If you turn to Romans chapter 3, Romans chapter 3, we come to the book of Romans. As you know, the apostle Paul had never been to Rome when he pens this letter. He was in the city of Corinth, Greece. We read about it in Acts chapter 20, verse three was there for three months. This was his third missionary journey was on his way to Jerusalem. And while he was in the city of Corinth on his way to Jerusalem during this three month period of time, he writes this letter. to these Roman believers who were in the capital city of Rome, Italy. When you read these opening chapters, he introduces himself in chapter 1, verses 1 through 17, and sets forth his thesis in chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, which basically is an unpackaging of the gospel. Then you move into chapter 1, verse 18, through chapter 3 and verse 20, and he teaches the doctrine of condemnation. that this is universal, it embraces everyone, both Gentile and Jew, all stand condemned before God. Then you move into chapter 3 verse 21 through chapter 5 verse 21 and he deals with the remedy which is found in justification. Now I want to pick up the reading in Romans chapter 3 verse 21 as he now shifts from condemnation, our spiritual bankrupt position to now the remedy that is found in Jesus Christ. And I'd like to read from verse 21 to verse 26. This is Romans chapter 3, verse 21. But now apart from the law, the righteousness from God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness from God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. There's no distinction, distinction between Jew and Gentile. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed. For the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. My subject for this Sunday night is the procedure that made justification a possibility. And we certainly read of that here in Romans 3, verses 24 and 25. C.J. Mahaney, in his book entitled The Cross-Centered Life, made this statement. If there's anything in life we should be passionate about, it's the gospel. And I don't mean passionate only about sharing the gospel with others, I mean passionate in thinking about the gospel, reflecting upon the gospel, rejoicing in the gospel, allowing the gospel to color the way we look at the world and all of life. But the only way that we can actually do that is by first, understanding the person who was actually crucified, and second, what that person actually accomplished when that event took place historically. The Apostle Peter said, they killed the Prince of Life. How do you kill life? They killed the Prince of Life. The Apostle Paul said, they crucified the Lord of Glory. The Lord of Glory crucified? Paul said, it was the Son of God gave himself for me. So I have to understand the person who was crucified, none other than the Prince of Life, none other than the Lord of Glory, none other than the Son of God. But in the second place, I have to grasp what actually happened when the Prince of Life, the Lord of Glory, the Son of God died on that cross. Now listen to the words of Donald MacLeod who said this. What did the angels think of it all? One day they blinked in astonishment as they saw their great creator in a manger in Bethlehem. They must have found the spectacle incomprehensible. One day word came that their Lord was in Gethsemane. And one of them had been sent to strengthen him. Hours later, there came even more astonishing news. He was bleeding on the cross of Calvary. That surely was the bottom, the very worst, but no. The next thing was the father had forsaken him. The God whose whole impulse it was to wash away the tears from the eyes of his people, not washing away the tears of his own son. That's how it was from beginning to end of the earthly life. Down, down. The tremendous step from throne to stable. And then the incredible journey from the stable to the cross. And beyond it, the journey on the cross itself. From the immolation to the dereliction. The angels must have been saying, will this never end? How low is he going to go? How low does he have to go? Well, he has to do this in order to pay the penalty of sin. So we read all of these statements found in the Bible. The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Or this, his soul will make an offering for sin. Or the Bible will say, he gave himself for our sins. Or he was made a curse for us. Or the Bible will say, who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Or the Bible will say, the just one died for the benefit of, in the place of the unjust ones. So not only did the Lord of glory, the Prince of life, the Son of God, the God-man actually die, he died bearing the penalty of our sins. He bore our curse. So no wonder John Piper said, the suffering of the utterly innocent and infinitely holy son of God in the place of the utterly undeserving sinners to bring us to everlasting joy is the greatest display of the glory of God's grace that ever was or ever could be. So I read the words of the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 6. Just listen to it as I read it. When he says in the 14th verse, But to me may it never be to boast. And when you think of the word boast, think of to glory in, to take pride in, to revel in, even to live for. But to me may it never be to boast. but except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to boast, I'm going to glory, I'm going to take pride, I'm going to revel, I'm going to live for that, which then provokes a further question. What is it that engrosses our attention? What is it that fills our horizon? What is it that dominates our minds? For the Apostle Paul, it was the cross. of our Lord Jesus Christ. So I must grasp in the first place the person who was crucified and in the second place the work that he actually accomplished when he was crucified when he died upon that tree. Which brings me back tonight to this text found here in Romans chapter 3 verses 24 and 25 when we read of some theologically loaded words. Like the word in verse 24, justification. Like the word in verse 24, redemption. Like the word found in verse 25, propitiation. I just finished reading a very good book. Victor Kuligin, The Language of Salvation. This is a very good book. He's a seminary professor in Africa. And in the book he talks about why is it that we don't understand theological words. Why is it that we don't talk about words like justification and redemption and propitiation? Why is it that we just talk about those kind of words in theological settings like in a seminary and we don't really talk about those words in terms of a church since these words are found in the Bible? Why is it that we don't talk about them and study them? Now listen to what he had to say. We ignore the topics altogether, which he says is inexcusable. Or we attempt to water down the terminology in an effort to make it more understandable. He said that's full of pitfalls. Or, he says, another factor that accentuates the problem is the increasingly popular post-modern inclination away from doctrinal conversation. In the beliefs of this emerging segment of Christendom, doctrine and theology alienate and segregate us, whereas we are supposed to simply love each other and not get bogged down in divisive issues. Now, you think about it. I mean, there's some truth to what he has to say. Then he comes back and makes this comment. The common mistake, and he's talking seeker-oriented churches, the common mistake of seeker-oriented churches is to ignore the fact about the human condition. In an attempt to make church palatable for the unchurched, de-emphasizing the negative aspects of Christianity, sin, hell, judgment, These churches have unwittingly robbed the gospel of its power to save by removing the offense of the gospel. You can hardly speak of salvation when you do not speak about the things from which you are saved. So he argues, and rightfully so, that all Christians ought to read these words and think about these words. Justification, redemption, and the word we're talking about, propitiation. But he makes a comment but I think also is very true. Countless Christians run here or there looking for a word from the Lord while their Bibles sit on the shelf collecting dust. The reason why we have so many scrawny, malnourished Christians is because they're not being properly fed on God's word. The most important thing is the word. So I come to this text in Romans chapter 3, and I'm not shied away from justification. To declare someone righteous, I'm not shied away from redemption. A ransom has been paid to set me free, to liberate me from a number of things, but certainly from self and certainly from sin. Which brings me back to this word that we read here in verse 25. that is translated propitiation or as the NIV translates it, sacrifice of atonement. Now look at the word as we have it in verse 25, whom Christ Jesus God planned before and or publicly displayed as a propitiation in His blood. Now when I think of the term propitiation again, I'm thinking about turning away God's wrath by the offering up of guilt. So if I think about propitiation, I'm thinking placating, satisfying the wrath of God all by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So you can't talk about propitiation without talking about the reality of wrath. the reality of God's wrath that needs to be appeased, that needs to be propitiated. Contemporary liberal theology despises that thought. So we oftentimes hear the thought that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath, whereas the God of the New Testament is a God of love. And we ought not to talk about wrath, we ought to talk about love. God is a God of love and that's what we ought to talk about, making the gospel more palatable, sanitizing the gospel so that the gospel is more acceptable to an unbeliever. So last week I mentioned C.H. Dodd who died in 1973 and at the time of his retirement he became the general director of the New English Bible. And he believed that propitiation is a sub-Christian term. He did not like the thought of God being angry, that God needed to be appeased, and so he substituted another term for propitiation in the New English Bible, and that term is expiation. So we believe that expiation would be the right term to use because we're basically talking about the removal of sin's guilt. We're not talking about propitiating or appeasing God's wrath. So expiation, C.H. Dodd would argue, ought to be used in the place of propitiation. The only problem with that, which has been noted by all kinds of New Testament scholars, is that one can never dismiss God's wrath from the pages of the Bible, certainly the Old Testament. But you cannot dismiss the notion of God's wrath from the pages of the New Testament also. And you certainly think about Jesus Christ himself. I think of the parables that Jesus Christ gave, specifically in the Gospel of Luke. And if you talk about these parables, there are many of them, it's been pointed out, at least a dozen of them, with strong elements of judgment. So you read about the parables of our Lord, and in these parables He talks about judgment. He certainly speaks about hell. We have those phrases sprinkled through the Gospels. Weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now if you talk about weeping and gnashing of teeth, which Jesus is the one to use that kind of expression, if I think about the whole concept of weeping, that would certainly suggest sorrow. And if you talk about gnashing of teeth, we think of it in terms of pain. The rabbis refer to it in terms of anger. But Jesus is the one to talk about weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus is the one that talked about a worm that doesn't die and the fire is not quenched. Jesus is the one who talked about eternal fire. So when you talk about all of this in terms of Jesus, Jesus is the one who spoke about the judgment of God. He's the one who spoke about hell far more often than he spoke about heaven. He's the one 11 out of the 12 times that spoke about Gehenna which of course is the second death or eternal separation from God. He's the one who talked about the Father's wrath, judgment of sin. So it's very difficult to come to not just the Old Testament but to come to the New Testament and say that the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, doesn't speak about the wrath of God. It absolutely does. And when I come to the New Testament, those specific words that I read last week, arge and thumas, the set of wrath and this outburst of explosion, both of those terms are used with reference to God in the New Testament. And always it has to do with sin, always with sin. So sin is the problem. It is the problem in terms of all of us. I'm reading through the works of John Newton. Carol and I are reading through these works. There are four volumes that have been published. And I'm reading through his letters now, and there's a young seminarian who is asking him various questions, and he wants to know about sin. When he stands before Jesus Christ, will his sin be made public to everyone? Will everyone see a sin? And he's responding to that in terms of this letter. And he writes this. With respect to our sins being made known to others, I acknowledge with you that I could not now bear to have any of my fellow creatures made acquainted with what passes in my heart for a single day. But I apprehend it is a part and a proof of my present depravity that I feel myself disposed to pay so greater regard for the judgment of men while I am so little affected with what I am in the sight of a pure and holy God. I don't want anybody to know what I'm thinking about during the course of a day because of what I think about this other person. But here, God knows everything about me and knows exactly what I'm thinking about. You remember Hebrews chapter four, I'm naked before the eyes of him with whom I have to do. So sin is a problem. It is a reason why we're born spiritually dead. It is a reason why God's wrath is upon us. It is the reason why we stand guilty before a holy God. Sin is the problem. And the Old Testament talks about it. And certainly the New Testament talks about it. And in order to understand propitiation, I have to understand the problem in terms of sin and God's reaction, His holy wrath against that sin because of who He is. He's a holy God. He's a just God. He's a righteous God. So I have to understand what the Bible says. The Bible speaks of God's wrath against sin. That sin is going to be punished either in Christ or in the person of the sinner. But when I think about propitiation in the way that the Bible uses it, and Paul uses it, and the writer of Hebrew uses it, and the apostle John uses it, when I think of propitiation in terms of the way the Bible uses it, it doesn't use it in the same way that we have it in pagan writings. Because in pagan rituals, you have an individual trying to placate some offended deity. But when you come to the Bible, God himself is the one who provides the way by which his wrath against sin can be averted. God provides the way. And of course, all of that is found in the person of his own son. So when we talk about this in terms of verse 25, where I read, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood. I've got to understand propitiation. Two parties are involved. You have the offended one and you have the offered one. The offended one is God and the offered one is Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ is offended and he offers up his only son. So out of sheer love, he's the one who takes the initiative. He's the one who makes the move to deal with his own wrath. This is what God does. So God, in his own son, steps in to bear the full penalty of this wrath against himself. It's what we read this morning. God was by Christ reconciling the world unto himself. So it was God the Father in his love who provided the very sacrifice to turn away his righteous wrath. Christ is the one who takes upon himself the penalty of our sin. He absorbs it. He exhausts it. There's no wrath left for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now that's what I have to understand. So I come to the words of John Owen, the great puritan, who said, propitiation involves four elements. First, there's an offense, and the offense has to be taken away. Second, there's a person offended, and that person needs to be pacified. Third, there's an offending person. And fourth, there's a sacrifice to make atonement for the offense. So the offense has to be taken away, my sin, God's wrath against it. The person offended needs to be pacified, that's God. You have the offending person, that's all of us. And the sacrifice who makes the atonement, the sacrifice who makes propitiation, it is none other than Jesus Christ. So God initiates the action to appease his own wrath, so that his anger could be turned away from us, and yet all of his requirements are met. I mean, that is what we read. So I think of the whole concept of propitiation. He bore the guilt of my sin. God unleashed all of this wrath and punishment of my sin upon his own son. That's what happened. So I read the words of one. God provided a means of turning away his righteous wrath towards us by providing an appropriate offering that would satisfy his requirements. This appeasement, this propitiation, as it is called, was Messiah's voluntary sacrificial death on our behalf. That's it. I want to read the words of another. Sin causes the wrath of a holy God to fall upon sinners. Only in the atoning death of Jesus Christ is that wrath removed. So if I read the statement here in verse 25, whom Christ Jesus, God publicly displayed as a propitiation in his blood, the place where propitiation was made, the cross. The place was the cross. So when I read the word propitiation, the word propitiation found only one other time, remember? Hebrews chapter 9 verse 5, and there it's the mercy seat. That's the place where propitiation is made. The mercy seat, the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat. Remember Leviticus 16. So the place where propitiation made, the cross. He's the mercy seat. The person who actually propitiates Jesus Christ. He himself is the person who does it. Listen to the words of Hebrews chapter 2 verse 17. Wherefore, when all things have behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. To make propitiation for the sins of the people. He's the one who did it. To make propitiation for the sins of the people. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 17. Or listen to the words of 1 John chapter 2 And verse 2, he himself is the propitiation for our sins. And that is Jesus Christ, the righteous one. He himself is the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 2.2. Or listen to 1 John 4. 1 John 4.10. here in His love, not that we love God, but that He Himself loved us, sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. So the place where it was done, the cross, the person who actually did it was Jesus Christ Himself. Hebrews 2.17, 1 John 2.2, 1 John 4.10. So Christ offered Himself. He paid the penalty for my sin. which turns away God's wrath for those who find their shelter and security in Him. Now that is propitiation. So listen to some statements. Here's one, Martin Luther. Christ is punished on our account. Listen to John Calvin. Christ took upon himself and suffered the punishment, which by the righteous judgment of God, impended over all sinners. And by this expiation, the Father has been satisfied and his wrath appeased. Listen to John Charles Rowe. At the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ offered himself as a sacrifice for us, allowed the wrath of God to fall upon his own head, For our sins as our substitute, He gave Himself, suffered and died, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, that He might deliver us from the curse of the broken law and provide a complete pardon for all who are willing to receive it. Listen to John Murray. Propitiation contemplates our liability to the wrath of God. It is the provision of grace whereby We may be freed from that wrath. Listen to J.I. Packer. The basic description of the saving death of Christ in the Bible is as a propitiation. That is, as that which quenched God's wrath against us by obliterating our sins from His sight. God's wrath is His righteousness reacted against unrighteousness. It shows itself in retributive justice. But Jesus Christ has shielded us from the nightmare prospect of retributive justice by becoming our representative substitute in obedience to his Father's will and receiving the wages of sin in our place. By this means, justice has been done for the sins of all that will ever be pardoned were judged and punished in the person of God the Son And it is on this basis that pardon is now offered to us offenders. Or listen to Wayne Grudem. As Jesus bore the guilt of our sins, God unleashed all wrath and punishment for all sins upon His own Son. Jesus became the object of the intense hatred of sin and vengeance against sin that God had patiently stored up since the beginning of the world. Christ necessarily and willingly bore the full punishment for our sin on the cross. Or listen to the words of the Heidelberg Catechism. Question 56. What does thou believe concerning the forgiveness of sins? Answer. That God, for the sake of Christ's satisfaction, will no more remember my sins. neither the sinful nature with which I have to struggle all my life long, but graciously imparts to me the righteousness of Christ, that I may never more come into condemnation." Or listen to the words. This is one of the articles of the 39 articles of the Church of England. And I want you to listen to this one. This is article 31. of the one offering of Christ finished upon the cross. Article 31 of the 39. The offering of Christ, once made, is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual. And there's none other satisfaction for sin but that alone. Wherefore, The sacrifices of masses, in the which it was commonly said that the priest did all for Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits. He did it all. He finished it all when he died upon that cross. Article 31, I think, absolutely right. So here is a prayer that's prayed, certainly prayed by the Eastern Orthodox Church. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Do we need to pray that prayer? Have mercy on me a sinner. Do we need to pray that prayer? Absolutely not. Why? Because propitiation has already been made. Mercy has already been extended and it's all found in Jesus Christ. So what do we say about expiation? What do we say about propitiation? Propitiation is a biblical term. What about expiation? Is it right to talk about expiation? Can we say Christ propitiated the wrath of God by becoming an expiation for our sin? Wouldn't that be correct to say? Yes, it would be. Propitiation and expiation are both right. He removed sin and he pacified the righteous requirements. So I read the words of R.C. Sproul. I think he's right. The death of Christ was both a propitiation and expiation of sin. Propitiation refers to the turning away of wrath by an offering. God's wrath is satisfied. His justice is met by the sacrifice. Expiation refers to covering sins. By the atonement, our sins are removed from us. The atonement satisfies both the demands of the Father and the needs of Christ's people. That such a double transaction can be achieved by one person in one event is a matter of eternal glory. Propitiation, expiation, I think are both valid. So I read the statement here. In verse 24, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And then I read the statement in verse 25, whom God publicly displayed or planned beforehand as a propitiation in His blood. I want you to turn with me to Romans chapter 5. I want to read a statement here in Romans 5. Romans chapter 5. Look at the opening verse. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to read that in another way. How about this? Therefore, because we have been justified by faith, we are having peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 9. Therefore, much more, it's exactly the same, exactly the same. It's a participle, and I think in Greek it's a causal participle. So I'm going to read it like this. Therefore, much more, because we have been justified now by His blood, we will be saved from wrath through Him. Wrath being God's wrath, through Him being Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 10. For if, while being enemies, we are reconciled to God through the death of His Son, so wouldn't, in verse 9, by His blood now be further defined as through the death of His Son? Then I read verse 10. Much more, and I'm going to read it. Because we have been reconciled, we will be saved in His life. We will be saved from any kind of wrath. Now turn please to Romans chapter 8, look at verse 1. Romans chapter 8, verse 1. So then, now, No condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. So then now. I mean, before this, there was condemnation. Now there's no condemnation. Why? Because the person's in Christ Jesus. So then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. Now look at the same chapter. Come down, please. To verse. Verse 33. Now notice this. Who will bring charges against the elect of God? Who's going to enter into a courtroom and bring charges against us? Paul says, God's the one who justifies. God is the one. The judge is the one who's declared the person righteous. Then verse 34. Who condemns? Who's going to condemn a believer in Christ? And then you want an insurance policy? How about a fourfold one like this? Number one, Christ Jesus died. Yea rather, number two, was raised. Number three, who is also at the right hand of God, who number four, also intercedes for us. I'd say that's a That's a pretty good insurance plan. He died, he was raised again. That's past, that's historical. Then he shifts to a present tense. He right now is at the right hand of God. He right now is interceding for us. And then of course the last one, no one, nothing can separate us from his love. And that love is found in Jesus Christ. So James Denney puts it like this. If the propitiatory death of Jesus is eliminated from the love of God. It might be unfair to say that the love of God is robbed of all meaning, but it's certainly robbed of its apostolic meaning. The writers of the New Testament know nothing of a love which doesn't react in the very strongest fashion against every form of sin. Now I want you to turn with me to the Gospel of John, John chapter 3, And I want to read just a few statements in John chapter 3. I'd like to read verses 16 through 18, and then I'd like to read verse 36. This is John chapter 3. Look at the 16th verse, and I'd like to read the verse 18, and then I want to read the last verse of this chapter. For so God loved the world so that he gave the unique, only one-of-a-kind Son, in order that anyone who believes in him should not perish, but should have eternal life. For God sent not the Son into the world in order that he might condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not being condemned. But the one who believes not has already been condemned. Why? Because he has not believed in the name of the unique, only one of a kind Son of God. Now come to the last verse of this chapter. This is verse 36. And notice the statement here. The one who believes in the Son is having eternal life. But the one who is not believing, literally it means the person is not just being, he's not being persuaded. You can't convince the person. The one who believes in the Son is having, present tense, is having right now eternal life. But the one who is not persuaded in the Son will not see life. Now look at this. But the wrath of God, look at the tense of the verb, but the wrath of God is right now abiding over upon him. Right now, the wrath of God is abiding over him. Now, if I read these words, he talks about perishing and he talks about being condemned. And he talks about this wrath of God abiding upon this person. Over against that, he talks about eternal life. He talks about being saved. He talks about not being condemned. And it's all, of course, found in whether or not one believes or doesn't believe in Jesus Christ. Now, what is very disturbing is verse 36. The one who is not persuaded, then the text says, that person is not going to see life, but the wrath of God is abiding upon him. Now that's positional. The only reason why he hasn't experienced it is because he's still in the body. But the moment he physically dies and his soul leaves his body, then he's going to experience what is already positionally true. So I read these words, and I think this is right. We will all die one day, unless the Lord returns for us. But there's a vast difference between dying with that burden entirely lifted and dying while bearing your own sins. People often say that the fear experienced in death is the fear of the unknown, but I think that's exactly backward. It's not the universal fear of death, a sign that is not the universal fear of death, a sign that deep inside all humans implicitly know that judgment awaits them. It is fear of the known, not the unknown. So instinctively everyone knows. There's a God out there, and we're going to stand before Him. And if we come to Him apart from Jesus Christ, then of course we are condemned. And what is absolutely valid and true of us positionally will be true experientially forever. So Erwin Lutzer said, one minute after you slip behind the party curtain, you'll either be enjoying a personal welcome from Christ or you'll be catching your first glimpse of doom as you've never known it before. Now last week I mentioned the sermon that was preached by Jonathan Edwards in Enfield, Connecticut back on July 8, 1741. We think of it, sinners in the hands of an angry God. Samuel Davies, who was one of the founders of Princeton College, said concerning Jonathan Edwards, he was the profoundest reasoner, the greatest divine, in my opinion, that America ever produced. In Enfield, Connecticut, on the 8th of July, 1741, he read from a handwritten manuscript. The passage was Deuteronomy 32, 35, their foot shall slide in due time. Stephen Williams was there and he wrote this in his diary. We went over to Enfield where we met dear Mr. Edwards of Northampton, who preached the most awakening sermon from these words, Deuteronomy 32, 35, their foot shall slide in due time. And before the sermon was done, there was a great moaning and crying went out through the whole house. What shall I do to be saved? Oh, I'm going to hell. Oh, what shall I do for Christ? And so forth. So yet ye minister was obliged to desist. Ye shrieks and cry were piercing and amazing. Now that's what Stephen Williams wrote, and he was there when it was all said and done. And you know, if you really think about it, And you think about one's position apart from Christ, it ought to be a very, very sobering thought. Because no one knows when we could leave this realm and we enter into eternity. So when I think of Jesus Christ and I think of his death, I think of penal substitution. The sinless one took on himself the penalty that I should have borne and did it for me. And the only way that we can accept it is through faith. So when I think of the cross, I've got to think of the person. But when I think of the cross, I've got to think of what he actually accomplished when he died upon the cross. J.C. Rowell said, there's going to come a day when we're not going to talk about being an Episcopalian or a Presbyterian or an Independent or a Baptist. After all, he said, What should we hear about most of these differences in heaven? Nothing, most probably. Nothing at all. Does a man really and sincerely glory in the cross of Christ? That's the grand question. So I go back to the words of A.W. Tozer. We must take refuge from God in God. There's no condemnation. There's no cataclysm. There's no punishment, but only for those who are in Christ Jesus. If one's outside of Christ, then there's condemnation, there's punishment. Now I want to spend one more week on Romans chapter 3, verses 21 through 26, and I'm going to put it all together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, I do thank Thee and praise Thee for Thy precious word. We thank Thee for justification. We thank Thee for redemption. And we thank Thee for propitiation. We thank Thee for what we could read about these weighty words and what these words would have meant to these original readers and what they mean to us as we think about the realities behind them. We thank Thee that we recognize it was the Lord of glory that was crucified, and we thank Thee that we understand why He was crucified. We know redemption, we know propitiation, both based upon His death. So we thank Thee, our Father, that the Holy Spirit has opened up our eyes and opened up our hearts and caused us to understand this glorious gospel. We thank Thee that we have come to an understanding of the person and work of Jesus Christ, and we thank Thee that we understand That salvation is appropriated by faith and by faith alone in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Guide us, Lord, in our thinking. We thank Thee that we're shielded from this wrath and condemnation. We know we rub shoulders with all kinds of people who are outside of Jesus Christ. Give us a sense of burden and urgency to talk with those about the only hope that we have in this life found in our Savior. Guide us, Lord, and direct us even this next week in everything that we do. For I pray it in Jesus' name, amen.