What
does atonement mean?
(with links to the subheadings)
A
short study by Colin Dyer
(Elder
at Fetcham Community Church, Surrey - reproduced with permission)
It is suggested
that you print this out to digest it more easily
Q. Have you read all the New Testament?
Q. Have you read all the Old Testament?
What is the Atonement?
Sometimes people use this word in a narrower sense, to refer only to Jesus' dying and his payment for our sins on the cross. We will tend to focus more on the cross than on any other aspect of his life, but nevertheless we should recognise that our salvation comes from a Saviour who died as one who had always lived to please the Father. If this aspect were missing, his death would never have effected what it has
Wayne Grudem
in his "Systematic Theology", defines it this way:
'The Atonement is
the work Christ did in his life and death to earn our salvation'.
Luke 24: 25-27
"He said to them, 'How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all
that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things
and then enter his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets,
he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself."
The disciples did not understand why Jesus had died. They could not fathom
the events that Jesus had been willingly caught up in. Jesus' response is
a reprimand:-
Basically, don't you believe the Bible? Haven't you understood that the Christ
must suffer? Then Jesus went through the Hebrew Scriptures from A to Z, from
Moses to the Prophets "explained to them what was said . . . concerning himself."
Jesus' answer to the disciples failure to understand who he was, and what
he had done, was to resort to a detailed explanation of the Old Testament.
John 5: 39-40, Jesus is answering unbelieving Jews about himself. He is giving hard evidence from various witnesses to confirm who he is and what he is saying and doing. In verse 39 he states to his hearers, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." He adds in verse 46, "If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me." So, Jesus laid before these Old Testament born and bred Jews their very own Scriptures and said in effect, 'If you trusted what they said, especially Moses who you admire, then you would know and accept me.' The Old Testament was key to understanding Jesus.
And again, Luke 24: 44-45, now in the room with the rest of his disciples. "He said to them, 'This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.' Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures."
John 1: 29, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming towards him. He describes him this way, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" Which, must have made sense to his hearers. Lamb struck several chords from the Old Testament, such as: · The Lamb that was sacrificed instead of Abraham's son Isaac. · The Lamb that was killed and its blood put on the door posts to preserve the Jews from God's anger, prior to the Exodus. · The Lambs that were sacrificed in the tabernacle and later the temple as an atonement for sin. And, they were well away of sin and sins. So, here is a description of Jesus that sums him up, but whose meaning is full of Old Testament, Hebrew Scripture imagery. And, if you were to take a flick through The New Testament, then you would soon begin to notice, if you look for it, that the pictures, quotations, preaching come out of the Old Testament. The preaching in the Acts is often keyed into Old Testament texts. To understand Jesus, and the salvation he brought, the right approach, the Jesus approach, and the Bible approach, is to know him as the fulfilment of the Old Testament. The crowning glory to all that was promised, expected, longed for and seen in shadow in the Hebrew Scriptures.
SO, HOW DO YOU
UNDERSTAND JESUS?
IS YOUR JESUS A JESUS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT?
If we are to understand who Jesus is as we ought to, and understand what he was doing as we should, then we need to know the Old Testament that found its fulfilment in his coming. The reason that we are looking at shadows in the Old Testament today is because in order to understand The Atonement that 'is the work Christ did in his life and death to earn our salvation', we need to understand why this came about.
2.1 Our
sin
Genesis 1-3
is clear that God set Adam and Eve in a perfect surrounding, with no inclination
to rebel, and with the opportunity to chose life and grow to maturity and
serve and enjoy God's rich friendship for ever. There were always two trees
to choose from-one of which offered life. Yet, in spite of God's word, they
chose to follow a lie and mistrust God, and chose the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thus rebelling against God. God had clearly stated, that
"when you eat of it you will surely die" (2: 17). When they ate of it, there
were consequences. God judged them-and we have lived in the pain of that ever
since. Death meant their separation from God, their separation from the garden
and the intimacy they had enjoyed with God. Death meant that their own relationship
with each other experienced immediate and continued problems. They never lived
as closely together again-there was separation here too. And, eventually,
they were separated from their bodies, and died as we most commonly understand
death. God's promise came true. They experienced his judgement in the present,
and eventually in the future. What they begun, we have all inherited. The
same rebellious mistrust of God, the same desire to find satisfaction and
life anywhere else than the true and living God we have running through our
veins as well. We were all born sinners, and we all are sinners. We are earning
death with our sins like wages earned from a day's labour (Romans 6: 23),
and we are storing up judgement by our stubborn and unchanging hearts (Romans
2: 5-6, "God will give to each person according to what he has done"). We
face being condemned at the judgement day (John 3: 18). · We are in debt to
God because we have not given him the honour that is due to him in obedient
service. · We are guilty before God because of the rebellious acts of disobedience
we have done. We are in need of salvation. BUT THIS IS NOT WHY GOD HAS WORKED
TO SAVE.
2.2 God
is Just
God deals with Sin. Yet, in the Old Testament-sin goes unpunished! Take Adam
and Eve, they were told they would die if they ate of the tree of the knowledge
of God and evil. They didn't! Adam lived to be 930, over 800 years more. Eve
lived long enough to take her share in populating the empty earth. And whatever
the exact time frames were, they lived a long time before physical death came
during which they were relatively free! More seriously, there are those in
the Old Testament who obviously knew God's forgiveness, yet their sins were
unpaid for. Psalm 32: 1-2, "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count
against him and in whose spirit is no deceit." How can a just God, one who
punishes people according to their sins, let some people off and into the
happiness of an empty sin account? Paul gives the answer in Romans 3: 25-26,
"God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.
He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had
left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-he did it to demonstrate his
justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those
who have faith in Jesus." God left the sins of the Old Testament believers
unpunished. But, when Christ came, He paid for them. In other words, God has
to have payment for sin. Christ came to pay for those who trust in Him. And
those who were saved in the Old Testament had those sins dealt with by Jesus.
Jesus had to come to satisfy the justice of God.
2.3 God's
Love
Our sin, and God's justice however do not give a reason for God to act in
the sending of his son. · God was quite at liberty to leave men in their sin.
He had no need to save anyone. · If God was to save anyone, then their sins
had to be paid for. But again, he did not have to send his son to pay for
sins. It was not necessary for God to deliver us from his own justice. So
why did God decide to save us from our sin, and send his son to make the payment
to effect the rescue? It was his love. 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." In fact, before man fell, God had decided to
send his Son, and his Son had decided to come to die. As 1 Peter 1: 19-20,
"redeemed from the empty way of life . . . with the precious blood of Christ,
a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the
world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake." It was love for
men that brought this about, even before we sinned. In Deuteronomy 7: 7-8,
when God talks about the love he has for his people. He describes it this
way, "The Lord did not set His affection on you because . . . but it was because
He loved you." More literally, 'not because of your being numerous . . . did
God set His affection on you . . . but because the Lord loved you.' He says
I loved you because I loved you. It is out of the very nature of God to love,
irrespective of the condition who receive his love. · And God's work to save
flowed out of his very character to love. · And the sending of his son came
about that his justice might be met. God's love and justice caused him to
act to atone, to rescue us in Christ, from our sin. He did not have to save,
but he chose to out of his great love, and thus, because of his love and justice,
sin had to be paid for. Hence, he sent Jesus to die.
3. PREPARATION FOR THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST
3.1 Adam
and Eve spared
They have
received a promise of a coming one from the woman (Genesis 3: 15), and God
spares them immediate death. Instead he provides for them skins (with the
death of an animal?) and thus they leave the garden due to the death of another.
3.2 Isaac
spared
In Genesis 22, Abraham is advancing towards the mountains in the region of
Moriah to sacrifice his son Isaac. He has been clearly told by God that his
son must die. En route to the destination, Isaac asks where the lamb is since
they had everything else for a sacrifice. Abraham demonstrates his confident
trust in God by saying that God himself will provide a lamb. However, Isaac
is bound and on the wood, and the knife is in Abraham's hand ready to slay
his son when God spoke to him "not to lay a hand on the boy". Hebrews 11:
19 is clear that Abraham had confidence that he God could raise the dead.
He had reasoned this out. In a sense he did. For God did provide a ram which
was slain in his son's place. The name of that place went down on the maps
from then as "The Lord will provide". His son was due to die. But he was spared
through the death of a lamb.
3.3 The
Passover
After eleven plagues had struck Egypt, one remained before Israel left for
the promised land-the death of the firstborn. This judgement would mark their
rescue. But, before they could be saved, they had to take a one year old lamb
(Exodus 12). It was to live with them for five days (the 10th day to the 14th).
Then, having lived with them, the lamb was to be slaughtered. Its blood was
to be smeared on the door-posts and lintel of the door frames, then it was
to be roasted and eaten in whole-none of it was to be left overnight. Throughout
all of this, not any of its bones were to be broken (12: 46, "It must be eaten
inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any
of the bones."). Judgement came from God, but when he came, the houses where
the blood covered the doorways were spared the plague. Exodus 12: 13, 23,
"The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I
see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you
when I strike Egypt . . . When the LORD goes through the land to strike down
the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the door-frame
and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter
your houses and strike you down." The death of an animal saves. The blood-specifically
of a lamb without defect-means that the judgement of God passes over those
people whose households are marked by it. A lamb whose bones were not broken
saved those 'covered' by his blood. Now we are beginning to see a growing
revelation from God as to how he save. And, with the Exodus, we enter a period
were sacrifices were to become a very regular feature of the life of the Jews.
As God related to his people in a type of agreement or covenant, a major aspect
of that relationship was sacrifice. In fact, relationship with His people
was only possible with sacrifice-hence the commands about them. We'll look
at Leviticus, bearing in mind that all of this looks forward to "The Lamb
of God", and to the "Sacrifice of Atonement" that Jesus was to be. These are
shadows of the reality that is to come..
4. ATONEMENT IN THE SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM FORESHADOWS CHRIST
4.1
Covering of sins through blood
It is first used in the Bible in Genesis 6: 14, "So make yourself an ark of
cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out." Literally
cover it inside and out.
The most common use of this word is connected with the sacrifices begun in
Moses' time and continued through Israel's history. The word conveys the meaning
of covering over sins, often with the blood of the sacrificed.
Leviticus 4: 13-21, gives instruction about the offering for sin. A large
section of chapters 4 and 5 are about unintentional sins. Sins committed in
ignorance, without realising at the time that what they were doing was wrong.
However, once the people realised their sin, they were to bring a sacrifice
to atone/cover their sins. The details of this sacrifice are given in verses
13-21 with the summary in verse 20, "and do with this bull just as he did
with the bull for the sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement
for them, and they will be forgiven."
Notice that not only were their sins 'covered', but also forgiven. Also notice
the various aspects of this sacrifice. ·
So, we see here that the people needed there sins covered in order to relate to God. Even the sins they were unaware of!! This atonement brought about forgiveness and cleared their guilt.
4.2
Covering their Sins on The Day-The Day of Atonement
In Leviticus 16, we have a description of an Annual Event in the diary of
the Jews. The Day of Atonement-known by the Jews as 'Yom Kippur'. This was
the day when Israel's sins were covered. It involved the sacrifice of one
bull, and one goat (a ram was also sacrificed as a burnt offering). It was
the one day in which the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies in the
Tabernacle. The Holy of Holies being an area within the Tabernacle divided
off from the rest by a large, thick curtain. It was here that the priest met
with God and where God was in symbol. But, it was only on this day that the
High Priest, in this case Aaron, could ever go beyond the curtain.
On this day the High Priest offered the sacrifices to make Atonement for himself, his own household and the whole community of God's people (16: 17, "No one is to be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out, having made atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel.").
During this ceremony, blood was put on the lid of the ark (the "atonement cover" (NIV) or "mercy seat" (KJV) ). "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" (16: 15).
There are several things we should notice here:
There is a further thing to note. There were in fact a second goat (16: 5). The priest went into the tabernacle with two goats and draw lots between them (16: 8). The one on whom the lot fell was killed. The other was kept alive. This other goat, also fulfilled part of the day's proceeding. We read what happened to it in verse 21: The High Priest was ". . . 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 desert in the care of a man appointed for the task."
So one goat died, one goat lived. One died to atone for sins-cover sins/clear the guilt and debt of sin-the other carried the sins into a solitary place, released as it was into "a solitary place" (16: 22).
Atoning for the sins therefore included a goat's/lamb's death and a living goat removing the sins of God's people having been identified with their wickedness.
It is also worth noting that both the carcasses of the dead bull and goat, were disposed of outside the camp.
4.3 Covering their sins never stopped! ·
4.4 Old Testament writers saw that The Sacrifices were not enough
However, simply offering sacrifices never saved on their own. The heart attitude towards God, His commands and sacrifices was critical.
[Cf. 1 Kings 8: 46-48 where Solomon prays for the people, that when they sin and are given over to their enemies, but then have a change of heart, admitting their sin, then he asks that when they pray towards the temple (the place of sacrifice) that God would hear them.
5.1 The need for substitution
Isaac was not slain because a lamb was provided instead of him. That lamb was substituted for him-Genesis 22: 13, "Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son."
The idea of 'dying in the place of someone else' is inherent in the death of Jesus. Jesus died in our place.
Substitution is a key to understanding the work of God in Christ and helps us understand the many-faceted meaning of The Atonement.
An Application: 1 Corinthians 6: 19b-20, ". . . You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body."
5.2 Christ the Passover Lamb
1 Corinthians 5: 7, "Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast-as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed."
The parallels between Jesus and the Passover are many: ·
An Application: As the Egyptians died without a lamb, so the Jews were saved through the lamb. In 1 John we are told that Jesus 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). He is the one who definitely turns aside God's anger and makes peace for believers, but, he is the one to turn aside God's anger and make peace for everyone. The implication is that there is no other.
We should have no doubt that throughout the Old Testament leading up to Jesus. The sacrifice of the lamb is a necessity for salvation. Ours, and others!
5.3 Christ the sacrifice for our sins
Words such as "gave himself" (Galatians 1: 4) and "offered himself" (Hebrews 9: 14) are words of sacrifice. Romans 8: 3 and 1 Peter 3: 18 both use the term about Jesus' death as 'for sin(s)'-translated as "sin offering" in Romans because this is the idea the Greek words convey. Hebrews is specific that Jesus "was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people" (Hebrews 9: 28).
Notice in Hebrews 9: 14 that he "offered himself unblemished". He was the perfect sacrifice-he was suitable to die to cover our sins. Thus his faultless life, and his obedient action are without doubt necessary in order that he could die as the perfect Lamb of God.
An Application: Romans 12: 1-2 to offer our bodies as "living sacrifices" through the renewing of our innermost being-our minds-so that they are pleased with what God is pleased with and hence give ourselves whole heartedly.
5.4 Christ's sacrifice is not enough to save you without faith
It must be combined with repentance and faith. As the Old Testament sacrifices had to be.
5.5 Belonging to God's people means looking to the Day of Christ's Death
Christians have Day of Atonement. The day to end all others. The death of the Son for our sins. But, as seen in Leviticus 16, the atonement includes payment for our sins, but also their removal far from us. A sacrifice that covers our sins, turns away God's anger, and makes us friends with him. (Romans 3: 25, "God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished")
But because of what we see in the Old Testament, it is also clear that the Jesus Christ is the only one who can remove our sins. The reason they can be removed "as far as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103: 12), such that God "will remember their sins no more" (Hebrews 8: 12) is due to the work of God in Christ. That is why we live in the great days when we look back to our sins having been dealt with. And our sins removed so far away because He has paid for them in his death, and removed them through his life. An Application: Are you happy! Having the joy of finding such a treasure in Jesus Christ.
5.6 Jesus entered a better sanctuary to deal with our sins once and for all
Unlike the Old Testament sacrifices that never cleared sins. Jesus offered Himself once. He suffered hell on the cross, and died with the price paid, "It is finished" captures a note of triumph. Not only was he finished in the sense of dying, He had completed the task given Him.
An Application: We should have a clear conscience that are sins are dealt with because Jesus is no longer being sacrificed. He has done it all with a one time sufficient payment for our sins. Our present friendship with God is not dependent on our daily obedience, but on the past obedience and sacrifice of Christ. As the Old Testament believers could look to God for mercy, covered by the sacrifices, in the hope of One who was to come. So we can look back, knowing that someone has come and covered our sins by his own sacrifice. Given out of the loving heart of his Father who delights to make us his very own treasured possession.
Psalm 32: 1-2, "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit."