Christology 2 Lecture 1
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In part 1 of our Christology class series we studied the Person of Christ, his full Deity and full humanity in one person. We learned that he will be Jesus Christ forever a God-man.
We who have believed in him will also have a body like his forever. Because of this hope we purify ourselves even as he is pure.
In part 2 or our Christology class series we will study the Work that Christ did on the cross.
In the next three lectures we will study the Cause, Necessity and Nature of the Atonement.
The last three lectures we will examine Jesus Resurrection, Ascension and the offices of Christ as prophet, priest and king.
The Atonement
Was it necessary for Christ to die? Did Christ’s entire earthly life earn any saving benefits for us?
In today’s lecture we are going to begin to answer these by looking at the Atonement in three ways:
Explanation and Scriptural Basis
The Cause of the Atonement
The Necessity of the Atonement.
Explanation and Scriptural Basis
The word ‘atonement’ is one of the few theological terms which derive basically from Anglo-Saxon. It means ‘a making at one’, and points to a process of bringing those who are estranged into a unity. The word occurs in the OT to translate words from the kpr word group, and it is found once in the NT (av), rendering katallagē (which is better translated ‘reconciliation’ as rsv). Its use in theology is to denote the work of Christ in dealing with the problem posed by the sin of man, and in bringing sinners into right relation with God.
We may define the atonement as follows:
The atonement is the work Christ did in his life and death to earn our salvation.
Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
The term is not just used of “Jesus’ dying and paying for our sins on the cross” but also of saving benefits also come from Christ’s life.
A. The Cause of the Atonement
A. The Cause of the Atonement
What was the ultimate cause that led to Christ’s coming to earth and dying for our sins?
We go back o the character of God himself.
The Scriptures point to two things: the love and justice of God
The most familiar passage of the Bible:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
But the justice of God also required that the penalty due to us for sins would be paid.
God could not accept us into fellowship with himself unless the penalty was paid.
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
God’s righteousness is his “justice” being practiced or lived out.
The word “Propitiation” is the sending away of the wrath of God.
Therefore the Love and the Justice of God were the ultimate cause of the Atonement.
Which one is more important? Love? Justice? Both are of equal importance.
Without the love of God he would have never taken steps to redeem us.
Without the justice of God, the specific requirement that Christ should earn our salvation by dying for our sins would not have been met.
Both the love and the justice of God were equally important.
The cause of the Atonement was the love and justice of God.
We are more sinful than we can ever imagine and more loved than we can ever dare to be.
Next we want to look at the Necessity of the Atonement....
B. The Necessity of the Atonement
B. The Necessity of the Atonement
First, all are sinners
“If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near,
They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
The seriousness of sin is seen in passages like..
You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?
but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
For the sinner, judgement awaits:
but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
He cannot deal with his sin
But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.
Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”?
yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
If God had to send Jesus than the situation was serious...
But...
Was there any other way for God to save human beings than by sending his Son to die in our place?
God didnt have to save anybody!
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
God could have chosen this for us as well! This would have been perfect justice.
So, in one sense, Atonement was not necessary...
The atonement was only necessary as a “consequence” of God’s decision to save some human beings.
This is called the “consequent absolute necessity” view of the atonement.
In the Garden Jesus Prayed,
And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
It was necessary for Jesus to die for us to be saved...
Jesus said something simular on the Road to Emmaus
And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
He was able to show this from the OT
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
This was a plan that was long prepared before the foundation of the world...
And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
God’s plan of redemption made it necessary for the Messiah to die for the sins of his people.
It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Hebrews show us that Christ had to suffer for our sins...
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
A better sacrifice was required
Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Only by the blood of Christ...
Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
There was no other way for God to save us but through the Atonement by the death of a perfect spotless lamb.
From man’s standpoint...
The need for atonement is brought about by three things, the universality of sin, the seriousness of sin and man’s inability to deal with sin
From God’s perspective...
The Atonement wasn’t necessary (God didn’t have to) but because God had a plan of redemption he had to make a way to atone for sin through the death of his only son.
This was all for the praise of His glory.
Next week we will look at the Nature of the Atonement.