Atonement Series

ATONEMENT

There is power in words for both good and evil.

Solomon tells us: “There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing” (Prov 12:18).

Jesus warned: “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt 12:36-37).

For the next several weeks, we will focus on one word each week, seeking to understand its importance to our lives.

Not everyone finds word studies as fascinating as do we preachers and writers, so I will make every effort to avoid using ten words when two will get the job done.

Some words have one meaning; others may have several meanings, and the context must determine which of the dictionary meanings applies. For example, the word “set” has 430 senses listed in the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1989.

Fortunately, most words don’t have so many meanings. Paul warns us about “an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words” (1 Tim 6:4). However, Paul, himself, focused on the meaning of one word: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ” (Gal 3:16).

Paul was not hypocritical, but contextual in handling words. When we take the meaning of a word in one context and apply that meaning to a different context, we fall prey to Humpty-Dumpty-ism: “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

Our word this week is atonement. We must begin our study in the Old Testament, because the word is found only once in the New Testament in the KJV and not at all in many others.

ATONEMENT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Its roots are in the sacrificial system administrated by the priests. Of some 80 times it occurs in the O.T., over half of them are in Leviticus, where the priests would make atonement for all the people or for a single individual who had sinned. The idea was to right one’s wrongs by making compensation.

In our first reference one has sinned unintentionally, but when the person became aware of the sin, they were to make atonement. Several sins are listed in the first three verses of Leviticus 5, and Moses says that when one became aware of his sins, they were to offer a sacrifice as compensation. No one, one excluded because of poverty: “ When he realizes his guilt in any of these and confesses the sin he has committed, 6 he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin. 7 “But if he cannot afford a lamb, then he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering (Lev 5:5-7)

There was no atonement or compensation for seven sins. Death was to be the punishment for the following: adultery, first degree murder, striking one’s parents, incest, homosexuality, bestiality, and blaspheming God’s name. We would be amiss to conclude that these are unforgiveable today.

Although Paul did not list all of the seven death-penalty sins when he listed the works of the flesh, his words “and things like these” are all encompassing. “ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-21).

Paul lists many of these same sins again, but notice the word “but.” 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. BUT you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor 6:9-11).

Let’s read what the New Testament has to say about those prescribed sacrifices of atonement or compensation (Hebrews 10:1-7):