What is Atonement?
Atonement is an Old Testament, and temporal, system for the covering of sins. The word is not found in the New Testament. Nor does the concept have any part of New Testament theology (Please, no hate mail yet. Finish reading first). The word Atonement comes from a Hebrew word that literally means to cover. We can see in every case of atonement, in the Old Testament, the shedding of the blood of animal’s depicted God’s judgment of death as the punishment of sin. However, this shedding of blood was only a substitution for their own life. “For the wages of Sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), and “…all things are cleansed with blood, and without blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22). God allowed for this system of atonement for two reasons. (1) It provided God’s people a way of dealing with their sins without the loss of their own life. (2) It anticipated the later work of Christ upon the cross as our vicarious (in our place) sacrifice. Both can be seen in the ceremony as described in Leviticus. First, and paramount, in ceremonial atonement is that all the animals and materials used had to be free of any, and all, defects (Lev. 22:21). For only One who was perfectly pure and void of blemish could bear the sins of others. This was a picture of Christ who would be the only true substitution for our sins (1 Pet. 1:19). During the ritual, the one presenting his sacrifice would lay his hands upon the head of the animal (Lev. 1:4). The laying of hands on someone, or an animal, was a way of signifying that that person, or animal, was acting in your stead. It was a way of appointing a proxy. You can see examples of this in Num. 27:18-20 when Moses appoints Joshua as his successor: “So the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit and lay your hand on him; and have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation; and commission him in their sight. And you shall put some of your authority on him, in order that all the congregation of the sons of Israel may obey him”. In the same way, Christ was commissioned to be our proxy. Paul wrote to the Corinthians regarding Christ in this manner: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). After this, the animal was immediately slain (Lev. 1:5). This was the physical act of substitution. Because of God’s great love and forbearance, He allowed the animals to be put to death in their stead. He was not letting their sins go unpunished, nor was he removing the sin from their account. For that would go against His just nature. “For the wages of Sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). But His great love and mercy provided them a way to cover their sins until a time, which He predetermined in eternity past, would come and put to death the sins of the world once and for all. This is Jesus Christ “Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:25). Finally, the animal’s blood was sprinkled, and his body was burned upon the altar (Lev. 1:6-9). This, as well, was in anticipation of the work of Christ when He presented Himself to God as our unblemished and spotless sacrifice (Heb. 9:14). Now in a post cross theology there is no longer a need to find a substitute, for one has already been provided for us. There is no longer a need to sprinkle blood upon the mercy seat, because mercy has already been given. There is no longer a need to present our sacrifices to God upon an altar, for our sacrifice has already presented Himself on our behalf. Finally, there is no longer a need for a covering of our sins, because the penalty has already been paid. The charge has been removed from our account, and righteousness has been added in its place. We now stand, in Christ, spotless and without blemish before our God. Now just to be fair, it must be mentioned that some theologians use Atonement as a catch all word for everything that Christ accomplished on the cross. Instead of defining it as a covering for sins, they define it as ‘at-one-ment’ with God. They explain that because of all that Christ has accomplished with the cross we now have ‘at one ment’ with our creator.
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Michael D'Urbano
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