Atonement: What Does It Mean?

2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (18.) And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; (19.) To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." The English word “atonement” is mentioned in the New Testament only one time however the Greek word katallagē is mentioned four time; twice in Romans and twice in 2 Corinthians 5. katallagē means – to exchange that is, restoration to (the divine) favor. – The definition “restoration to (the divine) favor” means we are restored to the way God created man before the fall. It was after God had created man and woman on the sixth day that God not only said He was “pleased” but rather He was “very pleased”. Now that we know what the word “atonement” means lets look at how God “restores to (the divine) favor”. We find the actual word “atonement” in Romans 5:11 “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” Here we see that “atonement” or “restoring to (the divine) favor” is by Jesus Christ. This is the only way one can be atoned because only the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse one from their sins; this make Him our atonement. The Jewish people just celebrated their holiday called “Yom Kippur” which is (to my understanding) their day of atonement. This is the day that they ask God to forgive their sins and to cleanse them. The only problem is that they have no Saviour; they have no redeemer as we have in Jesus Christ. However, as we look at the religions of the world we see no redeemer in any of them except in Christians (which is not a religion). What the Jewish people and other religions of the world need to consider is that God cannot just forgive sin. God has never just forgiven sin. There were in the Old Testament time sacrifices on alters but the last alter of sacrifice was the cross on Mt. Calvary where our redeemer paid a just price for all our sins and it is this just payment that God uses to count our sins as zero. God said "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (13.) But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Ephesians 2:12 – 13. If the Jewish people could just ask God for forgiveness and He was to grant it then God would be unjust Himself. The holiness and justice of God denies Him this ability. God is a God of law and when law is broken punishment must be delivered. The Holiness of God forbids such an oversight of sin and Justice demands vengeance or retribution for sin. Sometimes folks (especially those with little biblical knowledge) argue against limiting God but God is who He is. There are things God cannot do; He cannot lie, He cannot sin, He cannot go against His holiness, and etc. I believe to think that God could do any of these things is a sin in itself. A just and holy God demands laws to be obeyed or suffer the punishment for breaking them. There is a large difference between God just forgiving sin and God forgiving sin because a just payment was made by Christ Jesus. The Jewish people and other religious people believe that God will simply just forgive there sins; but if this was so then there would have been no need in Jesus Christ giving His life on the cross; and the scriptures conclude many times over that Jesus Christ died for our sins. Christ Jesus did not die in vain. "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." 1 John 4:9 We want to conclude with this fact. God accepted the blood of Jesus Christ as a just payment for our sins and this makes Him our redeemer and our Atonement to be restored to a sinless being. God declared “…Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. (8.) Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." Romans 4:7 – 8. We are forgiven because our sins are covered.

Do It In Secret.

Matthew 6:3 - 4 "But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: (4.) That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly." We want to look today at doing something in secret; and no we are not talking about sinful acts. We are talking about “alms” or compassionate acts or acts of generosity or etc. Have you ever noticed that people and a lot of “Christians” have few secret acts of generosity about them. If you watch so many today they want everyone to see them drop money in the plate at church or they will make sure everyone knows what they did because they want to be known for their acts of kindness. There is simply too much of this in our society and a way too much among those that call themselves Christians. I will confess and smile when I say in our church this is not an issue. We have some good gracious folks that simply want to beautify God house or help financially or do acts of graciousness in other areas and desire that no one ever knows. I remember back several years when the churches fund got so low that there was not enough to pay the Pastors salary; and someone graciously contributed enough to pay that and leave a little in the church fund. Now, if the church could not pay the Pastor that would have been absolutely fine; but due to these gracious folks or person I received my paid in full. Now as low as the church fund was at the time I told the church not to worry about it the Lord will supply and He did; however as mush as I wanted to return the check, how could I. What a blessing this person or persons must have received from God! Now as close as Brother Mollette and I am; I never asked who it was and he never told me. So as small as our church was at the time I still today several years later have no idea who it was; but God does, and He will be the rewarder of those that did it. I used this as an example because this is absolutely the proper way acts of graciousness should be done. And may I add even several years later your act of kindness has not gone unremembered by this Pastor; nor has it by God. The Lord says not to let your right hand know what you left hand does because some things beloved is simply between you and the Lord. The Lord also says “…thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly." Two very important details here: (a.) God sees everything and (b.) God knows everything; therefore He never forgets anything except for the sins covered by the blood of Jesus. When you do alms for the Lord then they are for the Lord and therefore your Pastor and others in the church never need to know; because would you rather be rewarded by man or God? Psalmist said “Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” Psalms 139:12 Beloved it is also so with prayer; we do not need to speak to be heard and we certainly do not need to speak to be heard of man. Matthew 6:6 "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." Notice very carefully that both of theses acts; the gracious giving and the gracious prayer both will be manifested by God and opened for all to see and beloved that will be a wonderful revealing. Luke 8:17 “For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.” Therefore beloved “do it in secret” and if God wants it made known He will make it known. It may be like to the person or persons that gave above and beyond to make sure this Pastor received his pay; it may not be made known until we are in heaven and God openly rewards them.

Neither Repentance Nor Baptism Are A Part Of Salvation.

Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

There are a lot of folks in the Religious world that will call me a nut for making this statement but neither repentance nor baptism will save a sinners soul and neither one of them are even part of the salvation of the lost soul. I understand that there are multitudes of “churches” or other “religious bodies” that believe one or both of these are part of salvation: well if that did not make you angry then this will be the final straw and that is works also plays no part in the salvation of the lost souls. All of these; repentance, baptism, and works are all a result of salvation not a part of salvation. Believe me I know the arguments so much that I could probably argue the other side of this issue blindfolded. The scripture (Acts 2:38) like so many other can be so misleading if taken as an alone scripture. Folks we can make any doctrine out of any thought if we take the scriptures out of context of the bible. For example let us make up a completely false doctrine by using one scripture out of context. Our false doctrine is “all liars will go to hell without exception”; now our scripture Revelation 21:8 “…all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” This scripture gives no exception to liars and God said that all mankind are liars "…let God be true, but every man a liar..." Romans 3:4 therefore our new false doctrine is sending all mankind to hell “…in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone…” Well I am thankful that, that is only a false doctrine because I have no desire to spend eternity in hell. Now back to the truth. Peter never said that if you “repent” and if you are “baptized” that you will be saved, Peter had just preached to them about Jesus Christ and Him crucified and when they "heard this" their hearts were pricked, which means - to pierce thoroughly - This was their salvation because their life was changed by the sermon about the gospel of Jesus Christ. "Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart..." Acts 2:37 The first thing a newborn believer does after salvation is to (a.) repent – that is to turn from their old ways and began anew, (b.) they are baptized and become a member of the Lords local congregation which is called a New Testament Church, (c.) thirdly, they began to have works to show their new faith, repentance, and works. God said in James 2:17 "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." but He went on to conclude in verse 18 "...I will shew thee my faith by my works." concluding that works are simply a show of our faith and without works one has no faith in Christ.

God’s glory in salvation is His giving of it, not our earning of it. Salvation is Gods plan form before the creation of anything. God has always known that when He created man, man would fall to the temptations of Satan. Therefore God had already planed salvation to its completeness before creation. Ephesians 1:4 - 5 "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (5.) Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will," here God doesn’t leave anything to chance of our repentance, baptism, or works, it seems to me that God had everything worked out before man ever sinned. Ephesians 2:10 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

Folks; as with our example of our false doctrine that all liars will spend eternity in hell we need to be careful and not to miss the mark on salvation because hell is for eternity and without an escape. God said "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son." 1 John 5:9