God’s Demand For Justice

Transcript

GR 1418
God's Demand for Justice
Rom.3:25-26
02/07/10


We're in Romans 3 in your Bibles. Remember with chapter 3 verse 21 we begin a new section in the book of Romans. The first major section, chapter 1 verse 18 through chapter 3 verse 20, talks about our condemnation. Paul has showed that we are all, Gentiles and Jews alike, sinners, and sinners under the condemnation of a holy and righteous God. All will come before Him to be judged as sinners. Beginning with chapter 3 verse 21 and through chapter 5 verse 21 Paul is going to talk about the subject of justification. So we move from condemnation to justification. And what Paul is doing in this second major section is showing how a holy God, how a righteous God can maintain His holiness, His righteousness, and still provide forgiveness, righteousness for fallen and sinful human beings. You know the question in scripture is not how could a loving God send people to hell. The question scripture has to answer is how can a just God not send sinners to hell. And that's what Paul is explaining.

We've looked at the opening verses, verses 21-24, really verses 21-26 form a unit. I believe it was Martin Luther who said he believed this was the greatest passage in all the Bible. It's hard when you have God's word to say this is more important than another. But as far as in a concise, clear way explaining the work of God in providing righteousness for sinful human beings, this is a clear and strong passage.

Paul has focused on two words so far—justification and redemption, two theological terms that we need to understand. The word justification is the same basic word as righteousness. So we talk about to justify, we're talking about to declare righteous. They come from the same basic Greek word. It's used a number of times here, we noted. Verse 21 talks about the righteousness of God; verse 22 refers to the righteousness of God again; verse 24 talks about being justified or declared righteous as a gift; verse 25 talks about God demonstrating His righteousness; again in verse 26, the demonstration of His righteousness, to be just, righteous and the justifier, the One who declares righteous. You see that constant emphasis on righteousness, being righteous, declaring righteous. Key idea through this whole section.

Also the word redemption, and redemption means to set free by paying the price. Now justification is a legal term, it's a courtroom scene where you stand before the judge and he declares you vindicated, not guilty. You are justified, declared righteous, declared not guilty, if you will, in the courtroom of God. Redemption is used to explain how that took place. Redemption means you set someone free by paying the price. It was a term used in the context of slavery. If someone paid the price to set a slave free you would use this word, he had been redeemed, the price had been paid for him to be set free. Redemption means that we have been set free from the power and penalty of sin because the price necessary has been paid on our behalf. We know what that price is, the penalty for sin is death, clearly expressed in Romans 6:23.

Just a little review, turn over to II Corinthians 5:21, He, referring to God, made Him, referring to Christ. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. You see that, to become the righteousness of God, Christ has to take our place to pay our penalty. So God had Him step into our place to assume the penalty for our sin so it would be possible then for Him to declare us righteous. And we would receive righteousness from God in the courtroom of God.

Turn over to Titus 2:14, Christ gave Himself for us to redeem us. There is our word. Redemption, to redeem, to set free by paying the price. He gave Himself for us. There is the price paid. The penalty for sin is death. We'll talk about the shedding of blood in a little bit. Someone has to die. The wages of sin is death. Christ gave Himself for us to redeem us, paid the price necessary to set us free from our sin, our every lawless deed and be purified to be a people for God's own possession.

Go to I Peter 1:18, knowing that you were not redeemed, there is our word again. You are not set free by having gold and silver paid, you were not redeemed with perishable things like gold or silver from your futile way of life, inherited from your forefathers. That's not the price paid to set you free. Rather it was the precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. It took His death to redeem us, to set us free. The Jews thought because they were born Jews, they were in the line from Abraham, they had the Mosaic Law and all that, they would be acceptable to God. No. It took the death of Christ and our faith in Him to bring that redemption to us. I Peter 2:24, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by His wounds we were healed. You see that same emphasis, the word redemption doesn't occur, but the same point. He bore our sins in His body, He was paying the penalty for our sins so that we could die to sin and be made alive to righteousness.

Come back to Romans 3:24, Paul talks about being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. He is declared righteous as a gift. You can't earn it. Give by His grace. God did something for us we didn't deserve. That's the point. It comes through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Not what we do, but what He did.

Now why was this necessary to do it this way? Why didn't God just declare us absolved. He is God, isn't He? He can do what He wants. Who can question Him? Why didn't God just say, I absolve everyone. Problem solved. We'll enjoy heaven together. Well he explains further what he has been talking about here regarding Jesus Christ and why it was necessary for the Son of God to leave glory and come to this earth and die for us, to pay the penalty for our sin. But also to satisfy the demands of a holy and righteous God.

So verse 25 picks up with who, he's continuing on, referring to Jesus Christ from the end of verse 24. Through redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God publicly displayed as a propitiation in His blood through faith. Whom God displayed publicly. Christ was displayed publicly. Up in verse 21, now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested, revealed. Here down in verse 25, Christ has been publicly displayed. He's talking about the redemption that God had provided in His Son being now made known, visible, manifested, publicly displayed for everyone to see. There was an anticipation of this in the Old Testament. We noted passages especially like Isaiah 53, but many other references and anticipation. But the clarity of understanding that God would provide a Savior, One to set us free from sin and its penalty, that One would be His Son who would be God and man. That was revealed and publicly made known with the coming to earth and the death of Christ on the cross.

And you'll note here, God displayed publicly. God is sovereignly at work in providing salvation, it is His work and He publicly displayed His Son in His death as the payment for sin. God publicly displayed Him as a propitiation. That's one of those words, we say, can't we simplify the language of scripture. Some things you just have to learn—justification, redemption, propitiation. If we're going to get a one-word synonym we might say satisfaction. He's the propitiation or satisfaction. Propitiation basically means the turning away of anger. So Christ is displayed as a propitiation because God is angry with us, He's filled with wrath against us because of our sin. Jesus Christ has intervened on our behalf, to bear the brunt of that wrath so that it might be turned away from us. God then is propitiated. That's the idea.

Now this does not mean God the Father is angry with us so God the Son came in to protect us. Father, Son and Holy Spirit work together, we need to understand that Jesus Christ is just as angry with sinners as God the Father is, as is God the Holy Spirit. There is never anything different. All three person comprise the one triune God, all of the same righteous character, holy character. All cannot tolerate sin but in the plan of God it would be the second person of the Godhead who would come to this earth to provide redemption by being the propitiation. People today don't like to hear about God's wrath. Somehow they think that's inconsistent. But it's a biblical truth. God is a God of wrath, in fact the Old Testament has twenty different words for wrath that are used of God's wrath. And they are used almost 600 times of God and His wrath in the Old Testament. That's why some people say, the God of the Old Testament, He's an angry God. That's not the God that I want to believe in. I want to believe in the God of the New Testament. You understand it's the same God. The God who is, the only God is a holy God and a righteous God, His reaction against sin is wrath. His reaction against sinners is wrath. You cannot escape it, it's a truth of scripture.

Back up to Romans 1. We began the first major section of the book of Romans by saying, verse 18, for the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. The wrath of God is being revealed. He unfolded then down through the section the manifestation of the wrath of God. In Romans 2:4, do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of you stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. A righteous judgment from a righteous God necessitates a righteous penalty. The penalty for sin must be paid. So people think, I don't believe that and I'm doing fine and I think it's all right. But God says all you're doing is storing up wrath, it's piling up for your day in His court, when His wrath will be poured out against sinners.

Look at Romans 2:8, to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. This is in the context of verse 6, God's judgment will be rendered to everyone according to their works. Wrath and indignation. Over in Romans 3:5, but if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He. We have such a trivial view of sin. We are unwilling to see ourselves as God says we are. We view it like, nobody is perfect. I know I sin, everybody sins. But it's sort of like when somebody bumps into you in the store and they say, excuse me. And you say, that's all right. We want to think that's the way God will deal with it. Well, I sinned and God will say, I understand, that's all right. And the idea, I'll put my good on the scale and the bad, but I think the good will outweigh.

I was reading the Omaha morning paper, an incident there where a young man committed a crime and was being sentenced to prison. And they said, he's a good young man and he never did anything like this before. You know what? One act of criminality in a relatively brief period of time on one day, and he's going to prison. ____________ everybody makes a mistake in a day, so it's okay. You say that's not justice. I mean, how many people that murder someone do it every day? I mean, in my whole life I never killed anyone, add up all those thousands of days. Now if I go out and kill two people in one day will I be able to go to court and say, put all the good days I didn't kill somebody on the scale with the days I did. Therefore, it doesn't amount to anything. I don't think it works that way. But people think God is going to put it on there and overlook ............ You know God make it clear, every sin is a personal offense against Him. It is an act of rebellion against His holiness and His righteousness and His sovereign authority and will merit the most severe of punishments. There is no getting around it. That's what propitiation is, it's Jesus Christ coming in and taking the wrath of God so it's turned away from us because it fell on Him.

Turn to I John 2:2, and He Himself, referring to Jesus Christ, is the propitiation. Here's the word we're talking about. He's the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for those of the whole world. It is the plan of the eternal God that the Son of God would come and bear the full brunt of the wrath of God to turn away God's wrath from us, to make it possible for us to be forgiven. That's the provision made for the whole world.

Turn over to I John 4:10, this is a great verse because it brings the love of God and the wrath of God together. Other verses do also, but this one here has propitiation in it. Verse 10, in this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. You understand you cannot understand the love of God if you don't understand something of the awfulness of sin. Here we're told God loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation, the satisfaction, the One who would bear His wrath so it could be turned away from us. The propitiation for our sins. So the wrath and the love come from the same God. It is part of His very character. We think, I don't like to think of God as being wrathful and angry. And we sometimes think of man's wrath and anger and it can be irrational and brutal and unfair. But you understand the wrath of God is not moved in those kinds of ways. It is part of His very character as a holy and righteous God, it is the only proper response to the sin and rebellion of those who oppose Him. It would be totally contrary to His character as God for Him to do anything else but manifest His wrath and anger toward those who rebel against Him, to those who sin against Him. That's clearly understandable. The amazing thing is this God who has been sinned against, whose wrath is so justly manifest toward us as sinners has intervened to have His Son come in and bear the brunt of that wrath so that we could have forgiveness. It's marvelous. The love of God is magnified and manifested when we understand something of the awfulness of sin, its seriousness and its consequences. That's what the cross of Christ is all about, that's the great demonstration of love we'll see as we get further on in Romans in chapter 5, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. God stepping in to take our place, to bear the penalty for our sin.

Back up to Hebrews 9:5. He's describing here the Old Testament sanctuary, the tabernacle in the Old Testament was the center of Israel's worship. And it describes how it was, the outer area, then an inner area, and then into the inner of the inner area. And we're told, verse 3, behind the second veil. So when you come in you enter the court there, you go through the first veil and you were into the Holy Place, we sometimes call it; then into the second veil you are into the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum where the high priest could come in only one day a year. Behind the second veil, verse 3, there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies. Having a golden altar of incense, which is really probably outside that second veil but is associated with the worship of the Holy of Holies, the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant was a chest and covered on all sides with gold, it contained the golden jar with the manna that God fed Israel with in the wilderness and a couple of other items—Aaron's rod that budded and the tablets of stone that contained the Ten Commandments that Moses received on Mt. Sinai. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. So the mercy seat is the cover of the ark or the chest. The lid of the chest, if you will, is called the mercy seat and over that there would be forms of angels that had been made that covered. The mercy seat was where God met with Israel to deal with their sin. That was the manifestation of His presence.

What I want you to note in verse 5, above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowed with the mercy seat. The word translated the mercy seat is the exact same word we have translated propitiation in Romans 3:25. He publicly displayed Him as a propitiation. Now when you come to Hebrews 9:5, above it was a cherubim of glory overshadowing the propitiation. The mercy seat was called the place of propitiation because on the Day of Atonement there the sins of Israel were propitiated. God was propitiated because of their sin and His anger was turned away from the nation.

Come back to Leviticus 16, which talks about the Day of Atonement in Israel, the one day a year when the high priest could go into that innermost sanctuary where the ark of the covenant was and describes what will go on there. At the end of verse 2 we talk about the mercy seat. And incidentally in the Old Testament that word propitiation, a form of the word......... When they translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek they used that word propitiation or propitiatory. Now that was the translation, if you will, that the Jews of the News Testament would have been using, their Greek Old Testament. We know it as the Septuagint. So you'll note in verse 2 when we read, I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat, in my translation I have a little 1 in front of mercy seat. And when you look in the margin it says literally propitiatory. Twenty times in the Old Testament that is used to translate the mercy seat. You can translate that I will appear in the cloud over the propitiatory, over the place of propitiation. It's translated for us the mercy seat, the place of propitiation. That's what that mercy seat was, that covering on the ark. It's the place where God manifested His presence, there is a cloud over that.

So look what happens on the Day of Atonement. Come down to verse 11, Aaron is the high priest. He shall take the bull of the sin offering which is for himself and make atonement for himself and his household. Verse 14, he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat, on the propitiatory, the place of propitiation. Because first thing the high priest had to do on that Day of Atonement was make propitiation for his own sin. So he sacrificed the bull, then brought the blood of that bull and sprinkles it on the place of propitiation, the mercy seat, turning away the anger of God from him first, and his family. So that he now can represent the people. Then he slaughters one of the two goats that were selected, verse 15, then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people. You see what has happened. The bull is taking the place of Aaron where he spread that blood on the place of propitiation, the mercy seat. Turns away the anger of God in the representation against Aaron for his sinfulness. Now the goat of the sin offering is for the sin of the people and he brings its blood inside the veil and does with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, the place of propitiation. Verse 16, he shall make atonement for the Holy Place because of the impurities of the sons of Israel because of their transgressions in regard to their sins. So you see the picture, the place of propitiation where the blood, the death has taken place to turn away the anger of God.

Now the reality of it is, the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. And God was cleansing them through their faith in Him and they were manifesting that faith in obeying Him in this activity. And this activity was constantly reminding them. One writer noted that when it talks about they put their hand on the head of an animal as the offering for sin, what is their means to lean on. So the identification of that animal, this person's constant reminder the penalty for my sin is death. God is accepting this animal in my place.

Come back to Hebrews 9. After reviewing what went on in the Old Testament account that we just briefly touched on, verse 11, but when Christ appeared as the high priest and the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands. And He entered into heaven itself. This earthly tabernacle was just a reflection of heaven given for them on earth. And He didn't bring in the blood of goats and calves, verse 12, but through His own blood He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. And if the blood of goats and bulls, the ashes of a heifer and so on provided cleansing under the Old Testament system, how much more, verse 14, will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered Himself without blemish to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

You see those animal sacrifices could never take away sin. They were anticipating the ultimate sacrifice, so that when John the Baptist introduced Jesus Christ to the nation Israel in John 1:29 he said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Here is the ultimate final sacrifice, that sacrifice which can take away sin. So down in Hebrews 9:22, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Verse 26, but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested. Remember Romans 3:21, He was manifested; then verse 25, He was publicly displayed. Here at the consummation of the ages, because this is what all the ages anticipated, the provision that God would make that would enable Him to justly forgive and declare righteous, not guilty, sinners in the court of heaven. Once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

Now it's amazing, He is the high priest. Hebrews 9:11, Christ appeared as a high priest. He has entered into heaven into the very Holy of Holies in the ultimate sense, the very presence of God with the sacrifice, Himself, that is acceptable as the full payment of sins, past, present and future. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment. You see that theme is always there. Why is the death of Christ so important, so necessary? It is appointed unto man once to die and after this comes judgment. It deals with the wrath of God and the seriousness of the situation. Christ has been offered once to bear the sins of many, as those who believe in Him will be delivered from coming judgment. So He will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin. When He comes again it won't be to die for sin, and we will experience the final ultimate deliverance in Him. We'll get to that in Romans 8.

That's the beautiful picture we have. Jesus Christ is the place of propitiation, He's the One in whom propitiation takes place. The Old Testament system and the mercy seat, the propitiatory there, the place of propitiation, that just pictured what God would do because the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. But it reminded them constantly that the penalty for sin is death. We deserve to die.

Come back to Romans 3. This word propitiation and what it carries is of tremendous importance. It means to turn away wrath from someone, a personal word. Turning away the wrath of someone from someone. God's wrath is being turned away from us by Christ taking that wrath upon Himself. Verse 25, He is the One whom God publicly displayed as a propitiation. That's the statement, everything else that follows is developing that statement. He has been publicly displayed as a propitiation in His blood. That's how the penalty had to be paid, how the propitiation could take place. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Period. People think they go to church, they do good works, they get baptized, they do a lot of things. You understand, the payment God requires for your sin is your death. The penalty He requires for my sin is my death. In the scripture that includes physical death, spiritual death, eternal death, ultimately hell. Only the infinite God who became man could bear the brunt of that wrath and pay it in full, or I pay it myself.

So He was a propitiation in His blood, He turned away the wrath of God by satisfying the demands of God's holiness. He bore the wrath of God for us. It's in His blood. Blood refers to His death, not some kind of magical characteristic of His blood, but blood is death. The blood shed on the mercy seat in the Old Testament represented the fact there had been a death to atone, to propitiate God's anger for sin. So it is, it's in His blood, in His death. When we get to Romans 6:23 it will be the wages of sin is death.

In His blood through faith. Christ has been the sacrifice to propitiate, turn away the wrath of God. Not for us only, but for the whole world. But that propitiation is not applied to you unless you believe in Christ. The propitiatory sacrifice has been made but it does not get applied to you for your benefit, to work on your behalf unless you've believed in Jesus Christ. That's all the difference in time and eternity, it's through faith. The difference between standing out here nakedly exposed to the awful wrath of God for all eternity and being delivered from wrath for all eternity is whether you have believed in Jesus Christ. That's the point. It is through faith.

Back up to Romans 1, where we started. Verse 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. So that power for salvation does not operate in your life if you have not believed. That's true for the Jew, that's true for the Greek, the non-Jew. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. It's all about faith in Jesus Christ and the work that He has done on the cross. For the just shall live by faith.

Look in Romans 3:22. We talk about the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. That's how you get that righteousness—through faith in Jesus Christ. And it is for all who believe. There are no limitations. Everyone who believes can partake of the righteousness He has provided by being the propitiation and bearing the brunt of the wrath of God so He could turn away that wrath from us. But it's not applied to us personally, He's not accepted as a sacrifice in my place until I place my faith in Him. Then His death is credited to my account.

This is the way God did it. Why did He do it this way? This was to demonstrate, verse 25, His righteousness. God did it to demonstrate His righteousness, that He is a righteous God. Why was that necessary? Well, you'll note the explanation here. Because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed. Remember we looked back in the Old Testament, they offered an animal sacrifice. God then did not pour out the fullness of His wrath against them. Well then He didn't really deal with sin as a holy and righteous God must deal with sin, right? Because the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. That is ready to demonstrate the fullness of His righteousness. No, I just didn't ignore that sin, I delayed the dealing with it until the time in My plan when I sent forth My Son in the fullness of time, Galatians 4:4. Publicly displayed Him as the propitiatory sacrifice that would provide redemption that would enable Me to declare you righteous. What a plan. Jot down Acts 17:30, which refers to the fact that God had passed over the sins in prior times. So all through Old Testament history they are offering sacrifices, but that doesn't satisfy ultimately the righteous demands of a holy God and the penalty for sin. That requires the death of the sinner. An animal cannot take my place, your place. It will take a human being. That's why Hebrews 2 will tell us that He became a man. He didn't become an angel, so there is no salvation for angels because there is no one to be the propitiatory for the sin of angels because Jesus Christ didn't take on Himself the nature of angels. You see God is not required to provide salvation for sinful beings, He is required to mete out justice. And so angels who sin will be sentenced to an eternal hell. Salvation was never provided and never offered for them after they sinned. God does not have to, He just has to deal justly. That's why the salvation He offers to us is said to be a result of mercy, of grace because He didn't have to do it. He could have sentenced us all to hell, that would have been fair, that would have been just, that would have been righteous, consistent with His holy character. But He chose to manifest mercy and grace toward us, have His Son come to earth and be born a man. Now He is the God/Man to bear the brunt of the wrath of a holy God. Pays the penalty for us Himself. His wrath demonstrated against His Son who is God, so that we could be forgiven. It's through faith. He did this to demonstrate His righteousness because in the forbearance of God He had passed over the sins previously committed.

Verse 26, he picks up same statement, for the demonstration I say of His righteousness. That's the same thing he said in verse 25, to demonstrate His righteousness. But he put in that explanation there, because of His forbearance. So he comes back to pick up that. For the demonstration, the manifestation of His righteousness at the present time. So He was passing over, not manifesting the fullness of His wrath until it was the right time, the present time when He manifested His righteousness by dealing with sin. You see the character of God is at stake. We think we're developing a nicer picture of God by ignoring sin, by not talking about wrath, by not talking about hell. But the scripture presentation is just the opposite. We're shown the magnificence of God's grace, the wonder of His holiness and righteousness, that He Himself would provide the sacrifice that could turn His wrath away from us. And that sacrifice would be His own Son.

For the demonstration I say of His righteousness at the present time so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ. This is the issue. He must be just, righteous and the One who declares righteous. Any judge could sit in a courtroom and take the vilest criminal and say, I declare you not guilty. We would say, that is an unjust judge, he did not deal righteously. Well he forgave the guy. That was not righteous. He declared the guilty not guilty. God said you can't do that and be just. I have to have the penalty paid, the penalty will be paid. So what He has done in Christ demonstrates that He is just, He is righteous because He has meted out the penalty that sin has required—death. The fullness of His wrath, the wrath of righteousness and holiness has been poured out. And since He is just and had justice satisfied, He can now justify, declare righteous he who has faith in Jesus. This is a simple plan but it is an awesome plan. I mean think about it, God maintained His justice, His righteousness and holiness, and at the same time declares me, a guilty sinner, righteous. How can you do that, Lord? I'm the guilty one. Yes, but when you believed in Me I transferred your sin to Him and He the propitiation. He turned my anger away from you, it poured out on Him. That was the price required, the redemption to set you free from the power and penalty of sin and enables Me to declare you righteous and demonstrate that I am righteous. I did not overlook the penalty.

Now you'll note what this does. This puts every person on the same ground, we've seen in the opening chapters—sinners. Jesus Christ is the provision for every person. But every person is not saved because in the plan of God that provision of Christ is only applied to those who believe. Now you'll note here. The justice of God, His righteousness, His holy character demands the penalty be paid. What about those who do not believe in Jesus Christ and the salvation He has provided? Where does that leave them? It leaves them nakedly exposed to the wrath of God. That's why John 3:16 says for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, in order that whosoever believes in Him might not perish. Do you know what perish involves? Coming under the fullness of the wrath of God. Later in John 3:36 we are told, he that has the Son has life; he that does not believe in the Son will not see life but the wrath of God remains on him. So you see now we have two possible positions. You can believe in Christ and be preserved from the wrath of God because He bore the brunt of the wrath of God for you. When you believed in Him His payment was credited to your account. God could justly say, your account is paid in full. You are a sinner, the penalty for your sin is death. But it's been paid by the only One who could have paid your penalty. Those who have not believed in Christ, by their own death the penalty will be paid. I mean God has to be just, they will pay. Those are the two options. That's why this passage is so important. It unfolds what God has done and why it had to be done.

Come back to Revelation 14 as we wrap up. You know what we really see is the wrath of God and the love of God met together in Jesus Christ. The same God who was filled with wrath is the God filled with love who provided a Savior. There is an ultimate dimension, there is a warning in Romans 2, do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance. Do you know why God is being so patient? Do you know why His wrath hasn't been fully poured out on you yet? He's being patient, giving you a chance to repent. But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Do you know what that means? That is described in Revelation 14:10, he will drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger. You see that. No delay now. And the anger will be an infinite anger. We talk about God's infinite love, you have to understand He is an infinite God and His love is infinite, but His anger is also infinite. Here you will have His anger poured out against sinners and there will be no mercy mixed in. It's mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger. He will be tormented with fire and brimstone. The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, they have no rest day and night. Full meting out of that judgment will occur at the Great White Throne in Revelation 20.

Isn't it amazing? Here we have God has provided a propitiatory sacrifice, the One who is the propitiation for our sin, the One who by His death turned away the anger of God from us so that God with that act of redemption, paying the price required to set us free from the power and penalty of sin could declare us righteous, justify us. Justification, redemption, propitiation. And it's a gift by His grace to all who will believe. Why would not every single man, woman and child be falling on their faces, crying out in faith to God, believing in Jesus Christ? It's a revelation of how sinful we really are, isn't it? They determine no, it won't be God's way, it will be my way. And He'll come around to see it my way. You're just storing up wrath for yourself in the coming day of wrath. And it's not necessary because there is One who is the propitiation, He is the Redeemer. If you'll place your faith in Him you will be spared the wrath of God, you'll be set free from the penalty of sin, you'll be redeemed, God will declare you righteous, you'll become His for time and eternity. If you don't, there will be no mercy in the future. This is a day of salvation, a day of grace. God promises that will pass, He promises there will come a day when there will be no grace offered, there will be no mercy displayed. That will be pure wrath.

Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your Son who in the eternal council of the Godhead determined that He would come to this sin-cursed earth, He would become man as well as God, He would be the sacrifice for sin. Thank you, Lord, that you have provided for us the One who can turn away your wrath, who can redeem us, enable us to be declared righteous. Thank you for the power of the gospel for everyone who believes. Lord, I pray for any who have not yet placed their faith in Christ, may they see the awfulness of their situation and turn to Him. And may we who have experienced that salvation never fail to appreciate the greatness of your grace and wonder of your love. We praise you in Christ's name, amen.