The Atonement

Basic Christian Doctrines 29

 

1.   Jesus Obeyed the Law for Us.

 

Our Lord Jesus was perfectly innocent, pure and sinless. By obeying the Law of God and never sinning, He was thus uniquely able to provide the only sinless sacrifice to His Father. The O.T. sacrifices could not have any blemishes or faults. Moreover, Christ also obeyed the Law in our stead. We call this the “Active Obedience” of Christ, and also His vicarious obedience. Romans 5 says that the disobedience of Adam brought sin and death into the world; the obedience of Christ brought righteousness and life.

 

2.   Jesus Was Crucified.

 

He came to die. After 30 years waiting and working,  and 3 years of ministry, Christ was betrayed by Judas and was falsely condemned by two unjust trials. God ordained that He die by crucifixion. It was a Roman method, not a Jewish one, and extremely cruel and painful. Jesus was “hung on a tree” (Deut. 21:23, Gal. 3:13), not by ropes but by nails in His hands and feet. It was a public and shameful execution, recorded in all 4 Gospels. Hung up between Heaven and Earth, the Lord Jesus was fastened to the Cross like the animals were tied to the altar in the Temple, for the Cross was His altar. I Pet. 2:24 calls the cross a tree, referring to to Deut. 21:23 and the tree motif in the O.T. (Garden of Eden, etc).

 

3.   Jesus Took our Sins upon Himself.

 

1 Pet. 2:24 says that Jesus took our sins upon Himself. Isa. 53 says He carried them on Himself like a heavy burden. God laid our sins upon Him, treated Him as if He were the sinner. 2 Cor. 5:21 says that God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we could be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  This was the first part of what is called the “divine exchange”.  Our sins were imputed to Christ; His righteousness is imputed to us. This does not mean that Jesus was literally made sin or a sinner, but treated “as if” He were sin. The second part of this awesome process was that, being made sin, He was then “made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). God looked at Him as sin, and the thrice-holy God cursed Him and unleashed the floodgates of divine wrath against Him.

 

4.   Jesus Suffered for Us.

 

“Christ also suffered for us” (I Pet. 2:21). He suffered the ignominy of not being recognized and worshipped for 33 years. This intensified to the very end. He agonized in Gethsemane, even sweating drops of blood. He was laughed at, mocked, beaten with sticks, whipped. The crucifixion itself was excruciating. But the internal pains were even greater. He suffered the very wrath of God in His soul. He drank the cup of wrath and internalized it. By so doing, His sacrifice was the propitiation that appeased the Father's wrath. It was the only thing that could satisfy all the requirements of the Law. God accepted the sacrifice.

 

5.   Jesus Shed His Blood for Us.

 

The animal sacrifices in the Temple were types of Christ in several ways: alive and suffering, and shedding blood. But Jesus was no animal - He was a human sacrifice. He shed His blood as a special part of the sacrifice. Without this blood, there could be no atonement or forgiveness (Heb. 9:22). It was sinless, “precious” blood (I Pet. 1:19), infinite in value. One drop alone was worth more than a thousand universes. God gave blood to us to be life in the flesh, and for Christ for sacrifice (Lev. 17:10)

 

6.   Jesus Paid the Price for Our Redemption.

Jesus bought us (I Cor. 6:20). He paid the ransom price to free us from sin and the wrath of God. The price was not paid to Satan, to whom it was not due, but to the Father, whose wrath was over us. Christ “gave His life as a ransom” (Mark 10:45). The price was His life and His death. Our sins incurred an infinite debt, not because they are infinite in number or quality, but because they are committed against an infinitely holy God. We owed an infinite debt, which only the infinite God could pay. But Man must pay it. So God became Man to pay it to Himself. This is the great doctrine re-discovered by Anselm.  

 

7.   Jesus Died as a Substitute.

 

Jesus had no sins of His own, and therefore did not have to die. He would still be alive on Earth today had He not done what He did. But He died in our place. This is called the “vicarious atonement”. He stood in our place, He took what we had coming. And He did this voluntarily. Nobody took His life from Him. He laid it down of His own accord (John 10:18). He could have called down thousands of angels to stop the crucifixion (Matt. 26:53), but He didn't. “Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

 

8.   Jesus Died for All Men, But Especially the Elect.

 

God loves all men, and especially the elect. Just as a husband loves all people but especially His wife, so Christ died for all people but especially His bride. On the one hand, there is a general sense in which Jesus died for all men everywhere (2 Cor. 5:14, 1 Tim. 2:4-6). This is the basis for the free offer of the Gospel. But Jesus also died in a special sense for the elect (Eph. 5:25, John 10:15-18, Isa. 53:8). He died for all, but not equally for all. He made salvation possible for all, but He made it definite for His people in particular. He bought some blessings for all men, and all blessings for some men.

 

9.   Jesus Defeated Satan.

 

There many aspects of the atonement. In the Godward direction, it was propitiation. It satisfied God's wrath. In the Manward direction, it was expiation. It took away sins. But there was a third aspect. Satanward, it defeated the Devil. Jesus came to die, and His death secured the defeat and overthrow of Satan (Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8). It also defeated the demons (Col. 2:14-15). Gen. 3:15 predicted when Christ would crush Satan's head by incurring injury to Himself. He slew the great Dragon and freed the fair maiden, the Church. He overthrew the Prince of Darkness (John 12:31). He did not negotiate with Satan. He resisted all Satan's temptations and tricks, for Satan had nothing in or on Him.

 

10. Jesus Displayed the Love of God.

 

No man can  show greater love to a friend than by dying for Him (John 15:13). Christ died for His friends while they were still His enemies (Rom. 5:10). “God demonstrates His love for us, in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Christ showed us just how much He loved us, by dying for us (I John 3:16). This is the greatest display of love imaginable, that God would let His only Son die in the place of enemies (I John 4:9-10; John 3:16). Surely if God loved us enough to give us the greatest gift of all (Christ), then He will give us everything else (Rom. 8:32). Just as the love of God itself in an unfathomable ocean of undeserved goodness, so the work of Christ is awesome and overwhelming. It alone can finally break these hard hearts of ours and melt them into hearts of loving gratitude.