The Atonement

I. The Necessity of the Atonement

A. Not Necessary for God to Save Any (Free – Not Obligated):

II Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

Hebrews 2:16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.

II. The Cause of The Atonement

A. The Love of God:

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

B. The Justice of God:

Romans 3:25-26 ...Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

III. The Essential Means of the Atonement

Matthew 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

Matthew 26:39 “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

Luke 24:25-26 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

Romans 3:25-26 ...to show God’s righteousness, ...to show his righteousness... so that he might be just...

Hebrews 2:17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Hebrews 10:4-5 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;

Acts 17:3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

IV. The Nature of the Atonement

A. Christ's Obedience for Us (Active Obedience)

Philippians 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith––

I Corinthians 1:30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

Romans 5:18-19 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

Matthew 3:15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

B. Christ's Sufferings for Us (Passive Obedience)

1. Sufferings of His Whole Life

Mark 1:13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.

Hebrews 5:8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

Hebrews 12:3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

2. The Pain of the Cross (penal substitution or vicarious atonement)

a. Physical Pain and Death

Mark 15:24 And they crucified him

b. The Pain of Bearing Sin

Isaiah 53:6 ...the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:11-12 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; ...and he shall bear their iniquities. ...because he poured out his soul to death ...he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

John 1:29 ... “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

II Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us––for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”––

Hebrews 9:28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many...

I Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

c. Abandonment

Mark 14:34 “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”

Matthew 26:56 ... Then all the disciples left him and fled.

John 13:1 ... having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Habakuk 1:13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong,

d. Bearing the Wrath of God

Propitiation: a sacrifice that turns away the wrath of God and thereby makes God propitious (favorable) toward us

Romans 3:25-26 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Hebrews 2:17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

I John 2:2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

I John 4:10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

V. New Testament Terms Describing Different Aspects of the Atonement

A. Justification (we deserve to die as the penalty for sin)

Romans 5:9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Romans 3:26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

B. Propitiation (we deserve to bear God's wrath against sin)

I John 4:10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

C. Reconciliation (we are separated from God by our sins)

II Corinthians 5:18-19 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

D. Redemption (we are in bondage to sin and to the kingdom of Satan)

Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

I John 5:19 the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

Hebrews 2:15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Colossians 1:13-14 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Romans 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.