Christ the Propitiation

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Romans 3:25

Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood…

I. AS SET FORTH BY GOD.

1. The words "set forth" signify "foreordained"; and also "places in public view"; as goods are exposed for sale, or as rewards of victory were exhibited in the Grecian Games. So has God made conspicuous Jesus as the propitiation of sin.

(1) By Divine decree. Christ did not take upon Himself the office of High Priest without being chosen thereunto. But this was not independent of His own choice, for in the volume of the Book it is written of Him, "I delight to do Thy will, O God."(2) In His promises before the Advent did not God speak constantly, by verbal and typical promises, to multitudes of holy men the coming of Him who should bruise the serpent's head, and deliver His people from the power of the curse?

(3) When Christ came God set Him forth by angelic messengers, and by the star in the East. Throughout His life, how constantly did His Father set Him forth! The voice of God was in the voice of John, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." And on the Cross itself, "when it pleased the Father to bruise Him, and put Him to grief," what an exhibition was there to the eye of Jew and Gentile of the propitiation!

(4) When the Holy Ghost came down on Pentecost! And what have all conversions been since but repeated seals to the same testimony?

(5) In you God has graciously fulfilled the text.

2. What it is that God has so manifestly set forth. The Greek word may mean —

(1) A mercy seat. Now God hath said to the sinner, "Do you desire to meet Me? would you be no longer My enemy? would you receive My blessing? I set forth Christ to you as being the Mercy seat, where I can meet you and you Me."(2) A covering; as the mercy seat covered the tables of the law, and so covered that which was the cause of Divine ire, because we had broken His commandment. "Wouldst thou have anything which can cover thy sin from Me, so that I need not be provoked to anger; from you so that you need not tremble? Wouldst thou have a shelter which shall hide altogether thy sins? I set it forth to thee in Jesus. Trust in His blood, and thy sin is covered."

3. God has set forth Christ before every one of you, in the preaching of the Word, and in the Inspired Book, as dying, that your sins might die; buried, that your iniquities might be buried; risen, that you might rise to newness of life; ascended, that you might ascend to God; received in triumph, that you might be received in triumph too; made to reign, that you might reign in Him; forever loved, forever crowned, that you in Him may be forever loved and forever crowned too.

II. AS LOOKED UPON BY THE BELIEVER.

1. We may mistake the proper object of faith. We may look on —

(1) Repentance as a grace, indeed, without which there can be no salvation, but an act which may be substituted for faith in the propitiation.

(2) Evidences. Evidences are good as second things, but as first things they are usurpers, and may prove anti-Christs.

(3) God's promises. I know many Christians who, when they are in distress, take up the Bible to find a promise — a very good plan, if they go to Christ first. There is a man who very much desires an estate, at the same time his heart is smitten with the beauty of some fair heiress. He gets the title deeds of her estate. Well, the title deeds are good, but the estates are not his, though he has got the title deeds. By and by he marries the lady, and everything is his own. Get the heiress and you have got the estate. It is so in Christ; promises are the title deeds of His estates. A man may get the promise and not get Christ, then they will be of no use to him.

2. God has set forth Christ to be the propitiation through faith in His blood, and we ought to accept that as being —

(1) An all-sufficient propitiation. We have never got the full idea of Christ till we know that every sin of thought, of word, of deed finds its death.

(2) An immutable propitiation. Our standing before God, when we have believed in Jesus, depends no more upon our frames and feelings than the sun depends upon the clouds and darkness that are here below.

III. AS SET FORTH BY US AND LOOKED UPON BY GOD.

1. If in this pulpit Christ be set forth, God will look down upon that Christ set forth, and honour and bless the word. I might preach clear doctrine, but God might never look down upon doctrine, nor upon moral essays, nor upon philosophy. God will not look down on any man's ministry unless that man sets forth what God sets forth. Then His Word shall not return unto Him void; it shall prosper in the thing whereto He hath sent it.

2. As in the case of the ministry, so you in your pleadings for souls must set forth Christ. Abel's blood demanded vengeance; Christ's blood demands pardons and must have it.

3. As in pleading for the souls of others, so in pleading for our own we must set forth the propitiation.

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