Atonement - Part 1

References: (1) In the book “The Bible in the Light of Our Redemption” by E. W. Kenyon informs us there are 5 Levitical offerings given to us in the book of Leviticus. The offerings are: the Burnt offering (chapter 1), the Grain or Meal offering (chapter 2), the Peace offering (chapter 3), the Sin offering (4:1 -5:13), and the Trespass offering (5:14-6:7). Finally, 6:8-7:38 discusses the laws of administering the separate offerings. (2) Christ was examined by the Law and found faultless by Pilate. He was examined by the priesthood in Jerusalem and they could not find any fault in Him, yet they made false charges about Him to Pilate. God could find no fault in him. God spoke from heaven on many occasions, “This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Jesus found no fault with Himself. He said, “The Prince of this world comes and has no part in Me” (John 14:30). Jesus also said, “ Which of you CONVICTS Me of sin?” (John 8:46a). (3) Four of the five offerings involved the shedding of BLOOD, a method God instituted to prepare His people for the Messiah’s ultimate sacrifice for sins. (4) On 16 different occasions in the book of Leviticus, an “aroma” is mentioned as something pleasing to the Lord especially in connection with the various offerings of Israelite worship. The importance of a sacrifice’s aroma is not the SMELL but what the smell REPRESENTS — the substitutionary atonement for sin. (5) The NT reveals Christ as the FINAL SACRIfiCE for sin, the ULTIMATE PROPITIATION. “Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Eph. 5:2). This is Episode 204.

References: (1) Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. (2) Jesus died in our place and gave His blood for the redemption of humanity by the will of God, bearing the punishment for our sins on Himself. That proposition is usually identified as the penal substitutionary atonement or PSA for short. (3) In the late first century Clement wrote, “Jesus Christ our Lord gave His blood for us by the will of God, His flesh for our flesh, His soul for our souls.” (4) In the early 4th century Athanasius, the great champion of the Christian faith against the heresy of Arianism, the man Arius taught that Jesus was not truly divine. Athanasius wrote, “For of what USE is EXISTENCE to the creature if it cannot KNOW its Maker? How could men be REASONABLE BEINGS if they had no knowledge of the Word and Reason of the Father, through Whom they had received their being? They would be NO BETTER than the BEASTS, had they no KNOWLEDGE save of earthly things; and why should God have made them at all, if He had not INTENDED them to KNOW Him? But, in fact, the good God has given them a share in His own IMAGE, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and has made even themselves after the same Image and Likeness. Why? Simply in order that through this gift of Godlikeness in themselves they may be able to PERCEIVE the Image Absolute, that is, the Word Himself, and through Him to APPREHEND the Father; which knowledge of their Maker is for men the ONLY really happy and blessed life.” (5) I recommend the lengthy artical “The Christian Doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement” by Conrad Hilario on the website deellcc.org especially consider the sub paragraph on Penal Substitutionary Atonement. (6) Proverbs 4:23 advises us: “Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life.” To what does the word “it” refer? There is a rule of grammar that if a pronoun is used in a sentence — in this case “it” is a pronoun. The rule says the pronoun refers to an antecedent noun, in this case the antecedent noun is “heart.” So “it” refers to “heart.” This is Episode 203.

References: (1) “Knowing God “ by J. I. Packer. (2) “Introducing Christian Doctrine” by Millard J. Erickson. (3) Millard Erickson says Jesus saw His death as constituting a RANSOM. (4) Christ also saw Himself as our SUBSTITUTE. (5) There are indications that Jesus saw Himself in the role of a SACRIFICE. (6) Jesus had a sense that He was the SOURCE and the GIVER of eternal life. (7) Paradoxically, Christ’s DEATH gives LIFE; we obtain it by receiving Him as Savior. His death was a SACRIFICE typified by the OT sacrificial system. (8) The word “kaphar” for atonement is found at least 16 times in Leviticus 16. (9) The High Priest would then CAST LOTS concerning the 2 goats: one lot for the goat of the LORD, and one lot for the other goat designated as the scapegoat (v. 8). (10) After the High Priest has used the blood to CLEANSE the Holy Place, the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar (v. 20), he would lay his hands on the scapegoat, and “CONFESS over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites – all their sins – and put them on the goat’s head. The scapegoat was sent away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat carried on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man chosen released it in the wilderness (vv. 21-22). This is Episode 202.

References: (1) Genesis 3:15 is the first prophecy of the PROMISED DELIVERER of humans, the Redeemer who would save His people from their sins. (2) In the atonement God addresses 4 basic NEEDS that we all have as sinners: a. We deserve to DIE as the PENALTY for our sin. b. We deserve to BEAR God’s WRATH against us. c.We are SEPARATED from God by our sins (Isa. 59:2)and there is a great gulf between us and Him. We need a BRIDGE over that gulf. d. We are in BONDAGE to sin and the kingdom of Satan. Therefore, we need LIBERATION from that bondage. (3) The atonement of Christ, His death on the cross, provides what we need for our sin. (4) In the OT one of the places where atonement was obtained occurred in the tabernacle in the wilderness. (5) Heb. 9:1-7 describes in cryptic fashion the tabernacle in the wilderness. (6) The idea of propitiation — that is, of AVERTING God’s WRATH by an OFFERING — is a SCARLET THREAD that is WOVEN throughout the CLOTH of the entire Bible. (7) J. I. Packer in his book Knowing God asks the question: Has the word “propitiation” any place in Christianity? He responds, “In the faith of the NT it is CENTRAL. The love of God, the taking of human form by the Son, the meaning of the cross, Christ’s heavenly intercession, the way of salvation — all are EXPLAINED in terms of [PROPITIATION] . . . . any explanation from which the thought of PROPITIATION is MISSING will be INCOMPLETE, and indeed actually MISLEADING.” This is Episode 201.

References: (1) The OT translation for atonement is taken from the Hebrew word kaphar. Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words says: “Most uses of the word [kaphar], involve the THEOLOGICAL MEANING of “COVERING OVER,” often with the BLOOD of a sacrifice in order to ATONE for some sin.” (2) Atonement is frequently identified with the juxtaposition of 3 words: “at,“one,” and “ment” to convey the idea of reconciliation. (3) However, this idea of “at-one-ment” is not a completely satisfactory explanation of atonement. While the idea does convey reconciliation to God, it does not remind us of the slave market where there is an auction and a cacophony of voices vying to make us their property and keeping us in bondage. We are the slaves who need freedom. It does not remind us of the blood sacrifice, neither the payment of a ransom price, nor the idea of giving the former slave freedom. (4) The word atonement is perhaps best known from the term Yom Kippur, “Day of Atonement” — Yom is “day” and Kippur is “atonement.” That day was the MOST SOLEMN HOLY DAY of all Israelite feasts. (5) Nisan is significant for a number of reasons, but most importantly because of the Feast of Passover, which commemorates the Israelites’ EXODUS from slavery in Egypt. (6) Exodus 12 gives the details of the PASSOVER RITUAL. (7) Leviticus 23 lists 7 feasts and the Day of Atonement. The feasts are: the Sabbath, Passover, Unleavened Bread, First-fruits, Weeks, Trumpets, and Tabernacles. All feasts and the Day of Atonement except the Feast of First-fruits have a day that is identified as a holy CONVOCATION on which no work is done. (8) Someone has compared the OT to a room RICHLY FURNISHED but DIMLY LIGHTED. The introduction of light does not add anything to what is there, but it shows it more CLEARLY. The light of the NT adequately illumines these 2 chapters: Exodus chapter 12 and Leviticus chapter 23. (9) The ancient ritual DID NOT REALLY SAVE — no ritual does — it depicts merely a STAY OF EXECUTION until Jesus Christ would come who was Himself the First-born over all creation and the head of the body, the church, the One who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead (Col.1:15, 18). (10) The tabernacle was a PORTABLE DWELLING PLACE for God that the Israelites used as a place of worship and sacrifice in the wilderness while traveling from Egypt to the land of Canaan. (11) The grounds inside the tabernacle were divided into 3 main APARTMENTS. (12) The LID of the sacred chest called the MERCY SEAT, UPON WHICH the presence of God was revealed, and FROM WHICH, by virtue of atonement, pardon was granted to the repentant sinner. (13) The only light in this last apartment is the holy Shekinah, the the SUPERNATURAL MANIFESTATION of the presence of Almighty God, a reflection of the glories of the temple of God in HEAVEN, the center of the work for man’s REDEMPTION. This is Episode 200. This is Episode 200.

References: (1) The OT translation for atonement is taken from the Hebrew word kaphar which literally means “to COVER.” (2) The word redemption is now used in a SPIRITUAL SENSE to describe the over-all work of Christ in salvation, but it also means in a NATURAL SENSE deliverance on payment of a ransom price, in the case of a slave, or a prisoner of war, or in order to let the condemned go free from prison. (3) Redemption is always at a COST to the redeemer. (4) There are all sorts of illustrations of God’s CARE for people and His READINESS to bring about deliverance as long as that deliverance does not conflict with His demands of justice. (5) In the whole of the OT there is no STERNER TEST of faith than the attempted sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah. It is a test of OBEDIENCE. (6) This showed Abraham’s FAITH in God believing that SOMEHOW OR OTHER God would fulfill His promise to BLESS the world through that very Isaac he was to lay on the altar, even if it MEANT RAISING him for the dead (Heb. 11:17-19). (7) Abraham spoke prophetically that in the future God would PROVIDE at Calvary the satisfying sacrifice of atonement in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead when God “did not spare His own Son” (Rom. 8:32). (8) Leviticus actually means a book FROM the Levites, the priests during the time of Moses. Leviticus established in greater detail the implication of a sacrificial relationship to God. (9)Exodus emphasizes REDEMPTION — deliverance and liberation by God. Leviticus emphasizes the RESTORATION of a redeemed people to communion with God. This restoration was to be SECURED by sacrifice. (10) There were 2 distinct types of Levitical offerings: one type including 5 offerings by individuals called burnt, meal, peace, sin, and trespass offerings. The meal offering is the only BLOODLESS OFFERING. However before the meal offering was placed on the alter, the burnt offering was given first. (11) “The Bible in the Light of our Redemption” by E. W. Kenyon. (12) Redemption and atonement is portrayed in Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 53. (13) Jesus’ death and resurrection fulfills the work that the animal sacrifices mandated by the Law of Moses BEGAN but could NEVER COMPLETE. (14) Under the Law of Moses, sin was neither PURGED, PUT AWAY, nor CLEANSED. They were only COVERED by the blood of bulls and goats that could NEVER take away sins completely. This is Episode 199.

References: (1) The Importance of the Atonement. What could be more important than the atonement? We all are sinners by nature and activity (Rom. 3:23; 5:12). It focuses on the reasons why the Son of God was sent into the world in the first place. (2) Wayne Grudem says in his book Bible Doctrine that both the love and the justice of God were the ULTIMATE CAUSE of the atonement. (3) The Necessity of the Atonement. After Jesus rose from the dead, He asked, “Was it not NECESSARY that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:26, RSV). (4) The Nature of the Atonement: I consider only 2 aspects of Christ’s work: (1) Christ’s obedience for us, and (2) Christ’s suffering for us. (5) I quote several paragraphs from Wayne Grudem’s book Christian Beliefs, pp. 74-75. (6) The atonement is the HEART of the gospel. We can be wrong of about the method of baptism, or end time prophecies, but we must be right on the atonement. If we truly understand the atonement, our study of Christ and our study of salvation both will be sound. This is Episode 198.

References: (1) Systematic Theology Vol. 3, by Norman Geisler, pp. 222-230. (2) The word atonement — coming back to God — is a common theme in the OT particularly in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers being mentioned in Exodus 10 times, in Leviticus 49 times, and in Numbers 17 times. (3) Why is atonement needed? The nation of Israel was affected by sin because they and we, too, have sinned (Rom. 3:23; 5:12). (4) Because of His Deity and Incarnation Jesus Christ is uniquely qualified to be the Mediator for human beings. (5) That incident in Lev. 10:1-2 taught Israel that they CANNOT APPROACH God in their own way. God’s justice and holiness CANNOT DISMISS EVIL as though it did not happen. Rather, divine holiness REQUIRES the full measure of payment for the penalty of sin. (6) All Christian churches believe that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth SECURES the benefits of atonement before God. Christian churches think Jesus Christ is the Man of Sorrows, the Suffering Servant of Isa. 53. (7) The Cause of the Atonement. Scripture is clear: it presents NO OTHER WAY to salvation other than trusting in Jesus Christ alone (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Tim. 2:5-6). This way is “free,” offered by “grace,” and the “kindness and love” and “mercy” of God our Savior (Rom. 3:24; 5:15, 16, 18; Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:4-8). (8) Wayne Grudem says in his book Bible Doctrine that both the love and the justice of God was the ultimate cause of the atonement. (9) Now there was only one being who could fulfill these conditions, and that was the Son God Himself. (10) Here are mysteries that cannot be fully explained in a brief time. But the heart of God is love, the message of Jesus is to “come” (Matt. 11:28-30), and the way to God, atonement, has been accomplished by Jesus Christ. This is the gospel, the Good News, the central theme of the entire Bible. This is Episode 197.

References: (1) Systematic Theology Vol. 3, pp. 222-227, by Norman Geisler. (2) Atonement — coming back to God — is a common theme in the OT particularly in Leviticus. The OT translation for atonement is taken from the Hebrew word kaphar which literally means “to COVER.” (3) The OT process took public form in animal sacrifices, for in the Hebrew world, the proper payment for sin was blood. “Almost all things are by the law PURGED with blood; and without shedding of blood is NO REMISSION — NO FORGIVENESS” (Heb. 9:22). (4) An elaborate system of animal sacrifice developed. But just as clearly, God’s justice and holiness was “not made whole” by animals ALONE. Even in the OT, strong hints of a FINAL, COMPLETE, and ALL-SUFFICIENT SACRIFICE is promised. Especially in Isaiah’s prophecy in Isa. 53 where a Man of Sorrows, a Suffering Servant, would bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. He would be wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace would be upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. For the transgressions of God’s people He was stricken (Isa. 53:4-5, 6b, 8b). (5) That Man of Sorrows, Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whose death on the cross paid the penalty for sin and brings believers back to God because He purchased us with His own blood (Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 6:20). Jesus’ death and resurrection fulfills the work that animal sacrifices BEGAN but could NEVER COMPLETE. This is Episode 196.

References: (1) Systematic Theology Vol. 3, by Norman Geisler, pp. 222-227. (2) Col. 1:20-22 gives us a powerful expression of what it means to be saved: It was God’s purpose that “by Him to reconcile ALL THINGS to Himself, by Christ, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made PEACE through the BLOOD of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has RECONCILED in the body of His flesh through death, to present you HOLY, and BLAMELESS, and above REPROACH in His sight.” (3) The 9th word in Geisler’s list is FORGIVENESS. (4) Forgiveness signifies the REMISSION of the punishment due to sinful conduct, the DELIVERANCE of the sinner from the PENALTY by DIVINE INTERVENTION, and therefore righteousness IMPUTED. (5) “According to the law almost all things are purified/cleansed with BLOOD and without the shedding of blood there is no remission/forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22). The author of Hebrews is quoting Leviticus 17:11. (6) Another Greek verb for forgiveness is charisomai meaning “to grant as a FAVOR graciously and unconditionally whether divine, or human, concerning debt; to deliver and freely give. (7) To show what he means Paul expresses this new relationship between God and the believer in Rom. 3:21-26 and other passages a series of metaphors. (8) Paul uses a metaphor from the LAW COURTS and the idea of JUSTIFICATION. Justification is the 10th word in Geisler’s list. This metaphor thinks of man on trial before God. (9) When Paul says that “God justifies the ungodly,” (Rom. 4:5) he means that God treats the ungodly AS IF he were innocent. (10) How can I KNOW that God is like that? I know because Jesus said so. (11) A second metaphor Paul uses is SACRIFICE and the idea of PROPITIATION, which is the 11th term of Geisler’s list. (12) A third metaphor that Paul uses is that of SLAVERY and the idea of REDEMPTION or FREEDOM from bondage. (13) Paul alludes to the metaphor of FAMILY and the idea of ADOPTION. (14) Paul uses the metaphor of FRIENDSHIP and the idea of RECONCILIATION. This is Episode 195.