The Atonement

Chapter Overview of Systematic Theology

The Atonement is what Jesus accomplished both in his life and death to bring about our salvation. The basic idea is that humans needed God to send a representative to set them free from sin. Do we know what caused Christ to come down to earth and die for mans sins? Yes we do! “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” John 3:16 God loved man so much that he came down to set him free. In order to is set man free he had to remain completely just at the same time. So, God in his infinite wisdom set forth a plan to give man his son as a substitute for their sins. (Rom 3:25) God requires that sin be paid for. It is our penalty. The wrath of God has been stored up from the beginning of the earth ready to be unleashed on sin. Without God punishing sin he would not remain the just God that he is.

How do we know we need Christ? We know because we have broken His holy law. The penalty for that is death and eternal separation from God and we can’t obey the law because we have inherited sin. How’d we inherit it? We received from our first parent’s disobedience to God. God gave a command to Adam in the beginning and Adam disobeyed falling away from God, and in Adam we all sinned. (Rom 5:14) Now none of us not even one can or even wants to follow God. We are by our very nature Children of Wrath. (Rom 1:18) This is why we needed Christ to save us. We had a debt that needed to be paid, either by our suffering under Gods eternal wrath or allowing that suffering to be poured out on one that is completely holy and blameless, perfect in all his ways, so we could receive mercy, grace, and love.

Was there any other way than Christ dieing on the cross to pay for sins? If there were another way would not have God taken it. Jesus said, “ If it is possible, let this cup pass from me…” Matt 26:39 If there was any other way other than dieing on a cross and taking our full punishment God would have taken that road instead of his sufferings. But we had to be bought with the Blood of Christ. (1 Peter 1:19) it took his blood to make man righteous. He had to live a perfect human life and then take upon himself the punishment of man to make him righteous. (Rom 5)

It is important for us to realize that the main work Christ did, redemption, is not our work. It has been entirely finished by Christ. Jesus died for us but we must realize its Jesus who died! He made the many righteous. (Rom 5:19) He made us alive. (Eph 2:5) He transformed us. (2^nd Cr 5:17) It is all His work and we can do nothing but be made alive by Christ.

Wayne Grudem separates the atonement into two aspects: 1) Christ’s obedience for us and 2) Christ’s sufferings for us.

The First Part shows that Christ had to live in perfect obedience under the law of God. This is our proof that he was the perfect sacrifice acceptable to God. It also communicates that we are made righteous because he was our righteousness for us. If Christ never lived a holy life he would not be able to impute his righteousness to us through faith then Phil 3:1, “ not having a righteousness of his own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ,” would not be valid for man. We wouldn’t have his righteousness attained for us through his life if he didn’t live perfect.

The second part has been covered thoroughly so far but we must know that by Christ dieing on the cross he bore the wrath of God on our behalf. (1^st John 4:10) he died for sins, (Heb 9:26) he bridged the gap between God and man, (2^nd Cr 5:18-19) and he saved us out of the kingdom of darkness. (Col 1:13)

The atonement is the final complete work of Christ on behalf of condemned sinners. It is God Show he is love, mercy, just, forgiving, longsuffering, and glorious. Both in Christ’s life and his death he shows us characteristics of himself, doing it for his glory. The resurrection of Christ proves that God accepted Christ’s sacrifice and counted him worthy on our behalf!