Romanos 3:25

Whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God: for the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just and the justifier of him that is of faith of Jesus.

Here the final clause is rendered with respect to the Greek text mentioned in the English Revised Version (1885) margin, the reasons for which are set forth under the preceding verses. This is done to make it clear that Paul was not promising salvation to all them that believe in Christ, but to those who believe in such a way as to be participants in the "faith of Jesus," that is, by being in his spiritual body.

Whom God set forth ... These words reveal the initiative of God in the offering of Christ for the world's sin; and, although there were others involved in that offering, one of the preeminent facts of Christianity looms in this verse, namely, that God paid the price of human redemption. There are no less than seven centers of initiative in the crucifixion of Christ, but the first of these is God himself, the fountain source of all authority and power. This is plainly evident thus:

We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted (Isaiah 53:4).

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to brief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin (Isaiah 53:10).

The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6).

Paul's words here are worthy to be placed alongside the great Old Testament texts which identify God as the payer of the penalty of human transgression. Paul also wrote the Corinthians:

Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Thus, the profound promise of God to Abraham that "God will provide himself a lamb" (Genesis 22:8) was indeed fulfilled. It is precisely in this one tremendous fact that Christianity differs utterly from all the ethnic and natural religions, in which it is always man who pays and pays. It is the fairest maiden bound over to the dragon, the boldest Warrior who gives himself to save others; but in Christianity, God in Christ paid it all.

God was not alone in offering Christ; but God, Christ, Satan, the Jews, the Romans, all people and every man participated in it, as detailed below.

WHO CRUCIFIED CHRIST?

In the verse noted above, it is plain that God crucified Christ. It was the Eternal Father himself who "so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" (John 3:16); and it was under the broad umbrella of his permissive will that the entire drama of Jesus' crucifixion was enacted upon the darkened summit of Golgotha. It should never be thought, therefore, even for a moment, that Satan was successful in thwarting the will of God upon the Cross. The Cross was in God's plan from the beginning; Jesus was "the lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). The very purpose of Christ's coming into the world was to die for the sins of the world. This is emphasized by Jesus' conversation on the Mount of Transfiguration, where he discussed his impending death with Elijah and Moses, not with any attitude of frustration, but in the view that Jesus' death was a magnificent thing which Christ himself should accomplish (Luke 9:30). The mystery of how God overrules all things, while at the same time allowing for the freedom and responsibility of the human will, appears here, as frequently, in scripture. God used evil men in the pursuit of their own evil designs, the pride and vanity of Israel, and even the devil himself, as well as the indifference and blindness of the Romans - all these things being made to subserve the divine purpose in Christ's death upon the cross. Yes, God crucified Christ.

Christ also crucified Christ, being the architect of his own death. This is clearly stated in Luke 9:30; but, beyond that, all of the details of his crucifixion, involving such things as: (1) the charge upon which he elected to receive the death penalty; (2) the exact time of his death, and (3) the place of his execution, were all specifically chosen by Jesus and ordered in keeping with his gracious will. The consent to die was Christ's alone to give; and he declared publicly:

I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again (John 10:17,18).

At the very moment when the Pharisees had decided against killing Christ during the Passover, Christ announced to his disciples that he was going up to Jerusalem to die (Matthew 26:1-5), thus bringing it about that his death coincided exactly with the slaying of the paschal lambs on the preparation of the Jewish Passover, antitype perfectly fulfilling the type, as God intended.

Satan crucified Christ, bruising his heel, according to the ancient prophecy in Genesis 3:15:

I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Yes, Satan crucified Christ. Who but the devil could have contrived the betrayal kiss, or induced a soldier to prick his own fingers gathering thorns for the brow of a man the governor had publicly declared to be innocent? Who but Satan could have inspired the atrocious ugliness, humiliation, suffering, shame, and repugnance that reached such a crescendo upon Calvary? If there was ever an instance of doing a complete job of diabolical cruelty upon any person in human history, Satan did it in the case of Jesus' death. The Cross must have exhausted the capacity of the devil himself for the heaping up of sufferings upon a single individual; for Satan did not merely contrive, with God's permission, the death of Christ on the Cross, he embellished the torture with every conceivable refinement of sadistic cruelty and humiliation. Jesus said, "I am the Alpha and the Omega" (Revelation 1:8), which is the English equivalent of "I am the `A' and the `Z.'" Certainly, Satan threw the alphabet at the Master on the Cross:

"A" is for his arrest, like a criminal hunted by the law.

"B" is for his betrayal by a friend.

"C" is for his crucifixion and the cross.

"D" is for the desertion of his disciples.

"E" is for the encirclement of his enemies.

"F" is for his fainting and falling under the weight of the Cross.

"G" is for the Garden of Gethsemane, scene of tears and blood.

"H" is for the hall of Herod where they mocked him.

"I" is for the inscription above his head.

"J" is for Judas.

"K" is for the kiss.

"L" is for the lies they swore.

"M" is for the malefactors on the right and on the left.

"N" is for the nails in his hands and feet.

"O" is for the order of the governor under which he died.

"P" is for Pontius Pilate, the priests and the Pharisees.

"Q" is for the quaking earth that shuddered as the deed was done.

"R" is for his rejection and the release of Barrabas.

"S" is for the smiting of his cheek, the spitting, and the shame.

"T" is for the thorns with which they crowned him.

"U" is for unjust trials, six in all, unjust, unthinkable, ungodly.

"V" is for the vituperation of his foes.

"W" is for water where Pilate washed his hands.

"Y" is for the yells of those who hated him.

"Z" is for the zeal of those who slew him.

- and if it should be supposed that there is no word for "X," let it be remembered that "X" stands for the unknown, that Christ on Calvary was the Great Unknown, and, in that, perhaps, was the bitterest part of it all for Jesus.

Yes, Satan pressed his attack against the Lord in every conceivable manner, perhaps hoping to the very last that he could make death so repulsive to the Son of God, so humiliating, and repugnant to him, that Christ would simply reject it, call for the legions of angels, abort the mission of redemption, and return to God; in which event, if such a thing had happened, Satan would have thwarted the divine purpose of human redemption.

The Jews crucified Christ; and, despite the findings of Vatican II, which is said to have absolved Israel of the blame, the Jews themselves, in the person of their highest court, and all the leaders of the people, with the concurrence of the hierarchy and the entire ruling establishment in Jerusalem itself, publicly accepted the blame for it in the cry:

His blood be upon us and upon our children (Matthew 27:25).

Not even the alleged clearance of Vatican II can wipe that out; and besides, even Vatican II did not absolve the Jews of any blame whatever, but removed the unjust charge that the Jews ALONE were to blame. The benefit of Vatican II is that it reversed the historic position of the Medieval church to the effect that the Jews were alone guilty of Christ's death, a position which was doubtless the source of much anti-Semitism, and which the Roman church quite properly repudiated. A careful reading of that document, however, will show that there was no intention whatever of clearing the Jews of any guilt at all in Christ's crucifixion, and thus rejecting their King when he came. The Jews indeed were guilty, the only amelioration of it lying in those true Israelites who became Christ's followers and formed the first nucleus of his church. This frequently neglected fact is the glory of the Jews. The great body of the primeval church was Jewish; and Jesus' declaration that "salvation is of the Jews" pertains with great force to the make-up of the original church.

The position of the Medieval church, noted above, was the cause, or one of the causes, of a fierce anti-Semitism which has been a frequent disgrace of history; and the courage of the Roman church to alter that position is commendable. It never was true that Israel alone was guilty of Jesus' murder, not even if all of Israel had concurred in it, which they did not; and even if that generation had totally concurred in it, no possible blame could pertain to their posterity, regardless of their screams for Jesus' blood to be upon them and upon their children (Matthew 27:25). Despite all this, the truth is plain enough that the Jews did crucify Jesus, the nation itself overwhelmingly and officially rejecting him, and contriving his execution by a cunning combination of political pressure, suborned testimony, and mob violence. Speaking of those Jews, it is profoundly correct to say that they were a fourth center of responsibility for the crucifixion of our Lord.

A fifth center of responsibility lies in the Gentiles, particularly the Roman government of that era. Like Israel, the Romans were not alone guilty, but guilty just the same. Romans and Jews had the same status in Christ's crucifixion as that of two men robbing a filling station and killing the operator, both being totally guilty, but neither of them exclusively so. Both Rome and Jerusalem were totally guilty of Christ's death, though neither was exclusively so. Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of Judaea. The chiliarchs and their legions in the tower of Antonio were under Pilate's command; and Pilate knew and admitted the innocence of Jesus Christ and could have released him. When Pilate said, "I find no fault in him," that should have been the signal to summons the legions and disperse the mob. The military might of Jerusalem was firmly in his hands; and the battle flags that decorated the stage of that dark drama on Golgotha were the storied banners of the Roman legions. The official order under which Christ was put to death bore the seal and signature of the Roman government, in the person of the procurator. True, the Sanhedrin had condemned the Lord, but they were powerless to move against him unless Pilate had allowed it. It was a Roman court of justice, no less than the highest religious tribunal of the Jews, that consented to the Lord's execution. There is no way to diminish the blame that shall attach forever to the name of Pilate and the nation he represented, the proud nation of Rome being itself, therefore, a fifth center of motive and responsibility for the crucifixion of the Son of God.

This brings us to the sixth center of responsibility for Christ's crucifixion, a center as wide as all humanity; for, in a sense, the whole race of man crucified Jesus. In that all have sinned, no one is totally free of blame. The Cross marked the total breakdown of the most respected institutions of all history, Roman justice and Jewish religion alike failing the crucial test, No single race, group, or condition of human beings deserves total blame; but by the same token, no one may deny any guilt at all, or claim absolution from complicity in this profoundest tragedy Of all time. All people, in the collective sense, are guilty, even the disciples of Jesus, for they forsook him and fled. The human race in its entirety crucified Jesus.

The seventh and final center of responsibility is every man's heart, the taint of sin being universal. Every person who knows and fully appreciates the truth can receive this. It was my sins, every man's sins, that nailed him up. The Lord was not crucified by some world-shaking monstrosity of sin, but by the little, ordinary, everyday sins, just as up-to-date as this morning's newspaper. Christ was harried to death because of pride, envy, and scorn. He was betrayed, not for a million dollars, but for about twenty dollars worth of silver. Such petty considerations as social position, political expediency, graft, timidity, cowardice, greed, jealously, lust, and indifference - all on a rather small scale; these were the sins that crucified him. "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" Every man conscious of sin knows that he was indeed there.

To be a propitiation ... The Greek usage of the word here translated "propitiation" applies it to the making of sacrifices to gods or men for the purpose of mollifying their anger or procuring their favor; but the scriptural usage of this term is not like that of the ancients. God makes the propitiation, but, at the same time, is the one propitiated; moreover, God does not need to be reconciled to man, but man need to be reconciled to God. As Paul expressed it, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19). Other New Testament examples of this word or its root are found in 1 John 2:2; 4:10; and Luke 18:13. There must certainly be far more in the meaning of this word than people can fully comprehend in this life. Some of the meaning lies in the eternal justice that requires punishment of every sin. God's laying upon Christ "the iniquity of us all" it part of the meaning of "propitiation." There is also in it the mystery of the attraction that the Cross has for people. Jesus said, "If I be lifted up, I shall draw all men unto myself" (John 12:32); and every succeeding century has revealed new dimensions of that mysterious truth.

Greathouse noted that:

When we speak of Christ's sacrifice as a propitiation, we do so against the background teaching of this epistle that "the wrath of God" is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men" (Romans 1:8). Of course, this does not mean that God has to be appeased like an angry man. Such a perversion of the biblical doctrine of propitiation misses the fundamental point made everywhere in the Bible, that it is God himself who puts forward the propitiatory offering for man's sin. Propitiation means that God found a way to uphold the law and safeguard his justice while extending mercy to a guilty sinner who trusts in Christ. "Expiation" means that in Christ the guilty rebel is forgiven of his sin and cleansed from his demerit.[29]

There is no human experience which fully qualifies as an illustration of what God did for humanity in providing a propitiation for human transgression; but the nearest thing to an adequate illustration of so magnificent a mercy is the legendary story of Lycurgus, semi-mythical character of the ninth century before Christ, said to have been the founder of the Spartan constitution, and whose legendary justice is memorialized on the south frieze of the grand audience chamber of the Supreme Court of the United States. This ancient king of Sparta proclaimed a law carrying the penalty of blindness for violators. The law was unpopular, and the king's son, and heir apparent, was maneuvered into breaking it. Calmly, Lycurgus ordered the executioner to heat the blinding irons, commanded the trembling prince to kneel, and the executioner burned out one of his eyes; whereupon the king interrupted the executioner, explained that the law required two eyes to be blinded, and that the king himself would give one of his own, thus sparing his son. Whether fact or fable, that ancient story illustrates the administration of justice tempered with mercy, and suggests the far greater thing that God did for his human children when he paid the penalty of their sins by dying upon the Cross in the person of his Son.

The fact noted above, that God is at once the propitiation and the propitiated, is strongly suggestive of the similar paradox in Hebrews 9:11,12, where Christ is typified at one and the same time both by the victim whose blood is shed and by the high priest by whom it was offered.

"Propitiation" is thought by some commentators to suggest the covering of the ark of the covenant, which also served as the platform upon which was enthroned the mercy seat in the ancient tabernacle, such authors as Wuest, Lenski, Macknight, and Locke holding that view, with others, as Hodge, offering detailed arguments to the contrary. Leaving the resolution of such questions to those more able to decide them, this student finds the possible allusion to the mercy seat stimulating and helpful. This allusion, if that is what it is, is in line with what Paul had already said concerning the witness of the law and the prophets to the great realities of the new covenant (Romans 3:21); and it was exactly in that ancient device called the mercy seat, especially in its peculiar position above and on top of the ark of the covenant, that one finds the most dramatic symbol in the Old Testament suggesting Gods' mercy as being enthroned even above God's law. There, in the placement of that mercy seat, was revealed the key fact of God's dealings with the race of man. There it was clear that, even under the Old Testament, mercy was higher than law. No more significant truth than this was ever revealed by the typical devices of the old covenant. Thus it is most appropriate that Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the agent and the grounds of that mercy, should be called (in this interpretation of the word) the base of the mercy seat and the covering of the law.

Either view of what is meant by propitiation leads directly to the heart of Paul's teaching here; which is simply this, that Christ is the sole ground of salvation. He is the basis of that mercy which outranks the law of God itself. Here too is the basis of the scriptural teaching that salvation is free, unmerited, the gift of God, or of the grace of God. Regardless of the conditions set forth in the word of God (and there ARE conditions), there can never be any thought of man's achieving, earning, or meriting salvation. It is indeed the gift of God. Even an obedient faith which must be manifested by all who aspire to receive God's unspeakable gift of salvation, can never be thought of as adequate grounds of it, the true basis of it being Jesus Christ alone. Christ's perfect faith (as a man), and his perfect obedience, produced the sum total of human righteousness ever achieved on earth; and since Christ is the God-man, it is nothing less than God's righteousness which is in Christ. Without that perfection of the Saviour, there could have been no such thing as salvation for people.

Through faith in his blood ... This expression stands in the KJV without having the comma after "faith," making the meaning to be "through faith in the efficacy of Christ's blood," or "faith in the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice"; however, RSV, Phillips, and the New English Bible refer "in his blood" back to the beginning of the sentence, thus:

Whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith (RSV).

God has appointed him as the means of propitiation, a propitiation accomplished by the shedding of his blood, to be received and made effective in ourselves by faith (Phillips).

It will be observed that the obvious reason for rearranging this verse is to have Paul say that we are saved "by faith," which is true, of course, only if it be understood as a synecdoche. The meaning in the KJV is far preferable; and, since there is an admitted change in the meaning, the reasons for such change must be looked upon with suspicion. Both the translations cited close the verse with "by faith"; but the Greek New Testament has the word for "faith" (twenty words earlier) in that verse; and from this, we are certain that a distortion of Paul's meaning has been made. Moses E. Lard commented on this place, justifying the meaning given in the KJV, thus:

Now the conditional efficacy of his blood seems to me to be the very point the apostle is guarding, by placing "through belief" where it stands. Christ is an atoning sacrifice through belief. Without belief he is not one. We must believe in his blood in order to be ransomed by it. This is the fact which the apostle is seeking to protect.[30]

To show his righteousness ... Here in the heart of this magnificent passage, called by Olshausen "the Acropolis of the Christian faith,"[31] a true definition of the kind of righteousness which constituted Paul's principal theme in Romans is delivered. It is the intrinsic righteousness of God. It is true that there is some reference to the other class of righteousness (imputed, or forensic); but, throughout this great letter, it is the character of God that Paul discussed. At the beginning of this verse, Paul mentioned the offering of Christ; and here, in these words, the reason for God's so doing is stated. It was for the purpose of showing, or making known to all people, the righteous character of God. God was not merely winking at sin in those long pre-Christian ages; in the fullness of time, God would sacrifice the Son himself, "whom he made to be sin on our behalf," that he might show just what a terrible thing sin is, and to demonstrate that no sin will at last be tolerated by God. Such a view of God's eternal righteousness could never have been known until God gave his only begotten Son.

Because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime ... These words have resulted in questions of what is meant: (1) Does it mean that the ancients were forgiven of their sins, or (2) does it mean that their sins were "passed over," in a sense ignored, without adequate explanation of the reason for God's so doing, the position here being that the latter meaning is correct. There are learned arguments to the effect that God actually forgave the sins of ancients, but Paul's statement that under Moses law there was "a remembrance of sins year by year" (Hebrews 10:3) disproves that thesis. It may well be doubted that there was ever any such thing on earth as the forgiveness of sins, prior to the death of Christ; and, even if it should be allowed, as some affirm, that there was forgiveness before Calvary, it would have been on the basis of what God would do on the Cross, in the same way that the forgiveness of people since Calvary is founded upon what God has already done there. Jeremiah's treatment of the subject of forgiveness in his grand prophecy of the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-35) makes forgiveness to be a distinctive hallmark of the new covenant, which it could not have been if sins were truly forgiven under the old.

The particular aspect of showing God's righteousness which is here given as one of the reasons for the offering of Christ seems to take into account some of the things people might have unjustly thought concerning God and his government of man. For example, from of old, the absolute righteousness of God is the basic attribute of his character; but people might have thought otherwise, when it was considered by them that God had passed over the sins of ancients without either punishing them or displaying any adequate grounds of their forgiveness. For example, when Abel died, he was a sinner like all the others who had ever lived; but upon his death the angels bore his soul away to the mansions of the blessed (called in later generations Abraham's bosom); and, as Milligan noted,

If there was a time when any of God's creatures might be supposed to be ready to charge him with partiality and injustice, it seems to me that that was the time. The fact that man had sinned was known in heaven, earth, and hell; and the fact that justice demanded satisfaction was also known. But when, where, and how had this satisfaction been given? Nothing had yet appeared within the horizon of even the tallest angel in glory that was sufficient to justify such an event as the salvation of a soul that had been defiled by sin.[32]

The fact that such allegations against the character of God actually did occur in the thoughts of people is proved by Paul's tacit acknowledgment of them in their refutation. Paul's words here show that God's righteousness in passing over ancient sins was grounded in his holy purpose of ultimately paying the penalty of their sins himself in the person of Christ. The pledge, in fact, that God would indeed do that very thing was constantly reiterated throughout the entire pre-Christian era, as more fully explained under Romans 3:25.

The purpose of the death of Christ, as mentioned in this verse, should be understood in the sense of "one of the purposes" of his death, and not in an exclusive sense. The death of Christ was of such overwhelmingly extensive importance that any single citation of what was accomplished by it could by no means exhaust the subject. As Hodge pointed out:

The death of Christ answers a great number of infinitely important ends in the government of God. It displays his manifold wisdom (Ephesians 3:10-11); it was designed to purify unto himself a people zealous of good works (Titus 2:14); to break down the distinctions between the Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:15); to effect the reconciliation of both Jews and Gentiles unto God (Ephesians 2:16); to deliver us from this present evil world (Galatians 1:4); to secure the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7); to vindicate his ways to men, in so long passing by, or remitting, their sins (Romans 3:25); to reconcile the exercise of mercy with the requirements of justice (Romans 3:26); etc.[33]

To the above list, cited by Hodge, should be added: the fact that the death of Christ condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3); that it fulfilled the words of the prophets who had foretold it (1 Corinthians 15:3); and that it had the effect of drawing all people unto Christ (John 12:32).

In the forbearance of God ... This phrase proves what was said above regarding God's "passing over" the sins of the ancients. In the fullness of time, all would be made plain; but for generations, it must have appeared to many that God "winked at" human wickedness (Acts 17:30 KJV). Those long periods of God's forbearance, however, would at last be explained and understood in Christ's death on the Cross. There it was perfectly plain that not one little sin would ever crawl by the eyes of the eternal God without the execution of its due penalty. And behold how terrible is the penalty of sin, as demonstrated in the death of Christ. The personal meaning for every descendant of Adam, as revealed in Christ's crucifixion, is that God will exact the penalty due every sin, unless it shall be remitted in Jesus Christ. Sanday has this:

(One) object of the death of Christ was to remove the misconceptions that might be caused by the apparent condoning of sins committed in times anterior to the Christian revelation. A special word is used to indicate that those sins were not wiped away and dismissed altogether, but rather "passed over" or "overlooked." This was due to the forbearance of God, who, as it were, suspended the execution of his vengeance. Now the apostle shows by the death of Christ that justice that had apparently slept was vindicated.[34]

For the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season ... This is a repetition, for emphasis, of what Paul had already said.

That he himself might be just ... means "that God might be just in the eyes of men." The death of the Son of God served notice upon all creation that the eternal justice was absolute and that all sin must suffer punishment, unless covered by the blood of Christ.

And the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus ... As the English Revised Version (1885) margin shows, this clause in the Greek New Testament reads, "the justifier of him that is of faith of Jesus," and the true meaning of the passage is not that the believer's "faith, faith alone, has God's righteousness."[35] "Him that is of the faith of Jesus" does not indicate that the believer's faith is the ground of salvation, but that the faith of the Son of God is the ground of it. Who is he that is "of the faith of Jesus"? Such a one is the person "in Christ," who is dead to himself, walking in newness of life, sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, and having been baptized into God's corporate reality, the spiritual body of Christ, and who is, therefore, possessed of a new identity, being no longer his own self, but Christ. As Paul wrote, "For me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:20). No person whatsoever may expect salvation upon any other foundation than his total identity with Christ. Only the faith of Christ is sufficient to save any person; and the believer's faith, which is merely one of the conditions upon which he may become possessor of Christ's faith, can never justify him, apart from his being in the Lord Jesus Christ, and actually having put on Christ, in the sense of clothing himself with the Lord, and having taken upon him the name of Christ. As to when a person has such status, the Scriptures are clear. When does the believer put on Christ?

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ (Galatians 3:27).

And when does the believer take the name of Christ?

They were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 19:5).

For neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

And when does the believer enter that "one body" (Christ) wherein is EVERY spiritual blessing?

For in one Spirit were ye all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free (1 Corinthians 12:13).

And how is it stated in the word of the Lord that people are admitted "into Christ"?

All we ... were baptized into Christ (Romans 6:3).

And how do believers die to themselves and participate in the newness of life in Christ, and when do they begin to do so?

We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

When the believer dies through the denial and repudiation of himself and begins to live the new live in Christ, what is such a change called, and how is it accomplished?

Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5).

And when is the believer sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, indicating that he is truly "in Christ"?

After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13).

It should be noted that the English Revised Version's use of the past participle does not alter the truth that reception of the Holy Spirit comes AFTER the sinner has faith, and that it is something apart from faith; but if the believer stops short of receiving the Holy Spirit, is he nevertheless a child of God?

But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his (Romans 8:9).

But is not the reception of the Holy Spirit achieved when people believe, and without regard to any other condition? Peter addressed a group of believers on the day of Pentecost thus:

Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

Thus, the Holy Spirit "of promise," mentioned above, has reference to this and proves that it was promised conditionally to believers, the reception of the Spirit being contingent upon their repentance and baptism (they were already believers). And may the Holy Spirit be received apart from the new birth which makes people sons of God?

And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts (Galatians 4:6).

Thus, the reception of the Holy Spirit is contingent also upon the recipient's being already a son of God. The Spirit is sent not to make him a son, but because he is so. But, since the Holy Spirit "of promise" (and to be distinguished from certain miraculous manifestations, as in the case of Cornelius) is received only upon fulfillment of the conditions mentioned on Pentecost, the deduction is absolutely mandatory that no person is a Son of God without repentance and baptism.

Any theory of justification by "faith only" on the sinner's part is refuted by the above considerations, and countless others. Of supreme significance is the fact that all such things mentioned above, namely, reception of the Holy Spirit, repentance, baptism, putting on Christ, being born again, walking in newness of life, etc., are possible only for those who are already believers. No unbeliever can be baptized, although he might be wet; no unbeliever can put on Christ, etc. Therefore, all of the above named conditions of salvation are conditions to be fulfilled by believers and are thus conditions in addition to faith which are anterior to justification, making it impossible to believe that justification is by "faith only." But not even these conditions, faith included, are the ground of justification; THAT GROUND is in Christ alone; and all conditions people must fulfill as prerequisites to entering Christ are utterly void of any power in themselves to justify. The profound mistake of the past half a millennium has been in the supposition that ANYTHING, even faith, on the sinner's part, can justify. In the passages that affirm salvation to be "by faith," or justification "by faith," the language is only accommodative, the idea being that a person complying with the divine conditions of being "in Christ" is thereby justified, not on the grounds of his compliance, but upon the ground of Christ into whom the sinner is thus brought and swallowed up completely in the identity of the Saviour. People are saved by their own faith in exactly the same sense that they are saved "by baptism" (1 Peter 3:21), namely in the secondary sense of these things being prerequisite to salvation, true justification "in Christ" being not at all due to ANYTHING that the sinner might either believe or perform, but entirely founded upon Christ's perfect faith and obedience, the true righteousness of God, in Christ. Accessory to this view is the obvious truth that synecdoche is used in all of those passages where it is declared that people are saved "by faith," "by baptism," "by grace," "by hope," etc., or justified "by works" - in all such places, it is never affirmed by scripture, though often by people, that "only" is a lawful word to use with any of these things.

What, then, of the New Testament passages which speak of persons "saving" themselves?

Save yourselves from this crooked generation (Acts 2:40).

Thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee (1 Timothy 4:16).

Work out your own salvation (Philippians 2:12).

Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins (Acts 22:16).

All such language is accommodative and has respect to the fact that a person who does indeed perform what God has required does, in a certain limited sense, save himself, no human faith or performance being sufficient of itself to save. But this is not inconsistent with the truth that faith and certain acts of obedience are absolutely prerequisite to salvation.

The foregoing Romans 3:21-26 are the theme of Romans; it is the doctrine of salvation "in Christ." The resolution of the problem of how God can make men righteous is determined thus: God himself, in the person of Christ, entered our earth life, lived the absolutely perfect life, fulfilling all the law of God, and paying the penalty of all sin through death upon the Cross. Through God's regard for the perfect righteousness of Christ, called by Paul "the faith of Christ," a descendant of Adam, through perfect union with and identification with Christ, can receive the benefits of Christ's righteousness (the righteousness of God) as his own, not while retaining his identity as a sinner, but upon the condition of his dying to himself, clothing himself with Christ, even taking his name, and being faithful to that new identity "in Christ." The righteousness which God, by such a device, "imputes" to people is no mystical or magical by-product of sinners' faith, but is a BONA FIDE, honest-to-goodness righteousness that was lived and wrought by Jesus Christ upon this earth; and all who receive it shall not be able to do so within the perimeter of their own identity, but only through their identity and union with Christ.

And what of any who might not remain "in Christ"? Jesus himself declared,

If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned (John 15:16).

It is thus, not merely true that one must be "in Christ" to be saved, but he must also remain "in Christ." It is one thing to have been in Christ and a far different thing to be "found in him." "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord" (Revelation 14:13).

There is no hesitation on the part of this writer to accept the corollary that to be "in Christ" is to be "in the church." It is impossible to think of the body of Christ as being anything other than the church, as far as earth is concerned. The book of Ephesians makes it clear that all things in heaven and upon earth will eventually be part of that body; but, in the present dimensions of time and place, the church is the body of Christ. If it should be objected that this makes too much of the church, let it be replied that Christ shed his blood for the church, and none other than Paul himself made the blood of Christ to be the purchase price of the church (Acts 20:28), a fact which, by any interpretation whatsoever, makes the church an absolutely essential organization. It is precisely here that the theory of the exegetes that salvation is by "faith only" collides with and is shattered upon the rock of eternal truth. By any fair interpretation whatever, the "faith only" theory offers salvation without and apart from the church; and that view reduces the crucifixion and shedding of Christ's blood to the status of a mere murder. There are difficulties in the interpretation accepted here, but these do not touch the essential heart of it, that the church is Christ's body. What of the claims of various institutions that they are the church, the true body of Christ? What of the prevalence of so much deadwood in every church? No man can fully answer such questions. The marred image of the church which confronts all who look for the real thing in this generation is pitiful indeed; but the deformities and aberrations are of Satan and not of Christ. The major premise stands that the church is the spiritual body of Christ and that to be in either is to be in both. Only in Christ's spiritual body is it possible for people to be accounted righteous in God's sight. Sinedes expressed it thus:

When we ask what the body of Christ is, we must remember that it is the community committed to the ongoing service of reconciliation in the power of the cross. Within the community, faith is directed to the cross. The life the community lives is the life styled by the cross - the sacrificial life of loving service. The cross stands at the center of the reality of the body.[36]

The final necessity of finding Christ's spiritual body in the form of an earthly community, the church, is imperative; and the responsibility for finding, to the best of his ability, devolves upon every man, who with bended knee and open Bible must seek and find the Lord.

[29] William M. Greathouse, op. cit., p. 92.

[30] Moses E. Lard, op. cit., p. 119.

[31] Charles Hodge, op. cit., p. 94.

[33] Robert Milligan, The Scheme of Redemption (St. Louis, Missouri: The Bethany Press, 1960), p. 229.

[33] Charles Hodge, op. cit., p. 95.

[34] W. Sanday, Ellicott's Commentary on the Whole Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1970), p. 218.

[35] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 265.

[36] Lewis B. Smedes, All Things Made New (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970), p. 230.