Vindicated

Romans 3:25-26 Vindicated

Dilemma to be resolved

The death of Christ is meant to solve a most basic problem. The problem that needed solving was that God, for some reason, seemed to be unrighteous, and wanted to vindicate himself and clear his name, so God put Christ forward (he sent him to die) in order to demonstrate his righteousness (or justice). (Piper) The fact that God is in no hurry to punish every sinner and their sins (Acts 17:30) presents a problem for the person who has a firm grasp on the truth that God is just. When God doesn’t punish the sinner, that might well show him to be merciful or loving. But Just? It would mean that God condones sin. (Morris) How can God himself be called righteous or just, if he simply declares the wicked righteous? The same God who seems to hold sinners accountable for their wickedness appears not to be holding himself accountable with the same consistency. If a judge arbitrarily decided to pronounce a group of guilty lawbreakers innocent and reinstated them as members in good standing in the community, he would be guilty of the same inconsistency (injustice) that God could be accused of if he did the same thing (Boa) . The problem was that God had always revealed himself as a God who hated sin. He had announced that He would punish sins and that the punishment for sin was death. He announced that he would pour out his wrath on sins. And yet, here was God for centuries, apparently, and to all appearances, going back on his own word. He does not seem to be punishing sin. He is passing it over. (Jones) It seems like God is kind to sinners, when he should punish them for their sins. It places injustice on God. It is a threat to the righteousness of God (Mac Arthur)

Delay of Justice in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Why did God face the problem of needing to give a public vindication of his righteousness? for centuries God had not dealt with us according to our sins (Ps 103:10). He just passes over them. He does not punish them. David sins, but God seems to forgive him without punishing him for his sin. It is as if God just past over it, adultery and murder just passed over. This, creating what seems to be injustice on the prt of God.. (2 Sam 12:9–10). It seems like God is acting like an unjust judge. David despised or sinned against God’s glory (Rom 3:23), but he could have said, "What do you mean, I despised you? I didn't despise you. I wasn't even thinking of you. I was just red hot after this woman and then scared to death that people were going to find out. You weren't even in the picture." And God would have said, "The Creator of the universe, the designer of marriage, the fountain of life, the one who made you king, was not even in the picture—that's right. You despised me. All sin is a despising of me and my glory. All sin is a preference for the fleeting pleasures of the world over the everlasting joy of my fellowship. You demeaned my glory. You belittled my worth. You dishonored my name. That is the meaning of sin—failing to love my glory above everything else. The problem in God's passing over sin . . . is that God's worth and glory and righteousness have been despised and passing over it makes him look cheap. (Piper) Two very import words to consider: 1) Forbearance Gk anoche –It means to bear with or suffer with, to tolerate it is from two words ana -up and echo - to hold, bear or temporary tolerate. It is the self-restraint of God. (Acts 17:30) (Jones) 2) Passing over Gk paresis – it is made of two

words para- by and hiemi -to send or place, so it means to put on the side. It is putting of our sins on the side without punishment. It is the temporary suspension of judgement for sins. (Zodhaites). When applied to a legal term it means postponement of punishment (pretermission) or neglect of prosecution. The term is used in Roman law of someone who is left out of a will. They are overlooked, passed over them. (Jones) God postponed the full penalty due sins until a later time (this present time). (Moo) 2 Sam 24:10, Micah 7:18. (Barnes) So placed together, these words express the idea that before Christ’s sacrifice for the punishment of sin, God provided (paresis) passing over sin through His (anoche) forbearance, thus temporarily suspending his wrath. (Zodhaites). Through the forbearance of God - Through his patience, his long-suffering, he did not come forth in judgment when the sin was committed; he spared us, though deserving of punishment; and now he comes forth completely to pardon those sins concerning which he has so long and so graciously exercised forbearance. Prior to the death of Christ, the sins of men were passed over in the forbearance of God, i.e., God allowed them to go by unavenged. (Acts 17:30). The Divine policy was to let sin pass, neither avenged nor atoned for, leaving still an open reckoning. (Barnes) Ps 78:38, Mal 2:17 God temporarily passed over sin and withheld judgment on if for a certain period of time God is not unaware of nor does He condone even the smallest sin. His forbearance is therefore not a sign of his injustice but of his patient and loving grace. God’s justice and grace are on a perfect and infinitely grander scale that human wisdom can perceive or comprehend. Because of His justice, no in will ever go unpunished; yet because of his grace, no sin is beyond forgiveness. Therefore every sin will be paid for by the sinner himself in the form of eternal death and punishment in hell or irt will be paid for him because he has placed his faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on his behalf (MacArthur).

Demands of Justice God's righteousness

God’s past restraint in punishing sins with the full measure of punishment they deserve calls into question his fair and impartial “Justice” or righteousness, creating the need for his justice to be satisfied (Moo) Justice demands that the guilty be punished just as it demands that the innocent go free. (Morris) Many struggled with the demand for justice in the OT. God is just Duet 32:4 Habakkuk questions God’s righteousness by his actions. Hab 1:13The people of Malachi’s day even judged God Mal 2:17. Micah 7:18“Who is a God like You who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession?” A God who delights in unchanging love, a God who will have compassion, who will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea...who is a God like You? “For thousands of years, the spectacle presented by mankind to the whole moral universe was, so to speak, a continual scandal. Divine righteousness seemed to sleep. One might even have asked if it existed, men sinned here below and yet they lived. They sinned on and yet reached in safety an old age. Where were the wages of sin? It was this relative impunity which rendered a solemn manifestation of righteousness necessary.” A judge is unjust if he allows a criminal to be pronounced righteous just because he wants to without justice being served by a proper penalty and the proper penalty is the only thing that is the satisfaction, the propitiation. (Mac Arthur)

Demonstration of Justice This was to show that he might be just and the justifier At last God cleared His righteousness. He held forth to public gaze an expiation of sin which did satisfy justice The death of Jesus Christ is “set forth” as a public act done by God Himself for the illustration of His own justice The death of Christ is the one Sacrifice through which the sins of the world have been expiated and God has been enabled to extend favor to His guilty creatures. And this solemn and unparalleled act is at the same time was the most impressive exhibition of the Divine vengeance against sin. Rather than that sins passed over so long should go altogether unavenged, God offered His Son for their punishment. By this He has cut off from men the temptation to misconstrue His earlier toleration of sins, or His unwillingness to forgive them. He did pass over sin in His forbearance; but it was only because He had purposed in His heart one day to offer for it a satisfaction such as this. For this He could hold His peace through long centuries under injurious suspicion, because He knew that one day the awful Cross of His own Son would silence every complaint and give to the universe emphatic demonstration that He is a just God, who will by no means clear the guilty. (Dykes) The offering of Christ was for the purpose of showing 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 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 before ... The forgiveness of sins, prior to the death of Christ; before Calvary, 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. (Jer 31:31-35) (Coffman) God did not forgive the sins of OT saints finally until Jesus died on the cross. The blood of the animal sacrifices only covered (removed) them temporarily (Heb 10:1-4,11). God did not exact a full penalty for sin until Jesus died. It is as though the Old Testament believers who offered the sacrifices for sin paid for those sins with a credit card. God accepted those sacrifices as a temporary payment. However the bill came due later, and Jesus Christ paid that off entirely (Constsable) In the OT there was no provision for dealing with sins eternally and permanently. It was simply the means, of passing them by, covering them over for the time being. The gave a kind of purification of the flesh, they gave ceremonial cleanness, they enable the people to go on with God (Heb 9:13). But there was no sacrifice that could radially deal with sin. All they did was point forward to the sacrifice that was coming and that could eternally and permanently deal with sin (Heb 9:14) (Jones) The sacrifices were a homage rendered to God's righteousness, but they did not touch sin with the power and depth which attached to Christ's sacrifice. No demonstration of God's righteousness and consequent hatred of sin, could be given equal to that of the life and death of Jesus. God set forth Christ, for the showing forth of His righteousness, because previously He had given no such manifestation of His righteousness, but had held it back, passing over, with the temporary institution of sacrifices, the sin at the roots of which He finally struck in the sacrifice of Christ (Vincent) God held back his wrath throughout the centuries. He did not disclose it fully then, but he has disclosed it fully now. By what he did publicly before the whole world, in Christ on Calvary. On the cross God was giving a public explanation of what He had been doing throughout the centuries. On Calvary God poured out upon His only beloved son His wrath upon sin. The wrath that should have come upon you and me because of our sins fell upon him. All the sins ever committed were dealt with on the cross once and for all (Heb 9:11-12). There is no need for anything further. There is no need for a fresh sacrifice. It has been done once and forever. God laid them all on him there- the sins you have not yet committed have already been dealt with, There is the means of forgiveness, sins committed formerly, sins committed now, all times, here is the justification of God for forgiving ANY sins wherever committed. (Jones) The answer is at the cross. God not only allowed but planned before the foundation of the world what would be the most unjust act that man could commit-the putting to death of His own sinless son, But through that heinous act on man’s part, not only manifested His divine righteousness by offering His own Son but also used the act of divine grace to demonstrate his divine righteousness. (Mac Arthur) Why did God set forth Christ?. First for Him, to declare His righteousness secondly for us. Jesus died for men but in a much more striking way, He died for God. What does the death of Christ say? it says God is righteous. What do you mean by that? sin had to have a punishment, so you see it is at the cross where God's justice and God's mercy have kissed each other, at the cross. Why? Because the penalty was paid but we were spared from the paying by the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, so that God's mercy can be extended to us with no loss of His justice. The death of Jesus Christ is for the sake of God, to preserve God from accusation that He is unjust, that God might receive the glory for our salvation. (Mac Arthur)

Applications:

· The forbearance or long-suffering of God over millennia helps me to see that God will be patient with me in my pursuit of Him ‘He remembers we are dust” (Ps 103:9-17). I am in “process” and he is involved in and overseeing my process (Phil 1:6, 1 Thess 5:24,25, Jude 24)

· That God’s plan is not always visible to me, but, nevertheless is actively being carried out and in his time (to show . . . at the present time) he will reveal his plan and purpose for me. (Jer 29:11, Is 55:8-9)

· God is righteous and will always do what is right and do us right. (Zep 3:5)

· We should be filled with wonder, reverence and worship that here in the death of Jesus is the deepest, clearest declaration of the infinite worth of the glory of God and the Son of God. (Piper) Amazement of his Word leads to amazing Worship (Ps 103:3-4) Gratitude for pardon produces far more fear and reverence of God than all the dread which is inspired by punishment. (Spurgeon)

· Here is a great objective foundation for the full assurance of hope: the forgiveness of sins is grounded finally not in my finite worth or work, but in the infinite worth of the righteousness of God—unswerving allegiance to uphold and vindicate the glory of his name. (Piper) If God will go to such extremes and cost to vindicate his righteousness. what will he do for us, in us and through us (Eph 3:20-21).