BIBLE
DIGEST - Number 50
October
1994
BLOOD ATONEMENT AND OUR SALVATION
By Allon Maxwell
|
INTRODUCTION The first
purpose of the Atonement is to reconcile us with God, leading us to fulfil
the first commandment. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength".
(Mark 12:29-30) The second
purpose is like the first. Our united participation in the salvation which
comes to us through the death of Jesus, is also designed to reconcile us with
each other. "You shall love your neighbour as yourself".
(Mark 12:31) In the
community of the redeemed there is a visible love. There is meant to be, in
ALL of us, nothing less than that same quality of love which took Jesus to
the cross for sinners. As Jesus has loved us, so also are we to love one
another. We must learn
both to live for each other, and to die for each other. (John 13:34) The existence
of that love between us is the test of whether we are disciples
or not. It is therefore
also the test of whether we have properly understood the
Atonement, whether it has achieved its purpose in us, and whether we are
truly redeemed. If we do not
have that love, it matters little whether we have the theory correct or not.
We walk in darkness still and we are blind to the truth! (1 John 2:11) If I cannot love you who I can
see, then neither is it possible for me to love God who I cannot see. (1 John 4:20) There may be
some amongst my readers who will want to argue the technical correctness of
the theory presented here. I have not written to open the door for academic
discussion about whether I have the theory correct or not! My belief in
the things which I share with you in this paper, has reconciled me to God. My
faith in the cross has saved me from the penalty of my sins and changed my
heart towards God. What Jesus has done for me, has given me a new vision of
who God is and what God is. It has changed my attitudes and my response to
the laws of God. It has given me
Eternal life! That I do know
beyond all question! It is not open
for any negotiation between us that I might not be reconciled with God, just
because that you think you have a better or more detailed theory about how it
all works. But I will
concede that, even if there are some differences in your own understanding of
how it worked in your case, you may also have arrived where I am. If you and I are
both truly reconciled with God, then we are brothers. I dare not fail
to confess that before men, just because we differ in our understanding of
the detail of how it came to pass for each of us. If we are both
disciples, we will recognise the love of Christ in each other and simply be
glad for each other that we have both arrived. That is not to
say that I open the door to all theories, regardless of what they are. Some
theories of the Atonement do not seem to engender the Divine love at all. Nor
do they lead to obedience. These we must
reject, not in unholy conflict, but in love. WHERE IT STARTS Bible teaching
about salvation begins with the premise that God decrees a penalty of death
for the breaking of His laws, and that those who have sinned are in need of
salvation from the penalty which they have incurred. For those who
are under condemnation for their sin, there are only two possible destinies: *
For those who truly repent of
their sins, there is pardon and remission of the penalty. (Ezekiel 33:14 & Acts 3:19) *
For those who wilfully persist in
their sins, the death penalty will be carried out without mercy. (Hebrews 10:26-31) THE LAW OF SIN
AND DEATH The penalty for
sin is based on what Paul calls the "Law of Sin and Death". (Romans 8:2) In simple terms
this "Law of Sin and Death" is God's decree that those who break
His commandments have placed themselves under sentence of death. The Bible says: *
That all have sinned and come
short of the perfect standard for which God created them. (Romans 3:23) thereby incurring the penalty of
death. (Romans 2:8 & Romans 6:23). *
That this death is a judicial
death, to be inflicted as a punishment for sin, on the Day of Judgement (2 Peter 2:9) *
That this judicial death is
therefore not the "ordinary" death which terminates
this present life for all of us, but a "second death", specifically
for sinners, following the resurrection of the dead. (Revelation 20:11-15). *
That this judicial death will be
preceded by the infliction of other punishment in varying degrees of
severity, appropriate to the crime. (Luke 12:48). *
That the "second death"
is a total annihilation from which there is no return. It is described as
"everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord", (2 Thessalonians 1:9). REPENTANCE AND
EXPIATION However, the
penalty imposed by the "law of sin and death" is not completely
irrevocable. God does offer
forgiveness and salvation from the penalty of sin to those who accept His
conditions. The two
conditions for God's offer of salvation from the death penalty are repentance
and expiation. Faith about salvation is built on the foundation
that Jesus died to expiate the death penalty (Romans 3:25) on behalf of repentant
sinners. (1 Corinthians 15:3 &
Luke 24:47) In theological
language this is called the doctrine of "Substitutionary Atonement
". (We should note that of course, the English Bible does not use the
word "substitute". Nevertheless we shall see that it is a valid
conclusion to be drawn from those passages which tell us that Jesus died for
us.) DEFINING THE
TERMS "Atone"
means "make amends", "expiate", "reconcile".
(The Hebrew word used in the Old Testament means "to make a covering for
sin"). "Expiate"
means "pay the penalty of (sin)", or "make amends for,
(sin)". "Substitute"
means "a person or thing performing a function instead of another",
"replace a person or thing with another", "put in exchange
for". Biblical "Repentance"
means "a godly sorrow for sin that leads to both a change of heart about
sin, and a decision to forsake sinful behaviour". EXPIATION ONLY
THROUGH DEATH We must never
forget that the Gospel about forgiveness of sins is conditional, first and
foremost, on repentance. (Luke 24:47)
And forgiveness requires not only repentance, but also
sacrifice. So, the Bible
does say that without the shedding of blood (i.e. a blood sacrifice) there is
no forgiveness of sins. (Hebrews 9:22
& Leviticus 17:11). The literal
meaning of this is that a real death is required to expiate the
penalty incurred for sin. Of course, if
there was no escape from death, and we all had to pay the penalty ourselves
for our sins, that would be the end for us. How is it
possible for God to forgive us, not carry out the penalty, and yet still
remain true to Himself and His law? The answer to
that question is the Good News about Jesus and his death on the cross. THE OLD
TESTAMENT SACRIFICE The Old
Testament provision for forgiveness of sin introduces us to the principle of
substitution as the means by which the sinner could expiate the penalty
without actually dying himself. The penalty was
expiated and remitted through the blood sacrifice of an unblemished innocent
male animal, which was substituted for the guilty but repentant
sinner. (Leviticus 1:2-4) This was not
simply a "legal" transaction, (although, no doubt, many saw it as
such). It was meant to be the response of a repentant heart, broken and
contrite for its disobedience. (Psalm 51:17). The death of
the animal by the man's own hand emphasised that the guilt and the penalty
were incurred by his own action. It brought home the lesson of the
seriousness of sin and its awful consequences ..... for God ..... and for
men. Each individual
was responsible for initiating his own sacrifice. By this he confessed his
guilt and indicated both his need and his desire for forgiveness and
reconciliation with God. Each individual
was required to identify himself personally with the animal as his
substitute, by laying his hand on its head before slaying it. By this
identification he confessed his personal responsibility for his sin and
acknowledged that he was the one who justly deserved to die. However, we are
told that, in this ritual, it was not possible that the animal itself could
achieve the purpose. (Hebrews 10:4).
After all, no animal is really a satisfactory substitute for a man, is it? The sacrifice
of the animal merely recognised, prophesied, and portrayed the future death
of Jesus, who was to be the real blood sacrifice by which sins
were to be remitted. (Hebrews 10:10) For all of
those who did see beyond the animals to the promised human saviour, the
sacrifice was also a grateful acceptance of the love of God, who in
anticipation of the future reality of the cross, was granting immediate
forgiveness to the repentant heart ..... instead of death. THE NEW
TESTAMENT SACRIFICE The New
Testament tells us that that Jesus fulfils the prophecy contained in the Old
Testament ritual of sacrifice, in which innocent animals died in place of
guilty sinners. Forgiveness is
not automatic. The benefit is conditional on a number of inseparable and
interdependent factors which are foreshadowed in those Old Testament
sacrifices. Just as in the
Old Testament each individual chose his own animal from the flock to bring
before God, so too in the New Testament, each of us must come before God,
personally choosing to accept for ourselves the sacrifice already made by
Jesus. Just as in the
Old Testament the guilty sinner personally identified himself with the
innocent substitute animal by laying his hand on its head, so too the New
Testament requires a similar choice to accept Jesus as the man
who is our sacrifice for our sins. Each of us
must individually and personally identify ourself with Jesus as the
substitute slain instead of us. We make this
identification by submitting to a "ritual death" in baptism, in
which we confess ourselves as the real guilty party deserving of the death
which the innocent Jesus suffered in our place. In this
"ritual death" we humble ourselves before God, confessing our total
inability to deliver ourselves from the penalty which we justly deserve, and
gratefully accepting the unmerited love shown to us, when Jesus took upon
himself the penalty which should have been ours. In this
"ritual death" we covenant with God to turn away from our sin. We
appeal to Him for the grace and forgiveness which will cleanse our guilty
hearts and release us from fear of judgement. By this
"ritual death", the person we once were, who committed those sins,
is regarded as dead. The past is obliterated, just as it would be, if
we were actually dead. Through the
"ritual resurrection" which follows this "ritual
death", we are granted freedom to begin life again, just as though we
had really died and then been raised from the dead. In place of the
sinner, we once were, a "new" person now exists. We are "born
again", spiritually, to a new life, in which we must learn to remain
"dead to sin" and follow the way of faith and obedience. For those who
thus truly turn away from their sins, Christ has paid the penalty for sins. (Isaiah 53:6-11 & 1 Peter 2:24 & 1 Peter 3:18) Our sins are forgiven. They will
never be mentioned again. (Ezekiel 33:16) However,
unrepentant sinners who do not accept the love of God in giving His Son to
die for them, will have to pay the penalty for themselves. (Revelation 21:8). A LEGAL
TRANSACTION? It is dangerous
to concentrate merely on the "legal" aspects of the Atonement. The
subject cannot be reduced to a mere legal transaction. There are no
"legal rights" to salvation. Left to law alone, without God's love,
we are lost. The Atonement
is about the love of God. Salvation is by grace ..... an unmerited gift. Nevertheless,
in order to convey the message of love, the Bible does use "legal"
concepts. As we briefly
study these legal concepts however, we must learn to see beyond them, to the
love that can change our hearts towards God. They are a tool to achieve that
goal ..... nothing more! CONCEPT 1 - THE
JUSTICE OF GOD The message is
clear that God must never be accused of ignoring His law that sin incurs the
penalty of death. The penalty
must be carried out, or a legal justification found for pardon. So, the Bible
says in Romans 3:22-26, that God is
righteous (i.e. a keeper of His own law) even when exercising forbearance
towards sinners (not inflicting an immediate death penalty). God's justice
not only imposes a penalty for the guilty, but also provides a means of
expiation for those who will repent and accept it. It is the
repentant sinner's confession of his guilt, his humble and contrite heart,
his covenant to turn away from sin, and then his acceptance, in
faith, of the expiatory death of Jesus, which all combine to
provide the "legal" justification for the forbearance exercised by
God. However,
although we may reverently say that the sacrificial death of Jesus is God's legal
provision, we must not dwell on that aspect. If we do not progress beyond the
legal concept, then all we have is useless words. The real issue
is God's love for His creation. And it is the sinner's own
repentant heart's response to that love, which is all
important. It is that new love for God, flowing from a New Heart,
which allows God to regard the penalty as expiated so that it does not have
to be to be borne personally by the sinner himself. CONCEPT 2 -
RANSOM AND REDEMPTION "Ransom"
is the price paid for release of a captive. "Redeem"
has a similar meaning. It means to buy back what is pledged or mortgaged. The Scripture
uses both words to describe what has happened to us. Sinners have
"pledged" or "mortgaged" themselves to sin. They are
"slaves" or "captives", under penalty of death. They are lost
and destitute, beyond all hope of paying for themselves, the price of their
release. The price paid
for our release from that captive state, is the awful suffering and death of
Jesus on the cross, where He gave His life in exchange for ours. (Mark 10:45 & Ephesians 1:7). I do not
believe that we are meant to go beyond the Scriptures to theorise and
speculate about all the fine detail of the "legal theory", such as
who the price was paid to, or how the life of one man could pay for the life
of so many, etc. What we must
really see here is the value of the "Ransom" paid ..... the
enormous value that Jesus placed on each of us personally, to
"Redeem" us from the penalty of our sins. In supreme
love, he valued us, sinners though we were, as equal to Himself.
He considered us worth the awful suffering of the cross, and He freely gave
himself for our need. If we properly
appreciate what we have been saved from, and the magnitude of the love that
paid such an awful ransom price to save us from our penalty, then we will
begin to love in return. However,
redemption is not merely from a penalty, but also from the sinful ways that
incurred the penalty. (Titus 2:14
& 1 Peter 1:18) We are not
redeemed from anything until we covenant with God to turn away from all sin. If we love
Jesus enough, for what He has paid to redeem us, then we will want to do
that. (John 14:15). CONCEPT 3 - THE
SIN BEARER In the Hebrew
language of the Old Testament, the phrase "to bear sin" means
"To bear the penalty of sin". The Lord has
laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)
Peter quotes from this chapter in Isaiah to say that Jesus has borne (the
penalty of) our sins in His own body. (1 Peter 2:24),
providing a way for us to die to (the practice of) sin, and live for
righteousness. Again, the love
of God is the motivating force, and our love for God is the desired response. CONCEPT 4 - THE
GRAIN OF CORN If a grain of
corn is never planted, that is all there is..... one grain. If, however it is
planted in the ground, it dies and multiplies. The Scriptures use this symbol
about Jesus. In surrendering
His own life, he has given birth to a harvest of redeemed
people who are born again to freedom from the penalty and the
power of sin. CONCEPT 5 - THE
SUBSTITUTE For me,
personally, this is the most compelling of all the pictures which the Bible
uses to demonstrate the love of God for us. In His death,
Jesus has given Himself, the righteous for (in place of) the unrighteous. (1 Peter 3:18). He was wounded for our
transgressions, and He was bruised for our iniquities. (Isaiah 53:5) Because He has
suffered a penalty which He did not deserve for Himself, I will not have to
suffer the penalty which I did deserve for myself. The love for
God that does reconcile us to God, comes from our own personal vision of the
cross. There we see Jesus reaching out to us in Divine love, taking our
guilt, and our judgement, and our suffering upon
Himself, and revealing the intense longing of God's heart to save us from both
the penalty and continuing practice of sin. The love of
Jesus for me which underlies this concept, has broken my spirit and made my
heart contrite for my sin. It leaves me
with no other choice than to love in return. That has turned my life around.
That has reconciled me to God. BEYOND LEGALITY
- LOVE IN ACTION The death of
Jesus is described in brief, but awful and repulsive detail. We are forced to
face the sickening truth about the cost of our sin. Just as in the
Old Testament, it was the sinner who slew the animal (and not
God), so too was Jesus slain at the hands of sinners who represent all of us. Certainly, it
was by God's design and foreknowledge, but it was our sin that
caused His death. Just as surely
as if we had driven the nails ourselves, it was our wicked hands that slew
Him. We made it necessary. At this point,
we are confronted with love. Nothing at all
can quench this love..... not rejection..... not reviling or mocking or false
accusation..... not spitting in His face..... not plucking the beard from His
face..... not the buffeting and bruising which marred his visage beyond
recognition..... not placing that fearsome crown of thorns on His head.....
not flogging the skin from His back..... not even nailing Him unjustly to a
cross. We see Jesus
accepting all that was done to Him, loving us unconditionally, without
retaliation or complaint. Nothing this side of death, nothing in all
creation, or all eternity, can ever make this man, or the God who is His
Father, cease from loving me. (Romans 8:38-39) When I face the
terrible cost of my sin, and my responsibility for that terrible suffering, I
recoil in horror and my heart cries out to God in contrition. And the words
of Jesus echo down the centuries still, as I hear Him intercede for ME......
"Father forgive them". Such love
compels my allegiance. Jesus will not be denied. The cross
opened my eyes to understand the meaning of God's love. Then I began to
experience its life changing power. Now I long to be able to love like Jesus. Love like that
lives for ever! (1 Corinthians 13:8) THE CREATORS
GIFT God so loved
the world that he gave us Jesus, whose love for us is no less
than God's. Both on God's behalf, and in our place, Jesus did the one thing
that the immortal God could not do Himself, to redeem us..... die! God gave Jesus,
first to show me how to live, and then to die for me in the terrible
suffering of the cross. Now I will not
perish for my sins but live for all eternity in the presence of God. I do not
question why it all has to be that way. I do not attempt to explain away some
of the concepts used, as "unpalatable" to human feelings and human
reason. I am just so
thankful that God did love me and that because of that love, God did give
Jesus to die for my need. I accept that
gift of love with feelings of both sadness and joy. First, it broke my heart.
Then it healed me! (Isaiah 61:1) THINGS WHICH WE
ARE NOT SAYING It is
unfortunate that it should be necessary to spend time repudiating some of the
many false concepts of "Substitution" which have been developed by carnal
men in their pursuit of a "Cheap Grace". Let us be quite
clear on one very important matter. We are not saying that the
sacrifice of Christ is a substitute for our need to strive for
holiness. Grace does not
come without great cost on our part. In a very real way, it will cost us
ourselves and our lives. (Matthew 16:24-25) The Scriptures
certainly do say that Salvation is a free gift. However, it is given only to
those who qualify for the conditions under which the gift is
offered! For those who
have been truly convicted of their sins, there is no conflict between the
requirement for faith alone and works as well! Of course,
salvation is by faith alone. However, it is
equally clear that the Gospel calls us to repent, and turn to God, and to
prove our repentance by our deeds. (Acts 26:20 NEB) Faith which
does not lead to repentance, and which is not accompanied by good works, is
not faith at all! (James 2:14-26)
False theories of the Atonement usually attempt to negate this essential
combination of faith and works, in some way. Somehow, they usually manage to
erect a barrier to real saving faith. Some of these false theories are
briefly mentioned below: (a) Once Saved,
Always Saved? In its worst
and most destructive extreme, this teaching actually says that those
"believers" who backslide to commit even the worst sins, cannot
ever lose their salvation, even if they never repent of those things. The Bible says
however, that those who do such things cannot inherit the Kingdom of
God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-19
& 1 John 3:15) The Bible also
says that it is possible to taste of the goodness of the word of God, and
even of the powers of the Age to Come, and then fall from grace beyond the
possibility of repentance and salvation. (Hebrews
6:4-8) (b) Jesus has
done it all? There are those
who say that the death of Jesus on the cross is a legal purchase which has
somehow paid for our debts without imposing any obligation on us at all for
works. It is supposed
to have created a situation whereby our sins are debited to Jesus and the
righteousness of Jesus is credited to us, thereby setting aside our own need
to purify our hearts. Any insistence
for good works on our part is labelled in a derogatory way as
"Legalism", or "Salvation by Works". Some even call it
heresy! Contrary to
this, the Scripture does say clearly that judgement is on the
basis of works. We will be called to give account for what we have done.
(2 Corinthians 5:10) Eternal life is
reserved only for those who seek for glory and honour and immortality, by
patient continuance in well doing. (Romans 2:6-7) (c) Turning
away the wrath of God? There are those
who teach that God's anger against sin was so great, that he demanded
satisfaction for His offended holiness. In its worst form, God is said to
have satisfied His anger and changed His feelings towards us, only after
pouring out His wrath on Jesus. However, the
Atonement is not about providing a way to change Gods feeling
towards us. Nor is it about undeserved wrath poured out on a beloved Son. Nor
is it about God demanding satisfaction. It is about the
love of God poured out on us. It is about God who cannot die,
and Jesus who could and did die, working together in love, to undo the
penalty of our failure. The real objective is to change our feelings towards God and
towards sin,
MUCH MORE THAN
A LEGAL TRANSACTION All of the
concepts just rejected, fall down because they concentrate on legal
transactions, at the expense of love. They reduce salvation to a mere legal
action on God's part. They offer the false hope that our sins can be set
aside without a real change of heart about obedience. If we
concentrate only on these "legal" aspects of the Atonement, we
shall miss the mark by a long way. The Atonement is much, much more than a
legal transaction. Above all else,
it is God's unconditional and individual love for each of us, seeking to save
us, not only from eternal destruction, but also from lives scarred by the
practice of sin. CONCLUSION The Atonement
is not simply a theory to be studied. It has power to change our lives. It all comes
down to our personal answer to the following vital questions: *
Has what we believe about the life
and death of Jesus, whatever it is, changed our hearts so that we really do
love Him enough to obey His teaching? (John 14:15) *
Are we truly reconciled? Do we now
know God and His Son? (John 17:3) *
This does not ask
whether we merely know about God. It asks whether we
know Him experientially as a friend, as Abraham did. (Isaiah 41:8 & James 2:23) *
Has Jesus honoured His promise
that He and His Father will come to us and make their home with us? (John 14:23) and that He will reveal Himself
to us? (John 14:21) *
Do we know what it really
means to become a temple for the Spirit of the living God? (1 Corinthians 3:16 & 1 Corinthians 6:19-20) *
Do we really love
one another as Jesus loves us all? (John 13:34) *
If we don't have those things
right, we have nothing..... and worse..... we have lost
all! But if we do
have those things right, then we know THE TRUTH..... and that truth will set
us FREE from slavery to sin. (John 8:34-36) We will be
renewed in the spirit of our minds, and free to put on the new
nature, created after the likeness of God, in true righteousness and
holiness. (Ephesians 4:23-24); free
to grow to the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13) "Now to Him who by the power at work
within us is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think, be
glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, to all generations, for ever and
ever. Amen" (Ephesians
3:20-21) |