Foundations of Faith
ATONEMENT (II)
The word “atonement” is not found in the New Testament except in one verse where it should be translated “reconciliation” (Rom. 5:11). The closest word to atonement in the New Testament is “propitiation.”
What does propitiation mean? It has the thought of paying the penalty for sin, appeasing and satisfying all of the righteous claims of holy God against sinners. Christ made “propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17). “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2 NKJV). “[God] loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Note, in the second verse quoted, that propitiation is “for the whole world.” (More about this later.)
A word that is often mentioned by Bible scholars in the same breath as propitiation is substitution. The words substitute and substitution are not found in the Bible, but the truth that Christ died as a Substitute for sinners certainly is. “He bore the sin of many” (Isa. 53:12). “Jesus our Lord … was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:24). “Christ also suffered for us … who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree … the Just for the unjust” (1 Pet. 2:21,24; 3:18). We see from these verses that the Lord Jesus Christ-the Creator and eternal Son of God-took the place of us-rebels and sinners! He, the Just One, was the Substitute for us, the unjust.
Let us now compare propitiation and substitution. Propitiation, as we have seen, is “for the whole world.” Christ has so completely satisfied God by His suffering and death on the cross that salvation is made available to every man, woman, and child in the world. Sadly, not every one in the world has taken advantage of God’s gracious offer of free, eternal salvation. But for every one of us who has accepted God’s free gift of salvation, Christ bore our sins as our Substitute.
While Christ “is the propitiation for … the whole world,” the Bible does not say that Christ bore the sins of the whole world. Rather, He “bore the sin of many” as our Substitute. Propitiation has to do with the effects of Christ’s sufferings and death upon God; substitution has to do with the effects of His sufferings and death upon us who believe.
While we shall take up the topic of salvation in a future issue, we can see that Christ’s atonement provides the basis of our eternal salvation. In the minds of most people in the world, man’s hope for eternal salvation is based upon his own good works. But God has presented a far different way in His Word. (See Assignment 2)
In a recent issue of GROWING (De96) we had a brief paragraph on Christ’s atoning sufferings. Since these sufferings are so crucial to our eternal salvation, let us consider them in more detail.
Let us begin by asking a question:What is repulsive to you? What kinds of things make you sick just to think of them? Maybe finding a rat or a snake in your bed. Or seeing a person with terrible burns all over his body.
What was the most repulsive thing of all to the Lord Jesus? Sin! There was no sin in Him (1 John 3:5). He had no sin nature. Throughout His life He never even had a sinful thought. He was perfectly holy. He hated sin. His standards were so high that He said to His disciples, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off … If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out” (Mark 9:43-48 NKJV). To the holy Lord, sin was infinitely more repulsive than being covered with rats and snakes.
Now think about this:the very thing that was so repulsive to the Lord came upon Him. He “who knew no sin” was made “sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21). In order to make atonement for sin, He had to take our sin upon Himself. So He became guilty, so to speak, of man’s sexual immorality, unclean lusts, stealing, envy, murder, violence, deceit, false accusations, gossip, slander, hatred of God, blasphemy, filthy speech, pride, and drunkenness (see Rom. 1:24-31; Col. 3:5-9:2 Tim. 3:2-4). Our sins became so much a part of Christ on the cross that He could refer to them as “my iniquities” which “are more than the hairs of my head” (Psa. 40:12; 69:5).
Have you ever been accused of someone else’s wrongdoing? Perhaps as a child you were spanked for something your brother did. It was hard to take, wasn’t it? Now think of your Lord and Saviour. He, who was absolutely sinless, took upon Himself billions and trillions of sins of others as if they were His own. Then the wrath of holy God came down upon Christ in crushing force. “All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me … Thou hast laid Me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lies hard upon Me” (Psa. 42:7:88:6,7,16).
Through all of this, Christ had absolutely no one to hold His hand, to comfort Him, to encourage Him. “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? why art Thou so far from helping Me? … O My God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent … I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none … Lover and friend hast Thou put far from Me, and mine acquaintance into darkness” (Psa. 22:1,2; 69:20; 88:18).
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us” (1 John 4:9).
Running the Race
HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE (in View of the Atonement?) (I)
There are several verses that appeal to the way we should live on the basis of Christ’s sufferings for us.
“The love of Christ constrains us, because we thus judge that if One died for all, then were all dead; and He died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).
“Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5:2).
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who … humbled Himself and became obedient unto … the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:5,8).
Assignment 2: Write out some verses in Acts 4 that say that God’s way of salvation is only through the sufferings, death, and resurrection of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.