6 Principles of the Atonement

Well, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Romans, chapter 5. And we're going to pick up in the lesson where we left off last week. For those of you who don't know, or maybe you're joining us for the first time, on Sunday mornings we preach verse by verse through the Bible.

Right now I'm preaching through Genesis. But on Wednesday nights we preach, or I teach, what's called systematic theology. Systematic theology is to teach the Word of God systematically rather than verse by verse, is to teach it subject by subject.

And systematic theology is really subject-based theology. And so we go from the subject of God Himself, we call that theology proper, to the subject of Christ, we call that Christology. We move to the subject of pneumatology, the study of the Holy Spirit.

And we've looked at the subject of angels and devils. And we've looked at the subject of sin, which we call hamartiology. Well, we have now moved into the area known as soteriology. And soteriology is the study of salvation.

It comes from the Greek word sotso, or soter, which simply means saved or salvation. And we have looked already at the question, if you look at your handout, if you have a handout, and I'll post these online if anyone is at home wanting to follow along.

There are ten parts to this study, and we've already been through part one. The first question of part one was saved from what? If we're talking about salvation, we need to know what we're saved from.

And what we are saved from is we are saved from the wrath of God. That is a controversial subject, but that is what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that we are saved from God, by God, for God. We're saved from God's wrath, by God's grace, for God's glory.

And the second week, which was last week, we began to talk about the subject of the atonement. And we defined the word atonement, if you will remember, we said atonement is really a combination of a concept of the idea of being at one.

Two people who have been separated, and they are at odds with one another, they are at war with one another, they are divided from one another, they have been brought back together, they have been made at one, and therefore the word atonement is really just a combination of the idea of being at one.

It is the idea of at-one-ment. The word atonement comes up many times in the Old Testament. We see the word atonement over and over and over, even in our English Bibles. However, the word atonement is not found in the New Testament, unless you have a King James Bible.

And that's why I asked you to turn to Romans 5 and verse 11. I want to read it to you now, but I'm going to read from the ESV. It says in the English Standard Version, That is the word which is used in the English Standard Version.

But in the King James Version, it says that we have received atonement. So, that would tell us, based on simple deductive reasoning, that another word by which we can translate the word for atonement is the word reconciliation.

Reconciliation, and of course the root of reconciliation is the word reconcile. Now we, I think, understand what it means to reconcile. Have you ever been at odds with someone? Are you at odds with someone tonight?

Well, it's never fun to be at odds. It's never fun to be at war with someone. Sometimes it's not something that we cause. Sometimes people just want to be at war with us. And that's what the Bible says, As much as it is dependent upon you, live at peace with all men.

That means you're not always going to be able to live at peace with all men, because it's not always up to you. Some people are going to hate you because they want to hate you. And no matter how much you do, or how much you give, or how much you try, they're still going to hate you.

And that's a very difficult place to be. But the goal of the Christian life is to live a life of reconciliation, where that attitude of hatred should not be coming from us, but the attitude like the son of the prodigal son's father, who saw his son afar off, and he didn't stand on the porch and berate his son as he got closer, but rather he got off the porch and he ran to his son, and he wrapped his arms around his neck and he kissed him and he loved him, and he showed him that he was willing to take him back as a son, not as a slave, but as a son, and to be reconciled.

It's a beautiful picture of God's mercy. Because that is what it is. It's a picture of God the Father receiving us as sons, even though we have squandered the inheritance. We've squandered what He has given to us.

We have sinned against Him, and yet He still loves us. So that's the idea of atonement. The idea of atonement is being reconciled. And last week we asked the question, what are some of the divergent theories of the atonement?

I want to ask this question. I can't help it. I can't help but want to interact some. Did anybody, I think, I bet you did, Cindy. Did you watch the video that I talked about the debate? No, not Pilgrim's Progress.

The debate about the atonement theories. Remember I told you it was called Monster God? The debate was called Monster God? Did you watch it? Okay. I think Rosanna did. I think Rosanna did. Yeah. The reason why I bring it up is because that debate between Brian Zahn and Michael Brown was on the subject of the atonement.

The subject was the question of what happened when Jesus was on the cross. Michael Brown believed, as I do, that when Jesus was on the cross, He was taking the wrath of God for sin. Brian Zahn said, no.

If that is the way God operates, that makes Him a monster because He can only be satisfied with blood. He can only be satisfied with punishment. And if that's the kind of God that you have, that's an awful view of God.

That's the perspective that Brian Zahn took and that's why it was called the Monster God debate because Brian Zahn was accusing those of us who believe in Christ taking the wrath of God that we believe that God is a moral monster.

And so, if you didn't watch it, I encourage you to. It's free. It's on YouTube. I know it's two hours of your life, but it's very good and it certainly would help you understand because last week I showed you seven different theories about the atonement that I would disagree with.

The ransom theory, the recapitulation theory, commercial theory, moral influence theory, accident theory, example martyr theory, and the governmental theory. And I explained as best I could what those were in a short time.

And then we came to this question. If you look at your handout, this is the question we came to. Can there be a correct understanding of the atonement? If there's all these various views, can there be a right one?

And if so, can we know it's right? Well, beloved, you know me and you know that I am very committed to what I'm about to teach and I'm not committed to it just because it's something I believe. It's something that I think that I can prove the Bible teaches.

That's what's most important. And though these other men and these other theories would argue that they're holding to a biblical position, I would say all of them are wanting because none of them are going far enough in regard to what the Bible actually teaches about the atonement.

So what we're going to look at tonight is six principles about the atonement, which provide us a solid definition upon which to stand. Six principles of the atonement that provide a foundation and a solid definition for us to stand upon.

And the six principles, I'm just going to list them to start with because I know people at home don't have a handout. Maybe they want to write these down. Substitution, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, forgiveness, and justification.

With that in mind, let's look at the first one. Substitution. What does the word substitution mean? It means to put one thing in the place of something else. For eight years, I worked as a substitute school teacher in the Nassau County school system.

I did most of my work in the middle school ages as a middle school substitute teacher. And I will tell you this, it was a difficult job because the kids did not truly see me as a legitimate substitute for what they were used to.

Substitute teachers do not get the respect they deserve because the kids don't really see them as an adequate replacement. Even if the person is well educated, even if the person is a good teacher, even if the person has the skills, the students don't treat them the same because you're not the same person.

We talk about substitute. It's a really hard idea for us to grasp with our mind because we can understand putting something in the place of something else, but it's hard to get our mind around somebody that really, truly stands in for someone else.

And when we talk about the death of Christ as a substitution, what we are saying is, Christ stood in my place as me. He stood receiving all that I deserved. And if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, He did the same for you.

He was the perfect substitute for you. The Latin word that we are probably very familiar with is the word vicarious. You ever heard someone who says, I'm going to go vicariously for someone else, meaning I'm going to go in their place or in their stead?

Well, those are words that the Bible does use. The Bible uses the language of vicariousness for Christ. In fact, I want to give you just a few verses. The preposition ante, which is in the Greek. In English, it would be spelled like this.

In Greek, it would look like this. And it simply means to be instead of or in the place of. And oftentimes it's translated for. Christ died for us. For, meaning that it was in our place as us. And then another preposition that we see in the scripture, and I'll just write it in English, is the word hooper.

And the word hooper means also in the place of. And we see this in several scriptures. Galatians 3 .13. Turn in your Bibles there. This is one of my favorites. I'm currently teaching through Galatians at Set Free.

So this particular passage is on my mind. But Galatians 3 .13. It says this. I'll let everybody get a chance to get there. Galatians 3 .13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

The word for there. That means in the place of us. He became the curse in our place. He died in behalf of us. He died in our place. The doctrine of substitution is important in that through Christ's death the righteous demands of God have been met.

Therefore it becomes a legal transaction in which Christ dealt with the sin problem of the human race. He became the substitute for humanity's sins. Now when I say humanity's I would simply add believing humanities.

Christ died for everyone who would ever believe on Him. And He died a perfect substitute. It was like you were there. It was like you were the one. What does Paul say in Galatians? He says I have been crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless it is not I who live but Christ who lives within me and the life I now live. I live by faith in the Son of God who gave Himself for me. I have been crucified. It was like I was on the cross.

When we go into the waters of baptism we are buried with Christ in baptism raised to new life. The whole idea of substitution is pictured in the very ordinance that we participate in when we become believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The idea of substitution is thoroughly ingrained in the scriptures. The next word is the word redemption. Now the word redemption comes from the Greek word agorazo and it means to put or rather to purchase in the marketplace.

The agora was the marketplace and agorazo was the place to go to buy things and it was to purchase things and it had to do with the idea of selling people because certainly slaves were sold in the market.

And this word is used to describe the believer being purchased out of the slave market. You were a slave to sin. So you can imagine, imagine a market where there's someone for sale. We can't imagine that today but imagine a place where there's a person for sale and someone comes along and says you know what I have the money and the means to support this person and I'm going to purchase them and I'm going to take them and they're going to become mine because right now they're a slave and they're a purchase in the market.

And yet you're a purchase out of the market. And you say well how does this relate to what Christ did? When Christ died He paid the price for us to buy us out of slavery. To purchase us out of the slave market.

Because the believer has been brought to Christ or bought by Christ he now belongs to Christ. You know the Bible says that? The Bible says that we are now His and He is mine. I am His and He is mine bought with the precious blood of Christ.

We sing that. I am His. Why? Because He bought me. I am not my own. I don't own myself. My body is not mine. My heart is not mine. I'm not independent. I'm utterly dependent. Completely and fully purchased.

I am His and I belong to Him. Here's just a verse if you want to see it in writing. 1 Corinthians reminds us this in chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 beginning at verse 19. It says, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God?

You are not your own for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Notice the whole idea of this verse is how people treat their bodies. They ought to remember it's not theirs. You know like if I borrow your car I'm going to treat it like it's yours not mine.

Because I might spill something in my car and not feel too bad because it's my car. Or I might allow my kids to make a mess in my car and know hey I'll clean it up later. But if I borrow your car we're going to be very careful because it's not mine it's yours.

And Paul is using that example. He's talking about our bodies and how we treat our bodies. And he says know this your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. It's not yours. It was bought by Christ. He owns it.

So the idea of purchase the idea of redemption is found in the atonement. We have been bought out of the slave market and we now have a new master. Our master used to be named sin and our new master is Jesus Christ.

Third is the word reconciliation. Reconciliation we've already mentioned. We've already talked about it. The emphasis of reconciliation is to make peace. Man who was estranged from God is brought into communion with God.

The barrier that was between he and God has been separated. How many of you have ever seen the evangel cube? I can't not interact can I? The evangel cube was a box that had pictures on every side and if you open the box up it got a little bigger and so it was a way to share the faith.

And the very first picture on the box was a picture of a man on one side and a light on the other side because of course there's no way to really define God so it's just a light on the other side and there was a jagged line between the two.

And the picture was supposed to show God and man separated by sin. And that line represented sin. Then you open the box and it's a picture of the cross, Jesus on the cross. And so the picture was man is separated by sin from God but Christ!

And you open it up and boom there's the picture of the cross that brings reconciliation. My favorite verse on this subject outside of 2 Corinthians 5 which is all about reconciliation and being ambassadors of reconciliation but my other favorite verse on this is Romans 5 and verse 1.

Therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you what I've said this many times if I could only preach one verse if somebody said Pastor you have no time to get ready here you come up and preach that would be the verse.

Therefore having been justified by faith that is a past tense action it's already completed we have been justified we're not going to be justified it's already completed having been justified and we're not justified by works but we're justified by faith not what we do but what Christ did for us and our faith and what He did having been justified by faith we have peace.

And why is peace important? Because before we had enmity before we had war we had strife we had hatred but now we have peace that's the difference whereas before we had no relationship it was severed.

Now we have been brought into relationship with God so that's reconciliation. That's number three number four and I'm going through these relatively quickly. Hey I'm doing pretty good on time too. We didn't have a lot else to do tonight so I got a little extra time so that's good.

The next word is propitiation. Propitiation now this word is not a word that a lot of people use. In fact I would be honestly there have been times in the past where I've wanted to take surveys of the church not to anyone's embarrassment or shame but just to simply know who would know certain theological words because we use them all the time.

But I think sometimes we throw words out and people just say yeah I understand but they don't really understand. They kind of they give you this but it's really like that. And this is one of those words that I think is so absolutely imperative that we understand because propitiation means to satisfy and ultimately what it means is to satisfy the righteous demands of God.

God is holy and righteous and when He looks upon sin He cannot overlook sin. And see this is what Brian Zahn tried to argue. Brian Zahn said certainly God can overlook sin. He's God. He can do what He wants.

And while I do not disagree that God can do what He wants I want to add this very simple caveat and understand this. If you don't God cannot violate Himself. God cannot violate His own nature. This is why the Bible says God cannot lie.

The Bible says God cannot lie. Why? Because it is against His very nature to do so in that regard God can't do anything. People always say can God do anything? I say no. God cannot lie. And God cannot do that which violates Himself and because God is just He cannot look upon sin and simply approve of it.

He cannot look upon sin and simply wipe it away. His justice demands recompense. And the Bible says the wages of sin is death. Who set that wage? God Himself. God is the one who set the terms. He told Adam on the day that thou eatest of this you will surely die.

God sets the terms. God is the standard and God says the wages of sin is death. And He is a good judge. You see Brian Zahn's biggest problem and I would tell him this to his face. Brian Zahn's biggest problem is he believes in an unjust God.

He believes that God can violate His own justice. You see that's what the Muslims believe. Because the Muslims believe in the idea that if your good outweighs your bad in the end and you face judgment your good will outweigh your bad.

And at that point if your good outweighs your bad then you have succeeded and you will be welcomed by Allah. But here's the problem with that not only will your good never outweigh your bad. I can spend half an hour and tell you why not.

But let me just hope you believe me your good will never outweigh your bad. If you know your own heart you know that's true. But let me just add a wrinkle even if your good could outweigh your bad that's not the way justice works.

Because if you stood before a judge and the judge says you have committed murder and you said yes judge. But I spent 39 years not a murderer. He would say it doesn't matter that you spent 39 years not a murderer, you committed murder.

Yes. But I spent 39 years as a good father. You committed murder. I spent 39 years giving to the church. You committed murder. I spent 39 years being a good son. You are a murderer. You don't understand all of your good deeds cannot wash away one of your sins.

And if we know that a judge in this world can understand that how much more can the judge of the universe understand that. So we consider the fact that what Christ did when he was on the cross is he took the punishment that I have incurred over a lifetime of sin.

He through the process of becoming me as my substitute took my punishment. That's propitiation. God who. And I think it was R .C. Sproul who said this and he'll have to forgive me when I get to heaven if I'm wrong because he's already there but I think he was telling the story of his daughter and he was talking about the fact when his daughter finally came to faith in Jesus and she was a young child when she came to faith and he said she really couldn't articulate how much she understood but she knew this.

She had been bad and God was mad and Christ had made it right. And as simple as that is that is propitiation. Christ taking God's anger, taking God's wrath, taking God's punishment for me that's propitiation.

Now there there's so much more I could say about this but I like to give you bible verses to go along with these things and the ones that just come to mind and I've got several here in my notes. But if you'll turn to Isaiah 53 now of course Isaiah is an Old Testament passage and I could explain to you why I believe that this is actually pointing forward to Jesus and even though it doesn't say the word propitiation here, the word propitiation is in other places particularly in I'll give you three verses in a minute but let's go to Isaiah real quick.

In Isaiah 53 we have the song of the suffering servant. You all know that this is about Jesus and it's very clear but notice what it says beginning at verse well the whole I don't want to read the whole chapter but it's all so good.

But let's just look at verses four through six Isaiah 53 thinking about the idea of propitiation. God's wrath on us. Surely he, that is the suffering servant has borne that means to carry, surely he has carried our griefs and carried our sorrows.

He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. That's what you call parallelism, it's paralleling what he has said, he has borne our griefs he has carried our sorrows, yet we esteem him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned every one of us to our own way and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all that beloved is propitiation he receiving the iniquity the punishment for the iniquity and satisfying and it says later it says it was the will of the Lord to crush him.

That's verse 10 and it says ultimately it pleased the Lord it pleased the Lord, why did it please the Lord to strike the son, because in striking the sons he was able to make us his sons by way of adoption.

Christ took the punishment that we deserve that is propitiation, now I want to give you a few other verses and these are all verses where sometimes it's translated propitiation sometimes it's not, I'm going to look them up very quickly, 1st John 2 2.

1st John 2 2 in the ESV it says he is the propitiation for our sins. Yes, right there, propitiation he is the one who satisfied God on behalf of our sins that's 1st John 2 2, also in 1st John 4 10 we see that word again and it says in this is love, not that we loved God but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

And then the last one is Romans 3 and 25 and let me look again to make sure that this is how the ESV translates it, Romans 3 and 25 it says, God put forward, yes we're justified by the grace as a gift of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith, but now notice this, it says that was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over sins it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he, that is God might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus God is just because he's not just turning a blind eye to sin but he's the justifier because he's taking the sin punishment that we deserve and he's putting it on Christ so he's just and the justifier God gets to be both just and gracious.

Now later in this series we're going to look at grace and what does grace mean what does justice mean, we're going to look at those words and we're going to talk about them but for the simple, just where we are now God is just and gracious at the same time, never giving an inch in his justice never giving an inch in his graciousness, he's both at the same time.

Alright forgiveness, this is a big word, it's a difficult word most of us when we think about forgiveness we think about somebody did us wrong and we forgive them or we did someone wrong and they forgive us, but then we start to think about God and we think about the fact that God forgives us and I think it takes on a whole other meaning because as much as I've ever been forgiven by a person they didn't know half of it.

It's like Charles Spurgeon said if anybody ever speaks ill of you don't worry about correcting them because they don't know the half of it they don't know how bad you truly are and that's the truth. And to receive forgiveness from a person is precious, I appreciate it when people forgive me when I do wrong and I try to stand ready to forgive anyone who wrongs me, even though sometimes, admittedly it can be very difficult but forgiveness in this sense is so much more powerful because this is God.

God has taken the punishment that we deserve. He's laid it on Christ and now he can look at us and he can say I don't charge you with anything anymore. I don't hold anything to your account anymore. It's paid in full.

It's over think of it like this. Forgiveness is a legal act of God whereby he removes the charges that were held against the sinner because proper satisfaction for those sins has been made. I'll say it again forgiveness is the legal act of God whereby he removes the charges that were held against the sinner because proper satisfaction for those sins has been made.

You know what that means? God doesn't hold anything against you. If you are in Christ we used to have a banner over there. I was going to point at it, it ain't there anymore. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

None, if you are in Christ Jesus, there's no condemnation. You might say, well I might mess up tomorrow and you might mess up tomorrow. But guess what? If you're in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Your relationship with God does not bounce up and down with your ability to hold on. And your relationship with God is not founded on how well you hold on to him, it's founded on how well he holds on to you.

The Bible says that you are in the hand of Christ and he is in the hand of God and no man can snatch him out of his hand, therefore forgiveness is perfect. But later in the series we're going to talk about eternal security and apostasy and all those things.

And I'm going to tell you just for tonight, just so you know, I do believe when you are saved, you are saved forever. I do believe in something called apostasy. I believe someone can say they're saved and not and later demonstrate it by leaving the faith.

But just so we understand this. If you are saved your relationship with God is not on a teeter totter. Your relationship with God is based firmly on the work of Christ not your works. And therefore it is firm and secure.

And your forgiveness is secure. I think about and I don't have it maybe some of you know it right off. But in the old covenant scriptures there is a verse that talks about God separating our sins from us as far as the east is from the west.

The most amazing thing about that passage is that passage was written long before anybody understood the concept of a globe even though God of course understood the concept of a globe. The reason why I bring that up is because north and south there are fixed points on the globe and if you go north eventually you will be going south again.

And if you go south eventually you will be going north again. But if you start going east you will never ever ever go west. You could go east forever and never stop. And therefore when God is trying to describe how far he has separated how far the forgiveness that he has provided he says it is as far not from the north to the south which would have been an infinitely far distance but even more.

So he says it is as far as the east is from the west. Lastly justification. Now I spent time on this two weeks ago and I don't want to rehash it all but just remember this on the subject of justification.

Justification is a legal declaration of righteousness. God declares the sinner to be righteous not just forgiven. Because here is the interesting thing about that you could be forgiven and not fit for heaven.

Hear it again. You could be forgiven and not fit for heaven because heaven is not for the forgiven it is for the righteous. And if all you had was a blank slate you wouldn't be righteous. You would just be neutral.

So Christ in his death takes your punishment and takes your sin and he forgives you based on that. But then he gives you righteousness. Thereby you stand before God in the righteousness of Christ. When God sees me see when God saw Christ on the cross he saw Keith.

And when God sees me he sees Christ because I am wearing the garments of my king. Think about the parable of the man who went to the wedding feast who did not put on the garment that the king had provided.

What happened. He was escorted out and he was sent away. Why. Because the king had provided the garment and he refused to wear it. And the picture is the righteousness of Christ. This is why the apostle admonishes us to put on Christ as he wore like a garment.

When we come to faith in Christ he becomes like it were. He becomes our shield he becomes our breastplate of righteousness. You know you hear about that in the armor of God. And the breastplate of righteousness is not my righteousness but the righteousness of Christ.

There was a little boy with his grandfather. They were in Europe and they went to Buckingham Palace and they were watching the changing of the guard where the soldiers come out and they move and there's this huge thing that they go through to change the guard.

They were so excited but the boy was really short. So there was a building along the way that you could go up into the top of the building and look down and get a better vantage point. And so they went upstairs and they looked down upon the changing of the guard and the father looked through the window and he said aren't those beautiful red jackets that those soldiers are wearing.

And the boy said daddy those jackets or granddaddy those jackets are white. And he said no son those jackets are red. And he took a step back and he looked down and the boy was looking through another pane of glass in the window.

And the boy was looking through a pane of glass that was tinted red. And I don't know if you know this but if you look through a pane of glass that's tinted red. Everything that's red on the other side looks sparkling white beloved.

That's a picture of how God sees us in Christ. We are as white as snow because we are covered in the blood of the lamb wearing as it were like a garment. I want to end with this if someone asks what do we believe about the atonement.

There is a three word phrase that I think everyone should understand and it goes along with everything we've said tonight. I know I've given you six things to think about. But this three word phrase sometimes it's called PSA.

And PSA stands for this Penal Substitutionary Atonement. Penal Substitutionary Atonement is the doctrine that we teach and the doctrine that we believe. The Bible teaches Christ died to take the penalty for believers acting as their substitute in receiving God's wrath and thereby made an atonement between them and God as the modern hymn says in Christ alone who took on flesh fullness of God and helpless babe the gift of love and righteousness scorned by the ones he came to save till on that cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied for every sin on him was laid here in the death of Christ.