He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
I Peter 2: 24 (ESV)
Atonement can be a churchy word that we don’t understand. While we know it is a repayment for a wrong, we don’t know how it applies to Jesus. This devotion looks at how Jesus is the atonement or our sins.
Nuggets
- Atonement — along with justification, propitiation, and sanctification — addresses Jesus on the cross.
- Sometimes, we might like to think that Jesus was able to endure this horrible punishment because He was 100% God as well as 100% man.
- Jesus as God became a man to substitute Himself to take the punishment we deserved to restore our relationship with God.
- Jesus’ blood provided the atonement.
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Atonement can be a churchy word. Not necessarily the definition — we get that it is about repayment for a wrong. We just have a little trouble sometimes — with it being a noun — in understanding how Jesus is it.
Let’s see if we can break some things down.
Let's Put It into Context
Atonement — along with justification, propitiation, and sanctification — addresses Jesus on the cross.
The problem is we look at Jesus on the cross as being a really extreme time out issue. God got really angry, and Jesus, as substitute, caught the brunt of our punishment.
It didn’t work that way. God sent Jesus and Jesus went to and was held on the cross by love, not anger.
We don’t actually know how many years it was between Adam and Jesus. Let’s just say it was a really, really long time.
And God was supposed to keep His mad on for that long? Wow! That would have been some grudge!
Remember, God is love (I Jn. 4: 8). Out of this unfailing love comes mercy. All God does for us comes out of His love for us. Let’s see what we can see here.
Jesus as the Atonement for Our Sins
“Behold, my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. As many were astonished at him — his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of men” (Isa. 52: 13-14 RSV).
I guess it easy to see Jesus as the recipient of God’s wrath. Isaiah 52 and 53 identifies Him as the Suffering Servant. And suffer He did!
Sometimes, we might like to think that Jesus was able to endure this horrible punishment because He was 100% God as well as 100% man. But what does that mean?
Jesus died just as the other two men with Him that day did. So, in a way, we can’t say He got through the incident any differently than anyone else did. That was the 100% man part.
The 100% God part could have gotten him down from that cross. He could have ended the pain and humiliation any time He wanted.
Ten Thousand Angels
Vocalist: Elaine Guthals
Pianist: Chris Vieth
But Jesus didn’t. He patiently suffered until He gave His life for us (Lk. 23: 46).
We have to remember that this was exactly why Jesus was born into this world. Jesus as God became a man to substitute Himself to take the punishment we deserved to restore our relationship with God.
That is what atonement is all about. It is about love and willingness to be the payment for our sins. “He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them” (II Cor. 5: 51 NLT).
Jesus’ Blood as the Atonement for Our Sins
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Leviticus 17:11 (ESV)
We have to be careful, though, when looking at atonement. It isn’t just that Jesus went to the cross. It is all about the blood.
Jesus’ blood provided the atonement. Not the obedience. Not the sacrifice. The blood.
According to the Holman Bible Dictionary, expiation ’emphasizes the removal of guilt through a payment of the penalty, while propitiation emphasizes the appeasement or averting of God’s wrath and justice.” If expiation is the act of atonement, the act was dying on the cross. To die, Jesus had to shed His blood.
We’ve talked before how bloody the animal sacrifices were. It was the blood that was an appealing aroma to God.
Leviticus 4: 31 tells us a little about the process. “… The priest is to burn it on the altar as a pleasing aroma to the LORD. In this way the priest will make atonement on his behalf, and he will be forgiven” (Lev. 4: 31 CSB).
The writer of Hebrews put it this way. “According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9: 22 HCSB). So, Jesus’ death in the cross shed the blood that provided this aroma that pleased God.
We have been compared to that aroma. Second Corinthians 2: 15 says, “For we are like a sweet-smelling incense offered by Christ to God, which spreads among those who are being saved and those who are being lost” (GNT).
We just have to take it on faith that it was enough. Everything is based on Jesus’ blood — atonement, expiation, justification, propitiation, and sanctification.
Making the Connections
Bottom line is God wanted to save us. Yes, we had not been obedient. Yes, we had broken the law.
God wanted us back. He wanted the relationship restored.
It wasn’t out of anger. If that would have been the case, God would have just lowered the boom on us, not a Substitute. Because it was love, He worked it out.
Since God can’t suffer, He found a way to make Jesus 100% God and 100% man so that He could suffer.
God knew just us suffering alone would not pay the price for our sins. He knew that, if our blood was shed, it wouldn’t mark the account as paid in full.
Have you made the connection? That is why we can’t work our way into heaven. Nothing we do makes our blood worthy to pay the price.
Let’s face it. We don’t want our works to draw blood. We like the nice, easy, rewarding works. We don’t want the hard, painful works.
So, all there is left is we just have to accept God’s gift of salvation. It is as simple as that.
Yes, I know we don’t make it simple. We make it harder by saying we have to understand. There is no understanding about it.
No, we don’t know why God said He would accept child sacrifices. “Don’t sacrifice your children in the fires on your altars; and don’t let your people practice divination or look for omens or use spells” (Deut. 18: 10 GNT).
Then God goes and sacrifices His firstborn for us. “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (II Cor. 5: 21 NLT).
Why? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3: 16 ESV).
See? It wasn’t anger or a grudge that made God send Jesus to die. It was love. It has always been about love.
Loving Heavenly Father. We are humbled by Your love for us. While we were still sinners — while we were still disobedient to You — while we still didn’t love You, You loved us enough to send Your Sin to die for us (Rom. 5: 8; Jn. 3: 16). You sent Jesus to do what we could never do. Nothing we could do or could be would make a good enough repayment for being sinful. All that we can do is accept Your gift of salvation. We do accept. Help us when we try to make it about us and not about You. Amen.
What do you think?
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