Year 2, Week 45, Day 4 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 45, Day 4

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Romans 2-4.

Today’s reading continues Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome. Romans, the longest of Paul’s letters, is a systematic explanation of the Gospel. Romans 2 continues the first segment of the Book (which is Romans 1:18-3:20) by explaining the need for the Gospel because of the universal sinfulness and thus, just condemnation of all humanity. Whereas Romans 1:18-32 declared the condemnation of the idolatrous pagan, Romans 2 declares the condemnation of the Jewish moralist: “But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law…You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (Romans 2:17-24). Romans 3 concludes the explanation on the universal sinfulness and thus, condemnation of all of humanity, includes Jew and Gentile alike: “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God” (Romans 3:9-11). Romans 4 expands on the new segment of Romans that began in Romans 3:21 and will run through Romans 5:20. This second segment of Romans begins explaining how God justifies condemned sinners by grace through faith in Christ: “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:5). By focusing on faith as the instrument that receives the saving benefits of Jesus, the Gospel is not partial to either the Jews or the Gentiles: "It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:24b-25).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was Paul’s focus on Jesus as the center of God’s saving work: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Romans 3:21-22). In the introduction to this letter to the church at Rome, Paul emphasized God’s righteousness in relation to salvation: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17). The Gospel that Paul preached consisted of Jesus providing a righteousness before God through faith in Jesus: “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:22b-24). This righteousness erases the just condemnation from sin, and provides a new, righteous standing before God. Believing sinners are justified in the sight of God by Jesus, who has redeemed His people from their enslavement to sin and freed them to belong to and live for the Lord.

Paul explains—in a succinct but complete way—how the saving work of Jesus occurred: "whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:35a). Jesus’ death was propitious. Propitiation is a notion that points back to the Old Testament sacramental system, particularly, the Day of Atonement (see Leviticus 16). Propitiation carries the idea of satisfaction. Christ’s death satisfied the offended holiness and just wrath of God. Just as the high priest sprinkled the blood of the slaughtered animal on the Day of Atonement on the mercy seat of the Ark in order to make atonement for the sins of the people, so Christ satisfied God’s justice against His people with the result that God would be merciful. The blood of Jesus was propitious: “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:11-12).

In fact, none of the sacrifices offered during Israel’s Day of Atonement observance were truly efficacious; they were primarily symbolic, pointing to the real atonement that Jesus would make. As a result, the declaration of believing sinners, all throughout the Old Testament, was without the true satisfaction of Divine justice: “This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:25b-26). God only temporary left the sins unpunished of His people throughout the Old Testament who trusted in Him; but now, in Christ Jesus, a full satisfaction of justice has occurred in the death of Jesus, as His shed blood reaches back to all the believers in the Old Testament as well as for any and all who trust in Jesus today.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe