BY DR. JOHN SULLIVAN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR-TREASURER
FLORIDA BAPTIST CONVENTION

Atonement: God's act to make salvation possible

For the next four weeks, I would like to discuss the doctrine of atonement and its significance to me personally and to the Christian believer. I believe the topic is especially relevant today.
The word “atonement” means reconciliation and refers to sacrificial offerings given to remove the effects of sin. In the New Testament, the atonement refers specifically to the reconciliation between God and mankind that occurred with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

In Hebrews, Paul writes: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” (Hebrews 1:1-4 KJV)

There is no human reason that can explain why God’s only begotten Son chose to die on the cross for my sin. It is God’s exclusive and unique way of atonement.

Someone once said, “The cross is that on which the reason of man beats its brow until the blood comes.”

Or as the Apostle Paul said, “We preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles.”

John McArthur cites an alarming trend in his book, Why One Way. Noting that today’s evangelical movement of today is no longer unified on the significance of the atonement, he said, “Some who call themselves evangelicals are openly insisting that faith alone in Jesus is not the only way to Heaven. Apparently, the evangelical movement’s biggest fear today is that we will be seen as out of harmony with the world. Many who are downplaying the exclusivity of Christ, are doing it because they believe it is a barrier to ‘relevance.’ Actually, Christianity is not relevant at all if it is merely one of many possible paths to God. Sinners are not won by clever public relations or the powers of earthly persuasion, but the gospel.”

Without question there is much confusion about the doctrine of atonement. The confusion, however, is man’s inability to understand God’s choices, not God’s inability to understand man’s choices.

Atonement is a theological word describing what God has done to make salvation possible. No analysis would change the fact Christ reconciled me to God by Himself. Someone has called this “the irrational scandal of the cross.” Atonement is limited only in our ability to comprehend it or our unwillingness to proclaim it!

Charles Spurgeon observed, “I see in one place, God presiding over all in providence; and yet I see, and I cannot help seeing, that man acts as he pleases, and that God has left his actions to his own will, in a great measure.”
I agree with Spurgeon. If God were to declare that man is free to act and there is no control by God over his actions, I would become an atheist. On the other hand, if God declares that man is not free to be responsible, fatalism would be my choice.

Spurgeon added, “Two truths cannot be contradictory to each other. These two truths (sovereignty/freedom) I do not believe, can ever be welded into one upon any human anvil, but one they shall be in eternity. Sovereignty and freedom are two lines that are so nearly parallel that the mind that shall pursue them farthest will never discover where they converge. But they do converge and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring.”
Next week, we will explore more about the gift of atonement Christ gave to each of us who believes.

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