42. Does the atonement have a primarily Godward or manward focus?
The Levitical sin-offerings foreshadowed the terminating atrocity of the ancient nation of Israel, namely, the slaughter of the flawless, blameless Lamb of God. This episode rightly evoked God’s virtually immediate response from heaven, i.e., restitution for the divine Victim with life immortal and surpassing honors. Moreover, this cosmic overpayment, in truest fulfillment of the Mosaic Law concerning compensation to victims of offenses (miraculously extending its stipulation, for the occasion, even into the sphere of capital crime!), freely benefits all who merely accept it by faith. This is how the cleansing that’s necessary to forestall God’s indignation gets accomplished in tangible terms. But what would that be worth in practical terms unless, upon hearing the Proclamation of God’s graciousness in Christ, people are moved by the intrinsic potency of its Storyline to change their minds (repentance) and attitudes (conciliation) toward God, make a turnabout from their sins, and then get baptized to receive his gratuitous gift of Holy Spirit to wash them all away, down the drain of cosmic forgetfulness? That’s the humanward trajectory of the Explanation-of-the-Cross = the Resurrection-from-the-dead. Yet how could either of these have been emergent without the genuinely menacing role of the Adversary’s forces plying their black arts against the Light? Still, they were no match for the martial art of the Cross. So the atonement was not narrowly focused but radiated shock waves in all directions like a cosmic nebula.
The Premial Atonement 