ALL Have Failed

Romans 3:21-26

²¹But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— ²²the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: ²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

This passage has appropriately been called the center, heart and the doctrinal key to the whole Book of Romans. Inside of these brief verses we are reminded that we are all failures; we completely and utterly fail at the righteousness that God demands. But that failure does not mean our doom when held up against the righteousness won for us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Paul has established, in that last 63 verses of text, that we are ALL sinners. There is not one of us since Adam and Eve, with the exception of Jesus Christ, who can claim any type of righteousness at all. Not the Jews, not the Gentiles. Our status as sinners before a holy God is plain. But he doesn’t leave us in that place of damnation. Now he comes along and presents the only answer to our desperate sin problem. We have been justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. (vs. 24-25)

That word propitiation has always fascinated me. It is used only 5 times in the entire New Testament, all referring to Jesus as the one who has paid the price for our sins. It’s a word you don’t hear very often any more but its connotations are fairly substantial. In its original forms it applies to the sacrifice made during temple worship where the blood of innocent lamb is spread upon the mercy seat. There God’s wrath is appeased for a time by the sacrifices He proscribed before Jesus makes the final sacrifice. The clearest verse that supports this understanding comes from Hebrews.

Hebrews 2:17

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Our Great High Priest completes once and for all the sacrifice that brings peace with God and ends His wrath over our sin. We are free from the power of sin and death in our lives because of His work. The Apostle John also uses this word to describe Jesus and His work on two separate occasions in 1 John

1 John 2:2

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 4:10

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The most interesting use of this word comes in the parable Jesus told His Disciples, of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector who are praying in the Temple. The words of the Tax Collector as he stands humbly at the back of the room beating his chest in repentance are striking.

Luke 18:9-14

⁹He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ¹⁰“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹²I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ ¹³But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me [propitiate me], a sinner!’ ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

This is what it means to be convinced of your own failings as a sinner. That recognition lies at the heart of our faith. If we don’t know we’re failures, if we don’t recognize our need for a Savior, all is lost. Here is a man who understands that a sacrifice must be made on his behalf or he is lost. That is the person I want to be every single day of my life. God, be merciful to me, a sinner.