Atonement originally meant “at-one-ment” or “at one with,” to be in harmony with someone. In Christianity, atonement refers to the needed reconciliation between sinful man and woman and the holy God.
In Wikipedia, a human definition states that atonement is the concept of a person taking action to correct their own previous wrongdoing, offense, or injury. The person knows they have done wrong and they want to mend the wrong. To correct it, they might either take direct action, take equivalent action to do good in return for others, or express feelings of remorse, like apologize for what they did. They hope by doing any of these things they can atone for or undo the consequences of the wrong act because if you do something wrong there are usually consequences.
Consequences are a part of God’s divine legal system too. God has great wrath against sin. God says eternal death is the consequence when we sin against God or break one of His laws. The sin causes a break and builds a barrier in our relationship with Him. It separates us from Him. Because of God’s love for us, He desires that we be reconciled to Him; so He created a very specific and necessary path to reconciliation.
Many trying to correct something on their own that they have done wrong; but in God’s system no one can do anything to atone for their own sins. Everyone is born with a sin nature due to Adam’s first original sin. Everyone has sinned against God’s law, it is like the sin is on you and you can’t take your sinful nature off yourself. A sinful person can’t correct or remove his own sin no matter how hard they try. There is nothing he or she can do to atone for their sin and reconcile their relationship to God. So that is why God sent His only beloved Son, Jesus, into the world so that we can be at one with God, in harmony with God. Jesus Christ was God’s solution to our problem of sin. We could not atone for our sin so Jesus atoned it for us.
The Atonement, purged our sins and reconciled us to God. God’s wrath for sin was forever satisfied by His Son’s death. It was God’s requirement for us to avoid the eternal consequences of death and to enter into eternal life with Him. We did not have to do anything. It was a gift from God by grace to all who will receive and accept it. [Rom 5:11] “We were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son.” [I Peter 3:18] “For Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”
We will never know what it was like to have the compressed all-encompassing weight of all the sins of the world placed upon Him. He took away my sin and died the death I deserved. Even though He knew why He was hanging there on the cross, He was also human and He deeply felt the absence of God because of the sin He was enduring in that moment. He was in physical agony due to the beating of His body. He was mentally abused in that He was unwarrantedly mocked, falsely accused, betrayed and slandered. He was emotionally exhausted and in spiritual anguish. There has never been a more terrible death. God’s wrath against us was turned away from us and directed toward Him.
[I Peter 2:24] “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.” Jesus dies for our sins, the innocent for the guilty.
Oswald Chambers says, “The Atonement means that God can put me back into perfect union with Himself, without a shadow between…It does not matter who or what we are, there is absolute reinstatement into God by the death of Jesus Christ and by no other way.”
Will we accept by faith Christ’s atonement and acknowledge that it was our sin that He bore in our place? When we believe, repent and put our trust in Him, we receive God’s free gift and then there is no more barrier between God and us. Will choose today to ask Jesus into your life and be reconciled to God.
