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Glossary of Biblical Words

Big Bible Words, Simplified

This is a short list of biblical words that we thought might be helpful to define. Some of these words are big-Bible-words, some of them need some clarification, and some of them are just confusing. We have written a simple definition, a more detailed definition, and then given some biblical examples of each word.

Forbearance

  • Put simply – God’s patience with our sin and withholding of his wrath.
  • A little more complicated – This word literally means holding back.  This word can also translated long-suffering or slow to anger. The key idea here is that God is not sweeping our sins under the rug and ignoring them; he purposefully held back his righteous wrath so that in his kindness he could show us grace through Christ. God has been patient with our wickedness and sin, and has made a way for us to come to him in Jesus.
  • Scripture
    • Exodus 34:6 “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
    • Jeremiah 15:15 “O LORD, you know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In your forbearance take me not away; know that for your sake I bear reproach.”
    • Romans 2:4 “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
    • Romans 3:25 “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.”

Just / Righteous

  • Put simply –  God is just and righteous. This means everything he does is right and good. The words can be used synonymously.
  • A little more complicated – This one really is quite simple—God, in his very nature, is perfect and holy. He cannot do anything wrong, act without justice, or be unrighteous. His actions, his ideas, and his purposes are all good and morally right. He is actually the standard of good by which all other things are judged.
  • Scripture
    • Deuteronomy 32:4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”
    • Psalm 89:14 “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.”
    • Psalm 19:8–9 “The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.”
    • 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Justification

  • Put simply: God’s declaration that we are righteous.
  • A little more complicated: All people are guilty before God because of their sin. The payment for sin is something we could never afford or earn. Justification is a key part in the salvation of the believer. When we trust in Jesus and his finished work on the cross, God no longer sees us as guilty sinners; our faith in Jesus means that God sees Christ’s righteousness rather than our sin. God declares us righteous based on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, which has the power to overwhelm the claim that sin had on our lives. When justification occurs our position before him changes—we were once enemies and now we are children, adopted and no longer under our sin.
  • Scripture
    • Romans 3:23–24 “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.”
    • Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
    • Galatians 2:16 “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

Propitiation

  • Put simply – God’s wrath being satisfied.
  • A little more complicated – Romans 3:25 says God put Jesus forward “as a propitiation by his blood.” This means that God looks at Jesus sacrifice and counts our debt paid because of him. The payment we owed for our sin debt was too great for us to ever pay. But the blood of Christ is of infinite value, so it was sufficient to pay the debt we owed and cover our sins. This is what it means that Christ’s death was a propitiation for our sins.
  • Scripture
    • Romans 3:25 “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.”
    • Hebrews 2:17 “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
    • 1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Reconcile / Reconciliation

  • Put simply – The restoration of the favor of God through Christ. Our relationship with God is restored to what it was before the Fall.
  • Or even more simply – Jesus takes our badness, we get his goodness.
  • A little more complicated – This word carries with it a sense of monetary exchange; our standing has been made right with God by an exchange. This exchange was not with money or gold but with the sacrifice of Christ. In some translations the word atonement is used instead of reconciliation. Martin Luther referred to this act as The Great Exchange; we receive Christ’s righteousness and he takes our sin, thereby, reconciling us to God.
  • Scripture
    • Romans 5:11 “More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
    • 2 Corinthians 5:18–19 “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
    • Ephesians 2:14–16 “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”
    • Colossians 1:21–22 “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.”

Righteousness

  • Put simply – The quality of goodness that God has perfectly and we lack.
  • A little more complicated – The Bible talks about righteousness in a few different ways, but it is always referring to a perfect standard of goodness. When the Bible refers to our righteousness it is often talking about our condition before God. Sometimes this is speaking of the righteousness we have in Christ; other times it refers to our complete lack of righteousness and need for a savior (see Isaiah 64:6 below). God’s righteousness is a praiseworthy attribute that affirms his perfect goodness.
  • Scripture
    • Psalm 24:5 “He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”
    • Psalm 71:19 “Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?”
    • Isaiah 33:5 “The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.”
    • Isaiah 64:6 “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”
    • Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
    • Romans 5:17 “For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”
    • 1 Corinthians 1:30 “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

Sin

  • Put simply – Anything that we actively think or do that is outside the will of God.
  • A little more complicated – One of the words used for “sin” means error or missing the mark. Sin originates in the heart, but we manifest it in our actions. Scripture is clear, if we are not in Christ, we are slaves of sin. Our sin separates us from God and makes us guilty before him. Our guilt means that we rightly deserve Hell; we need something to cleanse us and make us righteous. Only Christ’s sacrifice can do that.
  • Scripture
    • Psalm 51:3–4 “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.”
    • Psalm 106:6 “Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.”
    • Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
    • Romans 6:13 “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.”

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