77 Questions about the Atonement (Q&A #42)

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.

77 Questions about the Atonement (Q&A #30)

30.     How did the sin-offering take away sin?

The murderous crime against God’s only-born Son took away sin by immediately evoking the Father’s righteous judgment to reverse the unjust sentence even after its lethal execution!  God himself condemned the sins Christ bore, which wrongly condemned him, by raising him from the dead, immortal and glorified, and exalting him to heaven’s throne, thus making his avenging completely pointless with respect to those who forthwith repented and believed this News.  The Law of Moses had demanded nominal overcompensation by offenders on behalf of their victims.  But the enormity of a capital crime was far too great for such restitution, so the death of the offender was exacted in its place.  Yet this makeshift obviously could not truly rectify such a tragic loss.  However, when God finally got in the act, a new dynamic emerged.  He requited His Son with a superabundant overcompensation in response to his collective murder (this is what the collective laying of hands on the sacrificial animal denoted), which included a wonderfully indescribable present:  the Holy Spirit.  Ever after, all believers receive the Spirit as a pure gift that actually (objectively) cleans us internally (subjectively) from our sins.  By giving us this pledge of everlasting life in our hearts, God enables us to rule over the decadent cravings of our mortal flesh so they don’t break forth inordinately in thought, word, or deed.  That’s not everything we get, but it’s a flying start!