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August 19, 2018 - May 3, 2020
In human terms, “propitiation” means appeasing someone who is angry, usually by a gift. But this is not what it means in the Bible. “Propitiation” means the satisfying of God’s holy law, the meeting of its just demands, so that God can freely forgive those who come to Christ.
The priest then put his hands on the head of the other goat and confessed the sins of the people. Then the goat was taken out into the wilderness and set free to symbolize the carrying away of sins.
The scapegoat
In the Old Testament period, the blood of animals could never take away sin; it could only cover it until the time when Jesus would come and purchase a finished salvation.
God had “passed over” the sins that were past (Rom. 3:25, literal translation), knowing that His Son would come and finish the work.
He was justified by faith, not works
He put our sins on Christ’s account that He might put Christ’s righteousness on our account.
once we are justified, our record contains Christ’s perfect righteousness and can never again contain our sins.
They have also experienced a spiritual circumcision in the heart (Col. 2:10–12), not just a minor physical operation, but the putting off of the old nature through the death and resurrection of Christ.
Abraham was justified by believing God’s promise, not by obeying God’s law, for God’s law through Moses had not yet been given.
God must wait until the sinner is “dead” and unable to help himself before He can release His saving power.
It is when the lost sinner confesses that he is spiritually dead and unable to help himself that God can save him.
The unsaved person is at enmity with God (Rom. 5:10; 8:7) because he cannot obey God’s law or fulfill God’s will.
Condemnation means that God declares us sinners, which is a declaration of war. Justification means that God declares us righteous, which is a declaration of peace, made possible by Christ’s death on the cross.
“Peace with God” takes care of the past: He will no longer hold our sins against us. “Access to God” takes care of the present: We can come to Him at any time for the help we need. “Hope of the glory of God” takes care of the future: One day we shall share in His glory!
No amount of suffering can separate us from the Lord (Rom. 8:35–39); instead, trials bring us closer to the Lord and make us more like the Lord.
As we go through tribulations, and depend on God’s grace, the trials only purify us and help to get rid of the chaff.
Before we were saved, God proved His love by sending Christ to die for us. Now that we are His children, surely He will love us more.
Huh? How can God be love and love us less before we were saved?
In Romans 1:18–32, Paul explained how people declared war on God and, because of this, deserved to be condemned eternally. But God did not declare war on humankind. Instead, He sent His Son as the Peacemaker (Eph. 2:11–18), that people might be reconciled to God.
if God had tested each human being individually, the result would have been the same: disobedience.
by condemning the human race through one man (Adam), God was then able to save the human race through one Man (Jesus Christ)!
The fallen angels cannot be saved because they are not a race. They sinned individually and were judged individually. There can be no representative to take their judgment for them and save them.
Men do not die because of their own acts of sin; otherwise, babies would not die (Rom. 9:11). Men die because they are united racially to Adam, and “in Adam all die” (1 Cor. 15:22).
The effect of Adam’s sin is contrasted with the effect of Christ’s obedience
“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 14:17).
An Old Testament story helps us understand the conflict between these two “reigns” in the world today. God rejected Saul as the king of Israel and anointed David. Those who trusted David eventually shared his kingdom of peace and joy. Those who trusted Saul ended in shame and defeat. Like David, Jesus Christ is God’s anointed King. Like Saul, Satan is still free to work in this world and seek to win people’s allegiance. Sin and death are reigning in the “old creation” over which Adam was the head, but grace and righteousness are reigning in “the new creation” over which Christ is the Head. And
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Adam came from the earth, but Jesus is the Lord from heaven (1 Cor. 15:47). Adam was tested in a garden, surrounded by beauty and love; Jesus was tempted in a wilderness, and He died on a cruel cross surrounded by hatred and ugliness. Adam was a thief, and was cast out of Paradise, but Jesus Christ turned to a thief and said, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). The Old Testament is “the book of the generations of Adam” (Gen. 5:1), and it ends with “a curse” (Mal. 4:6). The New Testament is “the book of the generation of Jesus Christ” (Matt. 1:1), and it ends with “no more
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At Romans 5:12, Paul made a transition from discussing “sins” to discussing “sin”—from the actions to the principle, from the fruit to the root. Jesus Christ not only died for our sins, but He also died unto sin, and we died with Him.
Paul’s illustration is baptism. The Greek word has two basic meanings: (1) a literal meaning—to dip or immerse; and (2) a figurative meaning—to be identified with. An example of the latter would be 1 Corinthians 10:2: “And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” The nation of Israel was identified with Moses as their leader when they crossed the Red Sea.
Paul didn’t tell his readers to feel as if they were dead to sin, or even to understand it fully, but to act on God’s Word and claim it for themselves.
God does not command us to become dead to sin. He tells us that we are dead to sin and alive unto God and then commands us to act on it. Even if we do not act on it, the facts are still true.
A literal translation is “Do not constantly allow sin to reign in your mortal body so that you are constantly obeying its lusts. Neither constantly yield your members of your body as weapons [or tools] of unrighteousness to sin; but once and for all yield yourselves to God.” That once-and-for-all surrender is described in Romans 12:1.
“Since we are saved by grace,” some argue, “we are free to live as we please,” which is the extreme of license.
“But we cannot ignore God’s law,” others argue. “We are saved by grace, to be sure; but we must live under law if we are to please God.” This is the extreme expression of legalism.
In Romans 6, Paul told us how to stop doing bad things; in Romans 7 he tells how not to do good things.
What really is legalism? It is the belief that I can become holy and please God by obeying laws. It is measuring spirituality by a list of dos and don’ts. The weakness of legalism is that it sees sins (plural) but not sin (the root of the trouble). It judges by the outward and not the inward. Furthermore, the legalist fails to understand the real purpose of God’s law and the relationship between law and grace.
I have seen the consequences of these attempts: Either the person becomes a pretender, or he suffers a complete collapse and abandons his desires for godly living.
I have seen too that many legalists are extremely hard on other people—critical, unloving, unforgiving.
When we were unsaved (“in the flesh,” Rom. 7:5), we were under the authority of God’s law. We were condemned by that law. When we trusted Christ and were united to Him, we died to the law just as we died to the flesh (Rom. 6:1–10). The law did not die; we died.
If he is not careful, he will start following a human leader and accept his teachings as law. This practice is a very subtle form of legalism, and it kills spiritual growth.
“The old nature knows no law, the new nature needs no law.”
Romans 8 is the Christian’s “Declaration of Freedom,” for in it Paul declares the four spiritual freedoms we enjoy because of our union with Jesus Christ.
Freedom from Judgment—No Condemnation
The “law of double jeopardy” states that a person cannot be tried twice for the same crime. Since Jesus Christ paid the penalty for your sins, and since you are “in Christ,” God will not condemn you.
The legalist tries to obey God in his own strength and fails to measure up to the righteousness that God demands. The Spirit-led Christian, as he yields to the Lord, experiences the sanctifying work of the Spirit in his life.
Freedom from Defeat—No Obligation
To be “in the flesh” means to be lost, outside Christ.
The root of sin is selfishness—“I will” and not “Thy will.”
“The Spirit has you!” (vv. 12–17).
The word adoption in the New Testament means “being placed as an adult son.” We come into God’s family by birth. But the instant we are born into the family, God adopts us and gives us the position of an adult son. A baby cannot walk, speak, make decisions, or draw on the family wealth. But the believer can do all of these the instant he is born again.
Freedom from Discouragement—No Frustration (8:18–30)
