Atonement definitions: reparation for a wrong or injury.

“she wanted to make atonement for her husband’s behavior”

• CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

the reconciliation of God and humankind through Jesus Christ.

noun: Atonement; noun: the Atonement

Reparation definition: the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.

The Atonement must answer the question; How does the cross solve the human Spiritual problem (sin)? Or, how can sinful man be accepted by a Holy God because of the cross?

The Fact of the Atonement versus Theories of Atonement

Since Christ ascended back to heaven, Christian theologians have proposed what have been termed theories of atonement in an attempt to explain how the cross reconciled mankind to God (the Atonement). There have been many theories down through the ages (Sacrificial, Ransom, Anselm’s Satisfaction, Victory, Governmental, Penal Substitution, Moral Influence), but no single theory thus far has been universally accepted. I believe it is because none of them have captured the full meaning. The Atonement is not a theory but a fact, a fact which is testified to and can only be explained through the various, relevant scriptures, each one stating or supporting some aspect of the fact itself. Following is an attempt to capture the full explanation. However, despite our best efforts, because God is beyond our full comprehension, it is possible that we will not capture the complete explanation

What is the Atonement?

A. Definition and relevant questions

Atonement is defined as reparation for a wrong or injury. In describing the Atonement, scripture lays it all out for us: What was the wrong, who did the wrong, and to whom was it done? What action was done to make reparation, who made the reparation, and who judges whether the reparation was adequate? If the reparation was made on behalf of the offender by another, what, if anything, is required of the offender, and who has the right to require it? Upon completion of the reparation, what are its short-term and long-term effects? For God? For mankind in general? For individuals who accept it, reject it, don’t believe it, or don’t know about it? What perfections of God and virtues of mankind are involved?

B. Answers to questions (For answers to questions regarding effects, see section E below.)

1. What was the wrong, who did it, and to whom was it done? Answer: Mankind’s sin (violation of the “ought to” that God put in all men’s consciences, and violation of specific laws, commands, and principles for living revealed by God in scripture) is the wrongdoing, and everyone has sinned. All sin is against God, and many are against other people.

2. What action was done to make reparations, who did it, and who judges whether the atonement was adequate? Answer: The action taken was that God Himself made the reparations on behalf of mankind by incurring the punishment due mankind. He did that on the cross. Since God is also the one who was wronged in the 1st place, it is He who judges whether the action taken was adequate.

3. If the atonement was made on behalf of the offender by another, what if anything is required of the offender, and who has the right to require it? Answer: The Atonement was indeed made by one (God) other than the offender (mankind). Our sense of what ought to be in this situation is that the one wronged has the right to require something of the offender, even though reparations were made on the offender’s behalf. And God does require something of every person – in an attitude of repentance, have faith in God and the reparation/provision He has done to save him.

C. What scripture says about the cross:

– God is sovereign. It is He who chooses the means of salvation. He chose the cross.

(John 3:16-17, Romans 5:8, Romans 8:33, John 17:24, Ephesians 1:4)

 – Jesus suffered and died willingly – He did not resist (Matthew 26:39, 42)

– It was a mission (the cup that He must drink) given to Him by the Father (Matthew 26:39, 42; John 3:16-17)

– The Father forsook Christ when He suffered and died on the cross (Matthew 27:46)

– The curtain in the Temple was torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51)

 – Jesus became sin (2 Corinthians 5:21)

 – Jesus went to paradise from the cross (Luke 23:43)

 – Jesus proclaimed “It is finished”, then gave up the Spirit and died (John 19:30)

 – Jesus fulfilled prophecies about the “suffering servant” Messiah

              + The iniquity of us all was laid on Him (Isaiah 53:6)

              + He was being the sacrificial lamb who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)

  – God’s public display as a propitiation for sin (Romans 3:25)

  – Christ died for the ungodly, for all (Romans 5:6, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

 – One act of righteousness (the cross) resulted in justification of life to all men (Romans 5:18)

 – Christ an offering for sin (Romans 8:3)

 – It was God (Father and Son) exercising the greatest possible love – laying down His life for others,

which God could only do as a man – God the man -the Son of Man – Jesus (John 8:58, John 12:45,

Romans 5:8, John 14:6-9, John 15:13)

 – God delivered up Christ for us (Romans 8:32)

 – It was God taking responsibility for creating man with a free will, knowing that all would sin and

would need God to rescue them – something He knew He would need to and choose to do before

ever creating man (John 17:24, Ephesians 1:4)

D. Description of the Atonement – how sinful man is reconciled to a Holy God through the cross

I will start from the beginning, not at creation, but before that when God was contemplating creation including creating mankind. God wanted mankind to be a being with whom He could have a meaningful, unforced relationship – one where mankind would acknowledge God’s gift of life and respond with gratitude, love, and desire to please his Maker. Therefore, God was going to give mankind free will, create each person innocent, and give man a conscience to know right and wrong. But looking ahead, God foresaw that man was going to choose to do wrong at times. Lusts of the flesh and mind would tempt man, no one would be able to always resist the temptation, and man would be afflicted with sin. All would end up sinners. That presented a problem for a just, Holy, and righteous God. Sin is not acceptable, puts enmity between humans and God, and separates them from God – preventing the relationship He wanted to create them for. How could God resolve man’s sin affliction such that He could have the relationship He desired?

He decided He would heal their affliction through His love and grace, and man’s faith. One of the principles He was going to teach man is this, “Greater love hath no one than this, that he lay down his life for a friend.” There are two important truths in this principle. The first is the obvious – giving one’s life to save another is the greatest possible act of love. The second truth is that, if God calls it the greatest act of love, then God endorses or approves of one sacrificing himself to save another. God would demonstrate that greatest possible love to mankind by laying down His life for them. But He would have to become one of them to do that, therefore, at the appropriate point in human history, He would enter His creation as a person, who would be both God and man. He would live a sin-free life then lay down His life along with enduring the suffering leading up to it. Sovereign God would deem that this act of love on behalf of mankind would erase or cancel out all of mankind’s sin, close the separation gap, and make possible the relationship He desired with them. God would remain just because His saving act was based on His “no greater love” principle permitting one to die for another. This act of God would make possible the healing and forgiveness of each person’s sin. Forgiveness would be by grace – a gift from God – not anything the person could earn through good works. On each person’s part, they would have to have faith in God and His loving provision – not with the attitude that this let him off the hook and they could sin all they wanted, but with the attitude of acknowledging their sin and being repentant for it.

Moving forward in time, God did create the world and mankind, mankind indeed did all sin, and God fulfilled His plan to save man when He came as Jesus Christ. His death on the cross was God laying down His life in love to save or rescue mankind from their sin. And, indeed, each person is saved through faith in God and God’s loving provision, which we know is Christ’s suffering and death for us on the cross.

Going back to the definition of atonement, the Atonement is, therefore, Christ’s, rather God the Son’s, rather God-Himself making reparation for mankind’s sin. How? Through God’s own principle of “no greater love.” Why? The answer to why did God rescue us is this: from God’s perspective, it was the responsible and right thing to do because He created us knowing we would all sin and need rescuing. Therefore, the cross was an act of God’s righteousness as well as an act of love.

E. Questions regarding the effects of the Atonement

Upon completion of the reparation, what are its short-term and long-term effects?

1. For God? Answer: The short-term effects include God and all heaven rejoicing each time a sinner is saved. Second, God the Spirit immediately indwells each person the moment they are saved, and God within them gets to start helping them in various ways – knowing what to pray for, understanding Spiritual truths, and providing strength to resist temptations and deal with life’s problems. Further, God begins to immediately enjoy the relationship He desired when He created each one. The long-term effects for God include the eternal relationship and fellowship with each one who is saved. But, also, since not all are saved, God is forever grieved over those who rejected His love and salvation – not only over their missed opportunity for eternal fellowship with Him and their suffering in hell but also over the loss of the relationship and fellowship He had hoped to enjoy with them. (“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together … and you were unwilling” (Matthew 23:37).”)

2. For mankind in general? Answer: The immediate effect for all mankind is that they have a way to be free from slavery to sin, to have their sins forgiven, to have peace with God, to live a life more abundant with things that matter most, and to enjoy a relationship and fellowship with their Creator. Further, God’s demonstration of His great love for mankind on the cross provides immediate and long-term motivation to be both grateful to God and to love the way God loves. The other long-term effect is that they have a way to receive eternal life, the assurance of heaven, and being forever in the presence of God after they die. Both short and long-term effects are in essence a victory over their problem of the enmity between them and God caused by their sin.

3. For individuals who accept it? Answer: For those who hear the gospel and believe it in an attitude of repentance and trust in God the Son’s suffering and death on their behalf on the cross, they receive God’s forgiveness of sin, eternal life, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, peace with God, and assurance of heaven when they die. Further, they will enjoy a more abundant life near-term, including an ongoing relationship and fellowship with God.

4. For those who reject it, don’t believe it, or don’t know about it? Answer: For those who hear and understand the gospel but reject it or don’t believe it, refusing to repent of their sins as Jesus called for, they are not saved. Though Jesus died for their sins and offers forgiveness as a gift, their unbelief is a rejection of that gift. In the short term, their lives are filled with sin and its consequences, and they will miss out on an opportunity to have peace with God in an ongoing relationship and fellowship with Him and have an abundance in the more important things in life on earth. In the long term, they will not be forgiven of their sins, will receive punishment in hell, and will be separated from God forever. For those who never heard and understood the gospel, God will deal with them justly based on how they responded to the light of God they had. Since Jesus died for all people, their sins were covered by the cross, and, just as God reckoned Abraham’s faith as righteousness, so also God will treat those who had faith in Him but never heard of Christ. Short-term, they will enjoy the relationship and fellowship with God, but, not knowing what God’s provision through Christ is (the Cross), they will have to wait until after death to know the full extent of God’s love through His dying for them on the cross. They will enjoy the same long-term benefits as those in number 3 above.

F. What perfections of God and virtues of mankind are involved?

For God, they are love, mercy, grace, justice, and righteousness. For mankind, they are repentance, faith, forgiveness, gratitude, and love.

G. Have we captured all of the truths expressed in the various theories of atonement?

Sacrificial: Yes, we quoted John the Baptist’s statement that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And we put forward that God applied the “no greater love” principle to Himself when He sacrificed (laid down) His life to save those of mankind.

Ransom: Yes, the idea of ransom is that of the payment of a price to set free another held in bondage. The “no greater love” principle explains this view also. God the Son paid the price (suffering and death) to pay for the sins of mankind and free him from the bondage of sin. God was owed the ransom, but it was God who paid it.

Victory: Yes. What is mankind’s enemy? Sin and its results – death. Romans 8:1-2 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Believers have victory over the law of sin and death. How? Through God’s application of the “no greater love” principle to lay down His life for ours.

Anselm’s Satisfaction: No. In the 11th century, Anselm was Archbishop of Canterbury and proposed the following theory. He saw sin as dishonoring or insulting Sovereign God as Ruler of all. Appropriate satisfaction must be offered by the offender – mankind. But the offense was so great that only one who is God can provide satisfaction. He concluded that only one who is both God and man is needed. Thus, Christ (God the Son) willingly died to satisfy God’s anger and indignity caused by mankind’s sin. For His sacrifice, He was due a great reward, but Christ had everything. So, Christ gave the reward to mankind. This view was not based on scripture but was purely philosophical. Few today agree with this theory. It makes God look as if He were surprised by man’s sin and took offense in reaction, when, no doubt, God foresaw the sin problem before He created man. Also, Anselm found no necessary connection between Christ’s death and the salvation of sinners. i.e. He died to appease God the Father, not to take the punishment due sinful man. Thus, it is appropriate that this theory be rejected.

Governmental: Yes. This view sees God as a ruler over all. The cross is viewed as public punishment for a crime committed or a law broken against God’s kingdom. The law broken is, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” As we put forth, all mankind sinned (committed the crime), but, rather than punishing all mankind, God publicly laid down His life to save them from death. This shows to all the kingdom how seriously God takes sin and that justice must be upheld, while at the same time demonstrating His “no greater love” for mankind.

Penal Substitution: Yes. Similar to the Governmental Theory, this view holds that God’s moral law is not to be taken lightly, that the “wages of sin is death.” Thus, since all are sinners, all mankind has the sentence of death. To this view, it is clear that the essence of the cross is that Christ, rather God the Son, rather God-Himself took the sinners’ place, endured the death that is the wages of sin, and bore the curse of sin so we would not have to. Clearly, what we put forth in the “no greater love” principle says or implies the same thing. Some critics of this theory say that some forms of punishment are not transferrable, such as God in Christ dying for our sins, but God’s “no greater love” principle proves them wrong. If God says it is doable, who can say otherwise?

Moral Influence: Yes in part. A widely popular theory today mostly among Biblical scholars of the liberal school. But, while part of it is true, part of it is not true. The truthful part is this. Its answer to how the cross reconciled sinful man to Holy God is that, when mankind looks at the cross, they see the great love God and Christ have for us, and that delivers us from fear and kindles in us an answering love. We respond to love with love and no longer live in selfishness and sin. Another way of stating it is that the sight of the selfless Christ dying for sinners moves us to repentance and faith. The untrue part of this theory is this. The thrust in this view is all on one’s personal experience. The Atonement seen only this way has no effect outside the believer. When it is claimed that this is the complete explanation of the cross, then this theory falls short. If Christ is not actually doing something by His death, then it was just a piece of showmanship, and there is no element of reparation involved. This theory ignores scriptures like “all have sinned”, “the wages of sin is death” and “all we like sheep have gone astray, but the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” The logic of the “no greater love” principle is that mankind was going to die and go to hell, but Christ sacrificed Himself in our place to save us from that. The other fallacy is that this theory would only lead to salvation for the ones who actually heard, understood, and responded rightly to the gospel. It omits all people who lived before, during, and after Christ who never heard of Him. We hold that Christ’s death paid for the sins of all people so that those who never heard of Christ but who responded rightly to the light of God they had, still come to the Father through Christ.

Conclusion

First, we must understand that Jesus was God – Jesus said I and My Father are one, he who has seen Me has seen the Father, and He said I am the great I AM. Therefore, when we picture Jesus on the cross, we are actually seeing God on the cross. Second, Jesus taught us that no greater love has anyone than this – one who lays down his life for a friend. Why would one do this? To save the friend – from serious pain and injury or death. This is a picture of what God did for us on the cross. He laid down His life for us – to save us from the pain and death that results from our sin. As Isaiah prophesied, all of mankind’s iniquities were laid on God at the cross. As John the Baptist said, God was the sacrificial lamb, who takes away the sin of the world through the cross. The wages of sin is death, and when God died on the cross, He took all of man’s wages upon Himself as an act of love and grace toward all people. By laying down His life for us, sovereign God also reckoned that, through the principle of “no greater love”, this satisfied His own demand for justice regarding mankind’s sin and gifted us victory over sin and death. When we hear and understand God’s great love for us in the gospel, the desired effect on us is to respond in repentance, faith, love, and gratitude. That’s how the cross solved the human sin problem, how sinful man is accepted by a Holy God because of the cross. The answer to why did God rescue us is this: from God’s perspective, it was the responsible and right thing to do because He created us knowing we would all sin and need rescuing. The cross was an act of God’s righteousness as well as an act of love.