being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which [is] in Christ Jesus;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood, for [the] shewing forth of his righteousness, in respect of the passing by the sins that had taken place before, through the forbearance of God;
Here God's grace and God's justice meet: a Son set out in public, blood, and a righteousness declared. Commentators ask three things of the verse. What does "propitiation" picture? How does "by his blood" connect to faith? And whose "former sins" had God passed over?
The phrase "put forward" points back to a piece of furniture almost nobody in Israel ever saw. One writer draws the contrast:
The word translated "propitiation" here should certainly read "mercy-seat." Hebrews 9:5 uses the same word and translates it that way. That explains the term "set forth." In the tabernacle, no one saw the mercy-seat in the holiest place except the high priest, and only on the day of atonement. So it was a hidden mercy-seat. By contrast, Christ as the mercy-seat stands in the open — open to everyone in this day of grace, in the preaching of the gospel. Everyone is free, and indeed invited, to approach.
The mercy seat was God's own throne. Blood made it a place of mercy.
The word "propitiatory" is the one the Greek Old Testament uses for the "mercy-seat." ... The mercy-seat was the place in Israel where atonement, or propitiation, stood "set forth." It was the formal basis on which God dwelt in relationship with a sinful people. It was the throne of God, where He dwelt between the cherubim, and the blood sprinkled on it made it a "mercy-seat."
Does the blood attach to faith, or to the propitiation? One writer weighs both views and decides:
This passage is hard to translate, as you can see from the different views people have put forward... The question is this. Do we link "in His blood" with faith? Or do we connect "in His blood" with propitiation, as the means by which propitiation has been made? We adopt the second view without any hesitation. What happened on the day of atonement makes it very clear: the blood sprinkled on the mercy-seat was the propitiation. If that reading is right, faith is how we take hold of Christ, whom God has set forth as the propitiation.
Why does Paul open with propitiation rather than with Christ dying for us? Because of which claim comes first.
Propitiation is what we may call the Godward side of the death of Christ. It deals with the most basic matter of all: meeting God's claims against sin. Meeting the sinner's need must come second. So when Paul unfolds the Gospel in the letter to the Romans, he first mentions the death of Christ as "a propitiation through faith in His blood" (Romans 3:25). Paul does not state substitution plainly until Romans 4:25, where we read of Him as "delivered for our offences."
"Former sins" reaches back to the ages before the Cross. Paul's word here is unusual, and it marks a different kind of dealing:
paresis (from pariemi, "to let pass, relax") occurs only in Romans 3:25. There the Authorised Version renders it "remission." That misses the distinction the passage makes between God's ways with the sins of those before the Cross and after it, now that propitiation has been made through faith in His blood... here we must read "for the passing over of sins done beforehand, through the forbearance of God." The Cross declared God's righteousness in passing over the sins of past ages. At the same time it laid the ground for Him now to be "just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus."
The ESV reflects this reading with "he had passed over former sins."
If God waited before, does He still merely wait? One writer answers with a picture from everyday debt:
In the first case He showed His righteousness in passing by the sins that had gone before. Strictly speaking, He could not have remitted their sins in justice, because the atoning work was not yet done. But He did pass them over, and this through His forbearance. In the second case He shows His righteousness in the present time. Forbearance is no longer the question, because the work of atonement is done. For who speaks of a creditor's "forbearance" when the debt is paid in full?
- Displayed — Israel's high priest saw the mercy seat once a year, behind a curtain. God has now put it in open view: Christ, set forth as the mercy seat, and everyone is invited to come.
- Blood — Blood turned a throne into a mercy seat. Commentators differ on whether "by his blood" attaches to faith or to the propitiation; the sprinkled blood of the day of atonement favours the propitiation.
- Godward — Propitiation meets God's claims against sin first. The sinner's need comes next, and Paul states substitution later, in Romans 4:25.
- Passed over — The "former sins" are the sins of past ages, before the Cross. Paul's word means passing over, not full remission: the atoning work was not yet done.
- Declared — The Cross showed God righteous in that forbearance. Now it makes Him just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.