Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ATONEMENT

Reconciliation between estranged parties, bringing them into agreement. The focus is the universal problem of sin, which humankind is unable to solve, and which disrupted the perfect harmony between God and creation, causing separation (Isa. 59:2) and death (Rom. 5:12; 6:23). Atonement, therefore, is God’s way of bridging the gap and giving life (Heb. kpr, “to cover,” “cancel,” “purge,” “purify,” “decontaminate”; Gk. katallagḗ, “reconciliation”).

Atonement is described in the Hebrew cultus as sacrifice, substitution, mediation, and judgment. Consecration of priests required sacrifice of a bull as a “sin offering for atonement” (Exod. 29:36). Daily sacrifices (the tāmîḏ) were offered for the forgiveness of sin (Lev. 4:20). The repentant sinner “slaughtered the sin offering” (Lev. 4:29). On the Day of Atonement a goat was slain (Lev. 16:9). Hence, atonement necessitated the death of a victim.

Lev. 17:11-14 expresses the basic idea of substitution: “It is the blood that makes atonement [for one’s life] . . . For the life of every creature is its blood.” The sacrificial blood represents a life that was given in place of, or on behalf of, the penitent one who presented the offering to God. The blood of the animal substituted for the sinner’s blood (i.e., life).

The technical term kipper means “to atone by offering a substitute.” Forty-nine usages in Leviticus alone attest that this verb is associated with removal of sin (e.g., Lev. 1:4; 4:20; 8:15). It denotes a vicarious sacrifice, the innocent life given for the guilty life.

The sinner confessed his sins by placing his hands on the head of the animal, then slaying it, effectively transferring his guilt to the sacrifice. The priest then placed the blood on the horns of the altar of burnt offering. It was not until the blood was mediated by the priest (i.e., placed on the altar) that the sinner received forgiveness and reconciliation (Lev. 4:35b). Therefore, the priest stood as a mediating agent between God and the penitent.

On the Day of Atonement, generally understood as a day of judgment, a fast was prescribed as the people conducted intense self-examination. The high priest entered the holy of holies with the blood of the sin offering to make atonement for the people and the sanctuary. Another goat (Azazel, “scapegoat”) was banished to perish in the wilderness, symbolizing the complete eradication of sin from the camp (Lev. 16).

Although in the NT reconciliation terminology occurs specifically only in Rom. 5:10-11; 2 Cor. 5:18-20, the concept is vigorously attested, in that the OT metaphors meet their inexorable fulfillment in Christ. The Cross presents Christ putting “away sin by sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:26; cf. v. 22). He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, 36), the “paschal lamb” (1 Cor. 5:7). As the Passover commemorated God’s deliverance of his people from Egyptian bondage, so Jesus’ sacrifice delivers people from the slavery of sin (cf. Eph. 5:2; 1 Pet. 1:18-19). The book of Hebrews highlights Christ’s perfect sacrifice for sin and espouses the superiority of his blood over animal blood (Heb. 9:13-14). This was the ideal, complete, all-encompassing sacrifice, accomplishing what the OT sacrifices could not, “one sacrifice for sins for all time” (Heb. 10:12).

Christ’s sacrifice is understood in terms of expiation (Gk. hilastḗrion; Rom. 3:25), the canceling of guilt and cleansing of sin. The Bible does not subscribe to the pagan view of appeasing the wrath of a capricious deity. Rather, propitiation is orderly here, in that Christ’s death effected the means by which God chose to manifest his “wrath” against sin, but averts it from the sinner, thereby being consistent with his holy character and still making it possible for repentant sinners to receive salvation.

Christ’s death was vicarious: “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3); he was “offered once to bear the sins of many” (Heb. 9:28). He “bore our sins in his body” (1 Pet. 2:24) and died “the righteous for the unrighteous” (3:18). He is the “ransom” (lýtron), the price paid by one person to secure the freedom of another. Prisoners of war and slaves were freed in this manner. Hence, Christ’s mission statement, “to give his life as a ransom ‘instead of’ (or ‘in the place of’) many” (Mark 10:45), underscores the voluntary substitutionary nature of his sacrifice (cf. Matt. 26:28; 1 Cor. 6:20; 1 Tim. 2:6; Tit. 2:14). Compare the Suffering Servant “who was wounded for our sins” (Isa. 53:5); as the ʾāšām, “guilt offering” (v. 10), he is the redemptive self-oblation.

Hebrews underscores Christ’s high-priestly mediatorial role, which is to “make expiation (NRSV ‘make a sacrifice of atonement’) for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17). Seated at the place of authority, he is a minister in the sanctuary (8:1-12), offering the merits of “his own blood” (9:12), “in the presence of God on our behalf” (v. 24). As the only one who is truly human and divine, he could mediate (i.e., interpose) between parties as the equal friend of each, especially to effect reconciliation. Indeed, “there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5-6).

The final assize will bring complete resolution to the problem of sin. Evil will be totally eradicated (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 20). God and his people will dwell together in perfect and eternal harmony, united in Christ (Eph. 1:9-10; Rev. 21-22). The chasm will have been bridged.

Bibliography. R. Letham, The Work of Christ (Downers Grove, 1993); L. Morris, The Atonement (Downers Grove, 1983); The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, 1965); A. Rodriguez, Substitution in the Hebrew Cultus (Berrien Springs, 1982); J. R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, 1986).

Kenneth D. Mulzac

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ATONEMENT

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)