At the heart of the Christian faith is the doctrine of the Atonement. All that has been said about the Incarnation now points in the direction of the Atonement, for “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim.
1:15)-and the way by which that sal- vation became possible was through atonement.
I. MEANING
,Quite literally and truly, the word atonement is “at-one-merit.“‘’ It means to be, or cause to be, at one. It may refer to the end realized, an accom- plished oneness, or the process whereby oneness is achieved. It is the latter which is more clearly the focus of the doctrine, namely, how the oneness is brought about. Certain obstacles stand in the way: it is only by their removal through some “at-one-ing” ac- tion that oneness can again be a reality.
To look a bit further: atonement is related particularly to overcoming a
serious breach between two parties. It signifies taking some action that can make satisfactory reparation for an of- fense or injury and to cancel out the evil effects so that the two parties can be together again.
Atonement thus means “reconcilia- tion.” For to reconcile is to restore to harmony; it is to bring together those who are estranged from each other.
The word “atonement” takes on its profoundest meaning only when it re- fers to the relationship between God and man. There is a wide and deep separation, brought about by man’s sin, that man cannot overcome. God Him- self at fearful cost stepped into the situation and through His Son Jesus Christ provides the way to restoration of unity. In this way He brings about atonement or reconciliation.
Thus the apostle Paul writes, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself’ (2 Cor. 5:19). Again, “when we were enemies, we were reconciled
‘The word “atonement” is an Anglo-Saxon term deriving from the sixteenth century.
According to the New Oxford Dictionary it first appeared as two separate words, “at onement,” and referred only to harmonious personal relationships. By the seventeenth century the one word “atonement” had come increasingly to be used as a quasi-theological term (e.g., as frequently in the KJV of the Bible [16l I]).
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to God by the death of his Son . . . not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement”*
(Rom. 5: lo- 11 KJV). Atonement, recon- ciliation through Jesus Christ, is indeed reason for great rejoicing!
II. PROBLEM
The basic problem to which atone- ment is related is twofold: who God is and what man has become. A careful consideration of each aspect is essential in viewing the wonder of the Atone- ment .
A. Who God Is3
God is a God of love and mercy in Himself and in all His ways. Hence, He looks with great compassion on His sinful creatures, feels all their weak- nesses and infirmities, and takes no delight in their punishment. This divine love and mercy has been evidenced from the beginning when, after the first sin and fall, God Himself clothed the man and the woman with “garments of skins” (Gen. 3:21); this was a token of His tender love and care. In relation to Israel God declared Himself through Moses: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exod. 34:6). Later, de- spite His punishment of Israel even to their foreign captivity, God cried out through the prophet Hosea: “How can I give you up, 0 Ephraim! How can I hand you over, 0 Israel! . . . My heart recoils within me, my compassion -
grows warm and tender. . . . I will not again destroy Ephraim” (Hosea 11%
9). God is ever loving and merciful toward His sinful and disobedient peo- ple.
In the New Testament God’s love is further emphasized in that it relates to all mankind. The climactic statement of this undoubtedly is John 3:16-“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
This love is all the more shown in that the world God loved is sinful and evil.
In the words of Paul: “God demon- strates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8 NIV). God’s love is beyond all comprehension.
The love of God in relation to sinful man reaches out across the chasm to embrace all people. Yet how is that possible, since God is also holy and righteous? Let us turn to this next.
God is a God of holiness and right- eousness in Himself and in all His ways. He finds sin and evil intolerable.
He is “of purer eyes than to behold evil” (Hab. 1:13); hence He cannot overlook sin. When man and woman originally sinned, though they were clothed by Him after their fall, they were severely punished and removed from His presence: God “drove out the man [ = man and woman]” (Gen. 3:24).
As the Old Testament unfolds, God is shown to act in vengeance against a world filled with violence by sending a flood; in relation to Israel He at times was angered to the point of nearly 2Modem translations generally have “reconciliation” rather than “atonement.” This would seem proper in light of the fact that the Greek word is katallag2 which, in verbal form, is translated “reconciled” in the prior verse above and elsewhere in the New Testament. I have retained the KJV translation to show how interchangeable the two terms are.
31n what follows, the sequence of God as love and mercy, holiness and righteousness, truth and faithfulness is different from what I wrote in chapter 3, “God,” in that I dealt with God’s holiness before God’s love. The shift in my present chapter does not mean less emphasis on holiness (this will be apparent from what follows); rather it highlights love as the central thrust of the Atonement. As was said in the former chapter, “God is centrally the God of love,” p. 63.
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destroying them. Also there is frequent reference in both the Old and New Testaments to God’s fierce judgments coming on sinful nations and peoples.
In this sense God is a God of wrath.
Paul writes in Romans: “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men”
(1:18). So it is that all mankind stands under God’s wrath, for as Paul later declares: “None is righteous, no, not one” (3:lO). Indeed, as Paul says in Ephesians, “We were by nature chil- dren of wrath” (2:3), and “The wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedi- ence” (5:6). The Book of Revelation again and again depicts the wrath of God being poured out upon an evil and unrepentant race.4 The wrath of God is the continuing expression of God’s holi- ness and righteousness against sin and evil.
The holiness of God over against the sinfulness of man has created a vast breach. Hence, despite God’s love and mercy, reconciliation would seem all the more impossible.
God is a God of truth and faithfulness in Himself and in all His ways. Accord- ingly, He does nothing in relation to man that is out of conformity with His own character and the sinful condition of man. As the God of truth He cannot minimize either love or holiness. He acts in total integrity and is faithful to maintain every promise.
Therefore, when God provides an atonement for the human race, there is no compromise. He does not hold back His love because of His own purity and righteousness, nor does He slight His holiness (for example, by winking at sin) in order to embrace His sinful creatures. Rather, God acts true to Himself in total love and holiness.
THE ATONEMENT How God does this is the wonder of the Atonement.
B. What Man Has Become Man is a sinner before God. In rela- tion to God, man’s thoughts and actions are futile, his heart is insensitive, and he walks in disobedience. He is prey to innumerable sicknesses and infirmities, to many worldly harassments, and there hangs over him the ever-present threat of death. Hence, despite the many positive things in life, there is a deep undercurrent of anxiety and fear, root- ed in man’s sinful situation.
Man has become an idolater-one who, whatever the lip service to God, is deeply committed to the things of this world. Likewise, there is an ingrained self-centeredness that, whatever the show of concern for others, pervades his every action. Man neither truly loves God nor his neighbor, and so again and again breaks the command- ments in relation to both. Dishonoring God-having other gods before him- and making use of other people: such is mankind’s continuing situation. Out of this prevailing condition flows every manner of evil: from hostility toward God to violence against humanity.
Man is a guilty sinner meriting pun- ishment. As soon as the first man and woman had sinned against God, they felt shame and guilt, seeking to cover their nakedness (Gen. 3:7) and hiding themselves from God (v. 8). Immedi- ately after the Fall they were punished:
the woman was subjected to pain in childbearing and the man to toil on cursed ground (Gen. 3: 16-19). Later God declared about Himself: “He will by no means leave the guilty unpun- ished” (Exod. 34:7 NASB). Guilt and punishment go together.
Deep within the human race is a 4The Greek words orgP and thymes, translated as “wrath” (“the wrath of God,” “the wrath of the Lamb,” etc.), occur sixteen times in Revelation.
5For a much fuller elaboration of this section see chapter 11, “The Effects of Sin.”
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sense of guilt and condemnation that is ineradicable. Man knows, however much he may try to cover it up, that he is deeply in the wrong before God and stands under God’s fierce judgment.
Physical death is in itself an aspect of God’s punishment. God’s words to man after the first sin also include the decla- ration “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3: 19). Beyond phys- ical death is the far worse punishment of spiritual death, which results in eter- nal punishment.6 Death, physical and spiritual, grips all mankind.
Man is a sinner in bondage. He is actually a slave of sin, subject to its dictates and unable to be freed from its domination. The exile of the first man and woman from Eden with the “flam- ing sword” (Gen. 3:24) barring reen- trance points up their estrangement from God and the impossibility of re- turn. The Old Testament is the continu- ing record of a human race that is totally corrupt (Gen. 6-at the time of the Flood) and vain (Gen. 11 -the tower of Babel), and of a people (Israel) who, despite deliverance from earthly bondage in Egypt, constantly turned from God and His commandments.
Thus are they in spiritual bondage.
Accordingly, even the law that God gave them was, because of their bond- age to sin, not a way of life but of death.
It is increasingly apparent that the root of bondage is the evil power, Satan, that first tempted the man and the woman. By succumbing to tempta- tion then and thereafter, the human race lives under his dominion. In the New Testament Jesus calls Satan “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31), signifying that humanity was under Satan’s au- thority.
Man as sinful and fallen is man helplessly in bondage.
The problem that emerges from who God is and what man has become is
great indeed. First, God, who is loving and gracious, does not desire the pun- ishment and death of any of His crea- tures. Yet in His holiness and righteous- ness He cannot tolerate their sin and evil. This does not mean a tension within God, as if there was a confIict between love and holiness, for God is wholly love and wholly righteousness.
Hence when He acts, He does so without conflict or compromise. So is He also wholly true in His every action toward sinful man. Second, man cannot change his sinful condition, cleanse his guilt, or overcome his bondage. He cannot truly keep God’s command- ments-or return to His presence.
Death, both temporal and eternal, is his tragic destiny. The human situation is utterly hopeless unless God provides a way out.
Thus the way that God does act to bring about at-one-ment-the reconcili- ation of the world-is beyond all hu- man devising. For in it is displayed the infinite wisdom of God, in which mercy and righteousness and truth are con- joined; the eternal power of God, by which the act of atonement is put into operation; and the unaltering presence of God that carries His plan through to ultimate fulfillment.
III. METHOD
The way God worked out the recon- ciliation of the world was through the death of Jesus Christ. I repeat again the words of Paul: “We were reconciled by the death of his Son.” In this simple statement is found the amazing, human- ly inconceivable way that God has taken to bring about atonement. In the death of Christ is our at-one-ment with God.
The death of Christ is the primary focus of the gospel, the good news of salvation. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received,”
“In Matthew 25:46 Jesus referred to “eternal punishment” (see also 2 Thess. 1:9; Jude 7).
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says Paul, “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures”
(1 Cor. 15:3). For it is in Christ’s death for our sins that God brought about our reconciliation to Himself.
Let us recall for a moment who it was who died. On the one hand it was the eternal Son of God, who had become flesh; on the other hand, it was the Son of man totally identical with all mankind ,except for sin. As the one person, Jesus Christ, He lived a life of complete obedience to the Father’s will so that His death was that of One who is holy and righteous. Hence, His death was not the result of His sin, as with all others of mankind; it was, as Paul says,
“for our sins.”
Thus we come to the critical center of the death of Christ. Since it was for our sins, His death was a sacrifice. It could not be for His sins, for He had none, but for ours; thus it was a sacrificial death. The New Testament rings with the note of this sacrifice. John the Baptist, at the beginning of Jesus’ min- istry, cried: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
(John 1:29). In the Book of Revelation myriad voices in heaven acclaim,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain”
(512). Paul speaks of Christ as “our Passover Lamb [who] has been sac- rificed” (1 Cor. 57 NIV). Hebrews iden- tifies Christ as our great High Priest who “has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself’ (9:26). Christ as the Lamb who was slain and Christ as the High Priest who offered Himself:
such representations are images of sac- rifice.
Let us look more closely at several aspects of Christ’s sacrifice. It was once for all. In the figure of the great High Priest, “he entered once for all into the Holy Place” (Heb. 9: 12); He “appeared once for all at the end of the age to put
THE ATONEMENT
away sin by the sacrifice of himself’
(v. 26). Paul writes, “The death he died he died to sin, once for all” (Rom.
6:lO). Thus the yearly repetition of sacrifices called for in the Old Testa- ment is no longer necessary. The Day of Atonement (Lev. 16) on which the high priest annually entered into the holy place to make sacrifices has been replaced by the one great sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ! It has been done, and no further sacrifice for sin can ever be in order again.
It was the sacrifice of Himself. Again Hebrews declares, “He has no need, like those [Old Testament] hiih priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people: he did this once for all when he offered up himself’ (7:27). The amazing, incred- ible fact is that Christ was both priest and victim, both sacrificer and sacrifice.
Thus even as days of sacrifice are no more, so animal sacrifices have been eliminated. Christ, the eternal Son of God in human flesh, died on our behalf.
It was a sacrifice without blemish.
Christ “through the eternal Spirit of- fered himself without blemish to God”
(Heb. 9:14). He was “a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:19).7 This was the climax of His whole life of obedience and purity: His death was the offering of a holy and perfect sacrifice.
Finally, we may observe the biblical emphasis on the blood of Christ. It is
“the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14); it is the high priest “taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood”
(Heb. 9:12). Indeed, it is “by the blood of the cross” that God has made recon- ciliation: “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col.
1:19-20).
Through the blood of Christ’s sac-
7This is prefigured in the unblemished paschal lamb of Exodus l2:5 (cf. I Cor. 5:7).
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rificial death God has wrought the mighty work of reconciliation.
IV. CONTENT
What happened in the death of Jesus Christ that made possible the reconcili- ation of all things? How through Christ’s sacrifice was atonement brought about? In answering these questions, we will observe three things.
A. Identification-He Shared Our Lot Christ was identified with all of sinful mankind in His death. Paul writes that
“for our sake he [God] made him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the right- eousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Again Christ became “a curse for us-for it is written, ‘Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree’ ” (Gal. 3: 13). All of this was voluntary on Christ’s part-to be identified with sin, to become a curse for all mankind.
We may look back before the death of Christ through the Gospels and ob- serve how Jesus was constantly identi- fying Himself with people. Love and compassion were the keynote of His life. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36). He reached out to the sorrowing, the dis- eased, the blind, the lame-sensing their deep need, sharing their pain, becoming one with them. The prophet Isaiah spoke of the coming Messiah:
“Surely he has borne our griefs8 and carried our sorrows”9 (Isa. 53:4). This was true throughout His life. He reached out to physical and spiritual infirmities, touching blind eyes, deaf
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ears, withered hands. As He identified with their misery, His healing was poured into them.
Moreover, He was always where the sinners (the tax collectors, the harlots, etc.) were, feeling their sin and shame in Himself. To the woman taken in adultery He declared, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again”
(John 8:ll). Without approving her sin, He identified with her situation, her self-condemnation and guilt, and for- gave her. He was “numbered with the transgressors” (Isa. 53: 12)lO not only in death but also throughout life.
Doubtless, the most incredible iden- tification of all was with His enemies:
hailing Judas as “friend” (Matt. 26:50) even in the hour of Jesus’ betrayal, healing the ear of the high priest’s servant at His arrest (Luke 22:50-51), and climactically crying out from the cross concerning those who tortured him; “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
The very moment of their most intense hostility was the supreme moment of His identification with them.
But it was in His death on the cross that He became totally identified with all the sin of the human race. He died as a criminal between two thieves as a token of His identification with all the evil and wickedness of the world. Christ became the one great Sinner. As the Son of God He could reach out to the whole world in its sinfulness and death and embrace it as His own; as the Son of man He could do this not from afar but in our own flesh.
All of this means that Christ in His great love and compassion was taking
HThe Hebrew word is &liiyPnri, “sicknesses” (RSV mg.), cf. NASB; the NIV r e a d s
“infirmities.”
9The Hebrew word is mak (708ni(, “pains” (RSV and NASB mg.). Both translations in this verse are lexically possible, because as BDB notes, the word may be understood either physically or mentally.
10Cf. Luke 22:37.
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the place of the evildoer. Thus it was- incredible to relate-Christ in our place, Christ our substitute, Christ dy- ing for you and for me. It was Christ a vicarious sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. There was nothing me- chanical or forced about this. In one sense “the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6), but in another He was voluntarily taking it to Himself. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).
For herein God in His infinite love and mercy, and in our flesh, was made a curse for us that we might be forever blessed.
B. Subjection-He Bore Our Punishment
As we focus yet more intensely on the cross, we recognize that it was not simply Christ’s sharing our sin but also bearing our punishment. Is this possible to believe? Listen: “He was pierced11 f o r o u r transgressions, he was crushed’* for our iniquities; the punish- ment that brought us peace was upon him” (Isa. 53:5 NIV). One step more: “it was the LO R D’S will to crush him”
(53:10 NIV). But how could this be? The answer is unmistakable. As the one great Sinner-the one who had become sin, the one who was accursed beyond all that ever lived-all the wrath of God Almighty was poured out upon Him.
The head of the serpent was someday to be crushed (Gen. 3:15),‘3 but at this moment Christ had become so iden- tified with evil that the crushing was on Him. This weight of the divine fury
THE ATONEMENT
directed against sin at the cross is humanly inconceivable. For at Calvary all the sin of all the world was receiving the outpoured vials of divine wrath. It was for Christ alone to bear that awe- some punishment and to experience its indescribable torment and anguish.
So did He cry forth the most agoniz- ing cry the world has ever heard: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34). The Son of God, having so become sin that the Father could not look upon Him, now experienced the horrible God-for- sakenness that belongs to hell itself.
Please, this was not a bloody sacrifice to placate a vengeful deity who in sadistic evil was venting His malice upon an innocent victim. But (listen!) this was God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, enduring our con- demnation and punishment, dying for the sins of all mankind.
Christ bore our punishment! Our wholly deserved judgment and death He has fully borne. This is vicarious punishment- beyond all human meas- ure. Christ experienced (who can com- prehend it?) the full consequences of our sinful condition-forsakenness, abandonment by God, damnation it- self.14 He has taken our place, He has received the judgment upon Himself, He has gone all the way.
Hence, there is no longer need for anyone to live in fear or anxiety about the judgments of God. To be sure, He is a God of holiness, righteousness, and purity who cannot tolerate even an iota of sin, whose wrath is a consuming fire lIThe Hebrew word is m+%il, “pierced through” (NASB).
‘*The Hebrew word is me&kkd, “tortured” (N E B) .
IjThe Hebrew word is y~~~~kci, “he will crush your head” (N I V) .
‘4In the Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 44, the reply to the question “Why is there added: ‘He descended into hell’ [in the Apostles’ Creed]?” is given: “That in my severest tribulations I may be assured that Christ my Lord redeemed me from hellish anxieties and torment by the unspeakable anguish, pains, and terrors which he suffered in his soul both on the cross and before.” Not all would agree that this is the meaning of the statement, “He descended into hell”; however, I believe that the Heidelberg Catechism’s interpretation shows deep insight into the significance of Christ’s anguish on the cross for us.
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