Essentials 2.03 "

Essentials in a Confusing World 2.03

Justification:  It’s in the Design

Romans 3:21-26

            In a world that likes to understand how and why things work, we sometimes wonder about how salvation works.  How can someone’s death, resurrection atone for our sins?  We understand the death of Jesus was prefigured in the sacrifices of the Old Testament; but still, how does that put us in right relationship with God?  What is the mechanism that makes that work?

            The church has come up the theories, such as the penal substitution theory in which we believe that Jesus took our legal punishment.  There is the Christus Victor theory where Christ defeated the powers of evil.  Both of those theories have good biblical support and both are true.

            Yet, the question remains, how can that work?   Most translations of Romans 3:25 say it something like this: God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,  through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.  That is the TNIV but most translations use the word presented.  I like the Revised English Bible much better here: For God designed him to be the means of atoning for sin by his death, effective through faith.

            There are two mechanisms that make this work.  First, in 3:24 we find the work grace.  That is the most important mechanism.  God, in grace, said that it would the way it does.  Christ offered himself, in grace, to atone for our sins so that we would not have to die ourselves.  The second mechanism is through faith that we accept this grace.  Modern Protestants want to say that we are saved by faith, but that is not true.  We are saved by grace appropriated through faith. 

            As we come to this table, w