[This is adapted from the Dig Deeper session on the atonement. An excurses on the Triune God & Atonement has been added. I apologise for any spelling or grammatical mistakes, as this is a lightly edited version of my manuscript]
Introduction
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:18:
‘For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God’…
There is a foolishness to the cross that is totally and utterly bamboozling to those who do not believe.
Such vitriol is ratcheted up a notch when we think of the atonement – The saving work of God on the cross. Here’s a couple of comments on the atonement by unbelievers:
‘The doctrine of the atonement of Jesus Christ of the cross is intellectually contemptible and morally outrageous‘
Alfred Jules Ayer
‘No one who is profoundly human can really believe that God would punish sin like that – the doctrine of cruelty‘
Bertrand Russell
The foolishness of the cross to those who don’t believe – and yet to those who are being saved – it is the power of God. It is the jewel in the gospel. The central saving act.
And so what a good thing it is to fill our hearts and minds with the wonder of atonement! To dig deeper into this vital Christian doctrine.
To do this we’re going to look at four important and integrated parts of the atonement – (and before I say this – I am massively influenced here by the work of Jeremy Treat [The Crucified King & The Atonement: An Introduction] and Joshua McNall’s, The Mosaic of Atonement.)
Adapted from their work we’re going to see:
1: The Foundations of Atonement
2: The Heart of Atonement
3: The Multifaceted Crown of Atonement
4: The Hands of Atonement
1: The Foundations of Atonement
Now any look at the atonement – God’s saving work on the cross – cannot be understood without the Old Testament.
Both the storyline, the events, and the images in the OT are vital in understanding the atonement.
We could spend an hour just looking at these (and we will see throughout the importance of the OT) but to start we need to realise God created the world as good, and humans as very good and put them in a garden and commanded them to rule the earth and spread God’s rule throughout the earth as God’s representatives.
But we know that Adam and Eve chose through the eating of fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, self-rule over God’s rule – and with that the advent of sin broke into humanity and infected creation.
I: Humanity’s Sin
And it is the reality of sin that is a key foundation of atonement because without sin there would be no need for atonement.
Jeremy Treat helpfully shows us the multifaceted implications of sin from Scripture:
“Because of sin against God, people are:
- Unable to see the glory of God (2 Cor 4:4)
- Enemies of God (James 4:4)
- Deserving of God’s judgement (Romans 1:18)
- Under the sway of the devil (Ephesians 2:2)
- Enslaved to sin (John 8:34)
- Condemned (Romans 5:16)
- Stained morally (Zechariah 3:3)
- Covered in shame (Jeremiah 17:13
- Bound to the law (Romans 7:6)
- Ignorant of the truth (Romans 1:18)
- Exiled (2 Kings 17:6-7)
- Spiritual orphans (Romans 8:15)
- Part of the evil age (Galatians 1:4)
- Physically ill (Mark 2:3-12)
- Far from God (Ephesians 2:13)
- In need of an example (Matthew 5:14)
- Spiritually indebted (Colossians 2:14)
- Alienated from the life of God (Ephesians 4:18)
- Dead in transgressions (Ephesians 2:1)
- Hostile to God and others (Romans 8:7)”
You see how the multifaceted effects of sin will require a multifaceted atonement? That whatever we think about atonement, it cannot be one dimensional because sin and the consequences of are not one dimensional.
The reality of sin makes the atonement necessary.
II: God’s Love
But that is not everything we can say about the foundations of atonement.
In fact, we would be challenged by the theologian John Murray in his classic book Redemption Accomplished and Applied if we simply said sin made the atonement necessary.
In his first chapter called ‘The Necessity of the Atonement’ he writes:
‘No treatment of the atonement can be properly orientated that does not trace its source to the free and sovereign love of God’
And then after briefly showing this is the case biblically, he concludes:
‘It must be regarded, therefore, as a settled datum that the love of God is the cause or source of the atonement’
The love of God – the sovereign love of God is the cause or source of the atonement.
Because without God’s love the atonement does not happen.
Where from Scripture do we see this?
How about:
Romans 5:8:
‘But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’
Or 1 John 4:10:
‘This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.’
Or Ephesians 1:7-8a:
‘In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.’
Oh what wonder, what love! Lavished on us. The love of God!
By the way, notice with these verses there’s a vocabulary we need to build up when thinking of atonement – “death”, “sacrifice”, “blood” – they are the grammar that help us make sense of atonement.
III: Jesus Christ
Then we have one of the most famous verses in the Bible – John 3:16:
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’
Of course this is more broad than atonement but that self-giving is seen most clearly on the cross where Jesus gave himself for us.
But it does also show us that any talk of atonement requires us to talk of Jesus – and his whole life work.
That the atonement does not work or make sense without the coming of the Son.
That the atonement without the incarnation is incompatible.
As Anselm explains in his classic work Why God Became Man:
‘While no one save God can make it and no one save man ought to make it, it is necessary for a God-Man to make it’ –
Sin has so corrupted man it is impossible for man to atone for his sins – but man should be the one making atonement – the solution? The God-man the Lord Jesus Christ!
He is our sinless representative. And without Jesus’ sinless life, atonement could not be made because only a sinless, spotless sacrifice can make atonement for sin. Fully and truly human and fully and truly God – the sinless one making atonement for the sins of the people.
So the writer to the Hebrews says:
Hebrews 2:17:
‘For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.’
Hebrews 4:15:
‘For we do not have a high priest who is unable to feel sympathy for our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin.’
And because he did not sin he is our merciful and faithful high priest. The one who offers the sacrifice and is the sacrifice for our sin.
2: The Heart of Atonement
Jesus says:
‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep’
John 10:11
Paul writes:
‘He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification’
Romans 4:25
And again, using an earlier creed:
‘Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures’
1 Cor 15:3
Peter says, quoting from Isaiah 53:
‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’
1 Peter 2:24
John writes:
‘He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.’
1 John 2:2
I could go and on and on. But do you see the common denominator in these verses?
The word ‘for’. Jesus lays down his life for his sheep and Paul, Peter and John speak about Jesus dying ‘for our sins’.
In these words, and particularly in the word ‘for’ we have the key to the heart of atonement – which is this = substitution.
Substitution means Christ died on the cross in our place for our sins.
This is the heart of atonement. As John Stott says in his classic book The Cross of Christ:
‘Moved by the perfection of his holy love, God in Christ substituted himself for us sinners. That is the heart of the cross of Christ’
What a wonderful truth! God in Christ substituted himself for us sinners.
Let that truth thrill your heart!
Substitutes in the Old Testament
And to help us further we need to see the substitutes of the OT.
I: Passover
Remember in Exodus 12 how God says to his people, in order to avoid the death of the firstborn, the blood of the lamb is to be put on the top and sides of the doorframes so the angel of death passes over?
In order to avoid the judgement of death the lamb is the substitute! The blood of the lamb, the death of the lamb, means death and judgement passes over!
Which is why John the Baptist says of Jesus ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’ and why Paul will say in 1 Corinthians 5 that Christ is our Passover lamb.
And it is why we see the Lamb seated on the throne in Revelation 5 – Jesus is the lamb of God – our substitute – who takes our judgement so ultimately the judgement of death will pass over us.
II: Sacrifice in Leviticus
But we also see it clearly in the sacrificial system – particularly in Leviticus where the blood of animals atone for the sins of the people. In fact, the Hebrew word atonement, kip’per is used more times than any other book in Leviticus.
How can the sacrifices in Leviticus help us understand atonement?
Take for example, the sin and guilt offering. These two offerings, two sacrifices, help us understand that atonement is made for the sin and guilt of the people. That the blood of the animals shed, the death of the animals, are a substitute – a sacrifice in place of the people, making atonement for their guilt and sin so they can be forgiven. Or more accurately, the priest makes atonement for the people on their behalf through the sacrifice (e.g. Leviticus 4:20; 26; 31; 35). What is also of interest is that these sacrifices are a ‘penalty for guilt to the LORD’ (CSB: Lev 5:15; also 5:6). They are the penalty for sin – the punishment and price of sin.
And yet we know: ‘It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins’ (Heb 10:4) – that these sacrificial substitutes were pointing to a greater sacrificial substitute – the Lord Jesus Christ – taking the penalty for our sins and guilt.
We also see in Leviticus peace or fellowship offerings, more sacrifices that make atonement – which tells us that atonement is more than just atoning for sin and guilt, it is seeking to bring peace or fellowship between God and man.
It is seeking to restore what was broken at the Fall. Peace, shalom, with God.
III: The Day of Atonement
But all this in Leviticus is leading us towards the day of atonement in Leviticus 16.
After making atonement for himself and his household the High Priest takes two goats and presents them before the tent of meeting.
Leviticus explains in v7-10:
‘Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats – one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat.’
And what happens to the goat who will be sacrificed? V15-16:
‘He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: he shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been.’
And the goat sent into the wilderness? V20-22:
‘When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites – all their sins – and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness.’
These two goats help explain the nature of atonement and what our substitute is doing on the cross by using two technical words – propitiation and expiation.
The goat killed and blood sprinkled on the mercy seat – the cover of the ark of the covenant – is the sin offering – the substitute that appeases the judgement and wrath of God for the sins of the people = that’s propitiation.
While the scapegoat in the wilderness makes atonement by removing the sins of the people from God’s presence. Taking the sins away = that’s expiation.
And that is what we see on the cross.
Romans 3:25 says: ‘God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood’ – the word atonement there is the same Greek word used in the Greek OT to refer to the atonement seat on the ark of the covenant in Leviticus 16:15-16.
The blood and death of Jesus linking back to the blood and death of the goat, means that Jesus died in our place for our sins – taking the penalty – the punishment for our sins – what we call ‘penal substitution’.
Propitiation to appease the wrath and judgement of God. It’s a penal substitutionary sacrifice.
Some people take issue with this doctrine, even see it as offensive. Others do not believe Scripture teaches the atonement as a penal substitutionary sacrifice. Yet it is hard to miss it in Jesus’s words on the cross: ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me’ (Mark 15:34) or in the mention of darkness for three hours in the verse before.
This idea of darkness is rich with OT language of punishment seen most clearly in the penultimate plague in Egypt (Exodus 10:21-22), a punishment threatened on Pharaoh again in Ezekiel 32:8. But it is also used to convey punishment on Israel. In Jeremiah 23:12, God declares this to the godless prophets and priests:
‘Therefore their path will become slippery;
they will be banished to darkness
and there they will fall.
I will bring disaster on them
in the year they are punished,’
declares the Lord’
Darkness conveys punishment.
But even if one decides this is not the case, I believe the strongest argument is seen in the previous chapter of Mark’s Gospel. In chapter 14:36 and Jesus’s prayer to his Father in Gethsemane. In it he prays: ‘Take this cup from me.’ Jesus knows what he’s praying and knows what the cup represents. It is a metaphor yes, but it is not empty of theological weight. In fact, it is pregnant with OT significance.
Here’s a few references to set the scene:
Job 21:20: ‘Let their own eyes see their destruction; let them drink the cup of the wrath of the Almighty.’
Jeremiah 25:15-16: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: ‘Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. 16 When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them.’
Psalm 75:8: ‘In the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs.’
Isaiah 51:17: ‘Awake, awake! Rise up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes people stagger.’
Perhaps Jesus had in mind with his prayer in Mark 14:36, v22 of Isaiah 51, for just a little further down Isaiah writes:
‘This is what your Sovereign Lord says, your God, who defends his people: ‘See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup, the goblet of my wrath, you will never drink again.’
Jesus would have known this text, would have known this promise, when he prayed this prayer.
But what is quite evident from just these few references (there are more!) is that Jesus knew what the cup represented when he prayed, ‘take this cup from me‘. He knew it was the cup of God’s wrath. He knew it God’s punishment.
And the amazing thing is – one of glorious, one of the most astounding realities of the cross is – he was willing to take that cup – the cup of God’s judgement for us, so we might know and delight in the cup of salvation (Psalm 116:3). The one who knew no sin, became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). God’s curse for us (Galatian 3:13).
Excurses: The Triune God & Atonement
There are two main errors we want to avoid when speaking of God and the atonement.
One is thinking that the sacrifice of Jesus is as Steve Chalke once said ‘cosmic child abuse’. That if propitiation means the Son appeasing the wrath of God that is abhorrent – God the Father would not treat his Son that way. As if his Son had no say in the matter.
Well first, we have to realise that the Son becomes flesh and therefore becomes our human representative and it is a because he is human he is punished.
But more than that, he is willing to take it.
As mentioned above with the cup of God’s wrath, Jesus knew what he was facing In fact, we know that for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross – he went willingly – he became a servant, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!
This was the plan of the triune God all along. As Anselm writes, ‘the fact is that the Son, with Father and the Holy Spirit, had determined to show the loftiness of his omnipotence by no other means than death’.
This was no cosmic child abuse but the unified operation of the triune God.
Second – the scapegoat going into the wilderness along with Jesus’ words on the cross saying ‘my God, my God why have you forsaken me’, along with the darkness that descends – has led to separation language – as if somehow the Trinity becomes two on the cross.
But the Son of God was not separated from the Father on the cross – rather once again Christ as our human representative took the punishment, bore the wrath of our sins.
As the Messiah he went into the wilderness for our sins, he experienced the punishment of hell and wrath, becoming a curse for us. But he was not separated from God.
We must remember Jesus is quoting Psalm 22 which goes on to say in v24 ‘For he [the Father] has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.’
Christ was forsaken but no point did God turn his face away – and no point did the Father stop loving the Son, even when the wrath of God was poured out on the Christ.
And no point was the Son cut off from the Father and the Spirit. In fact, Hebrews 9:14 makes it clear that Christ through the Spirit offered himself:
‘How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!’
The triune God did not separate to make atonement, but instead worked together to save us from our sins.
So when we sing the likes of ‘the Father turned his face away’ or ‘Yes, finished the Messiah dies, cut off for sins’ – let’s not sing it in a way that presumes or thinks the Trinity was severed in two. Rather let us stress that it was the Son as the man Jesus Christ – the Messiah who was punished, who was judged for our sins. Taking on the punishment for our sins as both our representative and our substitute.
As Gregory of Nazianzus once wrote: ‘He is not forsaken either by the Father or, as some think, by his own Godhead, which shrank in fear from suffering, abandoning the sufferer. Who applies that argument either to his birth in this world in the first place or to his ascent of the cross? No, in himself, as I have said, he expresses our condition.’
He expresses the condition of sinful man punished for us by dying for us – but he was not cut off from the Godhead as the eternal Son of God. Punished yes, but there was no Trinitarian split in the Godhead.
And as long as we’re careful with our language and don’t go too far in saying the Son is separated from the Father in some trinitarian split, or that the Father is punishing his helpless Son, this makes total sense because Jesus is just taking what sin deserves.
As Jeremy Treat points out:
‘God’s response to sin…is judgement (2 Cor 5:10), punishment (2 Thess 1:9), wrath (John 3:36), a curse (Deut 11:28), exile (2 Kings 17:6-7), and ultimately death (Rom 6:23)…By dying in our place, Jesus takes on himself what we deserve: judgment (Rom 8:3), punishment (Isa 53:5), wrath (1 Thess. 1:10), a curse (Gal 3:13), exile (Heb 13:12), and ultimately death (Heb 2:14)’
As for expiation, Hebrews 9-10 helps us make the connection with Leviticus 16 by saying Jesus Christ, the perfect High Priest only requires one sacrifice, once and for all for our sins – it’s a wonderful explanation that shows Leviticus 16 is just a shadow and copy of the reality seen in and through Christ who enters the true tabernacle for us – because he’s shed his blood for us.
And in all the wonders we learn among many other things: ‘so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many’. (Hebrews 9:29)
And because of expiation: ‘we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.’ (Hebrews 10:10).
In propitiation and expiation Jesus is both the appeaser and sanctifier – he takes our sin on himself and takes away our sin so we are holy in God’s sight.
Praise the LORD for this penal substitutionary sacrifice! Praise the LORD for our sin-taking, sin-bearing saviour!
The Great Exchange
In fact, it get’s even better – this substitution is a two-way street – Jesus does something for us and we get something in return.
We see this very clearly in the most vivid picture of substitution in the OT – the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. Verses 4-6 read:
‘Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’
This is the servant who is our penal substitutionary sacrifice – the Lord Jesus Christ! And because of his substitutionary death we have peace, are healed!
But also, as he is led like a lamb to the slaughter, as he is crushed, as he suffered, v11: ‘by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.’
This is the great exchange.
The death of our substitute gives life!
He is judged guilty, so we can be declared not guilty!
He takes the curse, so we get the blessing!
He tastes hell so we might know heaven!
He hangs on the tree of death so we might taste the tree of life!
This is the work of our great substitute – the heart of atonement means Jesus takes our place for our sin, so we might know salvation.
And this leads us into the multifaceted crown of atonement. The heart that pumps life in all its different riches.
In fact, let me share a quote from the Epistle to Diognetus to help set the tone – this is a mid to late second century letter that comes under the body of writing known as the Apostolic Fathers. In chapter 9 we read:
‘But when our unrighteousness was fulfilled, and it had been made perfectly clear that its wages—punishment and death—were to be expected, then the season arrived during which God had decided to reveal at last his goodness and power (oh, the surpassing kindness and love of God!). He did not hate us, or reject us, or bear a grudge against us; instead he was patient and forbearing; in his mercy he took upon himself our sins; he himself gave up his own Son as a ransom for us, the holy one for the lawless, the guiltless for the guilty, the just for the unjust, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal. For what else but his righteousness could have covered our sins? In whom was it possible for us, the lawless and ungodly, to be justified, except in the Son of God alone? O the sweet exchange, O the incomprehensible work of God, O the blessings, that the sinfulness of many should be hidden in one righteous person, while the righteousness of one should justify many sinners!’
Just take a moment to ponder this great exchange in silence!
O the sweet exchange that my substitute – my saviour would take my place.
And because of this we see the multi-faceted effects of the atonement.
3: The Multifaceted Crown of Atonement
What it achieves is glorious!
Not some theory that needs to be pitted against one another – but one crown that as we look along, we see each gem shining next to one another.
And there are so many gems of the atonement (we’ve already seen propitiation and expiation that takes our punishment and leads to status changing sanctification! And Leviticus again and again emphasises that making atonement means forgiveness e.g. Lev 4:20)
For brevity, let me pick out four and just briefly use Scripture to show you them in full colour and how they work together. (For more see Jeremy Treat, The Atonement: An Introduction).
Let’s start with
I: Victory
This is the language of warfare. The atonement – the penal substitution of our saviour brings victory over the evil spiritual forces of this world – including Satan.
Hebrews 2:14-15:
‘Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.’
This the power of the cross!
Colossians 2:14-15:
‘Having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross’
Not, human powers and authorities, but spiritual powers and authorities. Christ is triumphant through his death. How? Because the debt of sin was paid in full. But also, because…
Revelation 12:10-11:
‘Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony’
The great accuser has no place in heaven because of the blood of the Lamb and the testimony of believers who witness that the blood of the Lamb means no more valid accusation from the devil! The cross has destroyed the devil’s one convincing argument against us – we are guilty!
II: Redemption
This is both the language of the exodus – being freed, being redeem from slavery, and the language of the market place – being bought at a price, redeemed as slaves. Marvel at the wonder of these verses:
Mark 10:45:
‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’
He bore the cost!
Galatians 3:13:
‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’
He took the curse!
Ephesians 1:7:
‘In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace’
The precious redeeming blood.
Hebrews 9:12:
‘He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, so obtaining eternal redemption.’
1 Peter 1:18-19:
‘For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.’
The precious blood of Christ pays for our – redeems us from our slavery to sin and death!
And with redemption brings:
III: Justification
The language of the courtroom – and what a jewel it is!
Romans 3:23-25:
‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood’
Romans 5:9:
‘Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!’
2 Corinthians 5:21:
‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’
O the great exchange – our substitute becomes sin for us – takes our place – so we can have the righteousness of God – be declared not guilty!
And justification means we can know:
IV: Reconciliation
The language of peace. What atonement really achieves = At-one-ment with God.
Romans 5:9-11:
‘Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.’
Reconciled through the death of the Son!
Colossians 1:19-22:
‘For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation’
Reconciliation means relationship with God because of Christ’s death – because of his blood shed. A reconciliation that will mean earth and heaven will join together one day!
Conclusion
And all of this means: salvation!
The atonement brings with it objective results – the salvation of his people!
All those who belong to Christ are bought by Christ, paid by Christ, secured by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins. He has done the work! He has paid the price! And his blood will always wash away our sin. We can have complete confidence in the blood of Jesus. We can have complete assurance in his death because the blood of Jesus is greater than my greatest sin. He can and will and does and has made atonement for it, for us.
4: The Hands of Atonement
Let me finish with some practical steps.
First, let the atonement fuel your praise of God. Come to our God in awesome wonder! Let us sing of the cross and praise God more because of the cross of Christ!
Second, see just how precious, how wonderful it is to remember Christ through communion eating the bread and drinking the wine – his body broken and his blood shed is a marvellous thing – and this is a means of grace to assure us and feed us as Christ becomes present and real through his Spirit.
Third, the atonement teaches us that the way of life is the way of the cross. That first comes suffering, and then glory. We cannot bypass this reality as a Christian.
Fourth, the atonement teaches us the need and importance of sacrifice for God. That we deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow Jesus. That we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. Sacrifice and service should be the DNA of a Christian.
Fifth, the atonement can motivate and shape our life – helping us to grow to become more like Christ.
As Peter says, ‘Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.’ (1 Peter 2:21).
It is an example of love, a motivation to not retaliate when attacked, but also to choose to die to sin and live for righteousness (v24).
The power of the cross extends beyond salvation and can influence our very lives.
Finally – know this – the atonement is only of any value if you are in Christ.
As John Calvin once wrote:
‘As long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us’.
The atonement has no saving effect if we’re outside of Christ – oh yes it is sufficient for the sins of the world – but only effective – efficient for those who belong to Christ. Who have turned to Christ. Who are in Christ.
There is no other saviour, no other substitute, no other sacrifice, no other atonement. And so let us boast in nothing else other than the cross of Christ!