The Atonement

This article is not one of my own original works. I copied it from Don Francisco’s website. He is a Christian singer and song writer. I highly recommend his website and music. You can download his music for free from his website.

When Jesus was born, the angels sang, "Peace on earth, good will toward men". That is because Jesus came to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sin and to bring peace between people and God.

In the Old Testament, people would make an annual sacrifice as an atonement for sin. They would then rest for the remainder of the year in the knowledge that their sins were covered.

Of course, the sacrifice of Jesus was a much more powerful atonement for sin. Since Jesus became a sacrifice for our sin, we don't have to worry about it anymore. Jesus said, "It is finished". The work was completed.

Still, many Christians don't have as much peace in Jesus as an Old Testament believer had in the yearly atonement! Many of us feel guilty about the Cross and are still unable to have a face to face friendship with God because of guilt and the constant reminders of our imperfections.

Many churches teach that there are religious things one has to do to be worthy of a relationship with God. But the Bible says there is nothing we can do to improve our standing with the God who already loves us beyond what we can grasp, except to trust fully that the Cross has made us worthy.

We can still get hurt and hurt others by living outside of God's wise principles, but it is not God who hurts us. The father did not chase the prodigal son and throw rocks of judgment every time he did something wrong. The father didn't hurt the son-- sin hurt the son! The father just waited, and when the son came home, he placed fine robes on him without hesitation.

The biggest danger of missing the point of the atonement is that you begin to adopt a performance based dead religion as a false means to God. This is what the Bible calls dead works. If you don't believe that what Jesus did for you on the Cross is complete, you start to believe that there are things you can do to earn your own salvation. This produces people who are puffed up in false pride, or people who have left God altogether in defeat. It is impossible to please God through perfect living. We can't be perfect enough. If we try, we usually end up becoming snooty and judgemental.

God loves us so much it is hard to wrap your brains around it. He sent His Son as an atonement. He has removed our sins as far from us as east is from west - ALL of our sins, past present and future. Now nothing stands in the way of us having a close friendship with God-- except perhaps, our own misunderstanding of the Cross and how powerful and complete it is!