On this podcast, we frequently return to fundamental realities, the essential truths, the things most precious to us. Things like the glory of God and the cross of Jesus Christ. If you get these fundamentals right, everything else eventually falls into place. Get these fundamentals wrong, and nothing will fall exactly into place.

Something will always be off. In light of this, some of the most essential questions include these. Why in the first place do I need to be saved? Saved from whom? Saved from what? What is my problem? And how do God, and specifically Christ himself, address my problem? To explain, I love this following sermon excerpt from a 2009 message delivered at a campus crusade event in Minneapolis.

There Pastor John expounded Romans chapter 3, verses 23 to 26, a text in which the Apostle Paul says this, "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." A glorious text of essential, must-know truth.

Here's Pastor John to explain it. Verse 25, "Whom," referring to Christ, "God put forward as a propitiation," that means a sacrifice that removes wrath. So the wrath of God is absorbed by Christ when he dies in our place. So propitiation is the removal of the wrath of God off of us, though we deserve it.

"Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood," so his death, "to be received by faith." That's how you receive a gift. Faith is a receiving, it's not a doing. This was to show God's righteousness. Oh, really? Really? This putting Christ forward is to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, patience, he has 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. I don't think there's a more important paragraph in the Bible than that right there. I mean, there may be some competing. That's just about as close to the center as you can get.

Take it apart for just a few minutes with me. God put Christ forward as a propitiation by his blood. Romans 8, 3, "What the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh." Whose sin?

Tell me. Mine. Whose flesh? Christ's. You got it. That's an amazing statement. Condemnation happened at the cross. Whose? Mine. In whose flesh? Not mine. This is propitiation. Propitiation is the drawing away of condemnation from me. How can this be? How can it go there? It belongs here. Or Galatians 3, 13, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us." Whose curse?

God's curse. He's the one that backs up the law. The law is his word. If there's a curse in the law on me, it's coming from God. And Jesus becomes my curse. So all that to say yes to propitiation. Don't translate it some other way. Don't use expiation, which simply means removal of guilt.

Don't translate it merely living sacrifice or sacrificial offering. It's the removal of God Almighty's just, holy condemnation and wrath, which belongs to me. Why did he need to do it that way? Why did Christ need to die in order to placate God's wrath? Verse 25 in the middle, "This was to show God's righteousness." So Christ died.

God put him forward to die. This was to show God's righteousness. Why did he need to show his righteousness? That's a pretty high price for a demonstration of righteousness. Why did he need to show his righteousness? End of verse 25, "Because in his divine forbearance he passed over former sins." Well, why does passing over sin make it necessary to demonstrate righteousness?

Now we're ready to see verse 23 in the nature of sin. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." I don't know if you've ever felt like I want you to feel the connection between sin and the glory of God. "All have sinned and fall short." What is "fall short"?

It's an old-fashioned translation. The literal meaning is "they lack." They're without. In what way without? In chapter 1 of Romans, verse 23, it says, "We have exchanged the glory of God for the glory of created things." So we had it. It was our treasure. When Adam and Eve were created, it was our treasure.

We loved God. We cherished God. We esteemed God. We respected God. We were in awe of God and worshipped God and praised God and glorified God. And then we treated God. And you've all done it. You do it every day. And we embrace other values, other treasures, other desires that are so much more strong in our hearts than God is.

We've traded them. And so we lack God's glory. It's not our treasure. We've just thrown it away. And sin is anything you do in that process. Anything that reflects that God is not your treasure is sin. So all have sinned and lack, throw away, exchange, demean, belittle, trample the infinite value of the glory of God.

Now, why does that call the righteousness of God into question when he passes over such sin? Because when God, as he does for all of his people, passes over, does not condemn sinners who have trampled his glory and demean his glory every single day of our lives, it looks as though he thinks that's no big deal.

To trample the glory of God is no big deal. Be like a judge sitting at a bench who's got a murderer and a rapist in front of him. He says, "We'll just let it go. We'll just pass over the murder and the rape this time. We'll just pass over it." And everybody in the courtroom would say, "No way.

You can't do that and sit on that bench and be a just judge and say, 'You're just going to pass over this thing.'" And so God knows that he would be unrighteous. He would be wrong, unjust if he treated his glory as though it were so worthless as to just pass over the trampling of his glory in his people.

And so he doesn't just pass over it. He sends his son into the world to demonstrate his righteousness. You see, what happened at the cross was the loudest statement imaginable. If you understand Romans 3, 23 to 26, the loudest statement from heaven imaginable, "I love my glory." And in that very moment of upholding his glory, God made it possible to save sinners, just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.

So, John 17, 24, "I want them to see me. I want them to see me, risen, triumphant, glorious, all satisfying in my glory, so that my glory will continue to be exalted forever and their joy would be full." And at the center, the cross, making that possible for sinners.

As God says, "I put my son forward to demonstrate my righteousness." My righteousness is my unwavering commitment always and everywhere to uphold the infinite worth of my glory. And if I am bent on saving sinners who have trampled my glory, which I most certainly am, I will not do it in any way that calls my love for my glory into question.

I will do the absolutely unthinkable. I will put my son on the gibbet and he will be tortured and he will bear my wrath to make plain. I don't sweep God belittling sins under the rug of the universe when I save sinners. Powerful. Oh, get this understanding of God, his glory, and the nature of sin, and the purpose of Christ's work on the cross for us.

These are absolutely essential. That was John Piper here focused on Romans 3:23-26, preaching on December 30th, 2009 at a Campus Crusade event in a message titled, "God's Passion for His Glory." You can read, watch, or hear the entire message right now at DesiringGod.org. Thank you for listening. If you want new episodes of this podcast delivered to you, subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app in Spotify, or by subscribing to DGU's YouTube channel to find other episodes in our archive, or to submit a question to us of your own.

Do that online at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. I'm anxious that I don't do enough for God. This is a statement that arrives every week in our inbox. We hear it all the time, and we should. If you read the Bible, even just the New Testament, you'll be met by 1,500 imperatives. 1,500 things to do or not to.

That's a lot. It's overwhelming. So how do we overcome the anxiety that I never do enough for God? That's the question for Pastor John next time on Friday. I'm your host, Tony Reike. We'll see you then.