Atone: Emnity

In our study we are looking at the Atonement.

We are looking at it from every angle.

Last week we saw how the Atonement deals with sin as a Debt that we owe.

This week i want to look at sin as enmity between God and Man.

The word enmity means hostility.

If there is enmity it means that there is a state of hostility between parties.

Sin has put God and man in such a state:

Romans 8:6–8 BSB

6 The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God.

James 4:4 BSB

4 You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.

What is the reason for this hostility?

Is God being petty or emotional by taking offence to our sin?

For example:

If my cat ate my pet mouse, would i be wrong to get upset at the cat?

I don't get offended when i see ants attack and kill a beetle.

But the bible makes it clear that God is the defendant.

Psalm 139:24 BSB

24 See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the way everlasting.

Why does God take offence at our sin?

The answer is not pettiness.

The answer is what we call:

Righteous Indignation.

Psalm 7:11 BSB

11 God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation each day.

Indignation is a Latin word.

“Dignus” where the word dignity comes from.

Dignity speaks of worth.

“In” as a Latin prefix means “Not”.

So indignation is the anger that is felt when people behave or are treated in an unworthy way.

When God, as the creator and sustain or of all creation is not honored as the only one worthy of our praise and devotion - God feels indignation.

You feel this too.

Every time you are mistreated. You are treated in a way that you do not deserve.

You feel that indignation.

But it goes beyond that.

God also feels indignation every time one of His creatures, made with worth, value and dignity in His image, is also mistreated.

Again, we also feel this indignation.

Hidden camera footage.

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Now here is what you have to at least try to comprehend:

Mathematicians have estimated that 110 billion people have lived on earth so far.

That is 110 billion sinners.

Also:

73 million abortions are carried out each year.

That is 200,000 each day.

10 000 every hour.

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500,000 murders per year.

1400 a day

60 per hour.

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the numbers for rape are almost identical.

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This does not even include victims of mental, physical abuse.

Or people who have been robbed and had their livelihood stolen.

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Can you even imagine?

God is present and watches as each of these beautiful children are brutally murdered in the womb.

God wittiness how we kill each other.

The bible says that the blood of Abel cries out from the ground - can you imagine what God must hear everyday?

That God is offended by our sin, has nothing to do with God being petty.

And each day that goes by it gets worse and worse:

Romans 2:5 BSB

5 But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

So the question is:

What on earth can possibly be done?

What is needed to rectify this?

This was Job’s great cry and question as he looked at his life:

Job 9:1–29 BSB

1 Then Job answered: 2 “Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God? 3 If one wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand. 4 God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered? 5 He moves mountains without their knowledge and overturns them in His anger. 6 He shakes the earth from its place, so that its foundations tremble. 7 He commands the sun not to shine; He seals off the stars. 8 He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. 9 He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, of the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. 10 He does great things beyond searching out, and wonders without number. 11 Were He to pass by me, I would not see Him; were He to move, I would not recognize Him. 12 If He takes away, who can stop Him? Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’ 13 God does not restrain His anger; the helpers of Rahab cower beneath Him. 14 How then can I answer Him or choose my arguments against Him? 15 For even if I were right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy. 16 If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe He would listen to my voice. 17 For He would crush me with a tempest and multiply my wounds without cause. 18 He does not let me catch my breath, but overwhelms me with bitterness. 19 If it is a matter of strength, He is indeed mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him ? 20 Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty. 21 Though I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life. 22 It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’ 23 When the scourge brings sudden death, He mocks the despair of the innocent. 24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He blindfolds its judges. If it is not He, then who is it? 25 My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good. 26 They sweep by like boats of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey. 27 If I were to say, ‘I will forget my complaint and change my expression and smile,’ 28 I would still dread all my sufferings; I know that You will not acquit me. 29 Since I am already found guilty, why should I labor in vain?

Now look carefully at what he says next:

Job 9:30–35 BSB

30 If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, 31 then You would plunge me into the pit, and even my own clothes would despise me. 32 For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court. 33 Nor is there a mediator between us, to lay his hand upon us both. 34 Let Him remove His rod from me, so that His terror will no longer frighten me. 35 Then I would speak without fear of Him. But as it is, I am on my own.

When there is hostility between 2 parties, the only hope for peace is in the form of a Mediator.

Job begged for such a mediator.

This is exactly what Jesus is:

1 Timothy 2:5–6 BSB

5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all—the testimony that was given at just the right time.

Notice that the bible says plainly that there is only ONE mediator between God and man and that is Jesus Christ.

Why?

Because Jesus Christ is the only one qualified to be so.

A mediator is just what it sound like: From the Latin word “middle”.

A mediator is in the middle, a go between.

It is a person who is able to identify with BOTH parties.

Obviously as God Jesus identifies with the Father.

But Jesus had a dual nature and was also a human being and thus being fashioned in our weakness identifies with us as well.

Hebrews 4:15 BSB

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.

Jesus, as our mediator put an end to the hostility and enmity.

Ephesians 2:16 BSB

16 and reconciling both of them to God in one body through the cross, by which He extinguished their hostility.

As scripture says:

Romans 5:1 BSB

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

The biblical word for this is Propitiation:

1 John 2:2 NASB 2020

2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Summery:

Our sin is a debt that we owe to God. Jesus is our surety to settled that debt.

Our sin is an enmity that caused hostility between us and God. Jesus is our mediator who brings peace.

However we are not done because the bible also identifies our sin, not just as a debt to be paid, not just as hostility that needs to be extinguished -

But also as a crime that needs to be punished.

Next week.