In Part I of this series we saw that Paul showed (in Romans 1-2) the shortcomings of paganism, morality, and religion in granting a person righteousness before God and concluded with this devastating charge:

“There is no righteous one, not even one; there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God … there is no one who does good, there is not even one (Romans 3: 10-12)”.

This would leave the reader of the book of Romans with this question: How can a person stand before God and claim to be righteous?

Paul’s answer to that question is that a person is righteous before God by justification by grace through faith. Then give three images / views to make sure we get the point. The first is the view from the courtroom that we considered in Part I. The issue here is justice: how can God provide justice to sinners and remain righteous? Paul’s answer is by substitution (see Part I for a discussion of this idea).

Today I want to consider the other two points of view that Paul presents in Romans 3: the view from the marketplace and the view from the temple.

The view from the market (vs. 23-24)

The problem here is deliverance: how can God free sinners from the bondage of sin?

The answer to this question is redemption.

Paul describes redemption as a gift of grace. When he wrote, he thought of redemption in his culture where slaves were sold in the market. Redemption meant bringing a slave out of bondage. The bondage we are under is the bondage of sin, the curse of the law that condemns us.

Through the death of Christ, you have been freed from the slavery of sin; he paid the required price and you were rescued from captivity. The result for you is that you are justified by the free grace of God because of the redemption that came through Jesus Christ. You make this personal redemption for yourself by faith.

Jesus paid the price to rescue / redeem his people. That price was the shedding of his blood.

The view from the temple (vs. 25a)

The problem here is anger: how can God’s wrath against sin be sustained if he saves the people against whom that wrath would be unleashed? When Jesus went to the cross, he did so in his priestly role as a voluntary sacrifice. It was not simply the heroic act of a man of love and conviction. He was the sacrifice of atonement.

The image here is from the Day of Atonement. Two goats will be presented. After the priest laid his hands on their heads and transferred the sins of the people, one would be slain and his blood sprinkled on the mercy seat of the ark for the forgiveness of sins. The other, the scapegoat, was led into the wilderness to show that the sin of the people had been taken away and God would no longer remember it against them.

Sin is enmity against God: hostility face to face. On the cross, where the blood of the innocent was shed, the wrath of God against sin was invoked and unleashed upon Jesus.

The answer to the question of God’s wrath is propitiation.

The word propitiation means to appease: the satisfaction of God’s wrath against sin. The sacrifice has been made so that the believing sinner may be justified before God. Those who were previously the objects of anger are now treated with love; enmity disappears and the justified sinner is adopted into the family of God; the angry Lord becomes a loving Father.

Paul’s three perspectives

View from the courtroom: the issue is justice, God’s solution is substitution

View from the market: the problem is liberation, God’s solution is redemption

View from the temple: the problem is anger, God’s solution is propitiation

How amazing is the grace of God in our salvation!