The Atonement
What is the problem?
 “Sin is a breaking of the law.” (1 John 3:4
– GNB)
 A-nomia
 “Sin is lawlessness” (NASB, ESV, NRSV,
TNIV)
 “Sin is a major disruption of God’s order.”
(Message)
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“Anything that is not based on faith is sin.”
(Romans 14:23)
Enoch “spent his life in fellowship with God, and
then he disappeared, because God took him
away.” (Genesis 5:24)
“Abram put his trust in the LORD, and because of
this the LORD was pleased with him and accepted
him.” (Genesis 15:6)
“The LORD would speak to Moses face to face as
a man would speak with a friend.” (Exodus 33:11)
“Those were the days when I was prosperous, and
the friendship of God protected my home” (Job
29:1-3)
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“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and
Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of
your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun,
while the insides are maggoty with your greed
and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides,
and then the gleaming surface will mean
something. ‘You’re hopeless, you religion
scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You’re like
manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the
flowers bright, but six feet down it's all rotting
bones and worm-eaten flesh.’” (Matthew 23:2527 MSG)
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“God has blinded their eyes and closed
their minds, so that their eyes would not
see, and their minds would not
understand, and they would not turn to
me, says God, for me to heal them.” (John
12:40 – GNB)
 “He
could have pricked his finger and
solved the problem, but he wanted to
go all the way.” – Mel Gibson
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“…an angel of the Lord appeared in a
dream to Joseph and said, ‘Herod will be
looking for the child in order to kill him. So
get up, take the child and his mother and
escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell
you to leave.’” (Matthew 2:13 – GN)
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“…if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of
Man and drink his blood, you will not have
life in yourselves. Those who eat my flesh
and drink my blood have eternal life, and I
will raise them to life on the last day. For
my flesh is the real food; my blood is the
real drink. Those who eat my flesh and
drink my blood live in me, and I live in
them.” (John 6:53-55).
The Atonement
Webster’s: “reparation for an offense or
injury”
 Dictionary.com: “to make amends”
 Latin “ad” (“to, at”) and “unum” (“one”)
 Literally: “to at-one”, “at-one-ment”
 16th century “atwun”
 Shakespeare (2 parties reaching a
reconciliation)
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KJV
 “And not only so, but we also joy in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
we have now received the atonement.”
(Romans 5:11 - KJV)
 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful
new relationship with God because our
Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of
God.” (Romans 5:11 – NLT)
 “For
the message about Christ’s death on
the cross is nonsense to those who are
being lost; but for us who are being
saved it is God’s power.” (1 Corinthians
1:18 – GN)
The revelation of God’s character and
God’s kingdom
 The revelation of sin
 The revelation of Satan
 The revelation of humanity
 Restored trust - healing
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“We were God’s enemies, but he made us
his friends through the death of his Son.”
(Romans 5:10 – GN)
 “All this is done by God, who through
Christ changed us from enemies into his
friends and gave us the task of making
others his friends also. Our message is
that God was making all human beings his
friends through Christ.” (2 Corinthians
5:18-19 – GN)
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“This is eternal life:
 to know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom you sent. On earth I have
given you glory by finishing the work you
gave me to do…I made your name known
to the people you gave me.” (John 17:36)
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“I reckon everything as complete loss for
the sake of what is so much more valuable,
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For
his sake I have thrown everything away; I
consider it all as mere garbage, so that I
may gain Christ and be completely united
with him.” (Philippians 3:8,9 – GN)
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“The army officer saw what had happened,
and he praised God, saying, ‘Certainly he
was a good man!’ (“This man was really
the Son of God!”) When the people who
had gathered there to watch the spectacle
saw what happened, they all went back
home, beating their breasts in sorrow.”
(Luke 23:47-48 – GN)
 “Now
the message that we have heard
from his Son and announce is this: God
is light, and there is no darkness at all in
him.” (1 John 1:5 – GN)
“My commandment is this: love one
another, just as I love you. The greatest
love you can have for your friends is to
give your life for them.” (John 15:12-13)
 “Save yourself if you are God’s Son! Come
on down from the cross!” (Matthew 27:40
GNB)
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The revelation of God’s character and
God’s kingdom
 The revelation of sin
 The revelation of Satan
 The revelation of humanity
 Restored trust - healing
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“He was hated and rejected; his life was
filled with sorrow and terrible suffering.
No one wanted to look at him. We
despised him and said, ‘He is a nobody!’
He suffered and endured great pain for
us, but we thought his suffering was
punishment from God. He was wounded
and crushed because of our sins; by
taking our punishment, he made us
completely well.” (Isaiah 53:1-5 – CEV)
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“God presented him as a sacrifice of
atonement, through faith in his blood. He
did this to demonstrate his righteousness,
because in his forbearance he had left the
sins committed beforehand unpunished.”
(Romans 3:25)
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“You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if
you do, you will die the same day.”
(Genesis 2:17)
“My anger will flame up like fire and burn
everything on earth. It will reach to the world
below and consume the roots of the mountains.
I will bring on them endless disasters and use all
my arrows against them.” (Deuteronomy
32:22,23 – GN)
 “They fail to see why they were defeated; they
cannot understand what happened. Why were a
thousand defeated by one, and ten thousand by
only two? The Lord, their God, had abandoned
them; their mighty God had given them up”
(Deuteronomy 32:29,30 – GN)
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God’s anger is revealed from heaven
against all the sin and evil of the people
whose evil ways prevent the truth from
being known. God punishes them,
because what can be known about God is
plain to them, for God himself made it
plain.” (Romans 1:18,19 – GN)
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“They say they are wise, but they are
fools; instead of worshiping the immortal God,
they worship images made to look like mortals or
birds or animals or reptiles. And so God has given
those people over to do the filthy things their
hearts desire, and they do shameful things with
each other. They exchange the truth about God for
a lie; they worship and serve what God has
created instead of the Creator himself, who is to
be praised forever! Amen. Because they do this,
God has given them over to shameful
passions….Because those people refuse to keep in
mind the true knowledge about God, he has given
them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the
things that they should not do.” (Romans 1:2226,28 – GN)
 “Because
of our sins he was given over
to die…” (Romans 4:25 – GN)
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“Grief and anguish came over him, and he
said to them, ‘The sorrow in my heart is
so great that it almost crushes me.’”
(Matthew 26:38)
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“Father,’ he said, ‘if you will, take this cup
of suffering away from me. Not my will,
however, but your will be done.’ An angel
from heaven appeared to him and
strengthened him. In great anguish he
prayed even more fervently; his sweat
was like drops of blood falling to the
ground.” (Luke 22:42-44)
 “My
God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
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“We are not to regard God as waiting to punish
the sinner for his sin. The sinner brings the
punishment upon himself. His own actions start
a train of circumstances that bring the sure
result. Every act of transgression reacts upon
the sinner, works in him a change of character,
and makes it more easy for him to transgress
again. By choosing to sin, men separate
themselves from God, cut themselves off from
the channel of blessing, and the sure result is
ruin and death.” 1888
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“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift
of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
 “My
God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
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“As it is, however, the sacrifices serve year
after year to remind people of their sins.”
(Hebrews 10:3 GNB)
The revelation of God’s character and
God’s kingdom
 The revelation of sin
 The revelation/defeat of Satan
 The revelation of humanity
 Restored trust - healing
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 “Jesus
himself became like them and
shared their human nature. He did this
so that through his death he might
destroy the Devil…” (Hebrews 2:4 – GN).
“I’ll not be talking with you much more
like this because the chief of this godless
world is about to attack.” (John 14:30,31
– The Message)
 “I will not talk with you much more, for
the prince (evil genius, ruler) of the world
is coming. And he has no claim on Me.”
(John 14:30 AMP)
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“Simon, Simon! Listen! Satan has received
permission to test all of you, to separate
the good from the bad, as a farmer
separates the wheat from the chaff.”
(Luke 22:31,32 – GN)
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“People passing by shook their heads and
hurled insults at Jesus: ‘You were going to
tear down the Temple and build it back up in
three days! Save yourself if you are God's
Son! Come on down from the cross!’ In the
same way the chief priests and the teachers
of the Law and the elders made fun of him:
‘He saved others, but he cannot save himself!
Isn’t he the king of Israel? If he will come
down off the cross now, we will believe in
him!’” (Matthew 27:39-43 – GN)
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“And on that cross Christ freed himself
from the power of the spiritual rulers and
authorities; he made a public spectacle of
them by leading them as captives in his
victory procession.” (Colossians 2:15 –
GN)
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“Through the Son, then, God decided to
bring the whole universe back to himself.
God made peace through his Son’s blood on
the cross and so brought back to himself all
things, both on earth and in heaven. At one
time you were far away from God and were
his enemies because of the evil things you
did and thought. But now, by means of the
physical death of his Son God has made you
his friends…” (Colossians 1:20-22 – GN)
The revelation of God’s character and
God’s kingdom
 The revelation of sin
 The revelation/defeat of Satan
 The revelation of humanity
 Restored trust - healing
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 “We
have no king but Caesar” (John
19:15, KJV)
 “Which one do you want me to set free
for you? Jesus Barabbas or Jesus called
the Messiah?” (Matthew 27:17 – GN)
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“Then the Jews, since it was the day of
Sabbath preparation, and so the bodies
wouldn’t stay on the crosses over the
Sabbath (it was a high holy day that
year), petitioned Pilate that their legs be
broken to speed death, and the bodies
taken down.” (John 19:31 – The
Message).
The revelation of God’s character and
God’s kingdom
 The revelation of sin
 The revelation/defeat of Satan
 The revelation of humanity
 Restored trust - healing
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“Yes, may you come to know his love—
although it can never be fully known—and
so be completely filled with the very
nature of God.” (Ephesians 3:19 – GN).
“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate
the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his
image with ever-increasing glory, which comes
from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians
3:18 – NLT)
 “All of us! Nothing between us and God, our
faces shining with the brightness of his face. And
so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our
lives gradually becoming brighter and more
beautiful as God enters our lives and we become
like him.” (2 Corinthians 3:18 – The Message)
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“This is how we can be sure that we are in
union with God: if we say that we remain
in union with God, we should live just as
Jesus Christ did.” (1 John 2:5 – GN)