Gospel Meanderings: The Preeminence of Jesus

Colossians 1:15-20

I would like to spend some time considering the preeminence of Jesus as Paul instructs us in our text. There is much to consider here, so we will take our time and consider this passage bit by bit. Before we dissect the passage consider the following observations on the overall structure of the passage from the Baker New Testament Commentary:

The Son's Pre-eminence is shown:

A. In Creation (verses 15–17)	B. In Redemption (verses 18–20)
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, The firstborn of every creature, 16 For in him were created all things In the heavens and on the earth, The visible and the invisible, Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities, All things through him and with a view to him have been created; 17 And he is before all things, And all things hold together in him.	18 And he is the head of the body, the church; Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, That in all things he might have the pre-eminence, 19 For in him he [God] was pleased to have all the fulness dwell, 20 And through him to reconcile all things to himself, Having made peace through the blood of his cross, Through him, whether the things on the earth Or the things in the heavens.

William Hendriksen and Simon J. Kistemaker, vol. 6, New Testament Commentary : Exposition of Colossians and Philemon, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953-2001), 66.

Gospel Meanderings: How is this Great Salvation Applied to Us?

Romans 3:23-26

Jesus is our 'PROPITIATION' or the atoning sacrifice offered to God to assuage his wrath and render him propitious (favorable) to us sinners. This definitely puts the 'amazing' into amazing grace! It would be negligent to move on from this text and teaching without discussing how this great salvation is applied to the individual sinner (like you and me) who so desperately needs it. We know that God's unfathomable love for humanity was decisively put on display 2000 years ago on that Roman cross (1 John 4:10) but how is this love given to individual people?

Well the answer is not a secret. Romans 3:21-22 states it plainly enough, "the righteousness of God" is given to all who have, "faith in Jesus Christ…all who believe". Remember verse 24, our acquittal or justification is a gracious gift from God not something we have earned in any way. How are we to receive this gift, this propitiation we have been marveling about? Romans 3:25 gives us the answer, it is "received by faith". Who is it that God justly acquits? …"the one who has faith in Jesus". God can justly say to all of us who put our hope in Jesus that we are now not guilty (Romans 3:26)!

This teaching is throughout the new Testament (and indeed the OT also). How can any man fully "do" the work that God so rightly demands of us? …Only by believing in the one whom he sent (John 6:28-29). If you already believe this cling to it with all your might this is your spiritual bread that brings eternal life (John 6). If you have not turned from being your own master turn now! Do not wait. Jesus will not turn back anyone who comes to him (John 6:37). Repent (turn), put your hope in these gospel promises and find a local church so you can be baptized, formally submitting to Jesus and calling upon his name (Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16). Come to Jesus!

Gospel Meanderings: Propitiation (part 5)

Romans 3:23-26

I apologize that it has been so long since my last post. Let me summarize some pertinent points from previous posts: 1. All people are sinners (Romans 3:23). 2. Sin is an obnoxious crime committed against God and is a stench to him (Romans 3:10-18). 3. God's Power and wrath are real and terrifying (Psalm 76). In short, all humanity stands in desperate need of being acquitted before God with not one shed of hope of achieving this on their own.

With our eyes open to this reality Romans 3:23-24 is stunning. We who are guilty are said to be "justified by his grace as a gift…"! Let's be very clear here. The word grace refers to an undeserved favor or blessing from God. This idea is emphasized further when he goes on to say "as a gift". So whatever justification is, we receive it as a gift we do not deserve. The word justified is often misunderstood. This word could be translated 'acquitted'. It is a court room word that literally means 'not guilty". We who clearly deserve a guilty verdict now "…through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" receive an undeserved blessing from God; namely a 'not guilty' verdict from the Eternal Judge. The word redemption means to 'purchase back'. The debt we owed to God was paid for by our substitute. We deserved to die but he took our place on that cross 2000 years ago.

This is the event in all of history. This is how the almighty God could be both just and merciful. Our debt was paid for by Jesus so that justice is preserved and so that God could remain just when he acquits the sinner who turns in faith to Jesus (Romans 3:26). This is exactly what propitiation refers to, God's holy wrath is turned aside from us onto an acceptable substitute so that God can now be 'propitious' (favorable) to us. Amazing grace!

Gospel Meanderings: Propitiation (part 4)

Romans 3:23-26

Many people are uncomfortable thinking about the wrath of God. However, the idea of God's righteous wrath against sinners is abundantly clear in scripture (e.g. Nahum 1:2-3). If we are to be forgiven and God is to remain just, than God's wrath must be turned aside to a substitute. The indictment is quite serious, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". We were created for a purpose; God's purpose. We were to "image" or reflect the true, wondrous glory of God (Genesis 1:27; Colossians 3:10). To fall short of his glory is a defiance of his created purpose for us. As we have noted in previous posts, we are suppressors of the truth (Romans 1:18). Apart from Christ we deserve the wrath of God and everyone without Christ will receive the full weight of God's just anger.

Consider the terror of the lost on the day of God's judgment in Revelation 6:15-17. They would prefer to have the mountain fall on them and crush them if only they could escape the fearsome wrath of the Lamb! Nothing can hide them from God's fierce and righteous wrath, they will receive the fire of the second death with no hope of ending the suffering (Revelation 20:14-15: 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).

The sheer magnitude of God's righteous wrath teaches us that our sin against God is far worse than we imagine. We flatter ourselves and think that we do not deserve this fate but we all do. We deserve to drink the full cup of God's terrifying judgment.

Praise God that we are "justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith."

Gospel Meanderings: Propitiation (part 3)

Romans 3:23-26

In our last post we were in the middle of considering the sinfulness of sin. While not the most pleasant of tasks in and of itself, it will help us better appreciate the grace & mercy we have received in Christ.

The first three chapters of Romans set the proper stage for the glorious declaration of the gospel in Romans 3:23-26. Consider Romans 1:25, we all have exchanged the truth of worshiping the one true God for the lie of worshiping something that he created. There are only those two choices; there is no third option in this instance. You either worship the creator or you worship something he created. I hope you begin to see that simply having no thought toward, recognition of, or thankful dependence on the one true God is an offence in and of itself. Furthermore, we love and value God's gifts more than God himself. In fact much of the time we do spend thinking of God is used as one more method of pursuing these things in this life we are so enamored with! We plead with God to give us this or to remove that, all the while having no thought for knowing God himself as its own end. How backwards we are! How slow to recognize the obvious truth, that the gift giver is far more important than the gifts!

Do not be fooled, apart from Jesus we are suppressors of the truth and deserve Gods Judgment. Consider Paul's summary of our situation in Romans 3:10-18. Of course this whole passage is compelling but I think there are two key indictments in verses 11 & 18. In verse 1, "no one understands; no one seeks for God" and in verse 18, "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Apart from God's saving power this charge is universally true and is a glaring moral deficiency.

My prayer for us echoes the great hymn "Amazing Grace": Please Lord, teach our hearts to fear and by this same grace relieve our fears with the glorious truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Gospel Meanderings: Propitiation (part 2)

Romans 3:23-26

Today, let's spend some time reflecting on our key text in Romans 3. In the first three words we are confronted with the human dilemma, "for all have sinned…". Sin is not a word in much use today, sadly even among professing believers. We can read in this text that all have sinned and be little disturbed by it even if we except the truth of it. I think we are unaffected for two primary reasons: 1) We do not understand just how bad sin is. 2) We do not realize how terrifying God's righteous wrath is.

These two ideas go hand in hand. If we had any sense at how offensive and obnoxious our sin is to the almighty, creator, sustainer and one true God we would realize that his right and good response to our sin would be to destroy us in an eternal death. Coming at it from the other side, if we understood the terrifying and utterly horrific nature of God's righteous wrath against sinners, we would begin to fathom how loathsome our sin actually is.

For starters, let's just meditate on the radical offensiveness of our sin. Consider some key texts from the first three chapters of Romans. In Romans 1:18 we discover that we are not the open-minded, objective thinker that we inherently think we are. No, in fact we are actually suppressors of the truth. Rom. 1:18-23 puts it plainly enough, we all have a clear knowledge of the one true creator-God though creation but we will not recognize him. Apart from God's saving Grace we all willfully and stubbornly deny the very God who created us and sustains us!

We will have to continue this investigation into the blackness of our sin in my next post. Remember the goal, to properly see our sin so that we can properly rejoice with joy that God has propitiated his wrath through the once for all sacrifice of his son!

Gospel Meanderings: Propitiation (part 1)

Romans 3:23-26

As I promised in my last post (three weeks ago!), in today's post I will consider the term "propitiation". For starters let's consider the basic meaning of the word. We find a nice concise definition in Webster's 1828 Dictionary:

PROPITIATION, n. propisia'shon.

1. The act of appeasing wrath and conciliating the favor of an offended person; the act of making propitious.

2. In theology, the atonement or atoning sacrifice offered to God to assuage his wrath and render him propitious to sinners. Christ is the propitiation for the sins of men.

"Expiation" (which we considered in the last post) focused on the removal of our sins. Propitiation, in contrast, focuses on the turning aside of God's just wrath. Wrath is required. Justice demands the pouring out of God's wrath. Praise God that he has found the way to be both just and justifier. In my next post we will further reflect on this truth. What great love God has shown us! (1 John 4:10)