Lesson 10: What Is the Atonement?

(Continuing our study through Wayne Grudem’s Christian Beliefs workbook)

This of the greatest rivalry you know… now go beyond that and think of the strongest hatred you know… next try to think of something more (far apart) than a holy God and sinful humans: holy vs sinful, God versus human, one versus billions. As undeserving as we are, that makes this verse so special:

Matthew 1:21⠀21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Jesus Christ was born to die so that after death we could live. But, there would be a great price to pay for that to happen.

Jesus died for his people… both Israel and the world.

John 1:10–12⠀10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Jesus Christ made an atonement for our sins. But what does that mean?

ATONEMENT The means of reconciliation between God and people. Emerges in the Old Testament as part of the sacrificial system; reframed exclusively around the person and work of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.¹

Jesus did save his people from their sins—both through the life he lived and through the death he died. The work Jesus did in living and dying to earn our salvation is sometimes referred to as the atonement.²

The Cause of the Atonement

A surface need: sin

Isaiah 59:2⠀2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, And your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

A foundational motive: love and righteousness

Romans 3:23–26⠀23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

John 3:16–17⠀16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

The Necessity of the Atonement

We must remember that God did not HAVE to save us. Again, he could have treated us like the angels.

2 Peter 2:4⠀4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

Jude 6⠀6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

But God did choose to save us. But for God to save us and to be righteous as Romans so well teaches, sin would not have been brushed under the rug.

When unrighteousness is ignored, there is something in us that gets angry and realizes a wrong has been done. The question is this: does that emotion reflect the devil or does it reflect the nature of God? It reflects God (for Satan loves to have sin hidden and ignored). The reason we feel upset when wronged or angry when injustice happens is because even as sinners we are still in the image of God.

Now imagine God, the simple God. Simple as in his attributes are not 10% or 25% of who he is, but he is entirely holy, just, and righteous.

That requires that sin be punished.

The heart of the atonement is that Jesus Christ is our substitute and takes our punishment for us.

2 Corinthians 5:21⠀21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Prior to the cross, it was necessary

Luke 22:41–44⠀41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, 42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. 43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Jonathan Edwards on the love of Jesus Christ in the garden:

The love of any mere man or angel would doubtless have sunk under such a weight, and never would have endured such a conflict in such a bloody sweat as that of Jesus Christ. The anguish of Christ’s soul at that time was so strong as to cause that wonderful effect on his body. But his love to his enemies, poor and unworthy as they were, was stronger still. The heart of Christ at that time was full of distress, but it was fuller of love to vile worms: his sorrows abounded, but his love did much more abound. Christ’s soul was overwhelmed with a deluge of grief, but this was from a deluge of love to sinners in his heart sufficient to overflow the world, and overwhelm the highest mountains of its sins. Those great drops of blood that fell down to the ground were a manifestation of an ocean of love in Christ’s heart. The strength of Christ’s love more especially appears in this, that when he had such a full view of the dreadfulness of the cup that he was to drink, that so amazed him, he would notwithstanding even then take it up, and drink it.

After the cross, its necessity is reflected on

The Old Testament prophesied of an atonement that required sacrifice:

Luke 24:25–27⠀25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

The Nature of the Atonement

Physical Realities with realer Spiritual Realities

Example: WWDC 2024 new software demos compared to the interview of two employees on the Swift programming team.

The Old Testament never reveals what transpires on a metaphysical level when a sacrifice is offered to God. Instead, the Torah focuses on the means of atonement, describing the specific, necessary steps to reach reconciliation.³

Before the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, there were three decades of sinlessness. This is why we could have the GREAT EXCHANGE of 2 Corinthians 5:21 mentioned above.

Christ had to live a life of perfect obedience to God so that the positive merits of that obedience could be counted for us.⁴

Romans 5:19⠀19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

The Old Testament sacrifice of the passover required that a lamb was inspected for four days (Exodus 12:3–6). But Jesus Christ lived a blemish-free life for decades.

And then, the offering was made. What the people mocking and torturing him could not see was that behind the veil, there was a transaction taking place that might have looked simple (paying with a tap) but a official purchase of the greatest object—human souls—by the greatest buyer—the Son of God—was taking place:

Hebrews 9⠀1 Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. 2 For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. 3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; 4 Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; 5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly. 6 Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 7 But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: 8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. 11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. 18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. 19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, 20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. 21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. 22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: 25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

The Result of the Atonement

What is the result of Jesus Christ death for us?

As we think of Father’s Day, there are probably a wide range of emotions:

1. Anonymous fathers
2. Absent fathers
3. Average fathers
4. Amazing fathers

But no matter what you think of when you hear the word “father,” the person in your mind is not so perfect that they don’t need what we are talking about this morning. They are sinners.

So what is the result of the atonement of Jesus Christ?

1 John 3:1–2⠀1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

We have experienced a love this world could never show from a Father this world could never deserve who has only showed us a drop in the bucket of what he is going to do for us when we see him.

Romans 5:8–11⠀8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

1. D. Brockway, “Atonement,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016). ↩
2. Wayne A. Grudem, Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know, ed. Elliot Grudem (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 72. ↩
3. D. Brockway, “Atonement,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Concise Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021). ↩
4. Wayne A. Grudem, Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know, ed. Elliot Grudem (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 73. ↩