Romans 3:25-26: Propitiation, Two Deaths & God's Righteousness
Memory Verse
Whom God before set forth a place of propitiation through the faith by His blood unto a demonstration of His righteousness because of the deferral of punishment of the sins having previously happened, by the tolerance of God unto a demonstration of His righteousness at this time for the purpose that He is just and justifier of the one out from faith concerning Jesus. (Romans 3:25–26).
God did not pour out His wrath upon Christ on the cross. It pleased the Father for Christ to serve as an offering for sin (Isaiah 53:10). Christ redeemed us from our fallen nature that Adam passed down to us by both His spiritual and physical deaths on the cross. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would face two deaths on the cross. This fact is obscured by many English translations, making the word “death” in Isaiah 53:9 appear singular when it is plural in Hebrew. Adam passed down a nature that was separated from God in spirit because of his trespass and subject to physical death because of his sin (Romans 5:12, 17).
Isaiah prophesied about Christ’s work on the cross. He was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our perversities. The discipline of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripe we were healed (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24). We now have peace with God, having been justified out from faith through Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1).
Christ’s death for our perversities and sins demonstrated that God was just in the deferral of punishment for sins previously committed. Adam’s trespass and sin laid a debt upon us (Romans 5:12, 17). Christ fully released that debt by God the Father laying on Him our sin and perversity (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14). This was not judgment or wrath from God; it was Christ dying on behalf of our sins to purchase us back from sin.