What is the atonement?

Question 7097

The atonement of Christ is the centre of the Christian faith, and the word itself is one of the few great theological terms that began life in English. William Tyndale coined it in the sixteenth century to render the idea of at-one-ment, the making of one out of two who were estranged. It was a good instinct, because reconciliation is exactly what the cross achieves.

But we need to press further than the etymology. If the atonement of Christ brings God and sinners together, we have to ask what was keeping them apart, what the death of Jesus actually did about it, and why nothing else would serve.

The Problem the Atonement Answers

The barrier between God and humanity is not divine reluctance. God is not distant, uninterested, or hard to persuade. The barrier is sin, and specifically the fact that a righteous God cannot treat sin as though it did not matter without ceasing to be righteous. Habakkuk says God is of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong. That is not temperament; it is the character of God.

So the difficulty is genuinely twofold. Sin must be dealt with in a way that satisfies righteousness, and the sinner must be brought near in a way that satisfies love. The atonement of Christ is God’s answer to both at once, which is why Paul can say the cross shows God to be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26).

What the Old Testament Sacrifices Taught

The Hebrew verb usually translated to atone is kaphar, carrying the sense of covering, and the whole sacrificial system of Leviticus was built on it. An animal died, blood was applied, and the worshipper went home accepted. The system taught by repetition three things that Israel could hardly miss: sin brings death, God provides a way, and the way involves substitution.

The Day of Atonement made the point most vividly. One goat died and its blood was taken into the holiest place; the other carried the confessed sins of the nation away into the wilderness. Penalty borne and guilt removed, pictured in two animals because no one animal could show both. Hebrews is emphatic that these sacrifices never actually took sins away (Hebrews 10:4). They were promissory notes awaiting payment.

The Atonement of Christ as Penal Substitution

The governing framework for understanding the cross is penal substitution: Jesus bore in His own person the penalty due to sinners, in their place, and thereby satisfied the righteous requirement of God against sin. Isaiah 53 says it as plainly as language can. He was pierced for our transgressions, the chastisement that brought us peace was upon Him, and the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Paul says the same in the sharpest possible terms: God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). That must be handled carefully. It does not mean Jesus became personally sinful, nor that He was born again in hell, nor that the divine nature was somehow severed from the human. It means the full judicial weight of human sin was laid on Him as our substitute.

This is the foundation on which everything else about the atonement of Christ stands. Take penal substitution away and the other dimensions of the cross lose their footing, because there is no longer any account of how the penalty was dealt with.

The Other Dimensions of What the Cross Achieved

Penal substitution is the governing framework, not the whole description. The New Testament also presents the cross as a victory, where Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities and triumphed over them (Colossians 2:15). It presents it as redemption, the payment of a price to secure release. It presents it as reconciliation, the ending of hostility. It presents it as the supreme display of love, which is why the cross moves people as no argument can.

None of these is an alternative to penal substitution; each depends on it. Jesus defeats the devil precisely by removing the ground of his accusation, which is our guilt. He redeems by paying the penalty. He reconciles by removing what separated. He displays love by bearing what we deserved. I have set out how these fit together in the various theories of atonement.

For Whom Was the Atonement Made?

The atonement of Christ is unlimited in its provision. His death was sufficient for every human being without exception, and I take the universal language of Scripture at face value. He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). He gave Himself a ransom for all. God so loved the world.

Passages that speak of Jesus laying down His life for the sheep or for the church describe those who receive the gift rather than a restricted scope of the offering. The provision is universal; the application is to those who believe. That distinction preserves both the genuineness of the gospel invitation and the particular affection of the Shepherd for His own, without forcing either set of texts to say something other than what it says. See the extent of the atonement.

What the Atonement Secures for the Believer

A great deal follows from the cross, and it is worth naming. Sin is forgiven, fully and finally. The believer is justified, declared righteous, and that standing does not fluctuate. Enmity is ended and there is peace with God. Adoption follows, and with it an inheritance. The indwelling Spirit is given. Death loses its terror because judgment has already fallen elsewhere.

Note that all of it rests on something outside me. The atonement of Christ is a finished work, accomplished in history, needing nothing added. That is why the believer’s confidence can be steady. I am not waiting to see whether the price will hold. It was paid, and the resurrection is God’s public receipt.

Why Nothing Else Would Do

People sometimes ask why God did not simply forgive without the cross, and the question deserves a proper answer rather than impatience. The short reply is that a God who waived sin would not be righteous, and a righteousness that ignored sin would not be righteousness. Forgiveness always costs someone something; the only question is who pays.

What makes the gospel astonishing is that God Himself paid. He did not find a third party to suffer, nor extract the price from us. The Judge stepped down and took the sentence in the person of His Son. That is the heart of the atonement of Christ, and it is why the cross is not a tragedy we regret but the ground on which we stand. There is more on this in why Jesus had to die.

The Atonement of Christ and the Resurrection

The cross and the empty tomb must be held together, because the resurrection is God’s public verdict on the death. Paul says Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Romans 4:25). Had He stayed in the grave, we would have no evidence that the offering was accepted.

So the atonement of Christ is not complete as a doctrine without the resurrection, even though the price was paid at Calvary. The seated posture of the risen priest in Hebrews makes the same point in different language. He sat down, which no priest under the old order ever did, because the work was finished and accepted.

Why It Cannot Be Repeated

Hebrews labours the once-for-all character of the offering. He entered once for all into the holy places. He appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin. There is no further sacrifice, no re-presenting, no continuing offering, and any system of worship that implies otherwise has misunderstood what happened.

This is also why the believer’s standing does not fluctuate. If the atonement of Christ required periodic renewal, my confidence would rise and fall with the last renewal. Because it was finished, my acceptance rests on a completed historical act, and eternal security follows from the nature of the work itself rather than from anything in me.

So, now what?

Read Isaiah 53 and then Romans 3:21 to 26 in one sitting, and let the two texts explain each other. The atonement is not a doctrine to be filed away; it is the reason a sinner can stand in the presence of God without fear. If you have been trying to add something of your own to it, the addition is not helping. What would it mean, today, to rest on a finished work rather than an unfinished one?

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” 1 Peter 3:18