WE BELIEVE that God's answer to man's sinful state is in the death of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, whose sufferings and shed blood have made full atonement for the sins of the whole world, both original and actual, and that there is no other ground for salvation - 2 Cor 5:18-21; Gal 1:4, Eph 1:7; Col 1:14; Heb 9:25,26; 1 Peter 1:19-20.
Introduction.
It is in this subject, the atonement, that we find release from the curse. In our last study we saw the Fall of Man and how it brought in a curse upon the human race. That curse is anything negative that afflicts man, i.e., sin, depravity, separation from God, sickness, poverty, mental anguish. What we are now going to look at is God's answer to the curse - "The Atonement".
Definition.
Atonement means to cover over. It means to cancel, pardon, to put off, to reconcile. The reconciliation is between a sinful man and a holy God. The Atonement is covering over that which separated man from God. It also includes the restoration to that place of favour with God.
I THE MEANS OF ATONEMENT.
1. God's law requires a blood sacrifice in the place of sin.
Heb 9:22 says, "Without shedding of blood there is no remission".
a. When Adam and Eve sinned, God made tunics of skin to clothe their nakedness. To make the skins, animals had to die. Their death and shedding of blood covered over Adam and Eve's shame. Gen 3:21.
b. The correct sin offering.
Abel offered to God a pure lamb. The lamb's life and blood covered over his sins. Gen 4:2-3.
c.The Atonement in the law.
Ex 29:36-37 says, "And you shall offer a bull every day as a sin offering for atonement".
2. Animal blood was temporary.
a. Heb 10:4, "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins".
b. Heb 10:11, "And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins".
3. God provides a permanent covering for sin.
Our permanent covering for sin is found in the work of Christ. His shed blood, His suffering and His death are all essential to our reconciliation to God.
a. The Blood of Jesus.
1. Heb 9:12, "Not with the blood of goats and calves but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all having obtained eternal redemption".
2. Col 1:20, "Having made peace through the blood of His cross".
3. 1 Peter 1:18,19, "Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things ... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."
b. The Suffering of Jesus.
1. 1 Peter 1:18, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God".
2. Is 53:5, "He was wounded, He was bruised, He was chastised, He was whipped."
All this was on our behalf that we might
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