77 Questions about the Atonement (Q&A #44)

44.     Didn’t the Atonement occur at the Cross?

Protective shelter concerning sin was accomplished when the rescued and glorified Jesus, the Lamb of God slain at the Cross, ascended to heaven and offered his more-than-restored existence alive from the dead in the sanctuary made without hands, before the very face of his Father—the most wholesome place in the universe—and sat down on the throne with Him to intercede forgivingly on behalf of all mankind for their safekeeping and flourishing.  He thereupon sent in the promised Holy Spirit to do the honors of passing out the presents that constitute our startup capital to invest in order to increase our Savior’s credit for all he’s done for us so that he receives a manifold return on his passionate investment in such often unpromising material.  Thus he can view with deep satisfaction his reward for suffering wrongful abuse:  the inheritance of a people as his very own, molded by his own Spirit—us! All of this was ritually depicted under the Old Covenant on the Day of Atonement by the chief priest when entering the Holy of Holies and spattering the blood on the protective cover over the Ark of the Covenant and all its contents.  Thus the Son now actually presides over all that was only symbolically contained in the Ark—God’s miraculously delivered directives for abundant life, His miraculous sustenance, and His miraculous rod of power for rescue, provision, healing, and more.  Stripped of his mortal flesh, along with its genetic corruption, in the “circumcision” of the Cross, and now glorified with a vivifying Spiritual body, he therewith made a cleansing of all things in heaven, having displaced sin by the same anti-decay power that raised him from the dead, before assuming the throne with his Father.  That cleanup proceeds on earth as people believe God’s News and exert the recreative power of His Kingdom in their surroundings.  Thus atonement continues so long as Christ intercedes for, and supplies the flow of his power to, those in communion with him by faith.

77 Questions about the Atonement (Q&A #32)

 32.     What is the meaning of the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement?

The scapegoat ritual on Yom Kippur in the ancient Jewish festival cycle prefigured the release of Israel’s sins by their transportation into a wasteland of oblivion.  In other words, it revealed half the meaning of atonement—forgiveness.  The ritual with an identical goat, that was sacrificed, whose blood was poured out, collected, and spattered around the most holy/wholesome area in the sacred precincts, represented the other half—the dispersal of the payback from God Himself for the future wrongful slaying of the sinless existence of His Son, more specifically, the greatly increased pouring out of the Holy Spirit of immortal life via an eminently justified, honest-to-goodness Resurrection!  This dual procedure prefigured the single sacrifice of Christ in both its aspects—something only a resurrected sacrifice could actually fulfill in toto.