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Arkadelphia Seventh-day Adventist Church Plant

Eugene Prewitt

Introduction to Atonement

John had wisdom. I mean that when the angel asked him a question, he asks, he said to the angel, you know, it's wise when we want to know to ask God. Amen. And if God asks us, asks us a question, it might be wise for us to understand that he's really inviting us to ask him for an answer. Our study today is going to be on the idea of atonement. It's interesting to me that on the radio a couple weeks ago, I heard men speaking for about a half hour about atonement, but they were talking about a movie instead of a Bible doctrine. And then in preparing for the sermon, I wanted to see what other people have written about atonement. And I did a Google search on atonement and an entire page came up about the movie. So I'll have, you know, the fact that I'm speaking about tone has nothing to do with the movie. I have neither seen it, nor will I ever see it, nor do I know much about it. But we ought to know something about atonement. If you were to to read books about atonement, because there are books about the topic of atonement, you would find that those books would fall into about three categories. One of them would be what's called the ransom Theory of Atonement. In short, it's the idea that Satan owns us as sinners And that Jesus had to buy us from Satan and that the only thing Satan would accept was that suffering and death of Jesus. I think maybe you've heard this idea put into a story form a little. Maybe you've heard the illustration of the the boy with the cage of the birds and but I don't want to go into it again, but the idea of the story is that Satan says, the only thing I'll accept for these sinners if you want them is all your blood. That's one idea of the atonement, that the atonement is a payment to Satan. I'll tell you frankly, it's not true. Another idea of the atonement is what's called the Ansel Theory of atonement. In short, it's the idea that when we sin, we sin against the government of God and only God dying could pay for our sin. In this theory, atonement is basically forgiveness through the substitutionary death of Jesus. That is, I owe a debt to heaven. Jesus died and paid my debt. I'll tell you frankly before we get into the study to prove it, that it's a basically true idea, but there's much more to atonement than that. What's the second idea again? The second idea is that atonement is basically forgiveness. Jesus died and paid for my sin. The third idea of atonement you'd find represented in books, I forget the name of the guy. Oh, it's Peter or Pierre Abelard. The Abelard theory says it's called the Moral Influence Theory. It's the idea that Jesus died on the cross to show God's love and that when we look at that love, it leads us to surrender to Jesus. The idea is that God didn't need Jesus to die to forgive us, that just like I can forgive people that hurt me without them dying, God could forgive people that sent against him without anyone dying. But that the atonement is a, is a means of of influencing us. Lemme repeat these three ideas again and then we'll look at the Bible idea, which is so wider than any of them. One idea is that we owe a debt to Satan and Jesus paid it. One is that we owe a debt to God's kingdom and Jesus paid it. The other is that we are influenced by the love of the cross to do what's right and there was no need to pay for our sins with death. That was just an illustration. Turn Me your Bibles to Leviticus Chapter 14. Most of the incidences of the word atone or atonement in the Bible are found in Leviticus, or in other words, if you want to understand the idea of atonement, what would be a good book to study? Leviticus, it'd be Leviticus. Leviticus chapter 14, and we're looking at verses 18 to 20. The passage here is speaking about the cleansing of lepers. The idea was that if a man receives leprosy, he has to leave the camp. But if somehow he can get cured from the leprosy, he could come back to the camp. But you know, not many people in the history of the Bible were ever cured of leprosy. So that what we're reading about here are laws that went almost without an, an opportunity to be used until the time of Jesus. Do you Jesus would heal lepers What he said, go to the priest and he was referring to what was here in Leviticus 14. It was like the first time in a millennium that those these laws had a chance to be put into operation. Leviticus 14 in verse 18, and the remnant of the oil that is in the priest hands, he shall pour upon the head of him. That is to be, what's the verb? To be cleansed. And the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord. Look at verse 19. And the priest shall offer the sin offering and make an atonement for him. That is to be, what's the word, cleansed from his uncleanness. And afterward he shall kill the burnt offering. Look at verse 20. And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meat offering upon the altar, and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be what? Clean. Clean. Look at verse 29. And the rest of the oil that is in the priest hand, he shall put up on the head of him. That is to be what? Cleansed. To make an atonement for him before the Lord. And look at verse 31, even such as, he is able to get the one for a sin offering the other for a burnt offering with the meat offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the Lord. I just wanted you to read these five verses to get an idea that in the Bible the idea of atonement is connected to the idea of cleansing. Was it clear enough to you in these passages that atonement is connected to cleansing? Now what's interesting is, is that leprosy isn't sin. Do you follow what I mean by that? To have, have leprosy isn't a sin, but leprosy does corrupt you and make you stinky and gross looking. And what did the leper need? Did he need an atonement? You know, the leper needed an atonement as part of being healed of inc. Cleansed from his leprosy. Look down at verse 53, Leviticus 14, and we're looking at verse 53. But he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields and make an atonement for the, what does it say? The house and it shall be clean. You might wonder, why would a house need an atonement? If you have a structure in southwest Arkansas, it's possible that you could find evidence in a wall that termites are eating up the structure. That would be a sad discovery In Palestine. It's possible that you could find evidence in a wall that a type of fungus was eating at the wood. And have you've seen fungus eat in wood every time you go into the woods on a hike? Can fungus eat wood? This is how wood. This is why the the woods aren't 30 feet deep in hard logs. It's because the fungus eats the wood. When the fungus would be eating the wood in a Jewish house, what they called that fungus was leprosy. It makes sense to me because you know what leprosy does to a person? It eats away at him. And what does the fungus do to the house? It eats it up. And just as a dirty person needed clans and needed an atonement, a dirty lepers house needed to be cleansed and it needed an atonement. C, can I just ask you, was the house guilty of sin? No. You know, mostly it was guilty of being wet. No, it wasn't guilty. There was no sin involved, but there was defilement involved and defilement required atonement. I've made my first point today, I'm gonna say it plainly and go to another atonement in the Bible, is not just something that deals with guilt. It deals in a more broad sense with defilement, defilement that may or may not be associated with guilt. Do you know if you would sin? In the Old Testament you needed to have an atonement, but if you had an issue of blood, you also needed an atonement. If a lady had a baby, she needed an atonement. It's said because of the issue of her blood. Is it a sin to have a baby? No, but it does make a mess. The idea of atonement in scripture, if I made this point clear enough so I can move on, is not just dealing with guilt but dealing with defilement. It's a cleansing process. So moving to 0.2, when Jesus died on the cross, every sin in the world was paid for, but not every sin is forgiven. I mean, Jesus paid for every sin Of all those sins, only a certain number of them are ever confessed. And the promise is, if we confess our sin, he is faithful. And just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse, cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That word cleanse, have you seen it already? It's very similar to the idea of atonement. There is an atonement that happened at the cross and there is an atonement that happens when a man conf confesses his sin. Maybe you wonder where this word atonement came from. William Tindale made it up. He was translating the Bible into English and he found this idea that in many versions was called reconciliation, I mean in many other languages, but he felt like reconciliation wasn't quite English, had this word reconciled. Tindale felt the word wasn't quite sufficient for what the Hebrew was indicating. So he invented the word at Onement. He wanted to give the idea that atonement was undoing the effect of sin. In let this be my second point. What is atonement? Atonement is undoing the effect of sin. You know, one of the effects of sin is guilt. It dooms me to death. And so was there an atonement at the cross? There certainly was at the cross my sin was paid for and that saved me from doom. The cross undid one of the fundamental effects of sin, and that is that sin doomed me to die. Let me move to my third point. The second is that atonement is undoing the effects of sin. So at the cross, every sin was paid for, but only some sins are actually confessed. But you know, even if a man confesses his sin, if he's forgiven and then later in his life he turns back to his wickedness and goes on in his wicked way, what does Ezekiel late teen tell us about that man? He will die in his sins so that every sin is paid for some sins are confessed, but a fewer number of people are faithful and it's only those that are faithful that in the eventu or eventually are actually justified in the judgment. If I could say this thought in a simple way for the third point, there is an atonement that was made at the cross. It was the payment for sin. There is an atonement made every time I confess my sin. It was represented in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, there was atonement made every time a man confessed his sin. There was an atonement made on Passover and atonement made on the feast of harvest and a atonement made in the feast of trumpets. These were all the type of atonement, the type that we call forgiveness. When a man confesses his sin and God forgives his sin and begins to cleanse him, But then men die and in the judgment it's determined whether or not they have been faithful to their Lord. What is the idea? If we're faithful? Good to see you, brother. Rg. If we're faithful to the end, what happens to those that are faithful to the end? They're saved. So in the Old Testament, most of or a large number of the incidences of this word atonement, occur in connection with what we call the day of atonement. What is the day of atonement? You know, the day of atonement isn't the day when the sacrifice is made. Neither is it the day when men confess their sins. Although some men may confess their sins, it's better to do it on that day than never, but it's the day when it's determined who has been faithful to the end. In my study this week of Atonement, I really looked, I found the Bible deals with atonement and connection with, with four aspects. That first was payment. The second was that confession, which comes with a cleansing. The third is that it's the type of atonement we call justice. This isn't a pleasant atonement to talk about. Turn meteor your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 22. Isaiah 22, and we're looking at verse 14, Isaiah 22, and we're looking at verse 14, the Bible says, and it was revealed in my ears by the Lord of host. Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you. What does it say die? Say if the Lord God of host the Bible speaks about this kind of atonement several times. This is the kind of atonement that Phineas made when he put a dagger through the adulterous men and woman in numbers 28. Do you remember that? That's when Finns was given the priesthood and all of his descendants were made priests. It's not that that tho that adulterous couple, it's not that when they died that their death atoned for anyone else's sin. But you know what? Their death did it satisfied justice for what they had done. Their death was a payment. They made themselves to satisfy the demands of justice. Not everyone is faithful to the end. Those that are faithful to the end, Jesus pleads for them, my blood. My blood. He confesses them before the father and the angels and for them the sacrifice, the payment made for their sin, it counts for them. Their sins are blotted from the record by virtue of the sacrifice that has been made in the judgment, sin has been undone in their experience. But those who do not allow God to work in their life that way, when they die themselves, that is the undoing of sin in their experience. It's cleansing the universe of the defilement that has come from sin. So I've made about four points so far, and I have one more to make. Our first point was that atonement is a cleansing process. The second point is that atonement, it, it undoes what sin has done. The third point is that atonement, while it's been happening all through the ages, there is a final day of judgment when the question is not asked, who sins were paid for? Because isn't that everyone? The confession isn't, the question isn't being asked. Who has confessed their sins? Because many have confessed their sins and then turned back to them. But in the judgment, the question being asked is who has been faithful? And those who are faithful to the end are counted righteous, they're welcomed as as. As if they had never sinned. Atonement is made for them. The fourth point is that some people will atone for their own Sin. I don't mean that they go to heaven because of their own sin, I mean because of their atonement. I mean that the wages of sin is death. And when a man dies, he has paid for his sin. The last point is that one of the effects of sin has been to confuse people. Hasn't it confused people? The Bible talks about the deceitfulness of sin. Sin has confused people until they don't know who's responsible for what. And many people, many people have had thoughts and feelings like this. How could God do such and such when God did not do such and such? The last point of atonement on the day of atonement is putting the sins on the scapegoat. You know, the word scapegoat has changed in meaning in a very unfortunate way today. The word scapegoat is used as if someone who is blamed but isn't really guilty isn't that way the way we use scapegoat today, someone who's blamed but shouldn't be, that is not the idea of Azazel. The word translated scapegoat in Leviticus, not even is that the idea. You know, Azazel doesn't die for anyone else's sins. But in the judgment, the confusion of Babylon is cleared up. And all the universe sees that these men who have been faithful, have been faithful While all their life being opposed by the devil. That they have been faithful while being tempted, unfaithful that the sins they did commit, that the devil instigated them to their sins. He pushed them, he tempted them, he tricked them. And really, if the question is who is responsible for sin in this universe, you know what the answer is? It's the devil. And in the day of atonement, in that ritual of the sins being confessed on the scapegoat, there's no substitution there. You know, the scapegoat was obligated to obey the 10 commandments, just like I'm obligated to obey. So he can't pay for my sin in place of me. In fact, he disobeyed and he was, he's doomed. There is no substitution. There is no payment for my sin in place of me. But the devil is responsible for the fact that I've sinned. He's the one that tempted Adam and Eve and he's the one that tempted me. And I'm so glad for the fifth part of atonement that it answers the question of blame and places all the blame where it belongs. Let me summarize all these points and will close. The word atonement or its Words related to it are used a hundred times in scripture. Many things atone for in scripture aren't sins, they're just dirtiness. What the Bible is showing by atonement is that atonement is cleaning up the mess. And there are several steps to cleaning up the mess that has been made by sin. The blood of Jesus paid for our sins, and that was the first step in cleaning up the mess. The sacrifice made by Jesus leads us to repent. We see his death and we confess our sins. That confession and repentance is a cleaning up of our life. And that is the second part of atonement. It's been happening for thousands of years. That love the cross that we see moves us to be faithful. When we see it, we endure as seeing what's it say in Hebrews 12? It keeps us from being weary and well-doing the cross is what keeps us faithful and in the judgment. It's by virtue of Christ's death that we are counted righteous, that we are found to be faithful. The third step of the atonement is the judgment. The fourth step of atonement is one I don't want any part of. It's the death of those who refuse to be cleansed and you know they are cleansed when they die. And the fifth part of atonement I will observe and I will concur with the universe that who is responsible for the sin and suffering in this world? Jesus paid for my my sin, but it wasn't his fault. Satan is going to bear the sin because it is his fault. And when Satan is destroyed, that will be the final end of cleaning up the mess that sin has made. The universe will again be clean. Like that house that has been purified from its eating fungi like the leper who is again with clean skin, sin will be undone and the atonement will be finished.

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