Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

The Cross: A Holy God Paying the Penalty for Sin Rom. 3:24-26 An Earthly Cross, Its Heavenly Significance Sermon 1 A Sunday school teacher was quizzing the children in her kindergarten class to see if they understood the concept of getting in to heaven. She asked them, “If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into heaven?” “No!” the children answered. “If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into heaven?” Again, the answer was, “No!” By now she was starting to smile…this was fun! “Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my husband, would that get me into heaven?” she asked. Again, they all answered, “No!” She was just about bursting with pride for them. “Well,” she continued, “then how can I get into heaven?” A five-year-old boy shouted out, “You gotta be dead!”   While we smile at the little boy’s answer, did you know that many people in our culture think like that? When some well-known person dies, people typically say that he/she is in heaven, simply because he or she died! It appears that today people believe that the requirement for entry into heaven is no longer justification by faith but rather justification by death!   So how does someone get into heaven? Well, it’s not simply by dying. We need God’s righteousness to get into heaven. And how do we get that? That’s what the Apostle Paul explains in Romans 3:24-26 (p. 797).   In a few weeks we’ll be remembering Good Friday and celebrating Easter. Good Friday and Easter are much more than bunnies and eggs. Easter is about The Cross: A Holy God Paying the Penalty for Sin. During the coming weeks we’ll be looking at the Cross from various perspectives. Typically, we focus on the Cross and what it does for us, but we want to first consider what the Cross means to a Holy God, to His Son who gave His life, to Satan, to a lost world and finally, us – the Church.   So what did the Cross mean to a holy God? What did it mean to God the Father as His Son, Jesus, died a criminal’s death? To answer those questions, we’re focusing on these three verses in Romans. This passage has been dubbed "the marrow of theology." This text contains the very heart and soul of the Gospel. These verses contain three answers to the question, What did the Cross mean to God? What’s a holy God’s perspective on the Cross? 1. The Cross was the turning away of God’s wrath, v. 25. “God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.” This phrase "sacrifice of atonement" translates a Greek word that means "propitiation." That’s a big and unusual word. Few people have heard the word propitiation and fewer still understand what it means. Here’s a simple definition: Propitiation means to turn away wrath by the offering of a gift. In this context it means that the death of Christ turns away God’s wrath.   God’s wrath isn’t a popular topic these days. We’d much rather hear about God’s love than about His wrath, yet the Bible teaches God’s wrath. Both wrath and love flow from God’s basic nature. While it’s true "God is love" (1 John 4:8), it’s also true that He hates sin and wicked people (Ps.  11:5). Sometimes in our attempt to appear compassionate, we proclaim that God "hates the sin and loves the sinner." Let me caution against using that statement indiscriminately because it’s only partly true and can be misleading.   Does God love sinners? Absolutely. Yes, He does because sinners are part of the world Christ came to save (John 3:16). But that statement seems to imply that love is God’s only response to sin and that’s not the case. Check out the book of Psalms and you’ll discover that God hates sinners and despises the wicked (Psalm 5:4-5; 37:13, 20; 101:7; 119:119).   Much of our contemporary Gospel preaching is anemic because we fail to preach the whole truth to guilty sinners. If all we say to the lost is "God loves you," we’re in danger of making them think that sin and their continued rebellion doesn’t matter to God. Instead, we need to warn them to flee from God’s wrath and judgment that’s coming (Luke 3:7). If we must say, "God hates sin but loves the sinner," let’s at least add this phrase, "And he warns the sinner to repent before it’s too late."   Let me be very clear, I believe fervently in God’s love. Yet God’s love, as magnificent as it is, cannot cancel God’s holiness and hatred of sin. There’s no conflict between love and anger. True love is often angry. Ask any parent and they’ll say (at one time or another) "I’m angry because my child that I love has disappointed me." Because God is holy, He’s angry over our sin but because He is love, God provided a means to turn away His own anger by the sacrifice and offering of His own Son.   In some religions worshipers will offer animal sacrifices to appease their gods. For example, Haiti is the land of voodoo. 90% of the people practice voodoo to one degree or another. Sometimes Haitians will slaughter a chicken and place the blood (with the entrails) on a dish by the front door, hoping to ward off evil spirits. It’s their way of appeasing the god who stands behind voodoo. That’s a pagan idea of propitiation.   On a completely different level, we see propitiation at work when a husband realizes he’s offended his wife. Hoping to make it up to her, he stops on the way home and buys flowers and candy and a card. Before she can say a word, he gives her the gifts, hoping to turn away her “wrath” and restore a good relationship.   The greatest illustration comes from the Old Testament Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. The high priest would enter the Holy of Holies with the blood of a goat. Leviticus 16 describes the ritual in detail. It must be the high priest and him alone, and it must happen on the Day of Atonement—and on no other day. On the Day of Atonement the high priest would take off his regular clothes and put on a sacred linen tunic. He’d sprinkle the goat’s blood on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. That lid—made of beaten gold—called the "Mercy Seat." Inside the Ark was a copy of the Ten Commandments, representing the Law of God. By the sprinkling of the blood, the sins of the people were "covered." That covering by means of blood was called the "atonement." The sacrifice of blood turned away the wrath of God.   Why is this so important? Because God's justice demands death as the ultimate punishment for sin. So what does the symbolism of the Day of Atonement represent? During the other days of the year when God looked down from heaven, He saw the Ten Commandments inside the Ark. The Ten Commandments stood as a testimony against the sins of the nation of Israel. But on the Day of Atonement God saw the blood of the sacrifice which covered the sin of the people of Israel.   But that sacrificial system had a major problem in that it could only provide a temporary forgiveness because it was based on the blood of animals. We know that it’s impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin (Heb. 10:4). That’s why every year, year after year, the high priest would go in and do it all over again. When he died, another high priest took his place and did the same thing each year on the Day of Atonement. The Old Testament system provided no permanent forgiveness for sin (Heb. 7:23-28). But when Jesus died on the Cross, the blood that He shed was like the blood on the Mercy Seat. It turned away the wrath of God forever and covered the sin of the entire human race. How could that be? In the Old Testament it’s the blood of bulls and goats but in the New Testament it’s the eternal blood of Jesus Christ which has eternal value in the eyes of  a holy God.   As Jesus hung on the cross, He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" In that moment all the wrath and judgment of God was poured out on Jesus. He became sin for us. All of your sin, all of mine and all of the sins of the whole world were poured out on Jesus. In that moment God turned His face away from His own Son. To call the death of Christ a "propitiation" means that God's justice is now satisfied with the death of His Son. When a sinner trusts Christ, God accepts him/her on the basis of the bloody sacrifice Jesus Christ made when He died on the cross.   But why did God do it this way? Because as an infinite God of infinite holiness, all sins committed against Him are infinite in magnitude. Only a gift of infinite worth could turn away the infinite wrath of God…and only God Himself (in the Person of His Son) could make such an infinite gift. That’s why our puny little efforts to turn aside God’s wrath are doomed to failure. We think going to church, being baptized, saying our prayers, being good, stopping a bad habit or trying really hard to be better will somehow turn away the infinite wrath of God. It won’t!      The wonder of propitiation is that the offended party (God), Who has every right to be angry at sinners Himself, offers the gift (the death of Christ) to turn away His own wrath, thus making it possible for guilty sinners to be forgiven. So when we come to God through Christ, we come to a friendly Father and not to an angry God.   2. The Cross was the demonstration of God’s justice, vss. 25-26. Verse 25 and again in verse 26 say that God set forth Christ as a propitiation for sin "to demonstrate His justice" so that He might be "just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."    Long before Oprah, Phil Donahue, hosted a popular TV talk show for many years. On one show Donahue listed out the various reasons why he’d become disillusioned with Christianity. Among them was this: "How could an all-knowing, all-loving God allow His Son to be murdered on a cross to redeem my sins?" It’s an excellent question and it goes to the very heart of the gospel.   So why did Jesus have to die? Why would God put His own Son to death, especially to save people who had sinned and rebelled against Him? In searching for the answer, it helps to think of another question: Since God is both all-powerful and infinitely gracious, why didn’t He simply offer forgiveness to anyone who says, "I’m sorry"? Many secretly think that’s what God should have done. Then, we wouldn’t have to deal with the embarrassment of God killing his own Son.   But sin had to be punished. The answer goes like this. From a human point of view, God had a problem. Because God is holy, He cannot allow sin to go unpunished. His justice demands that every sin be punished—no matter how small it may seem to us. If He were to forgive sin without proper punishment, He would cease to be holy and just. God would no longer be God because He would have denied His own character. That couldn’t happen. All offenses against God must be punished. That’s why sinners can’t simply say, "I’m sorry" and instantly be forgiven. Someone has to pay the price.   We see this same principle in our criminal justice system. Suppose a man is found guilty of embezzling millions of dollars from his employer. Just before sentencing, he stands before the judge, confesses his crime, begs for mercy and promises never to embezzle money again. How would you react if the judge accepted his apology and released him with no punishment? Suppose the man had been convicted of rape and then was set free with no punishment simply because he apologized? Or, what if he apologized for murdering a father and mother in front of their children—and the judge set him free? What if a group of terrorists broke into the White House and murdered the president? Upon their capture, trial and conviction, they apologize and promise never to murder a president again, and are released on a promise of good behavior. What would we do with the judge who set them free? We’d throw that judge in jail for a long time.    Even in this life a price must be paid for breaking the law. When lawbreakers are set free with no punishment, respect for the law disappears.   The same is true in the spiritual realm. When sin isn’t punished, it doesn’t seem very sinful. God’s "problem" was to devise a plan of salvation where He would remain holy and just yet still provide a way of forgiveness for guilty sinners. Somewhere there had to be a place where grace and wrath could meet. That place is the Cross of Christ.   Let’s go back to Phil Donahue for a moment. He asked a second question that deserves an answer: "If God the Father is so ‘all-loving,’ why didn’t He come down and go to Calvary?" The answer is, He did! God came to this earth in the Person of his Son, the Lord Jesus, and died for our sins.   The paradox of salvation is this: God is a God of love and therefore wants to forgive sinners but He’s also a God of holiness who must not and cannot overlook sin. How could God love sinners and yet not overlook their sin? No one would have ever dreamed of His answer. God sent His own Son to die for sinners. In that way the just punishment for sin was fully met in the death of Christ and sinners who trust in Christ could be freely forgiven.   Only God Himself could do something like that. That’s why Paul says, God is both just (in punishing sin) and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. Think of it. In the death of this One Man, all the sins of the human race are fully paid for—past, present and future. As a result, those who believe in Jesus find that their sins are gone forever.   This is the heart of the gospel: God’s holiness demands that sin be punished. God’s grace provides the sacrifice. What God demands, He supplies. Thus, salvation is completely a work of God from beginning to end. It’s conceived by God, provided by God and applied by God. 3. The Cross was the place of the outpouring of God’s grace, vs. 24. “and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Verse 24 tells us upon what basis God saves us, we “are justified freely by His grace." The word "freely" literally means "without a cause." Salvation comes "without a cause" upon us. That means that God saves us despite the fact that He can’t find a reason within us to save us. Salvation is a "free gift" to the human race. There’s nothing in us that causes God to want to save us. No good works, no inner beauty, no great moral attainment, no intellectual merit of any kind. When God saves us, He does so in spite of the fact that we don’t deserve it.   A simple definition of grace is: What you need but do not deserve. God declares us righteous when we have nothing but the sewage of sin in our veins. That’s the doctrine of free grace. God saves people who don’t deserve it! God saves people who actually deserve condemnation! God saves people in spite of themselves and contrary to their record. It’s "pure, abounding, astounding grace!"   Let me go a step further. When God saves people, He doesn’t do it because of any potential He sees in them. Many of us secretly feel (though we’d never say it) that there must have been something in us worth saving. Human pride dies hard. But it’s not as if God saw a musician and said, "We need a good piano player in the church. I think I’ll save him." Or "She’s got a lot of money and we could use some extra cash for world missions." Or, "those twins would make excellent ushers. I want them on my team." No, no and a thousand times no. God doesn’t save on the basis of your potential. Apart from the grace of God, the only potential you have is the potential for eternal damnation.   When God saves, He saves us by free grace, wholly apart from anything in us or anything we might "bring to the table" later. This is a shocking truth and hard to hear, but it’s completely Biblical. In the end it’s very comforting because it means that anyone, anywhere, at any time can come to Christ for salvation. No one has any advantage since "there is no difference" because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).   An elderly country woman named Betty trusted in Christ for salvation. One of her skeptical friends heard about it, and intending to make fun of her, asked if she had indeed become a Christian. "Yes, I have," she replied. "Well," said the skeptic, "are you now an expert in theology?" "I’m no Bible scholar," Betty replied. "I’m simply positive that God loves me enough that He’d rather go to hell than have me go there and that God loves me enough that He’d rather leave heaven and die than for me not to get to heaven to be with him." The skeptic insisted, "Is that all you know about it? Can’t you at least explain what being saved by grace means—that is one of your central doctrines, isn't it?" Betty thought for a moment and then answered with these words: "Jesus stood in my shoes at Calvary, now I’m standing in His." It would be hard to find a better explanation of justification by grace and that’s why it’s so hard for us to believe. We’d prefer to work for our salvation, but God’s gift of salvation costs us nothing, even though it cost Christ everything. The Lord now says to us, "Take it by faith! It’s yours for free. I have paid the cost for you."   Conclusion: Some 220 years ago there was a man in England by the name of William Cowper. He struggled with mental problems and often suffered with bouts of severe depression. At one point he became extremely depressed, fearing that he was under the wrath of God. He wrote, "I flung myself into a chair by the window and there saw the Bible on the table by the chair. I opened it up and my eyes fell on Romans 3:25, which says of Christ, ‘Whom God has made a propitiation through faith in His blood.’ Then and there, I realized what Christ’s blood had accomplished and I realized the effects of His atonement for me. I realized God was willing to justify me, and then and there, I trusted Jesus Christ and a great burden was lifted from my soul." Looking back on that day, William Cowper wrote a hymn that we still sing today: There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel’s veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stain.   Friend, has the blood of Jesus ever been applied to your heart? God’s Son has made the propitiation and turned away the wrath of God. He shed his blood and what was a place of judgment is now a mercy seat for people like you and like me.   Because of the cross salvation is now entirely free. What then must you and I do to be saved? Be holy? Moral? Good? Must I change my ways? Must I promise to clean up my act? This is God’s answer: Romans 3:24 says, "Freely by His grace." But the human hearts cries out, "I must do something, I must make my contribution." So we clean up, go to church, pay our money, enter the waters of baptism and so on. We think God will never forgive us until we do something to deserve it. But that’s not the case. God gives His justification away freely and if you try to pay for it, He’ll reject it and throw it back in your face.   If I said you can be justified for $5, who wouldn’t pay? If I said you must walk a hundred miles, we’d all line up tomorrow morning. If I said God will justify you if you’ll endure a 20-minute beating, would we not endure the pain and count it a small cost? But if I say, "Free, free, God’s grace is free," something in the human heart rebels against that fact. But my friend, either you take it freely or you don’t take it at all.   How do we receive God’s gift of salvation? Simply by asking for it. Do you know in your heart that you want Christ in your life? You can have Him today! That’s the wonder of the gospel. Please do not say, "I’ll do my best and come to Christ later." But you cannot be saved as long as you hold on to your notions of goodness.   "I’ll get better," you say. No you won’t. You can’t get better, that’s your problem. You’re as good as you can be right now—and that’s not very good. Sin has gripped your soul and made you depraved inside and out. Here’s some shocking news. If you somehow got better, you’d be worse off, because the worse you are, the better it is to come to Christ (Luke 5:32). If you’re unholy and you know it, come to Christ. If you’re a sinner and wish to be forgiven, come to Christ. If you feel unworthy, come to Christ. If you feel like a failure, come to Christ. If you admit that your life is a mess, come to Christ.   Friend, I pray that you’ll run to the Cross as your only hope of salvation. But I cannot make you believe. I don’t have the power within me to change your heart. I could preach for hours but I would be preaching as to the dead unless God should give you life. If you have any stirring in your heart, any sense of your need, any desire to be saved by grace, that desire has been placed in your heart by God. May that desire lead you to Calvary’s Cross where Jesus waits to receive you.