Here it is, the final day of February, the final day (ha-ha) of focusing on love. With Lent beginning next week, it seems like a good time to talk about that odd and these days, much debated, theological doctrine: ATONEMENT. This word perhaps describes God’s least-understood, most-loving act.
You may or may not know that some modern churches have decided that the whole concept is too violent for God and have decided in their human wisdom to omit it from their core beliefs. These folks might agree with Dorothy Sayers’ hilarious caricature of the doctrine:
“God wanted to damn everybody, but his vindictive sadism was sated by the crucifixion of his own Son, who was quite innocent, and, therefore, a particularly attractive victim. He now only damns people who don’t follow Christ or who have never heard of him.” Dorothy Sayers
N.B. (Nota Bene — my Latin-literate son told me that means “note well”) — Sayers was making fun of this understanding, not agreeing with it.
And I get why people, myself included, feel confused about such a strange love. Here’s the thing — the only way for us humans to view the atonement is to acknowledge our upside down way of thinking. The wisdom of the gospel is the foolishness of the world, so we may need to stand on our heads to understand this theological doctrine/love story.
Here is a scaled-down explanation of atonement:
1. Definition:
Composed of two basic words, with a suffix: “at” “one” “-ment.” It refers to the “at-one-ness” between God and his people as a result of Christ’s sacrifice.
2. Old Testament background:
According to the covenant of law that God made with Moses and the Israelites, God’s people were required to keep the Ten Commandments. If they did not, they had to make “atonement”—a sacrifice for their sin—to restore relationship with God. There was a “Day of Atonement” (Lev. 16:34), when the priest sprinkled the blood of a sacrificial goat on the “atonement cover” in the Most Holy Place.
3. The problem:
As Psalm 78:38 makes clear, this system of atonement would never be enough to make up for the Israelites’ repeated and rampant sin.
A few facts:
We are born sinners, whose hearts rebel against God (Rom. 3:23).
A permanent sacrifice for sins was necessary for unrighteous people to be united with a holy God (Ps. 5:4–6; Rom. 1:18).
4.God’s gracious response:
God sent his Son into the world to live and die for us. In his holiness and justice, God
removed his own wrath by offering the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, his sinless Son (Rom. 3:25). In his death on the cross, Christ became our substitute and did for us what we were powerless to do ourselves—paid the debt for our sins (1 John 2:2; Heb. 9:28).
5. The effect:
Those who trust in this sacrifice for salvation are reconciled to God,
adopted as sons (1 John 3:1–2),
created anew, and
redeemed to bear Christ’s love into the world (2 Cor. 5:17–21).
“It is one of the New Testament’s resounding paradoxes that it is God’s love that averts God’s
wrath from us, and indeed that it is precisely in this averting of wrath that we see what real love
is” —Leon Morris, “1 John,” New Bible Commentary
What do you think? What misconceptions or struggles do you or others have about atonement?
What do you see about your value to God in the atonement?
