Explanation of Three Paul's Key Teachings. How Should Believers Apply Them

Explanation 3 of Paul’s key teachings. How should believers apply them?*

Propitiation:

Because God is holy and demands perfection in purity and separation from sin, He must punish sin. Sin requires a blood sacrifice.

Hebrews 9:22(ESV)

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

From immediately after the fall of man, the shedding of an animal’s blood has been seen as an appropriate payment for appeasing God in covering the sins of the offender.  His covenant was endorsed in blood, and the shedding of blood is required to atone for our sins against Him. 

In the OT, the blood of an animal was shed as a covering for the sin. But Jesus shed His blood to become our sacrifice as a propitiation or appropriate payment for our sin. In other words the blood of Jesus did what an animal’s blood could not do. Jesus’ blood removed the sin and cleansed us from all unrighteousness.

Romans 3:23-26(ESV)

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are 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, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It 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.

As believers in Christ, we must keep short accounts with God. The moment the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, we are to confess and repent of our sin and ask for forgiveness. There is no sin that the blood of Jesus is not able to cleanse and remove every stain.

1 John 1:7-9(ESV) 

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Justification:

While the blood of Christ is perfect payment for our sin, the transaction is activated by our faith. Propitiation is available to everyone, but it takes application of our faith to bring it about. We are justified by faith through God’s grace. There is nothing we can do to earn it.

Romans 5:1(ESV)

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, 

we have peace [or reconciliation] with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have fellowship or friendship with God when we trust in Christ’s payment for our sins. In other words we cash his cheque to pay for our sins. We do not depend on our own good works which can never be enough. No matter how good we are, we can never reach the perfection of God, and so we miss the mark, or fall short of the glory of God.

Galatians 2:16

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

When we are justified by active faith through God’s grace, God cleanses us with the blood of Christ, so it is as though we have never sinned. The stain is gone.

Titus 3:5(ESV)

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration [rebirth] and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

We are not saved by good works, but we are saved to do good works as and act of worship of our Lord and Savior. We are to submit to God’s plan for our part in building up the Kingdom of God.

Ephesians 2:8-10(ESV)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

 

Emancipation:

We have been set free from slavery to sin and Satan. Sin and demonic influences no longer have any power over us. Through Jesus’ death, our old self was crucified with Him. We were buried with Christ in baptism and raised through His resurrection that we might walk in new life. (Romans 6:4-6)

We are a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

In Christ, we are dead to sin, but alive to God. We are no longer under the law but under grace. Paul asks, “does grace give us liberty to go on sinning? Definitely not! (Romans 6:15) We have died to sin. Sin no longer reigns in our bodies. We are no longer slaves to sin but are now slaves to righteousness. (Romans 6:16-18, 22)

Keeping in mind that Paul is writing to believers in Ephesians, we see his instructions to us for living free from sin. He is not saying that we will never sin, but that sin will not control our lives. Sin will not be habitual.

• You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

• Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. 

• Be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 

• Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

• Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor.

• Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger. 

• Give no opportunity to the devil. 

• Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work… 

• Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building each other up.

• Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 

• Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:17-32)