The Atonement

I. The Death of Christ

A. Active work of Christ in obeying the law without sin through the Holy Spirit. Giving God the honor due him on our behalf

B. Passive work of Christ on the Cross, taking our punishment, paying our debt

C. Atonement: to cleanse, make right, and restore (Isaiah 53:4-6)

Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Substitution (vicariousness)

1. Propitiation: shrine (Romans 3:25; 1 John 4:10)

23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus (Romans 3:23-26, KJV).
a. Made by God for God and for us

b. Enmity or alienation between God and us taken away through the work of Christ

c. Jesus pays our debt (Luke 7)

d. Jesus Bears our sins and takes our punishment

2. Expiation: disinfects us of results of sin, our uncleanliness is taken away: the cleansing bath

“Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29)

3. Redemption: marketplace (Galatians 3:13-15)

4. Justification: courtroom (Romans 5:1-2)

5. Christus victor (Col. 2:14; 1 John 3:8)

II. Applying the Atonement

A. Come to Christ for atonement and new life (John 3:16-18)

B. Tell the world about his amazing atonement (Matthew 28:18-20)

Bibliography

1. William Lane Craig, Atonement and the Death of Christ (Baylor, 2020).
2. Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics, 2nd ed. (InterVarsity-Academic, 2022).
3. John Stott, The Cross of Christ (InterVarsity, 1986).

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