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The lesson library / Lesson 19

Atonement

Explain Christ’s once-for-all substitutionary sacrifice, propitiation, and effective redemption of His people.

Christ and His saving work

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Isaiah 53:1-12 · Romans 3:19-31 · Hebrews 10:1-22 · John 10:7-30

The cross is sometimes presented mainly as an example of courage or love. It is both, but that doesn't explain why Christ had to die for sinners. Scripture speaks of guilt, sacrifice, substitution, and reconciliation. Those words describe something accomplished, not simply something demonstrated. The question is what His death actually does about the problem between sinful humanity and a holy God.

Read Isaiah 53:1-12

1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD’s arm been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.
4 Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth.
8 He was taken away by oppression and judgment. As for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
9 They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and the LORD’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. He will divide the plunder with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

The passage repeatedly distinguishes the Servant from those whose sins He bears. His suffering is not punishment for wrongdoing of His own. That makes substitution central to the account. The language about healing should be read within this treatment of sin and restoration, including Peter's use of it. It does not justify promising that every believer will be physically healthy before the resurrection. The cross secures a complete redemption, but Scripture also teaches a future completion that believers still await.

Read Romans 3:19-31

19 Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.
20 Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
21 But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets;
22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction,
23 for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance;
26 to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time, that he might himself be just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.
27 Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.
28 We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Isn’t he the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
30 since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
31 Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.

Paul does not explain forgiveness by saying God has relaxed His concern for righteousness. God is just while justifying the person who believes in Jesus. Propitiation is a technical word, but the issue is straightforward: God's righteous opposition to sin is dealt with through the sacrifice He provides. This is not an unrelated third party persuading a reluctant deity. God Himself initiates the saving work. The result excludes boasting because acceptance rests on Christ rather than the sinner's contribution.

An objection often arises here: why could God not simply forgive without a sacrifice? The question deserves more than a dismissive answer. It assumes that forgiveness can be separated from the moral order God upholds. Scripture presents the cross as the means by which God deals justly with sin while showing mercy to sinners. The Son gives Himself willingly within the one saving purpose of Father, Son, and Spirit. This is not a picture of an unrelated innocent person being forced into another’s dispute. It is the incarnate Son accomplishing the redemption He came to accomplish. The moral seriousness of the cross belongs to the seriousness of the sin it addresses.

Read Hebrews 10:1-18

1 For the law, having a shadow of the good to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near.
2 Or else wouldn’t they have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins?
3 But in those sacrifices there is a yearly reminder of sins.
4 For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.
5 Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “You didn’t desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me.
6 You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.’ ”
8 Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn’t desire, neither had pleasure in them” (those which are offered according to the law),
9 then he has said, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He takes away the first, that he may establish the second,
10 by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins,
12 but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God,
13 from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet.
14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,” says the Lord, “I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write them on their mind;” then he says,
17 “I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more.”
18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

The repeated offerings could not bring the final cleansing Christ supplies. The contrast is not between an indifferent Old Testament God and a merciful New Testament God. The earlier system pointed forward to the provision God would make. Christ's offering is once for all. This also explains why honoring God's law does not mean restarting animal sacrifices. Their fulfillment in Christ is part of obedience to God's revelation. Repeating them as though redemption remained unfinished would misunderstand the very pattern they were given to teach.

Read John 10:11-18

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them.
13 The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own;
15 even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.
17 Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.
18 No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father.”

The Shepherd's death is connected to a people He knows and keeps. From the Reformed perspective, the cross does not merely create a possibility that might finally save nobody. Christ accomplishes the redemption of His people. That does not authorize restricting the invitation to people imagined to be elect. Nobody has been assigned access to a hidden list. The gospel is to be proclaimed freely, and every person who comes to Christ in faith is received. The certainty belongs to His work; the invitation belongs in every hearer's hearing.

When conscience accuses, the Christian answer is not that sin was insignificant. It is that Christ's sacrifice is sufficient. Bring the guilt to Him, confess honestly, and refuse the idea that some additional payment of personal misery will complete the cross. Gratitude should produce obedience, not an attempt to purchase what has already been given.

Consider your perspective

Christ's completed sacrifice moves confidence away from self-payment and toward His saving work. The cross also shows that divine justice and divine love are united, not opposing interests negotiated between Father and Son.

Put it into practice

When guilt tempts you to invent a punishment that will make you acceptable, turn instead to confession and Christ's finished work. Make restitution where needed as the fruit of repentance, not a payment for forgiveness.

Reflect and respond

  • What does substitution explain that example alone does not?
  • Why does a completed sacrifice exclude self-payment?
  • How can definite redemption encourage rather than hinder evangelism?

Passages and further study

Scripture quotations are from the public-domain World English Bible (WEB). Historical confessions are study aids, subordinate to Scripture. This independent lesson is not an official denominational statement.