And our interest this morning is in verses 25 to 26, but we'll begin reading at 21. So let's stand together for the reading of God's Word. Again, it's Romans 3, beginning at verse 21. But now is the righteousness of God made manifest without the law, having witness of the law and the prophets, to wit the righteousness of God by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. whom God has set forth to be a reconciliation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness by the forgiveness of the sins that are past. through the patience of God, to show at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and a justifier of him which is of the faith of Jesus. And that ends the reading of God's word, and let's pray. And Father, help us now, as we turn here, we pray we would see in your word clearly what you intended, and that you would help us by your spirit. And so we ask it in Christ's name, amen. And please be seated. So again this morning I'm interested in verse 26, and really the second part of verse 26, that he might be just and a justifier of him which is of the faith of Jesus. And so that's the particular point of interest. Now we could have stopped on the forgiveness of sins that are passed through patience, but I think we'll go on and capture all of this. So, let me remind you again of the things that we've said leading up to this verse. We've looked at the three uses of the law from this section. beginning with the condemnation of all men in verses 19, and then the law's witness to the promise which is in Christ from verse 21. And in marking its use by believers in verse 31, we'll go on and look at that later on. We've contrasted human attempts at righteousness with a righteousness which is of God. And again, that's verse 21. Now is the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God is the phrase. And we are interested in what kind of righteousness that is. It's a righteousness that comes from God. It's not God's personal righteousness, although we will get to that. So then we also looked at verse 21's but now as the dawning of a new era, signifying a universal application of the message, this message of the gospel to all nations. So when Paul says but now, he's saying now in the scheme of things, now the world is opened to this message. It's the dawning of a new era. all nations are included and to be included in this gospel. And so that's laying it out. Then we've defined the terms justification, redemption, and propitiation. and have also noted how that faith in Jesus is faith in his blood, in what he has done and what it accomplishes on our behalf. And with the sacrifice of Christ accomplishing what was prefigured in the Old Testament. And we looked at the ritual of the ceremonial law and particularly the sacrifices of that law as teaching us what we should understand of Jesus. So each of these themes has to do with a righteousness which is of or from God. It's a righteousness which is alone acceptable to him. and through which the sinner is reconciled and counted righteous." Although he is a sinner, he is reconciled to God and counted righteous. As verse 22 says, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. And again, that's as over and against all attempts on the part of men to attain a righteousness for themselves. Human attempt is set over and against a righteousness which is of God or that comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ. Well, there is then some obscurity in verse 26 with respect to the language and translation of the text. So if we go back to 24, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a reconciliation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness by the forgiveness of the sins that are passed through the patience of God, to show at this time his righteousness, that he might be just and a justifier of him which is of the faith of Jesus. That's what we're interested in. And, of course, the righteousness of God in verse 21 is in contrast with human attempts at righteousness, okay? And again, 20, by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law cometh the knowledge of sin. But now is the righteousness of God made manifest. And so you can see there's a righteousness based on human effort that is by the law, or a righteousness that is of God, meaning coming from God, and 20 and 21 lay out a contrast on these two points. A righteousness which is of men, and a righteousness which is of God. A righteousness that is the attainment of men, and a righteousness that is the gift of God. These are in juxtaposition in those verses, and it's important that we follow that there. In that context, the preposition of refers to the one from whom it comes. It is a righteousness of God, a righteousness which comes of God, and that means in the sense of from. It's coming from God. It's a righteousness of God's giving. Okay, that's important. In verse 25, The righteousness being spoken of is the righteousness of Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a reconciliation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness by the forgiveness of the sins that are passed through the patience of God to show at this time his righteousness. And the question is, what are we talking about? We're talking about the righteousness, not a righteousness that comes to man, which is the gift of God, but we're talking about a righteousness which is Jesus Christ's personal obedience to God that is declared his righteousness. And so in verse 25, the righteousness being spoken of is a righteousness of Christ, the pronoun his referring to Christ in verse 24. So again, look at 24, justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a reconciliation through faith in his blood. to declare his righteousness, that is Christ Jesus, from the earlier verse. And so the righteousness in verse 25 is the righteousness of Christ Jesus. That's what the pronoun his refers to in 24. And what is the righteousness of Christ? It is full obedience to the will of God, a perfect performing of the commandments of God in his own individual carriage as a man. So it's to declare Christ's righteousness by the forgiveness of sins, to make men to see that. Now, the shifting points of reference here come to a head in verse 26. which cannot be interpreted by the rules of English grammar respecting his and he, look at 26 now, through the patience of God to show at this time his righteousness that he might be just and a justifier of him which is of the faith of Jesus. Now, you know, so that's where the point of obscurity comes in. And you have to interpret this by the context of the argument being made by the apostle. So let me rephrase the verse that way and take the pronouns out and give them their designation. To declare, I say, at this time, Christ's righteousness, that God might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Okay, that's what Paul's saying. So, we're declaring Christ's righteousness, or the righteousness of Jesus, that God the Father might be justified, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. That he might be just, and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus. And so, the Greek chi here, that's translated and, in the middle of this is important, that he might be just chi, justifier and a justifier. That Greek word chi is important in this. And it also ought to be understood, you know, it's often the case that a conjunction is varied in its sense of application. And so when the word and is used in Jewish syntax, there is sometimes a remarkable feature to it that it sets the two things in juxtaposition. Okay, so let's look at Matthew 12 and verse five for a minute. This really makes it clear. Or have you not read in the law how that on the Sabbath day the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are blameless? Okay, now the and there could also be rendered but. They break it but they're blameless. The two ideas are in juxtaposition. They're set one over and against the other. The priests do these things, the priests work on the Sabbath and nobody condemns them. And the word and is used, but it's really designating a juxtaposition of ideas. Okay, Hebrews 3.9 is another example, maybe a little more obscure, but it is this same kind of thing. where your fathers tempted me and saw my works, tempted me, proved me, and saw my works 40 years long. And the question is, what is it about the works that they saw for 40 years versus the tempting and proving that we should understand? Oh, we should understand a contrast in those things. You know, when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, all of the miracles that God did, slaying the firstborn in Egypt on the night of the Passover, bringing them up against a wall at the sea and then opening the sea and having them walk through, Moses smiting the rock and water gushing out, or Moses supposedly speaking to the rock to that same end later on. You know, no matter what it was, God constantly did miracles. He was a pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Okay? And He was their protection. Now, despite that, they tempted Him and spoke against Him for 40 years. And that juxtaposition of ideas in this text is a contrast between God's works and their temptation. That's Hebrews 3 and verse 9 as an example. Now in these cases, the and conjunction expresses a contrast. And that really is the sense of the word in Romans 3 verse 26. through the patience of God to show at this time his righteousness that he might be just and a justifier of him, which is of the faith of Jesus. Those two ideas are in contrast in the text. Just and the justifier. They're in juxtaposition. They're the thing that has to be reconciled, so to speak, in the context. So the sense of the word chi here in verse 26 could be rendered and at the same time, that he might be just and at the same time a justifier of them which believe in Jesus. Or we could render it although, we could render Chi here although, that he might be just although a justifier of him that believes in Jesus. That's the force and the point of verse 26 that is rather obscure. Now, it's obscure for two reasons, because of Chi on the one hand, and because before that the pronouns, you know, don't make evident exactly who it is that's being spoken of until we carefully look at it. So the point is, God is just although being the justifier of sinners who believe in Jesus. And that is the great and remarkable feature of this mystery of divine salvation. It's the glory of God's plan of salvation, which is hidden from men's expectation. In other words, if man had to develop a way of reconciling one man to another, or sinners to God, he wouldn't have come up with this. It magnifies the Son of God in his appointed role of making blood atonement. And it took the divine mind to conceive of the means of expiating sin in this way through a substitute. And so God continues to punish sin. And God punishes sin in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who died an atoning sacrifice. And on the other hand, God reconciles the sinner to himself through means of the sacrifice and through means of the righteousness, the obedience of the one who gave himself. And again, that's something of the divine mind, that's not something men would come up with. So both things, therefore, are accomplished, and that's the juxtaposition in verse 26. Both things are accomplished, God remains just, and the justice of the one judging sin is maintained. because the penalty is in fact inflicted and enforced, the penalty for sin. And on the other hand, he is the justifier of the one that believes in Jesus. He reconciles that sinner to himself through this means. And so in this way, what we have is the expiation of sin, the guilty are delivered from the guilt and punishment of their sin, and all the glory of God and the magnification of the Savior in the eyes of the people is accomplished because the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the one held up as the deliverer, as the one who took the penalty to himself and who reconciles us to God. Now, the concern then in verses 25 to 26 is the propriety in God's acceptance of sinners. Okay, and so again, if what 24 says is right, that we're justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a reconciliation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness by the forgiveness of sins that are passed through the patience of God, to show at this time his righteousness that he might be just and a justifier of him which is of the faith of Jesus. Now the propriety of this is what is called in question, particularly by the Jewish church. In other words, when the Apostle Paul preaches, the greatest opposition he gets to the message is from the Jewish church, to whom this represents something totally contrary to their understanding to the things that have been taught by their religious leaders. How can God be seen as righteous if he accepts men who are sinners, who have no personal merit to plead before him? And again, the Jewish construct of this thing is, the merit belongs to me. I have done all the things contained in the law. Well, I've made sacrifice for the things that I haven't done that were part of the law. And so, again, it's my personal performance in terms of the law that is the righteousness that I offer to God. And that's the expectation of the Jews, and not of the Jews only, but, you know, guy out on the street. I think my good outweighs my bad, you know, like. Like, I'm going to be judged on the basis of what I've done, and my hope is that my good outweighs my bad. Well, you know, long as we water down the definition of sin, that's believable. But, you know, if what we're saying, if what Paul is saying is true here, in the face of the Jewish church, that there's no personal merit that we can plead before God, And that's a real problem that the rituals don't make up for our sins, then we got a problem, or there's a problem in our understanding, in our hope, in our trust. And of course, you can throw Hebrews 10 and verse 4 into the equation here. for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins." They perceived correctly what the apostles were teaching, what the apostles were saying. that the expiation of sin does not take place by animal sacrifice. Well, that was our hope. Our hope was we obeyed the law, and we made up for what we didn't obey by these sacrifices. So that's the first point of objection here. And the first point that has to be dealt with is this idea, then, that we don't Our way of salvation is not acceptable with God, okay? And then the Jews could ask, and yes, and what about all that have gone before, Abraham and the patriarchs? So the doctrine that Paul is declaring seems to be something fraught with problems, or it's fraught with problems when the Jewish church confronts the message of their savior in the world as it's preached. And of course the answer to these objections is here in the entire section in verses 23 to 26. And let's read it one more time. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a reconciliation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness by the forgiveness of the sins that are passed through the patience of God, to show at this time his righteousness, that he might be just and a justifier of him which is of the faith of Jesus. Now, what's the answer? The free acceptance of a sinner in the sight of God is not about the sinner's works, it's about the work of a Redeemer. The Redeemer has made propitiation or atonement for the sins in question. The justification of a sinner is through faith in the blood of that propitiatory sacrifice made in the person of Jesus Christ. Faith in the blood of Christ. And in this way, God's propriety or justice is preserved when he graciously accepts the sinner. The sins have been paid, nothing remains to the account for the one who believes, and the original demands of the law have been performed on behalf of the one who was required to do this in the first place by a substitute. And so there's a dual transfer here. Redemption and propitiation can be seen in this as including both the positive and the negative. Redemption as the performance of the original details of the law, which were a duty. It was man's duty to actually perform the law. And he doesn't perform the law, and so he's lost. and he has to be redeemed. And then on the other hand, propitiation, referring to the penalty for our transgression, the transgressor of the law is to suffer punishment and the propitiatory sacrifice, the atoning sacrifice, takes that punishment in the place of the one who is saved. And so both positive and negative aspects are the work of Christ. Our sins are put upon him, and his righteousness is put upon us by imputation, all of which is ours by faith in Jesus Christ. So faith unites us to Christ. And we receive from him as Savior the propitiation for our sins, and the imputation of his righteousness, the dual transfer. Our sins go to him, his righteousness comes to us, that is our standing, our acceptance, our justification before God. And again, that's the way that reconciliation is presented. Now the interesting things in the sins that are passed and the forbearance of God in verse 25 refers to the Old Testament saints. God has set forth Jesus as their redeemer as well. So this is the second point of opposition on the part of the Jews to this gospel doctrine that seems to them to be a new thing. It only seems to you to be a new thing because you've misunderstood everything that the Scripture has taught all along. But nevertheless, that being the case, verse 25 is the answer. Through the forbearance of God, the sins that are passed are also forgiven. God has set forth Jesus as their Redeemer as well. All of the Old Testament figures accepted by the Father are accepted on account of Jesus. And just like we come to Him by faith, they also believed and were justified. Now again, this is not only the Jewish first century objection, it is the modern Christian evangelical objection. for those who reject the Old Testament. They say, well, there's gotta be some other way, I mean, well, there's gotta be some other way of salvation in the Old Testament, you know, the dispensational heresies, all of that. And so, again, it's a contemporary error with men in our day to try to construct some other way of salvation for the Old Testament saints. No, faith, has always been faith. Faith has, as its first point of reference, believing the Word of God. And when you get to the definition in the Westminster Confession of Faith, by this faith a man believes to be true whatsoever is contained in the Word of God. You see, that's the first manifestation of saving faith. You believe the word of God and they believed the word of God. And so you can find this in Genesis 15 and verse six, respecting Abraham. And Abram believed the Lord and he counted that to him for righteousness. Now that's God telling us from the beginning, faith is counted for righteousness. Oh, Abraham, what did you believe? He believed the word of God. And then if we go on, you know, in the circumstances of Abraham's life, when Abraham was ready to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Sinai, The mountain, God gave him a ram and a thicket. He received Isaac from the dead in a figure. And Abraham had already testified to Isaac, God will provide him a sacrifice. That's a trust on Abraham's part. He understands he's got the message. He believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness, and he had a glimpse of the coming Savior, not only in the sacrifices that he made, but in the circumstance on Mount Moriah with Isaac and in the testimony that he made. You know, Jesus constructed this in terms of Abraham. Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad." Now how clear is that, that Abraham saw Christ? And of course that was an offense to them. You're not yet 40 years old and have you seen Abraham? Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad." Abraham had the knowledge of Christ, he had faith in God's Word, and as God's Christ was revealed to him progressively in his life, he had faith in that Christ. And then, so you get this construct, you know, out of Hebrews 11. Now faith is the grounds of things which are hoped for, and the evidence of things which are not seen, for by it What's the it refer to? Faith. By faith the elders were well reported of. Through faith we understand that the world was ordained by the word of God, so that the things which we see are not made of things which did appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a greater sacrifice than Cain, by the which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. by the which faith, he being dead yet speaketh. By faith was Enoch translated, that he should not see death. Neither was he found, for God had translated him. For before he was translated, he was reported of, that he had pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that God is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him. By faith Noah. being warned of God, of the things which were not as yet seen, moved with reverence, prepared the ark to the saving of his household, through the which he also condemned the world, and was made heir of the righteousness which is by faith. By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed God to go out into a place which he should afterward receive for inheritance, and he went out not knowing whither he went. By faith he abode in the land of promise as in a strange country, as one that dwelled in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city having a foundation whose builder and maker is God. Through faith Sarah also received strength to conceive seed. and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful which had promised, and therefore sprang thereof one even of one which was dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand of the seashore, which is innumerable. All these died in faith, and received not the promise, but saw them afar off, and believed them, and received them thankfully, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." You know, stop there. What promise did they see afar off? What promise did they see in the distance? The promise of a Savior. The promises that God made to redeem man from his sin in the person of Jesus Christ. So right there we're told that from the creation of the world, beginning with Abel, Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham, They understood the promise, they looked to that promise, they were justified by faith or reconciled to God by faith in the one in whom all the promises are yea and amen to the glory of God. And that's the point. You know, and when you get to the specifics of a Redeemer who would make atonement for sin, from the time of the fall, animal sacrifice anticipating a Redeemer was practiced. So you can say, look, generally faith is believing the word of God, but when you get down to the specifics of what it is to believe God, here they are testifying through animal sacrifice that a substitute will be accepted by God in atonement for their sin. Now did they think it was the animal? Did they not get the message nor understand what they were doing? Well, again, this text is telling us they saw the promise. They understood this as a promised redeemer. Now, in the Jewish church, the interpretation was sung. And so Psalm 40, beginning at verse six, So these are not only David's psalms, but it's a teaching that is embraced and sung in the church by the singers. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, for mine ears hast thou prepared. Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, lo, I come, for in the roll of the book it is written of me. I desire to do thy good will, O my God, yea, thy law is within mine heart. I have declared thy righteousness in the great congregation, lo, I will not refrain my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within mine heart, but I have declared thy truth and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy mercy and thy truth from the great congregation. That's a messianic psalm. God didn't desire sacrifice and offering. He prepared a body for the Redeemer to declare the righteousness of God. Or the blessing of Abraham, Psalm 24, verses 1 to 5. The earth is the Lord's, and all that therein is, the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the sea, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? Even he that hath innocent hands and a pure heart, which hath not lifted up his mind unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, of them that seek thy face. This is Jacob's law." Jacob is, or the ones in whom the promises are lodged are, the ones that receive a blessing. And what is the blessing? It's the gift of righteousness, righteousness from the God of salvation. So the church is singing this in its music, in its worship. And that's only a sampling of the messianic psalms contained in the psalm book of the church. These things are sung widely and repeated over and over, even outside the church. This knowledge is not deficient. And Job 19, beginning at verse 25, For I am sure that my Redeemer liveth, and he shall stand at the last upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet shall I see God in my flesh, whom I myself shall see, and mine eyes shall behold, and none other for me, though my reins are consumed within me." Now that's Job speaking of his Redeemer, of his death and resurrection and seeing his Redeemer with his own eyes. Knowing him, claiming him, claiming the relationship to him when he says, I know that my Redeemer lives and he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. Now this knowledge is not deficient in the Old Testament, despite the question of whether all men understood it. And so that is the situation here. The elect of God were always taught by God to look forward to the Savior who is held up for us in clarity in the New Testament. And so the objections really fall to the ground. As verse 25 says, remission of past sins is through the same atoning sacrifice in Jesus. and the Old Testament men believed God for the Savior to come and put their trust in his sacrifice as acceptable to God. And so suddenly all that Paul is holding up here as the way of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, the believers, those who receive his message, have in common with the saints of the Old Testament who were reconciled to God by faith as well. And you can see then the force of the issue as it overcomes what would otherwise be Jewish objections. Now the redemption in Christ is unique to all religious systems. And it is unique for one reason, because it's of divine origin. you know, where the problem of evil receives various forms of acceptance. You know, what do humanly made religious systems do with the problem of sin or the problem of evil? Well, they find all sorts of ways to reconcile the problem of evil with themselves and their condition. polytheistic systems make evil an aspect of divine character in the gods. I mean, the gods of polytheism are evil. So the problem of good and evil sort of goes away. You know, Bacchus is a drunken lecher, and all these other gods have their human foibles and all sorts of human passions that are sinful. So that's one way of reconciling the problem of evil. So when you talk about being godly in a pagan system, you can justify all kinds of things. You're like the gods. There's the gods despite the wickedness of their character. Well, then there are more philosophical systems like Zoroastrianism, like ancient idealism, which posit an equal ultimacy. In Zoroastrianism, good and evil are equally ultimate principles. So it doesn't, you know, so you can't do away with evil because it's as ultimate as good is. And so, you know, those things are equally ultimate, good and evil, and they have to be not, evil is not eliminated, it has to be balanced, has to be tempered. You know, the modern theme of the force with a dark side or the Chinese yin and yang, you know, are all this sort of equal ultimacy in opposite principles. And so that's how pagan thought or human-made religion seeks to reconcile the problem of evil. In the true system, God punishes evil, God destroys evil, and yet remains just as a judge according to the terms of, well, Psalm 1715 for an example. God destroys evil and yet he reconciles the sinner to himself. And he does it in terms of Psalm 17 verse 15. Yeah, Psalm, what did I say? 17, well. You know, it's what the judge is told. I'm sorry, Psalms, Proverbs, that's what I'm looking at. I'm looking at the wrong book. Proverbs 17, 15. He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. So the hatred of evil, And the condemnation of wickedness in men is an aspect of righteousness. Now God maintains that righteousness in the divinely devised system of justification for a sinner. Hodge describes it this way, just expresses the idea of uprightness generally, of being or doing what the nature of the case demands. When spoken of the conduct of a judge, it requires that sin should be treated according to its true nature, and that the demands of the law or justice should not be disregarded. And the point is no sinner is left off the hook in the divine system. There is full exaction of the wages of sin on account of every man's actions. And as full force of righteous judgment is applied, God as judge maintains his integrity and yet redeems man. and yet justifies man, the sinner, who comes to him by faith in Jesus. And that's the point being made for us. Well, points of application then, and we'll be brief on this. Once more, the self-conscious approach to God through faith in Christ is held up for us. We should be clear in looking to Jesus as our Savior that we trust him for redemption and propitiation. That what Christ has done is kept the law on our behalf and died in penalty for sin. And his righteousness is imputed to us and our sins are imputed to him in his sacrifice on the cross. And we come to God by faith in that, believing God for the propitiation of our sins in Jesus Christ. Believing God for our redemption in Jesus Christ and through his work. So we should be clear in looking to him as Savior. And the level of righteousness in him as Savior that is perfect ought to inform the demands we place upon ourselves in sanctification. And it's back to, so what price did Jesus pay? He paid the total price. If one died for all, then we're all dead. Paul argues. And therefore, he will pick it up in Romans 12, I beseech you by the mercies of Christ that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. So back to looking at Jesus and looking at the price Jesus paid, if Jesus died to redeem us from death, We might as well say, well, you know, well, so we were dead, so let's just be dead to sin. Let's just be dead and put sin to death and live, present ourselves as a sacrifice to God, patterned after Jesus, but mirroring in life the righteousness that Christ lived in order to redeem us. And so again, it's the approach to God that is primarily what Paul is defending here and presenting for us to understand clearly. But secondly, we might remember these things in our human dealings as well. The tendency of men is to place harmony and reconciliation above righteousness, you know, to overlook sins and just, you know, and this is deadly if you're governing a home. And so you can't overlook sin without giving a place to it and an acceptance to it and letting it grow up within the context of that government. So both things are equally biblical concerns. There is sin and repentance from sin and the necessity of putting sin away and putting it to death. or judging it, and on the other hand, reconciliation and harmony, forgiveness and so on, that is to be taught and embraced. But sinners must be led to repentance before being accepted. And repentance often involves some form of atonement, it always involves some form of atonement, and sometimes involves restitution. So if there's forgiveness of sin, it's because of Christ who redeemed us from sin, that has to be clearly communicated in the home. And children ought to be taught to embrace that, to understand that, that what they have done requires death, even the little sins, and that it's only through Christ that they can be forgiven and accepted. And then at times then when repentance is called for, there is a restitution. You have to make it right. And that can be sometimes mere confession and expression of sorrow as sufficient, but there's other times when you gotta try to undo the thing that you did. But repentance is central to restitution in human relationships as well. Repentance and faith are central to the reparation of human relationships. And we ought to be clear on that in the same way that God reconciles the sinner to himself, the reconciliation of sinners one to another ought to be constructed on a similar basis. We ought to be using the biblical themes in teaching these things in our homes. So they also inform the husband-wife relationship. And it's his husband's duty to lead his wife to repentance when she sins. And it's a wife's duty to lead her husband to repentance when he sins. And there ought to be open communication on these points, open confession, and the steps necessary in seeking repentance. And so that ought to inform the relationship of a husband and wife, it ought to inform the relationship in child discipline, that there is an absolute standard of God to which we all must conform. And when we don't conform it, acceptance is through faith in Christ, and we are required to repent of our sins. and express that repentance clearly to the persons that we have sinned against. And so that's a matter of application in the home. Let's pray. Father, we pray that we would see these things clearly, that the means that you have used in reconciling us to yourself through the blood of Christ upholds, on the one hand, your perfect righteousness as the one who has spoken and judges sin. and makes possible, on the other hand, us to come to you and to be reconciled. And though we are sinners, The blood of Christ cleanses us from our sin and is our standing with you as our God. And we pray that we would see these things and understand them clearly and be able to communicate them in our own homes and in those contexts we have in the world and help us to understand it and do it, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.