Adam writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, recently at the Passion Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, I heard you say on stage that Romans 3.25 is the most important verse in all of the Bible. Why is that?" Well, I'm glad he picked up on it, because I did say that.

And actually what I said was, "It might not be, but if somebody put a gun to my head and made me choose, this is the verse I would choose." And here's my reason. Well, let me read the verse first, because not everybody will know what it is. Romans 3.25 says, "God put Christ 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 passed over former sins." I think that's the most important verse in the Bible. Now, what in the world? Why would I say that? Because it describes the two most amazing remedies for the two most horrific problems of mankind in the universe.

So if you do a survey, "What's the biggest problem of mankind?" Very few people would say, "The wrath of God." But it is. The wrath of God is the greatest problem. And now here in this verse, you've got piece upon piece upon piece piled up as God deals with this problem.

So you've got God, you've got Christ, you've got "put forward," that's the Incarnation, you've got "by blood," that's the Atonement, you've got "propitiation," that's the heart of what happens in the Atonement as God's wrath is removed and absorbed. You've got "for faith," which is the best news in all the world, because it's not works.

You've got "vindicating God's righteousness," which means the just demand that He show wrath has been dealt with. And you've got "because of passing over sins," which means the final wonder is He doesn't hold our sins against us. I mean, I don't know any verse that packs as many glorious things into itself in dealing with the two worst problems.

So let me just underline that problem number one in the universe is God's wrath is on all human beings unto eternal damnation. John 3.36, "If we don't believe in Jesus, we remain, we remain." That's forever. If we don't believe, we remain under the wrath of God. Or Romans 3.5, where anger and fury are warranting God's wrath.

God is righteous to inflict wrath on us. So those are the two things, God's wrath and His righteousness demands wrath. It's not just that God's angry. I mean, He could be some kind of flippant tyrant. That's not the case. He is absolutely just and righteous in the wrath that He has against us.

So those are there in this verse behind the word "propitiation." Now, the remedies are, He shed His blood, that is, Christ shed His blood, and by shedding His blood, He propitiates the wrath of God. So the flamethrower of God's omnipotent—I mean, we just need to ponder this—omnipotent fury, the flamethrower of God's omnipotent fury is, the trigger is about to be pulled, and as it's pulled, Christ steps between us and the flamethrower, and He absorbs every bit of it on Himself.

And He dies because of it, and we don't feel that heat at all. We are freed from it. So the greatest problem in the universe is solved in this verse and spoken in this verse. And the second one is that God is righteous to show wrath, and so how can He not?

And the answer is, He doesn't sweep sin under the rug. He deals with it in His Son, and therefore Jesus vindicates the righteousness of God. So He doesn't just remove the wrath of God. He vindicates the righteousness of God. I don't know any verse in the Bible besides this one that says that at least so clearly.

And those are the two massive obstacles that have to be dealt with. And then gloriously, it says, "to be received by faith." So I don't have to work for this. I don't have to perform for this. I watch God perform salvation from God because He loves me, and I simply welcomed it.

I received that, and that honors Him as a covenant-keeping God. So on and on we could go in this verse, but there's the essence of it. The two biggest problems in the universe are solved with the two biggest remedies, and then it's just handed to us freely by faith.

Yes, excellent. Well said, Pastor John. And thank you for listening to this podcast. You and thousands of other listeners tune into this podcast every week, and we are humbled by that. So thank you. It's our joy to produce and distribute this podcast free of charge. And if you found it to be a helpful resource for your Christian growth, we'd encourage you to consider telling others about this resource.

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Thank you for your financial support. And speaking of significant life concerns, tomorrow we'll be back with a very important and serious question from a listener. Is an addiction to pornography an unpardonable sin? Is it unforgivable? I look forward to Pastor John's thoughts on that tomorrow. Until then, I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

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