a lot of people get picky here, and they'll say, well, now what's the difference by faith and through faith? And I simply say, none. It's the same thing. You're going to be saved by faith, you're going to be saved through faith, but whatever, there is no difference. A Jew is saved on the same basis that a Gentile is, and that is faith in the finished work of the cross. There can be nothing added to it. All right, now then, verse 31. I hope I can do it justice in one minute. Do we then make void the law through faith? In other words, when I stand here and say, you're not under law, you're strictly by faith plus nothing, does that mean you throw the law out and to the wind? No. When we get to Romans chapter 13, Paul's going to say just as plain as English can make it, that when we love our neighbor, as a believer of course, we fulfill the what? The law. See, we don't cast it out. And I've always put it this way, just look at it for a few seconds. Can you love someone and break any of those commandments against him? It's impossible. And so love is the fulfilling of the law. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.