Romans 3:25, commentary and pictures

God presented Christ Jesus as the atoning sacrifice for sin, to be received through faith in His shed blood. In this setting forth He declares His own righteousness, showing Himself just in forgiving sins already committed which He had forborne, and just in justifying at the present time everyone who believes in Jesus. Sinners under condemnation of the law are therefore pardoned freely by grace, counted and treated as righteous by the imputation of Christ's righteousness with no merit or works of their own to offer. This justifying faith does not make the law void but establishes it, vindicating its holiness and immutability while providing the transgressor's only escape from its curse. At the cross mercy and truth meet and righteousness and peace kiss, for the sacrifice reveals both God's utter hatred of sin and His surpassing love, opening forgiveness to the whole world to all who will come in repentant faith.

Key Words And Setting

God set forth, presented, appointed and sent forth Jesus Christ to be a propitiation, an atoning sacrifice for sin, received through faith in His blood. Through the redemption in Christ Jesus sinners are justified freely by grace, which is the imputation of Christ's righteousness through justifying faith, God counting and treating as righteous all who believe. No flesh is justified by deeds of the law, because the law gives knowledge of sin, but the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, witnessed by the law and the prophets, as the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all who believe, for there is no difference and all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Justification is an undeserved, complete pardon received when the sinner accepts Christ by faith, with Christ's righteousness credited to him and men's guilt charged to Christ's account, yet faith itself does not save or remove guilt, for justification rests on Christ's merits and the redemption He paid. Those who accept the ransom paid with His most precious life place themselves free from bondage to sin and from every entanglement and mastery of Satan and self, and the verse itself is emancipation papers to be presented in the face of the enemy declaring that freedom and justification have been secured.

To declare His righteousness means God opens His righteousness to view in forgiving sin, showing Himself just while justifying him who believes in Jesus. That declaration is made both for the remission of sins that are past and at the present time, so that God remains just while justifying the believer. This truth of a Substitute whose righteousness is counted to sinners deserving wrath is to be accepted by faith even when its full mystery cannot be explained.

For the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God, means forgiveness of sins already committed and formerly borne, whose execution of death was delayed for the sake of the Son. The law reveals sin and guilt but provides no remedy for condemnation and defilement, while the gospel alone frees the sinner through repentance toward God whose law was broken and trust in Christ, by which the sinner becomes a partaker of the divine nature and a child of God receiving the spirit of adoption. Through Christ's merits and intercession God offers return to favor and restoration to holiness to those who accept the atonement and obey His law.

The propitiation is not for believers only but for the sins of the whole world. Jesus, the Prince of Life and the world's Redeemer full of grace and truth, the only Potentate to be presented to the world as He is, came as a babe in Bethlehem as an offering for sin, fulfilling the predictions of the prophets and the counsels of heaven and verifying His own word. He pledged Himself to accomplish the full salvation of every son and daughter of Adam by a sacrifice ample and wholly consistent with the justice and honor of God's holy law, the Innocent suffering for the guilty, so that every soul is under most solemn obligation and gratitude, and those who do not accept the heavenly gift have only themselves to blame. Knowing Him is shown by keeping His commandments, and human workers are to labor together with heavenly angels in presenting Jesus as He is.

Since the fall there can be no direct communication or approach to God except through Christ, to whom in a special sense the case of the fallen race has been committed. Fallen guilty man cannot come directly before God with supplication, but the plan devised in heaven transfers the sentence of death from the obedient and faithful to a substitute. The flowing blood of slain victims pointed to Christ as that atoning substitute, signifying an atonement and showing that shedding of blood is required because death is the consequence of sin, so that in the slain victim man sees for the time the fulfillment of the word that he shall surely die and looks forward to a Redeemer who comes and dies for the sins of men. Christ undertook the work of redemption to maintain the full honor of God's law although the human family transgressed it, redeeming from its curse all the obedient who embrace mercy by accepting the provided atonement and by His mediatorial work fully vindicating the holiness and immutability of His Father's law.

Christ's Sacrifice As Substitute

God set forth Christ as the sacrifice that removes human guilt, and through faith in His blood He declares His righteousness in forgiving past sins by His forbearance. Christ willingly became man's Substitute, Surety, Sin-bearer and Redeemer, placing Himself at the head of the human family and clothing divinity with humanity to reconcile justice and mercy without weakening either. Though innocent and undeserving He accepted the guilt, curse and penalty due to the guilty, being made sin and a curse to redeem the fallen race from the curse of the law. Nothing but His grace is sufficient to free the transgressor from bondage, and by that grace the obedient are made free, with iniquities forgiven, sins covered and sin not imputed. On the cross One equal with God bore the penalty for all injustice and sin, so that justice is enabled to forgive without sacrificing holiness and bows in satisfaction, and through that offering the sinner is drawn to the uplifted cross to become a new creature cleansed with a new heart.

Only Christ could bear the strokes in behalf of the sinner, because His innocence joined to Deity in humanity made Him able to endure without being consumed. The Son who created humanity could offer an acceptable sacrifice by taking the punishment due for sin and bearing the Father's wrath, while an angel's life could not pay that debt. He lived a spotless, perfect human character combined with Deity, and planted His cross between heaven and earth to draw justice and mercy together. By perfect obedience and human life He kept the law on behalf of the human family, redeeming what was lost and making obedience possible.

His suffering in humanity as surety in the solemn hour of atonement prevents the outpouring of God's wrath upon all those for whom He died, and that sacrifice is efficacious throughout eternity. His sacrifice appeased the Father's wrath, His blood washed away impurities, His cross bore the curse, and His death atoned for sin. Though innocent He took human nature, represented believers and suffered in their place, paying their complete debt and cleansing from sin, so that forgiveness and acceptance come through His merits. His approaching death is the only true propitiation for humanity's sins, and His blood preserves those who trust in Him from God's wrath against sin.

When He said the bread He would give is His flesh for the life of the world, He pointed forward to that death. The Passover lamb symbolizes His body, and He stood as the Saviour represented by that lamb. The flowing blood of slain victims pointed to Him as the atoning substitute through faith in His blood, signifying an atonement and pointing forward to a Redeemer who comes and dies for the sins of man. Shedding of blood is required because death is the consequence of sin, and in the slain victim man sees fulfilled for the time the word that he shall surely die.

The sacrifices of the Old Testament centered on Him as mediator in the heavenly sanctuary. He gave His life as a ransom and bore the sentence of death so the lost could be pardoned, and through the merits of His blood and obedience they receive God's favor and may enter to eat from the tree of life. Through His merits and intercession God offers forgiveness, return to favor, and restoration to holiness for those who accept the atonement, while His forbearance delays the execution of death for the sake of His Son. He now ministers in the sanctuary as interceding High Priest, pleading the efficacy of His blood for those on probation, satisfying justice and vindicating the honor of the law to uplift fallen man.

In Gethsemane He became the propitiation for a race that chose sin, willingly accepting the guilt and penalty of the world's sin under God's just law rather than refuse the cup of suffering. There He faced the choice to refuse the cup and leave humanity to perish, but submitted to God's will and accepted suffering and death at great cost to Himself so that perishing people could be saved.

Justification Freely By Grace

Sinners on trial for breaking God's law are justified freely by grace through the redemption found in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of past sins through His forbearance. This justification is an undeserved, complete pardon, received when the sinner accepts Christ by faith, with Christ's righteousness credited to him. It is received with no conditions to meet except coming to Christ, by coming and by living faith laying hold wholly upon the merits of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour. Those who accept the ransom paid with His most precious life place themselves free from bondage to sin and from every entanglement of Satan, receiving mastery over Satan and over self, so that the verse stands as emancipation papers to be presented in the face of the enemy declaring that freedom and justification have been secured.

Justification is the imputation of the righteousness of Christ through justifying faith in His blood. God counts and treats believers as righteous, charging the guilt of men's sins to Christ's account and crediting His righteousness unto all and upon all who believe, for there is no difference and all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Through faith in Christ's blood God shows His righteousness in forgiving past sins by His forbearance, remaining just while justifying the one who believes in Jesus. This setting forth of Christ does not do away with the law or detract from its dignity but places it where the correct light shines upon it and glorifies it, the light reflected from the cross, complete and full only as presented in light from the crucified and risen Saviour and spiritually discerned to kindle faith, hope, and joy that Christ is his righteousness.

Pardon and justification are one and the same thing, and the opposite of condemnation. Through faith the penitent sinner, contrite before God, discerning Christ's atonement in his behalf and accepting it as his only hope in this life and the future life, passes from the position of a rebel, a child of sin and Satan, to the position of a loyal subject of Christ Jesus, received as His child by adoption, not because of inherent goodness. His sins are borne by his Substitute and Surety, who has taken his place and suffered for his sins, reprieved him from the condemnation of death, given him eternal life, and imputed to him His own righteousness, so that pardoned and clothed with the garments of Christ's righteousness he stands faultless before God. The Father forgives transgressions and sins for the sake of Jesus, whose sacrifice fully satisfies the demands of justice, bringing the guilty transgressor, wholly undeserving, into favor with God and into the strong hope of life eternal.

Faith itself does not save or remove guilt; justification rests on Christ's merits and the redemption He has paid for, and is received through faith in His blood. Cleansing and salvation rest on Christ, not on personal merit, with faith meaning continually relying on Him, resting on His righteousness as a free gift that fully acquits the guilty sinner from the law's condemnation, while one who bases righteousness on anything other than Christ is lost. This truth that God provided Christ as the sacrifice that removes human guilt, counting the Substitute's righteousness to sinners who deserve wrath, is to be accepted by faith even when its full mystery cannot be explained.

No flesh is justified by deeds of the law, because the law gives knowledge of sin, while the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, witnessed by the law and the prophets, as the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all who believe. No one can save himself or regenerate himself, and none but God can subdue the pride of the human heart. Justification by faith is the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust and doing for man what it is not in his power to do for himself, subduing pride, so that when men see their own nothingness and worthlessness they are prepared to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ, learning of Christ His meekness and lowliness, praising God and by beholding becoming changed into the same image.

This justification means Christ crucified for sins, Christ risen from the dead, and Christ ascended into heaven to be Advocate and Intercessor before God, whose work in the wisdom and power of God converts souls and brings them back to loyalty to Christ. Closely connected with it is the office work of the Holy Spirit as the representative of Christ, sent forth with divine power and gifts for men. Pardon of sin as justification by faith in Jesus Christ allows access to God only through a Mediator because of man's lost condition, guilt and sin, requiring knowledge of God and of the only way to approach Him, and a genuine sense of what constitutes sin and what constitutes righteousness, a truth represented by Israel's sacrificial offerings pointing to the coming Messiah, dimly understood at Sinai.

Law Upheld Not Voided

The law gives knowledge of sin and exposes guilt, promising life to the obedient and death to the transgressor, yet it provides no remedy for condemnation or defilement. Forgiveness for sins already committed comes only through the gospel of Christ, received by repentance toward God whose law was broken and faith in Christ as the atoning sacrifice. That forgiveness frees from condemnation and defilement, makes the sinner a partaker of the divine nature, and brings him as a child of God receiving the spirit of adoption crying Abba, Father. No flesh is justified by deeds of the law, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, while the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, witnessed by the law and the prophets, as the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all who believe.

Justifying faith does not make the law void but establishes it. Faith in Christ brings grace and help to keep God's commandments, produces obedience, and knowing Him is shown by keeping His commandments. The atonement does not abolish God's law but vindicates it and provides the transgressor's only escape from its just claim. Christ undertook redemption to maintain the full honor of the law although the human family transgressed it, honoring it by implicit obedience, redeeming from its curse all the obedient who embrace mercy by accepting the atonement, and fully vindicating the holiness and immutability of His Father's law. He came to die to magnify the law and make it honorable while at the same time justifying the sinner who depends wholly on the merits of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour.

The object of the atonement is that divine law and government might be maintained while the sinner is pardoned. The law stands immutable, eternal as God's throne and as God Himself, never weakened, strengthened, repealed or changed in one principle, always holy, just, good and complete in itself. Setting forth Christ does not do away with the law or detract from its dignity but places it where the correct light shines upon it and glorifies it, the light reflected from the cross of Calvary. The law is complete and full in the great plan of salvation only as presented in the light shining from the crucified and risen Saviour, which can only be spiritually discerned, and when seen it kindles ardent faith, hope and joy that Christ is his righteousness, a joy belonging only to those who love and keep the words of Jesus which are the words of God.

The cross is laid as the foundation and stands as its center and glory, declaring God's righteousness by showing the immutability of the law while pardoning all transgression and sin. In this plan Christ embraces man and places him once more on vantage ground with God, bringing him back to loyalty to the commandments so his moral capacity is recognized as answerable to God as supreme Ruler. Christ's sacrifice was required to redeem humanity from the penalty of transgression, and that very sacrifice proves the law is unchanging. By retaining Deity while joining it to humanity and living a perfect obedient human life, He kept the law on behalf of the human family, redeeming what was lost through the fall and fully satisfying justice for the sins of everyone who receives Him, with their sins charged to Him. Transgressors helpless against sin and Satan's deceptions are justified through faith in this atonement, which makes perfect obedience possible and brings them back into unity with God.

God's Righteousness Declared

God set forth the cross of Christ as the stupendous expedient by which love and justice are harmonized, planting the cross midway between heaven and earth to draw justice and mercy together without weakening either. There mercy and truth embraced each other and righteousness and peace kissed each other, for mercy was enabled to deal justly in punishing the transgressor of the law, and justice was enabled to forgive without losing its dignity or purity or sacrificing its holiness, bowing in perfect satisfaction to say it is enough. This was accomplished because Christ placed Himself at the head of the human family and clothed His divinity with humanity, uniting the attributes of Deity with human nature in a spotless, perfect human character, standing as a perfect specimen of perfected humanity to reveal what humanity may become and what man must be. One equal with God bore on the cross the penalty for all injustice and sin, and by that offering the sinner is drawn by Christ's power out of the confederacy of sin to the uplifted cross, becoming a new creature cleansed and purified with a new heart so that holiness has nothing more to require. The sinner is saved by accepting Christ by faith as a personal Saviour and exercising faith in the wonderful efficacy of the cross, the sinner's only means of salvation so that no sinner who does this need perish, a wonderful provision to be appreciated and answered by the value each person places on it in the course he pursues.

God set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare His own righteousness, opening to the universe a view of His character and His love for man far surpassing all human love. Christ suffering in humanity as surety for His church in the solemn hour of atonement, yielding up His life as a sacrificial offering, prevents the outpouring of the wrath of God upon all those for whom He died, and that sacrifice is efficacious throughout eternity. His death demonstrates the awful glory of divine justice and holiness and magnifies the glory of God in perfection, manifesting His holiness and spotless purity, the inconceivably heinous character of the sin that sprang up in heaven, His utter hatred of sin, and His solemn purpose to punish it, revealing the attributes of God and vindicating the holy requirements of His law by lifting the law to its own eternal dignity. Only Christ could bear the strokes in behalf of the sinner, and because of His innocence He would not be consumed. In consideration of this great work to redeem, to uplift, and to bring back the moral image of God in man, the human agent is to do his part as a worker together with God.

The Son's sacrifice expresses both God's justice and His love, reveals the holiness of His law, and makes reconciliation possible, with God not counting trespasses against them. Christ's death on the cross for the sins of the world is the great atoning sacrifice, through which God reveals His love and righteousness and the gospel becomes the power of God to save, the central truth around which all other truths gather, drawing people to Christ. Christ crucified for humanity is the propitiation for sin, the atoning sacrifice and the true, immovable foundation on which believers are gathered into the church and built up in faith, whose great and wonderful effects are still felt, so that all who would be saved must themselves have a personal interest in the crucified One. The object of the death of Christ was to declare His righteousness, which no man, woman, or child can declare in his own strength or by his own words. In a world full of godless display, deception, and satanic working, perishing souls must therefore be pointed to the uplifted Saviour.

Empty Hopes Exposed

There are only two religions: the inventions by which people try to save themselves through ceremonies and good works, and the religion of the Bible that looks for salvation solely to the free grace of God. Earnest self-discipline and good works cannot free anyone from the condemnation of sin or make anyone just before God. God has presented Christ to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, and His sacrifice has appeased the Father's wrath, His blood has washed away impurities, His cross has borne the curse, and His death has atoned for sin to declare God's righteousness for the remission of sins that are past. Without an intercessor the sinner stands convicted before a holy and just Judge with nothing before him but the blackness of eternal despair, but faith in Christ brings reconciliation with God and a faith, courage, peace and joy that remains even under torture and death.

The mediation of saints, good works, the ceremonies of the church, confession to men, and penance are all powerless to atone for sin and cannot reconcile the soul with God. Pardon and redemption come freely through Christ, as believers accept the Saviour's blood as their propitiation by faith, and religious observances cannot bring the peace or forgiveness that Christ provides. Those who trusted in the Saviour's blood found the redemption and peace that Rome's religious observances had failed to give. Christ's death on the cross is the all-sufficient propitiation for sin, and faith rests on this provision rather than on purchased pardons.

Forgiveness of sin and justification are given through the blood of Christ Himself as the propitiation and deliverer from sin. This forgiveness condemns sin and delivers from it, and stands directly opposed to a pardon sold for money that licenses crime and makes sin a source of revenue. Forgiveness and justification are received through His blood, not purchased with money or earned by licensing sin. Sinners are saved through faith in Christ, not by their own works or penance, for Christ's grace cannot be bought but is freely given, and faith in the crucified Redeemer brings peace and joy.

Justification and salvation are given freely and received through faith in Christ's atoning blood, not earned by works. God's grace in Christ is the foundation of Christian hope, while obedience and holiness are its fruit, produced as the Holy Spirit renews the heart and forms a life after Christ's example. Christ's atoning blood, not human efforts, is the sinner's only hope of salvation. True religion depends entirely on Christ's righteousness, not on works of merit.

The atonement is one of the great facts presented by the inspired writers and one of the very pillars of the Christian faith, which a large share of the professedly Christian world now practically rejects either wholly or in part. Man cannot do without the atonement or earn God's favor by his own merits, for salvation depends on the crucified and risen Saviour on whom human hope and redemption depend. His sacrifice on the cross is the only merit sufficient to atone for transgressions and reconcile people to God, bringing forgiveness of past sins through the blood of Jesus to sinners who accept the Lamb of God with faith and humility.

Received By Faith Alone

Salvation is received with no conditions to meet in order to come to Christ, but by coming and by living faith laying hold wholly and entirely upon the merits of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour. God draws every sinner not past the boundary by the invitation and love of Christ lifted up on the cross of Calvary, and there convicts him that the law has been transgressed and that he is a sinner, declaring that Christ died because the law was transgressed. The sinner looks to the righteousness of Christ as the only thing that can cleanse from sins and transgressions, knowing he has none of his own and can make not a single virtue in himself even by working to his very best ability. By living faith he takes hold of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and is clothed with it, and with that clothing receives imparted power and strength so he does not want to sin and hates the sins that caused the suffering of the Son of God as transgressor of God's law, though he may still make mistakes and errors.

Christ is set forth as the propitiation for sin who gave His life for human sin, and seeing Him in this way leads sinners to recognize that eternal life comes only through Him. They come to Him in humility and sorrow, confessing sins and seeking forgiveness, and this encounter leads to surrender to God. His sacrifice brings eternal life only to those who accept Him as Saviour and become one with Him.

Forgiveness of past sins comes only through the gospel of Christ, not through the law, for the law exposes sin and promises life to the obedient while declaring death for the transgressor, but provides no remedy for condemnation or defilement. Pardon through the merits of Christ's blood is the transgressor's only hope, obtained by repentance toward God whose law was broken and faith in Jesus Christ as the atoning sacrifice. Remission is not received by those unwilling to humble themselves and meet the conditions of the word, but requires heartfelt confession, repentance, and abhorrence of sin, with confession freely expressed and not forced or careless. After the fall Christ became propitiation because fallen man could obey only through the Son giving His sacred life bound up with God, clothing divinity with humanity and standing as head of humanity to place man on vantage ground, taking guilt and dying that those returning to loyalty and obedience might receive pardon and be loved of God. The propitiation is received by receiving and believing in Jesus as personal Saviour and Redeemer and uniting human nature to God, placing the will in harmony with the divine will, whereupon the Sin-bearer takes away sins, washes and cleanses from sin, imputes His righteousness, and gives grace to become partakers of divine nature, for human character is perfected only through the merits and value of His sinless purity, freeing from condemnation and defilement and making the sinner a sharer in the divine nature and a child receiving the spirit of adoption crying Abba, Father.

God sent forth Jesus to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through His forbearance, and sinners are justified freely by grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus. Those who accept the ransom paid with His most precious life place themselves free from bondage to sin and from every entanglement of Satan, receiving mastery over Satan and over self. The verse is emancipation papers to be presented in the very face of the enemy to declare that freedom and justification have been secured. God delivered up His own Son as propitiation and Redeemer manifesting light, truth and way, giving moral powers and religious susceptibilities, giving the Holy Spirit, and supplying providential opportunities and facilities for training the mind apart from human action, but the matter ends there unless when tempted a person draws nigh to God, hopes in God, and cooperates with Him by believing that He saves now whatever the past history has been.

Now during probation a person can have sins recorded in the books of heaven blotted out by coming to God with a truly repentant heart and faith in the blood of Christ as the atoning sacrifice. The life once lived to the flesh and for self must now be lived by faith in the Son of God, without frittering away God-given time and opportunity, because an eternity of bliss is to be gained and perdition to be shunned.

Forgiveness of past and former sins comes through the blood of Jesus, whose sacrifice on the cross is the only merit sufficient to atone for transgressions and reconcile man to God. Sinners receive it by accepting the Lamb of God that takes away sin with faith and humility. When sinners convicted of sin and of righteousness and of coming judgment see the cross of Calvary with its infinite sacrifice, they see that nothing but the merits of Christ can atone and reconcile, and by accepting Him they receive that forgiveness. Christ as propitiation opens through His blood the mercy seat where the glory of God rested in the holiest of all to all who accept Him through faith, bringing believers into fellowship with God with the veil rent, partition walls broken down, the handwriting of ordinances canceled, and the enmity abolished. Because He suffered death for every man, the sons of men by this offering become the sons of God, and with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord believers are changed into the same image from glory to glory, so that through faith Jew and Gentile alike may partake of the living bread.

New Life And Proclamation

Through forgiveness the sinner is freed from condemnation and defilement and becomes a sharer in divine nature, a child of God who has received the spirit of adoption crying Abba, Father. Iniquities are forgiven, sins are covered, and sin is not imputed to those justified freely by grace through redemption, made free as obedient to the commandments and at peace with God through faith. There the sinner drawn by Christ's power out of the confederacy of sin to the uplifted cross becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus, cleansed and purified with a new heart, so that holiness has nothing more to require. That deliverance from sin and restoration to God's moral image comes through self-sacrifice as substitute and surety, and those who take hold by faith receive power to overcome through merits. The gospel alone provides this remedy which the law revealing sin and guilt cannot provide, bringing the repentant who trusts in the atoning sacrifice into a reconciled life of obedience.

Being clothed with the righteousness of Jesus by living faith imparts power and strength so that the believer does not want to sin and hates the sins that caused the suffering of the Son of God as transgressor of God's law. He has none of his own and can make not a single virtue in himself even by working to his very best ability, looking to Christ's righteousness as the only cleanser and then working the works of righteousness. Pardon brings passage from rebel, child of sin and Satan, to loyal subject received as child by adoption, standing faultless in garments of Christ's righteousness, reprieved from death, given eternal life, brought into favor and strong hope of eternal life. The sinner may still make mistakes and errors but is not cast off without mercy, his only hope being repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus, will conformed to God's will, kept in repentance and contrition while advancing from strength to strength, from glory to glory.

Belief in the propitiation enables fallen people to love God with the whole heart and neighbor as self, for the law cannot be obeyed in human strength without Christ's virtue and grace to keep it. Union with Christ enables obedience to His requirements, so that justified lives magnify the power of the Saviour who justifies them. Helpless against sin unless accepting the atonement, transgressors are through perfect obedience made possible by faith justified and brought back into unity with God. Receiving Christ's merits by faith makes it possible to form a character like His.

One who has tasted and found that the Lord is good cannot bear to follow the path of transgression, and it is pain to him to violate the law of a God who so loved him. He takes the help God has promised, ceases disobedience, flees to Christ, and through faith in shed blood receives remission of sin and enters sacred relation with the eternal Father. The divine hand reaches to help every repentant soul, divine wisdom orders the steps of those who put trust in the Lord, divine love encircles them, and they realize the presence of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.

Those continuing in God's service return to whole-hearted obedience by depending on the merits of a crucified Saviour and trusting in atonement for salvation, and through that trust transgressions are forgiven, sins pardoned, and God looks upon them with pleasure. The righteous continually follow righteousness because Christ formed within is righteousness and truth, imbued with pure fervent love begotten by the love of God. Beholding the sacrifice lifted up as the counter to prevailing iniquity reveals sin in its true hateful character, and laying hold by faith upon Christ's righteousness alone subdues sin and restores the moral image of God in man.

Faith in efficacious blood is the only hope and stronghold for getting ready for heaven, with nothing but Christ's righteousness entitling to blessings reserved for the redeemed. Trust in Him takes away shame, His promise signed and sealed with His own blood, requiring earnest commitment of all without reservation. The righteousness of Christ and the entire sacrifice made in behalf of man are great and glorious precious truths imprinted on the mind by the Spirit and presented again and again as the burden and message for this time. The sin-pardoning Saviour is to be kept before the mind in His true position, who came to die to magnify God's law and make it honorable while justifying the sinner depending wholly on merits of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour. Workers are to labor together with heavenly angels in presenting Jesus as He is, the world's Redeemer full of grace and truth, the only Potentate to be presented, justifying freely by grace while establishing the law, with propitiation not for believers only but for the sins of the whole world and knowledge of Him shown by keeping commandments.

God gave His Son as propitiation so sinners may stand in right relation to God, giving ground for approaching Him that calls for sincere reverence, devotion and love. That great love does not mean unrepentant sinners can be taken to heaven, for people remain accountable for deeds. In consideration of the great work to redeem, uplift and bring back God's moral image in man, the human agent is to do his part as worker together with God, the sacrifice preventing outpouring of wrath on those for whom He died and efficacious throughout eternity while demonstrating divine justice, holiness, spotless purity, utter hatred of sin and solemn purpose to punish heinous sin. The cross laid as foundation, center and glory declares righteousness by showing the law's immutability, pardoning all transgression, embracing man, placing him on vantage ground with God, bringing him back to loyalty to commandments so moral capacity is recognized as answerable to the supreme Ruler. The ample sacrifice wholly consistent with justice and honor of holy law, the Innocent suffering for the guilty to accomplish full salvation of every son and daughter of Adam, lays every soul under solemn obligation and gratitude, leaving those refusing the heavenly gift with only themselves to blame.