https://youtu.be/7AHw_hICE7o

When we stopped last time in our verse by verse study of Romans we were half way through Rom 3:24; our expanded translation to that point was "Receiving justification without payment by his grace."

This brings us to a look at the mechanics of justification that we find in, Genesis 15:6-"Now he (Abraham) had believed," the hiphil perfect of the verb "amen" (believe).

The hiphil stem is causative, the active voice indicates the fact that while we do not know the details, and while there was no written canon of scripture, Abraham was positive at the point of God-consciousness and expressed positive volition at the point of gospel hearing in the way that God communicated it.

It is important to recognize that positive volition at God-consciousness gives God the responsibility to reveal the gospel. With Abraham this was before the Old Testament was written so God personally accepted the responsibility to reveal Himself and the fact that there would be a savior with the result that the hiphil stem says Abraham was motivated to believe in Jesus Christ as He was revealed to him at that time.

We do not know the details of how the gospel was revealed but God infallible Word reveals that Abraham had believed. The perfect tense is a completed action. He had believed "in Jehovah" (he Lord who is (Jesus Christ).

The result was "and He (God the Father) had imputed it to him as righteousness" - from the qal imperfect of "chashab" that means to reckon, to credit to someone's account to impute, or to provide credit- to him for righteousness": the noun "tsadaqah" (righteousness) that is exactly the same as our Greek word "dikaiosune" (righteousness).

Rom 3:24; (through redemption) "dia" plus the genitive of "apolutrosis" (dia plus the genitive means through or sometimes by or by means of), so we have (through the redemption). "apolutrosis" (redemption) means to buy back slaves or captives, or to free by paying a ransom for a slave or someone who is a captive.

(that is in Christ Jesus) " ths en" plus the locative of "Christos Iesous." A verb is inserted because in front of this is the definite article "ths." The definite is the descriptive genitive singular "ths" that is used as a relative pronoun that requires the verb "is."

Expanded Translation Rom 3:24; "Receiving justification (vindication) without payment by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."

We see here that verse 23 tells us our problem verse 24 tells us how God fixes our problem and verse 25 is going to tell us what God did to fix our problem.

Rom 3:25;"whom the God has set forth to be a propitiation." The accusative singular relative pronoun "hos" (whom). The antecedent for this relative pronoun is the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 24.

Then the definite article "o" (the) followed by "Theos" (God) so we have (Whom the God). In this case the monadic use of the definite article refers to God the Father because Jesus Christ has already been addressed with the pronoun.

"has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood" would be translated better as "has publicly displayed by his blood as the propitiation of mercy seat through faith (in Christ)."

"through the faith" from the prepositional phrase, "dia" (through) plus the article "o" (the) plus the genitive of "pistis" (faith). The definite article makes it monadic emphasizing the uniqueness of the faith as being faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Faith in Jesus Christ is emphasized as the mechanism for salvation because the channel for blessing from God's justice is always grace. Eph 2:8;

Faith never subtracts from the efficacious work of Jesus Christ. Any work that man could do if he could would subtract from the efficacious work of Jesus Christ.

Rom 3:25; "in his blood" "en" (in) plus the genitive singular of "autos" (His) used as a possessive pronoun) followed by "haima" (blood).

So we have the translation as (through faith by his blood) the NASB puts blood before faith that is not how it is in the original. The KJV and NIV have it in the right order. The NET explains it right but it completely paraphrases it.

Expanded Translation so far: "Whom the God (the Father) has publicly displayed the propitiation or mercy seat through faith in His blood ... "

We see here that God's solution for mankind's problem is called the "blood of Christ" that is the only source of salvation but to understand it properly we have to know what the phrase "his blood" refers to and what it means

Remember that the "blood of Christ" refers to the entire work of Jesus in being judged for our sins on the cross that includes expiation, propitiation, redemption and reconciliation.

The last half of verse 25 is a prepositional phrase that explains why God the Father did what He did. We will get to that after we take a quick look at the "doctrine of the blood" because that is a very misunderstood doctrine.

The doctrine of blood begins with the literal blood of the animal sacrifices. The literal blood in the scripture always refers to animals because blood is the essence of animal life.

In Lev 17:10-14; where it says that the life of the flesh is in the blood it never refers to human beings, it always refers to the animal creation. The life of human beings is in the soul but the life of animals is in the blood because animals do not have a soul.

The Bible talks about the life of the animal but never about the soul of the animal. From the coats of skins in Gen 3:21; through the Levitical offerings described in chapters 1-5 of Leviticus animal blood was used to represent the sacrifice of Jesus Christ before Jesus Christ fulfilled that sacrifice.