Understanding the Cross: Part 2

The Mystery of the Cross

Lesson #14

In this section we shall look at what is called The ATONEMENT It is quite complex and so your notes have been broken down into small steps to help easier understanding.

atonement |əәˈtəәʊnm(əә)nt| • the action of making amends for a wrong or

injury: he submitted his resignation as an act of atonement.

• (in religious contexts) reparation or expiation for sin: an annual ceremony of confession and atonement for sin.

• (the Atonement) Christian Theology the reconciliation of God and mankind through Jesus Christ.

CARM: In theology Atonement speaks of God's acting in human history to reestablish the original relationship between God and man by dealing with sin. To atone means to make amends—to repair a wrong. Biblically, it means to remove guilt of man. The OT atonements offered by the high priest were temporary and a foreshadow of the real and final atonement made by Jesus.

Jesus atoned for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). This atonement is received by faith (Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:8-9). Man is a sinner (Rom. 5:8) and cannot atone for himself. Therefore, the love of the Father sent Jesus (1 John 4:10) to die in our place (1 Pet. 3:18) for our sins (1 Pet. 2:24). Because of the atonement, our fellowship with God is restored (Rom. 5:10).

1 Corinthians 1:23–25 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Key Scriptures

John 12:23–33 23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. 30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up[a] from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

Hebrews 12:1–3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Galatians 3:13 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 hung on a pole.”[a]

1 Corinthians 1:23–25 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

b) Introduction

Atonement is God satisfying the demands of His holiness, at the same time as showing the depths of His love towards mankind. • God made Jesus bear the

punishment of our sins and take our guilt upon Himself as our substitute (1 Peter 2:24).

1 Peter 2:24 24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

• Jesus did something more than the Old Testament idea of sin offering ever did. As our substitute, he took sin upon Himself, but also took our sin into Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21).

• The victory over sin, death and the power of Satan was not only worked by Him, it was achieved in Him.

• Jesus did something more than the Old Testament idea of sin offering ever did. As our substitute, he took sin upon Himself, but also took our sin into Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21).

• The victory over sin, death and the power of Satan was not only worked by Him, it was achieved in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:21 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

c) The Difference between Sin and Sinful

• Jesus was actually made sin with our sin. • Jesus did not become a sinner, that is, He

was not sinful. • He was not punished for any sin of His own. • He took in Himself the penalty for our sins. • Jesus offered Himself up as a perfect sacrifice

without spot or blemish (Hebrews 9:14).

P.T. Forsyth said about Jesus, ‘‘God made Him sin, treated Him as if He were sin, but He did not view Him as sinful. God lovingly treated Him as human sin, and with His consent, judged human sin in Him and on Him. Personal guilt Christ could never confess.’’

This is the heart of Calvary. God did not deal with the question of sin merely by observing the physical death of His Son. No, Jesus entered into that death. Man’s sin and disobedience to God has many results; for example, man’s physical death; divine judgement and dereliction; death towards God; Satan’s oppression and bondage; sickness and disease.

For man to be delivered from the fact and effect of his sin, the Son needed to take all this sin into Himself. The Son of God became all our sin.

d) The Difference Between Human and Mortal

To be human, as far as we are concerned, is to be mortal — i.e. we will physically die. God did not originally create man to be mortal. In Genesis 3:22 God expelled man from the garden of Eden to prevent him from eating of the tree of life by which he could live for ever. God was cutting man off from the source of his eternal life because of his disobedience.

• From this point on, man became subject to death as a judgement from God

• Mans years became shorter the further he went away from his beginnings with God, until they were set at 120 years within the terms of the Old Covenant (Genesis 6:3).

• Most of us though only make 70–80 years (Psalm 90:10).

• Jesus was not subject to man’s death until He took sin into Himself, because death is the outcome of sin (Romans 5:12).

• Jesus was not sinful, therefore, He did not live His life under the threat of death as a necessary outcome of sin.

Romans 5:12 12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

• Jesus, who had no need to die, either spiritually or physically, was the very one who took death upon Himself to break its power (Hebrews 2:14–15).

• On the cross it was the Immortal (living forever, never dying) who was put to death. Jesus was human but immortal.

Hebrews 2:14-15 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

• Jesus’ struggle in the garden of Gethsemane was due to the awful reality He recognised was before Him. He knew that He was to take human sin upon Himself and know death as a result, but He submitted Himself completely to the will of the Father. No man in normal human strength could ever have faced what Jesus faced (Luke 22:41–44).

• This is where the power of Calvary lies with us: when we bow before it, accept the mystery and power of it, and when we receive into ourselves the saving effect of it.

• ‘‘The Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.’’ (Galatians 2:20)

Mount of Olives and Garden of

Gethsemane

e) Born of God, not of Adam

The truth of the virgin birth is vital to our understanding of both the life and death of Jesus. It is clear that the life Jesus lived was lived in a real body of flesh — He experienced real temptations.

Hebrews 4:15 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

• He was just as human was we are (Hebrews 4:15). However Jesus was different to all other men: He was not subject to sin, and He had the power to overcome every temptation because Jesus was not born of Adam: He was born of the Holy Spirit.

• Men take their lineage from the old Adam; they take their weakness from the old Adam; they take their sin from the old Adam.

• Jesus is the last Adam, the man from heaven (1 Corinthians 15:45–49). He is like them in body but not in spirit. Men do not take on the likeness of the man from heaven until they too are born of God through the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:3; John 1:12,13).

f) Jesus Overcame Sin

Jesus had to overcome sin at two levels. First, in daily living, where He overcame the reign of sin in the flesh by His perfect obedience to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. Second, in terms of the judgement of God upon sin, through which He received in Himself the punishment for sin and thereby totally atoned for it, and defeated the power of death through His own death on the cross.

• Jesus was born of the Spirit and lived in the power of the Spirit. He never knew what it was to sin.

• Jesus lived at the level of true humanity for which Adam was created.

• Jesus had a real body of flesh that was susceptible to temptation, (like Adam before he fell). But unlike ours Jesus’ body was governed by the Spirit of God, and never knew the reality of sin until the end.

• On the cross Jesus did something which He had never experienced before: He opened Himself to the reality and effects of sin within His own body. Not His sin, but the sin of all other men, and into Himself He gathered all its awful effects and judgement (2 Corinthians 5:21).

2 Corinthians 5:21 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

A.W. Tozer wrote, ‘‘The old cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. In Roman times the man who took up his cross and started down the road was not coming back. He was not going out to have his life redirected, he was going out to have it ended.’’

Questions and Discussion Points

1.Read Luke 22:39 – 46 and Matthew 26:36 – 46. What do you think Jesus went through at this time and who did He do it for? 2.How did Jesus deal with our sin? (Hebrews 4:15; 9:26).

3.Why was the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross acceptable to God for our salvation? (2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:3–4). 4.Why do we have eternal life as a result of Jesus’ work on the cross? (Romans 6:5–14,23). 5.Why is Jesus called the last or second Adam? (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45–49).

h) Summary and Application

1.Our heavenly Father offered up His sinless pure Son on the cross to be sin for all men. 2.Man brought about his own downfall due to his own disobedience but God raised up Jesus Christ, the last or second Adam, to break the power of this and to set us free.

3.Jesus is our substitute. The punishment we deserve He bore in His sinless self on the cross of Calvary. 4.When we realise how much Jesus had to suffer for us, can we do anything but take up our own cross, as He asks of us, and follow Him?