George Craig
Romans 3:24,25. Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.
God’s righteousness might have been declared in the sinner’s condemnation. Here it is said to be declared in the remission of his sins and in his justification by grace. But how? Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And how does redemption in Christ Jesus manifest the righteousness of God in the justification of the sinner? By Christ’s being set forth to be a propitiation. Let this term propitiation be understood, and the how will become apparent.
1Taken, with editing, from The Christian’s Daily Companion. Craig (1805-1866) was a minister in Sprouston, near Kelso, in the Scottish Borders.
There are other terms in our language which will express part of the meaning, but not the whole. Thus, when Christ is said to be our propitiation, we might explain the expression by saying that He is our peace-maker. This explains what He does as our propitiation – makes peace. It explains the what, but not the how, in the question. It does not explain the chief idea in propitiation. The chief idea is that, in making peace, Christ makes satisfaction, as an atoning sacrifice, in the room of the sinner, to God’s justice.
A man may make peace between two hostile parties, especially if both have been at fault, by simple reasoning and remonstrance. He may do this without any sacrifice on his part, and therefore without becoming in any sense a propitiation. But if one party has an undoubted claim upon the other; if, for example, the cause of the enmity is a large, just debt, and if the creditor will not, and cannot, from claims made upon him otherwise, forego the debt; in this case the peace-maker must satisfy the just demands of the creditor before he can expect to reconcile him to the debtor. If he does so at his own expense, he makes a sacrifice and becomes, in a sense, a propitiation – but only in a sense, for the full, proper meaning of the term propitiation can be found only in the work of redemption.
And it is found as follows. God and the sinner are at enmity. The cause of the enmity is that the sinner owes to God what He, as an infinitely righteous Governor requires – perfect obedience to His just, unchanging law – but the sinner is neither able or willing to give this perfect obedience. God is unwilling to inflict the penalty. He determines on His forgiveness. But, in forgiving, He cannot recede from the demands which His law makes upon the sinner without such a satisfaction to its claims as shall vindicate its authority and rectitude. God accordingly sends His Son to make this satisfaction. The Son, for this end, voluntarily takes upon Himself the nature and the obligations of the sinner – his obligations as subject to the law and as liable to its penalty.
Subject to the law, He gives perfect obedience to its requirements, so that, as perfectly innocent, He might meritoriously bear its penalty. He bears its penalty. He dies, the just for the unjust. Whatever coming short of the demands of unbending justice there may seem to be in Christ’s being a substitute, rather than the actual transgressor, is more than made up by Christ’s dignity as divine and by His near relationship to God as His eternal Son. For what more honouring to the law, what vindication of its authority more striking, than that the Son of the Lawgiver – the Lawgiver Himself – should in the room of the sinner, and with the sinner’s iniquities laid upon Him, suffer the penalty? This He did “who, being the brightness of His [Father’s] glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand
of the Majesty on high”. Eternal justice has been satisfied and, in testimony to the fact, Christ is set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare God’s righteousness for the remission of sins.
The Scripture proof of this view of Christ’s atoning work is most abundant. It is to be found in the very term propitiation, which implies these four ideas: enmity, reconciliation, a reconciler, and a propitiatory sacrifice as the ground of reconciliation. The chief of these ideas is the last, which is often set forth in Scripture, especially in the sacrifices under the ceremonial law, which are explained in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The text itself exhibits this last idea as the chief, for it is “through faith in His blood” that He becomes a propitiation to the sinner. Again, we have the term redemption in the text, which, among other ideas, has that of the payment of a price as its distinctive meaning. Hence the expressions: “to give his life a ransom”; “bought with a price”; “redeemed, not with corruptible things as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ”; “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood”.
Do not think that this view detracts from God’s mercy. His righteousness required His law to be vindicated before the sinner could be saved. Not, however, that He was unwilling to pardon but, as a righteous Governor, He was morally unable to pardon without a vindication of His law. Not that He was unwilling, but most willing – indeed, resolved – to pardon, and therefore both the pardon and the requisite vindication of His law originate in Himself. As a just God He exacts the vindication; as a merciful God He provides for its accomplishment. Mercy, as well as justice, is thus more illustriously displayed. Hence we are said to be “justified freely by His grace”.
Had the exacted vindication been made against the sinner, this could not have been said. The exaction was made, not from the sinner, but from a substitute – from a substitute provided by the Exactor – on behalf of those who were in a state of enmity, and such an enmity as refuses even to admit the necessity of such a substitute. How true then, how emphatic the statement: “justified freely by His grace”! Grace is the origin, and freeness the character, of the blessing. Grace gave it birth; freeness sends it forth in a universal offer, and for gratuitous acceptance. Grace is the fountain-head; freeness is the channel bearing the waters of salvation down within its flooded banks to the parched wilderness, “without money and without price”. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.”
Assuredly no sinner will ever be saved except in a way, and through a provision, in which God’s justice, His hatred of sin, and His determination to maintain the honour of His law, are as fully exercised and manifested as they would have been by the actual infliction of the full penalty which He had threatened.
William Cunningham