The doctrine of salvation is rich and glorious. It is also deep and worthy of our
deepest thought. In Romans 3.23-25
the apostle Paul in a brief manner speaks of some deep theology regarding our
salvation. Here are his words:
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.
The following diagram may help to unpack the details of
these truths:
Notice that there are two arrows going out from Christ. Christ Jesus redeems us—that is, he
purchases us from sin by his blood.
Christ also is the propitiation for our sins. This means that he takes away our sin
so that the wrath of God is appeased and that we are no longer the recipients
of this wrath. The arrow from the
Father speaks of our justification. God declares us “not guilty”—a legal
verdict—based on the work of Christ.
Of special note is that there are no lines coming from us. We receive these blessings of salvation
by faith—we do nothing to earn them.
The glory of the gospel is what God has done for us in
Christ Jesus, his holy Son! Deep
theology deserves deep thinking and deep praise. Let us rejoice in our grace-given salvation today!
