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):
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
ATONEMENT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
The word atonement is found only once in the New Testament in Romans 5:11 in the King James Version. Several other translations render it “reconciliation.”
However, the NIV translates 1 John 2:2 as “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
The word that most translations use in 1 John 2:2 is propitiation. Some background is needed:
It was used by the Greeks as something done or offered to appease the gods who were naturally hostile toward humans who had to earn their favor. This use of the word is foreign to the bible and never used of any act whereby man brings God into a favorable attitude or gracious disposition.
God is already gracious toward humanity. It is man that is hostile toward God. God, no man is the peacemaker: “6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
The idea behind the Old Testament rule of man offering atonement or compensation seems to have been to impress on the minds of the people the costliness of sin and man’s need for forgiveness.
There is no greater display of the costliness of sin than the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. His blood redeems us and reconciles us to God. Hear Isaiah in chapter 53:4-6:
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
CONCLUSION
Compensation must be made for sin, but we cannot make it.
We may be able to compensate others in matters of property, but there is no compensation we can make for sin either to God or man.
Christ is our propitiation or appeasement, and to offer restitution in place of the blood of Christ is to insult the Spirit of grace and trample on the blood of Christ.
We can break more than we can fix, and when we do, we turn to God’s way of making us right—or righteous in his sight.
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise (Psa 51:16-17)
Those who argue that repentance must include compensation—or, as they would say “restitution”—say that repentance without restitution is too easy.
I say that one who believes that has never had a broken and a contrite heart over their sin.
David began Psalm 51 with the following words:
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
David recognized that his sin with Bathsheba was, above all else, a sin against God’s love. How much more might David’s heart had been broken had he known the truth that we know: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God (Rom 5:8-9).
As I said, the NIV translates 1 John 2:1-2: “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” We do no harm to these words if we say, “Christ is the “atoning compensation for our sins.
To offer our own compensation in place of his or in addition to his is to trample Christ blood as ineffective and insult the grace of God.
When we understand this one word, atonement, we will sing, as we have never sung before, “I owed a debt I could not pay. He paid a debt he did not owe.”
