Jobs, Part 4

This is really a bait and switch devotion to Romans Chapter 3, verses 21-26. I mentioned in other devotions that part of my quiet time study of the Bible this year includes a yearlong review of Romans, by Dr. RC Sproul. 

I am finding it fascinating because I am more of a big picture type person (in fact, that was a large recommendation I made often to my staff before I retired).  Being mostly focused on the big picture means that I can miss word implications. So, without further ado, here is Romans 3

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 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.” - Romans 3:21-26 ESV

I’ve never thought about the word “propitiation” before even though I’ve read through the Bible many times.  Dr. Sproul, in my devotion today, was lamenting that the Revised Standard Version of the Bible had replaced “propitiation” due to the belief that modern people don’t use nor understand that word.  He went further to suggest that we must not remove “propitiation” and “expiation” in our Biblical translations.

“Propitiation” as Dr. Sproul explained (don’t trust him, do what I did and look up the word yourself) means to satisfy the demands of justice.  In regards to God, “propitiation” means to satisfy completely the demands of God’s wrath and judgement.  Christ, as our substitute, took upon Himself the wrath that we deserve.  Jesus did this on a vertical level with God the father to satisfy the justice of God for us.

“Expiation” means to take away from or out of. Christ through his perfect sacrifice, removed the sin from us. This on a horizontal level where Jesus took the sin stain away from us and transferred it to himself.

I once worked at one of the company’s shoe stores through college and even as a part time job while I taught high school. “Naturalizer” was the store that I was working at while I was teaching. Even though I appreciated the salary scheme of the greater of minimum wage versus commission on sales, one of their shortfalls was that they had antiquated cash register equipment. In fact, we all shared the same cash register. 

One day, the cash register came up short.  After a lot of investigation, we figured out that the register was short by my sale of two pairs of shoes that I noted on the receipt that the customer paid for by check.  The theory of what happened was that the customer paid with a check and that check was either put in the shoe box or thrown away accidentally. The owners wanted to assume that I made the mistake of putting the check in the shoe box and wanted me to reimburse the store. I pointed out that if they reduced my pay to reimburse the store, my pay would be less than minimum wage and therefore not allowed.

Ultimately, since there several people had access to the cash register and I made a overwhelming legal argument, the propitiation from the owners was to forgive the mistake and financially eat it.  The store manager expiated the mistake in terms of what was the best face to show to the other employees.  It wasn’t much later that I became an actuary and traded a part time job selling shoes for studying for actuarial exams (my actuarial salary was slightly better than the combined teaching/shoe selling income).

The great part of this study is having an idea of where this deep dive into Romans is heading.

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” - Romans 5:1-5

See, I brought my devotion study and selling shoes together…