The Atonement of Christ
The Atonement Of Christ:
His Fulfillment In Our Lives
Seth Dombach
Genesis through Joshua, OOT508
Dr. Richard L. Pratt, Jr.
June 25, 2007
Table of Contents
Title Page....................................................................................................i
Table of Contents..........................................................................................ii
Introduction and Thesis....................................................................................1
Meaning in Atonement....................................................................................1
Need for Atonement.......................................................................................2
Historical Background surrounding Atonement........................................................3
Accomplishment of Atonement in Christ...............................................................5
Application of Atonement.................................................................................9
Works Cited.................................................................................................12
The Atonement Of Christ:
His Fulfillment In Our Lives
Atonement is a deeply theological word with relevance and application to the life of every person on earth. I would like to explain the meaning in atonement, the need for atonement, the historical background surrounding atonement, and the fulfillment of atonement through Jesus Christ, once for all. From these, it will become evident that the application of atonement must infuse our everyday lives as Christians with grace and thankfulness.
Meaning of Atonement
To start with, in explaining the meaning of the word atonement we need to understand that there are two main Hebrew words used in the Old Testament. The first is kaphar. This word is used in the verb form meaning "to cover or make reconciliation". The second word used in the Old Testament is kippurim. This is the noun form meaning "the condition which results when one makes amends or to atone with." This word also means "the Day of Atonement" and therefore it is easy to see how the Israelites came up with the term for the Day of Atonement celebration, Yom Kippur. Most uses of the word atonement in the Old Testament involve the theological meaning of "covering over", often with the blood of a sacrifice to atone for some sin (Baker 2326).
In the New Testament, there are also two Greek words used for atonement. Vine's Dictionary gives us the definition of each. The first word is hilasmos, meaning "propitiation". Both I John 2:2 and 4:10 use this particular word, "signifying that He Himself, through the expiatory sacrifice of His death, is the personal means by whom God shows mercy to the sinner who believes on Christ as the One thus provided" (494). The second word is hilasterion, meaning "mercy seat"; which is the covering of the Ark of the Covenant. Both of these words "describe the means (in and through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, in his death on the cross by the shedding of His blood in His vicarious sacrifice for sin) by which God shows mercy to sinners" (44).
By merely looking at these definitions from the Old and New Testaments, we see that there is both a sin and a sacrifice that must be dealt with. To state the basic meaning of the word, atonement is the process of restoring a relationship that was lost. The question remains, what relationship was lost and what is the atoning price for restoring it?
Need for Atonement
The relationship that Scripture is focused on is that of the relationship between God and man. In Genesis, God gave this command to Adam "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (New King James Bible, Genesis 2:17). Adam does eat of the tree and the result is spiritual death and separation from God's intended relationship with man. Adam's decision did not just affect him, but it affects every person proceeding from Adam's line, in effect, each person born on this earth. Paul states it this way in Romans 5:12, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned".
So as we are all born into this world, we automatically inherit death because of sin. But God was to have mercy on sinners and made a way to restore this broken and lost relationship. He wanted to be 'at one' with man once again. This is His greatest desire. The way that God had made to atone for sins came at a great price; it could only come through the shedding of blood. Why blood? Leviticus 17:11 says, "For life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the alter to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul". Blood is where the life of a being is; without blood, you will die.
If you were to come upon someone who was cut up badly and you saw that there was blood all over, you would automatically assume the worst. Most of us are aware that a person needs all of their blood to function. The first thing that happens to a person with a significant loss of blood is that their muscular motion quickly ceases. Then, respiration is suspended and the heart pauses from its normal action. Any outward sign no longer manifests life and death soon becomes inevitable. In the same way that a loss of blood could produce death, so could a gain of blood restore life. As you inject blood back into a person with loss of blood, you are able to see life returning to the victim. They begin to start to breath again and move around. The heart begins its normal functions and in most cases, the person recovers completely (Jurik, "Barnes").
An example of this happened to me the other day while I was watching my 10-month-old son, Isaiah. I left the room for one moment and I heard him begin to scream. I rushed back into the room to find his little hand covered in blood. I tried to find where the cut was so that I could put pressure on it to stop the bleeding. It ended up that the cut was not too bad, but seeing my son with that much blood all over, I felt an urgency to help him that was different from other instances, such as when he slightly bumps his head. We know that life is in the blood and we know that if you loose too much of it, you will die.
To restore our relationship with God, there needs to be the shedding of blood, because that is where the life is. How, though, are we to go about this shedding of blood, that our sins might be atoned for? Hebrews 9:22 declares, "And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission".
Historical Background for Atonement
The book of Leviticus speaks on many offerings to be given up to God. Leviticus chapter 16 speaks specifically of the sin sacrifice given to God by the high priest for the people. The special instructions given to make atonement in this chapter include how the high priest could only go once a year past the veil to the holy of holies to offer blood. The high priest was also to wear holy garments that were purely white and only to be worn on this occasion. Then, the high priest was to take two kid goats from the people for the sin offering and a ram for the burnt offering. Before the high priest was to perform these sacrifices on behalf of the people, he was to offer a bull as a sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household.
Once this was completed, the high priest took the two kid goats and cast lots on them before God. Whichever goat the lot fell on was to be the goat that would be the sin offering to the land, for the people. Then, he would sprinkle the blood of this goat on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant and on the horns of the alter in the courtyard. The high priest would then take the second goat, leaving it alive, and placing both of his hands on its head, would confess over it all the iniquities of the people. He would send the goat to an uninhabited land and release it into the wilderness. This Day of Atonement was to be an everlasting statute for the high priest to perform once a year on behalf of the people's sin. Leviticus 16:30-31 says, "For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest for you and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever".
From this passage of Scripture concerning the Day of Atonement, we see that God dictates the way He is to be approached. The special procedures that God outlines for the Israelites on the Day of Atonement gives us a clear picture of the role of the high priest and the role of the people. The people needed a mediator, the high priest, to go before God on their behalf to perform these special sacrifices. The people could do nothing on behalf of their own atonement. Since God is holy and desires holy lives for His people, this was to be the condition for the acceptance of the removal of their sin. This passage shows that their removal of sin happened in such a way that it was never seen or brought up again.
It is easy to see the extra ordinary power of blood in Israelite thinking. As the life of a man, which belongs to God, the blood must be returned to God by this symbolic sacrifice. Here it is seen as affecting ransom; the life of the sacrificial animal substitutes for that of the sacrificer and the people (Linden).
The Day of Atonement is still the most celebrated time of the year for the Jewish people. But why has it happened that they do not celebrate this day in the way that God commanded in Leviticus 16? The reason why the Jews do not perform this ceremony is because they chose not to follow God and He took it away from them. Micah 3:4 says, "Then they will cry to the Lord, but He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time. Because they have been evil in their deeds". Hosea 3:4 and 5 say, "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king" (italics added). It is a horrible place to be in, when you don't have the means or consent to atone for your wrongs.
Accomplishment of Atonement
But there is hope in Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made. I believe the main reason this Day of Atonement was taken away is because of the neglect of Christ's atonement. What's more, the place where the Jews were to perform their atonement, the temple, has been destroyed and ultimately replaced. In Acts 6:13 and 14, there is an account where the Israelites of the day were disputing with the apostle Steven and they say, "This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the Law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us". As Jesus Himself prophesied in Matthew 24:12, this is exactly what happened.
Ultimately, the temple itself was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Roman Empire, a mere 40 years after Christ's death and resurrection. David H. Linden states, "In rejecting Christ, the son of David, Israel suffered a double loss. They lost their God, who had come to them in human flesh as promised, and they lost the Day of Atonement that cannot be practiced in the way the Torah stipulated". The great hope that Jews can have is that through believing in Jesus Christ and the atonement He made once for all, they can be saved from sin and death.
The New Testament or new covenant is focused on the atoning work of Christ and how to live life by the power of the Holy Spirit as a redeemed people. In chapters 9 and 10 of Hebrews, the author contrasts the work of the high priest on the Day of Atonement with that of the sacrifice that Christ has made. In this passage, it describes the limitations of the high priest and of the sacrifices he made. All of the things the high priest was to do served as a symbol for what Christ has accomplished. The passage then speaks about how Christ came to a greater tabernacle to offer His blood. This tabernacle is not made with human hands, but it is heavenly. It is not made with animal's blood, but with His very own blood. The author continues to say that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, but only covers sin. Furthermore, this section of Scripture states how Christ was our mediator, just as the high priest mediated on behalf of the people. As this passage says, Christ's sacrifice was once for all (Hebrews 10:10). Forever is final. Not to be done once a year at an appointed time, but it is finished. Christ's sacrifice was God's will for His life and because Christ accomplished what He had set out to do, the need for covering sin was abolished because sin had been completely destroyed.
The main difference between the two covenants is that the first one only covered sin and the second completely took sin away. As an example, it would be like taking a Mason jar full of water, which would represent a person, and then adding some dirt to represent sin. When the high priest would sacrifice a goat for the people, it would be like covering the Mason jar with a white cloth so you could not see the dirt. But as Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for all, it miraculously took the dirt right out of the Mason jar, making the water spotless again. F.F. Bruce states the process in this way:
The sanctification which His people receive as consequence is their inward cleansing from sin and their being made fit for the presence of God, so then hence forth, they can offer Him acceptable worship. It is a sanctification that has taken place once for all in this sense: it is as unrepeatable as the sacrifice that affects it. (236)
Romans 3:23-25 states how we all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, but how God set forth Jesus as propitiation by His own blood to demonstrate His righteousness, so that God now passes over sins that were previously committed. Thus, Christ has now become our substitutionary atonement. In Isaiah 53:4-6, the prophet gives a description of this future event accomplished by Christ Jesus:
Surely, He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed...and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Through this prophetic passage, we see how Christ suffered on our behalf, bearing all our sins upon Himself. In II Corinthians 5:21, Paul explains substitutionary atonement this way, "For He made Christ who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him".
I have often tied to visualize all that Christ did on my behalf. The Israelites saw what was happening to the goats on the Day of Atonement and they knew that the goats were the recipients of what the Israelites themselves deserved. When I saw The Passion of the Christ movie, the main thought that resounded with me the entire time was that Christ is receiving my punishment. I am the one that deserves the pain and suffering. But what a gift of grace He has given us! Matthew Henry, in his commentary concerning Christ's substitutionary atonement, says, "that it was for our sins and in our stead that our Lord Jesus suffered. We are saved from the rain to which by sin we became liable, by laying our sins on Christ. This atonement was to be made for our sins and by His sufferings He purchased for us the spirit and grace of God" (Jurik, "Complete").
Is there a greater free gift the world has ever known then that of God's gift to man by sending His Son as atonement for the sin of the world? It's hard to think that this great gift was blood, the blood of a pure and sinless man. I had never thought of it this way before, but when I share the testimony of Christ to someone, I am offering that person the blood of Christ Jesus, just as I have received it. Christ knew this very well, that blood makes atonement for the soul. During the Lord's Supper, before His death and resurrection, Jesus said to His disciples, "Drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matthew 26:28). As Christ institutes a new covenant and a new way to be reminded of His glorious blood and body given to us, we don't have to wait once a year at an appointed time, but can rejoice with the body of Christ often to celebrate and be reminded of Christ's substitutionary atonement through communion. James P. Boyce sums up all of these things when he says:
Christ's work was a real sacrifice; that by His blood He procured pardon, peace, redemption and remission of sins for those whom He represented. The work here done was a sacrifice and was completely accomplished. We have here a sacrifice by Christ in His death; through His blood peace is affected and forgiveness of sins; not just the means, but also the things themselves, actual forgiveness and peace. (335)
Application of Atonement
Now that we have actual forgiveness and peace through Christ's atoning work, the question remains, how are we to live in light of being forgiven of sins through Christ's atonement? Paul says in II Corinthians 5:14-15, "For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus; that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again".
Now through atonement, all can have life. Not to live for pleasure or selfish gain, but rather to return a devoted life to Him who freely gave it back to us. Matthew Henry's commentary says:
We should not make ourselves, but Christ, the end of our living and actions, and it was one end of Christ's death to cover us of this self-love, and to excite us always to get under the commanding influence of His love. A Christian's life should be consecrated to Christ and then do we live as we ought to live when we live to Christ, who died for us. (Jurik, "Concise")
Practicing this in my life, I believe will be a life long process of learning how to die to myself daily. I have confidence that my old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with that I should no longer be a slave to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ (Romans 6:6). This recognition of regeneration helps me to focus on life and not death, which in turn keeps my life sold out for God.
The most important way that we are to live in light of our atonement is to rest in the fact that it has been completely taken care of, free of charge. Just as the Israelites were to rest and afflict their souls during the Day of Atonement, we should also take time out to specifically remember the price that Christ paid on our behalf. Whether it is through communion or taking quiet time away to thank Him, it is utterly important for us to show God the importance that His atonement has on our lives. C.S Spurgeon states that the atonement of Christ is so completely accomplished that for me to do anything but rest in that fact would be an insult to our great God. He says it like this:
When I am fullest of joy, I could weep my life away at Jesus' feet. Nothing is more really sweet than the bitterness of repentance. Nothing is more healthful than self-abhorrence, mixed with the grateful love, which hides itself in the wounds of Jesus. The purified people were to rest; they were to rest from all servile work. Salvation as to its meritorious cause is complete; we will not think of beginning it over again, for that would be an insult to the Savior. It is finished, saith the Lord, as he bowed His dear triumphant head and gave up the ghost; and if it is finished, we will not dream of adding to it. It is finished; He is at the right hand of the Father. (430)
In conclusion, it is clear that there is great power in the meaning of the word atonement. It not only informs us of our sins, but also makes us painfully aware of the need for propitiation, the need for a savior. Through the history and the lives of the Israelite people, one can see how God made a way to cover over the sins of the people. Through the life of Jesus Christ, one can see how the fulfillment of atonement has taken place, once for all. Christ has paid it all and says to the Christian, come to me and find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29). "Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou biddst me come to Thee. O Lamb of God, I come, I come" (Elliott).
Works Cited
Baker, Warren, Tim Rake, and David Kemp, eds. The Complete Word Study Old Testament, King James Version. Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 1994.
Berkhof, Louis. "Summary of Christian Doctrine: The Atonement Through Christ" Sola Scriptura! 2005. Presbyterian Churches in America. 26 Feb. 2006.
< http://www.mbrem.com/shorttakes/berk17.htm >
Boyce, James P. Abstract of Systematic Theology. 1887. Introduction by Ernest C. Reisinger. Louisville: Christian Gospel Foundation, Unknown.
Bruce, F.F. The Epistle to the Hebrews. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1964.
Calvin, John. The Acts of the Apostles Volume Two. Calvin's Commentaries 19. Ed. Henry Beveridge. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003.
Dabney, Robert Lewis. "Nature of Christ's Sacrifice." Grace Online Library. 2001. Brian Dempsey. 21 Feb. 2006. < http://www.graceonlinelibrary.org >
Dillard, Raymond B. and Tremper Longman III. An Introduction to the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994.
Elliott, Charlotte. Just as I am. Public Domain. 1836.
Fox, Everett. The Five Books of Moses. The Schocken Bible: Volume 1. New York: Schocken Books, 1995.
Jurik, Ivan. Theophilos 3. Computer software. "The Revised Barnes Notes on the Old Testament and the New Testament." Ivan Jurik, 1997-2004. n.pag. Version 3.1.6.
----. Theophilos 3. Computer Software. "Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary." Ivan Jurik, 1997-2004. n.pag. Version 3.1.6.
----. Theophilos 3. Computer Software. "Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary." Ivan Jurik, 1997-2004. n.pag Version 3.1.6.
Linden, David H. "The Lord Jesus Christ, the Suffering Servant." David Linden's Theological Papers. 14 Nov. 2005. Action International Ministries. 24 Feb. 2006.
< http://www.grebeweb.com/linden/index.html >
Machen, J. Gresham. "The Atonement." Reformation Ink. 1997. Shane Rosenthal. 22 Feb. 2006. < http://homepage.mac.com/shanerosenthal/reformationink/jgmatonement.htm >
Spurgeon, Charles H. Pulpit Legends: Christ in the Old Testament. Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 1994.
The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1988.
The Passion of the Christ. Dir. Mel Gibson. With Jim Caviezel, Monica Bellucci, Maia Morgenstern, and Sergio Rubini. 20th Century Fox, 2004.
Vine, W.E, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr. Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996.
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