The Atonement--Definite Convictions Series

            In the musical “Scrooge,” there’s a scene in which the Ghost of Christmas Future takes old Ebenezer to his office on some future Christmas morning. There’s a crowd gathered there, and Ebenezer doesn’t realize at first that the crowd is there to celebrate his death. A man named Tom Jenkins is leading the crowd, and he takes up a song that he sings to the now-deceased Scrooge:

Thank you very much, thank you very much,

That’s the nicest thing that anyone’s ever done for me!

            Most of the time, of course, it would be extremely inappropriate to thank someone for dying. But when we consider the Lord Jesus Christ, we can hardly help but say “thank you” as we remember all that his death has done for us. Truly, his death for our sins is the most loving, most gracious thing that anyone’s ever done for us!

            Today, our study of our church’s Statement of Faith brings us to the section entitled, “The Atonement.” You’ll notice that just after that title, in parentheses, is the word “reconciliation” – a word which is probably a bit more familiar to us than the word “atonement.” When you are reconciled to someone, you move from having hostility with them to having peace. And so, as we study this section, we are studying what Jesus has done to bring us back into a relationship of peace with God. Here’s what this section has to say:

We believe that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, was crucified, died, and was buried as planned by God before the foundation of the world. By the shedding of His blood, His sacrificial death upon the cross became and is the only ground of atonement for sin whereby man, by personal faith, is redeemed from the guilt, penalty, and power of sin (Rom 3:24-25; Rom 5:6-11; 1 Cor 15:3-4; Heb 9:14; 1 Peter 1:18-19; 1 John 4:10; Heb 9:22).

Let’s take a closer look at a few of the statements from this section.

“As planned by God…”

            Our Statement reminds us of the incredible truth that Christ’s death for sinners was not an afterthought in God’s plan, but a central part of it. When Adam and Eve plunged the human race into sin, God was not left scrambling, wondering what he was going to do. No – before he even created the world he knew that mankind would sin, and in his love he created a plan that would allow for us to be forgiven.

            And it wasn’t just any plan – it was a plan that called for tremendous personal sacrifice from God. How can we help but marvel at the fact that God knew what the cost would be to provide forgiveness, yet he still decided that it was good to go ahead and create mankind!

            God’s planning of Christ’s sacrificial death was a theme that the Apostles stressed in their earliest sermons after the Day of Pentecost. If they were going to publicly proclaim to their Jewish countrymen that Jesus was their long-awaited Messiah, they would have to explain why Jesus had been crucified. They did this by appealing to God’s eternal plan for salvation.

            For example, as he spoke on the Day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter told the crowd, “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men (Acts 2:23).” Peter didn’t let the people off the hook for their own guilt in Christ’s crucifixion, but he pulled back the curtain for them to reveal that it had all happened “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.” It was not an accident or mistake – it was all part of God’s plan for our forgiveness.

            A short time later, as the Apostles were praying to God, they said to Him, “for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place (Acts 4:27-28).”

            It could be easy to think of the Crucifixion as a moment when history itself spun out of God’s control, but in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The sacrifice that Jesus made was all part of God’s plan, and it came about just as he intended.

“By the shedding of His blood…”

            Our Statement then goes on to give a very appropriate emphasis to the shedding of Christ’s blood as being the means by which we are cleansed from our sins. The New Testament frequently connects our forgiveness not merely to Christ’s death, but to His shed blood. Consider these verses:

·         Romans 3:24-25: “[we are] justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

·         Romans 5:9: “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”

·         Ephesians 1:7: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”

·         Colossians 1:19-20: “For in [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

·         1 Peter 1:18-19: “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

            This emphasis on the shed blood of Christ teaches us that we are saved not merely by the fact that Jesus died, but by why and how he died. It would have done nothing for us if Jesus had simply died of old age or through an accident in the carpenter’s shop. No – we are saved because Jesus died as an intentional offering to pay for our sins, and in such offerings, the shedding of blood is required.

            The author of Hebrews put this very plainly when he wrote in Hebrews 9:22, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” This was God’s requirement because of the connection between the blood and the very life of a sacrificial offering. He explained it this way to the children of Israel as he laid out for them the system of animal sacrifices under the Law of Moses: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life (Leviticus 17:11).” This is why we sometimes talk about the “lifeblood” of something, because life and blood are virtually synonymous.

            And so, by shedding his blood as a sacrificial offering for our sins, Jesus has paid the necessary price for our forgiveness. And as our Statement correctly says, “His sacrificial death on the cross became and is the only ground of atonement for sin.” It is not Christ or something else, as though we have multiple options for forgiveness to choose from. Nor is it Christ and something else, as though there is more that needs to be accomplished for our forgiveness. It is Christ alone as the only ground of atonement for sin.

“Whereby man, by personal faith, is redeemed…”

            And how is it that we come to receive the forgiveness that Christ has purchased for us? Is it something that God gives only to those who were born into the right family? Is it something that he gives only to those who appear to be more worthy of it than others?

            No – as our Statement says, it is received simply by personal faith in Christ. We simply have to acknowledge that we need this forgiveness because we have rebelled against God through our sin. When we make that humbling admission, we then simply trust in Jesus to save us, believing that he has done all that was necessary for our forgiveness through his sacrificial death.

Monday Matters

            As we go through this series, we always want to remind ourselves of how a knowledge of doctrine can help us in daily life. With the doctrine of the atonement, there is one application that rings out above all others:

Christ's death for my sin is the clear and unchanging proof that God loves me.

            If I may modify the song “Jesus Loves Me” just a bit, I might say it like this:

Jesus loves me, this I know,

For he died to show me so.

            Christ’s death for us is the proof of God’s love for us, our shelter in the time of storm. Sometimes the blessings of life blow in all around us like a gentle breeze in the Spring, and we feel nothing but the sunshine of life upon our faces and we see beauty on the horizon all around us as far as our eyes can see. But at other times, the storm clouds of life roll in like an unstoppable front, and the damaging winds blow and threaten us with harm.

            How can we stay grounded and secure in such times? With this ever-changing turmoil we may often ask, “Does God really love me?” But over the anguished cry of our doubts comes the sound of nails being hammered into wood, and the sound of the very same words that are on our minds: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Then drowning out every other sound in our souls comes the triumphant cry, “It is finished!”

            Yes, God really does love me. Christ’s sacrifice stands for all time like a beacon in the night, shining through the darkness to help me keep my bearings when I might otherwise feel lost. Doubts will come because they are part of difficulties, but they do not have to win the day because the hill of Calvary is the high ground that our doubts cannot overtake. We will find refuge from our doubts about God’s love if we flee to the cross of Christ again and again.